Photo: Para-military forces on regular border patrolDr. ADUL MOMEN
TODAY'S REVOLT in the BDR HQ in Dhaka is an eye-opener. Due to revolt, reportedly 50 lives were lost. Many civilian also died owing to stray bullets. Whatever the causes of the revolt, it is a fact that there has been a serious lapse of intelligence failure and secondly the death of civilians, closure of schools and postponement of exam demands a serious debate on the merits of keeping headquarters of security forces or cantonments inside crowded localities of the nation’s capital.
In USA, the forefathers of its independence nearly 230 years ago decided not to allow heavy weapons within the borders of capital i. e. Washington D. C or the District of Columbia. However, it allowed individual citizen to bear arms for their self protection. In the case of Bangladesh given its history of coups and counter coups, it may be necessary to forbid heavy weapons within 50 miles radius of the capital city of Dhaka. The recent BDR revolt and especially killing of innocent civilians and bystanders once again reminded the Bangladeshi nationals to seriously discuss this issue of relocating both the Dhaka cantonment and the BDR HQ away from the city limit.
If the BDR Headquarters would have been outside Dhaka away from Pilkhana, an overcrowded area of civilian population surrounded by schools and shops, such casualties could be minimized. Therefore, it may be recommended to relocate BDR HQ away from capital city.
Similarly, there is hardly any rationale to have Army Cantonment within the capital city. This may be relocated 50 miles away from the capital city to a remote locality. In that case, prime and expensive lands will be made available for growth and expansion of Dhaka city. Moreover, fear and tension of revolt within the cantonment causing disruption of normal life would be lessened.
In Dhaka, civilian vehicles are not allowed to go through the cantonment area and such is an additional cause for bumper-to-bumper hour-long traffic jams on the VIP road. If the Cantonment is relocated away from its current location, such horrendous traffic congestion could be lessened. Bangladesh Army is a part of Bangladesh society and it desires to improve quality of life of its countrymen. In spite of this, it is unfortunate that they have not opened up their roads to the general public yet on their own initiative. Since army fails to open them up on its own, it may be necessary to relocate Dhaka cantonment for the good of the nation.
The BDR Revolt that occurred following Prime Minister’s trip to the BDR HQ is mind boggling. If this would happened during Prime Minister’s visit, it could have created a national crisis. Naturally, serious questions could be raised as regards the efficiency of the Bangladesh intelligence agencies. According to many, the focus of the Bangladesh Intelligence Agencies both the DGFI and the NSI have been basically pivots around finding and codifying information regarding civilian opinion leaders and political leadership. The rationale for secretly recording phone, fax and mobile calls of politicians, journalists, opinion leaders and talk-show participants in Bangladesh in addition to lawyers and businessmen has been designed with a view to collect information about civilian activities. Even their everyday activities and mobility are being watched in the name of nation’s interest. Unfortunately, such appears to be uncommon in the area of security forces. No wonder, Bangladesh Intelligence Agencies miserably failed in protecting its founder President Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman or founder of the BNP party, General Ziaur Rahman. It even failed to provide intelligence information regarding the terrorist bombing attack of a public rally of Sheikh Hasina on August 21, 2004 in which 23 people were killed including the wife of current President of Bangladesh, Zillur Rahman and nearly 370 were wounded or maimed for life. It failed to provide intelligence information regarding grenade attacks on the former Finance Minister ASM Kibria or on British High Commissioner Anwar Chowdhury. It also failed to furnish intelligence information regarding jehadi bombings in 493 towns and cities of Bangladesh simultaneously.
In fact, the performance record of Bangladesh Intelligence Agencies till to-date is very poor. It gets an F grade. The recent BDR revolt is a case in point.
Bangladesh Intelligence Agencies are mostly headed by military personnel unlike industrialized countries. Most of the heads of the DGFI and the NSI in Bangladesh have been active duty military officials. In contrast, most of the heads of U. S. and the British Intelligence Agencies, for example, FBI, CIA, or MI5 (British) are non-military personnel.
The current FBI Director is Robert Mueller. He has been a lawyer. The current CIA Chief is Leon Panetta, a former congressman and a head of a Public Policy Institute at the California University. He was formerly Chief of Staff of President Clinton.
If we investigate the personal history of the heads of FBI for the last quarter century, one will be surprised that most of the intelligence heads were lawyers or judges. For example, there has been a total of 7 FBI Directors from February 23, 1978 till to-date of which three were Acting Directors. All four Directors were lawyers/judges, and among the Acting Directors, two were career intelligence officers and one was an accountant. William Webster (1978-87), William Sessions (1987-93), Louis Freeh (1993-2001) and Robert Mueller (2001-current) were Directors and all of them were lawyers/judges. The Acting ones; John Otto (26/5/87-2/11/87) and Floyd Clarke (19/7/93-1/9/93) were special FBI agents, and Thomas Pickard (25/6/01-4/9/01) was a CPA.
Given the limitations, the performance record of FBI and the CIA that are mostly run by civilian authority is much superior to that our DGFI or the NSI which are mostly headed by active-duty military officials.
Take the case of the British Intelligence Agencies. The British Military Intelligence Section 5 known as MI-5 or its agencies like SIS, MI-6, QCHQ or DIS are again mostly headed by civilian officials unlike Bangladesh. For example, the current head of MI5 is Mr. Jonathan Evans, a career intelligence officer. Prior to him Baroness Manningham-Buller (2002-07), a former school teacher headed it for 5 years. During 2000-02, Sir Stephen Lander, a PhD in History was its head. Prior to him, Dame Stella Rimington (1992-96), a diplomat’s wife headed the British intelligence organization. It may surprise Bangladeshi military leaders that a well known football player, Sir Patrick Walker headed MI-5 from 1988 through 1991.
There is no denying that the Intelligence Agencies of USA and UK are superior to that of Bangladesh. Admittedly they have more resources and superior information technology vis-à-vis Bangladesh. However, they have also more restrictions as they have to work within many legal limitations and restrictions unlike Bangladesh. Instead of this, their performance record is superior.
This raises a valid question. Should we stop appointing active-duty military personnel in the intelligence agencies that mainly focus their attention on political or civil leaderships? Instead should we follow that of the USA and UK for the greater interest of the country?
It is a fact that in Bangladesh, two of its Presidents were assassinated not by their political supporters or by any public citizen. They were assassinated by members of active-duty security forces. It is unfortunate, and it looks odd when in the name of security, a head of the government for example, Sheikh Hasina is kept at a distance from public thus denying her from mingling with her electorates in Bangladesh. This was true in the case of Khaleda Zia as well. In addition, it looks odd when security personnel stand next to the head of the government in all public events. This custom must be done away with to improve nation’s image both home and abroad. Remember, such practice is not common in civilized countries like USA, UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Finland and the like. Remember, their heads of governments in no way, less exposed to security risk.
The custom in USA is that once a person is allowed to enter the premises through checking, he/she is allowed to meet the President freely. The security forces stay at a distance unlike Bangladesh. The way the Bangladeshi security forces behave is deplorable. They literally keep the Prime Minister away from the public. It is a disgrace in the name of security. When the Prime Minister is surrounded by security officers overlooking her shoulder, it lowers our image in the free world. Such basically shows that the political leadership of Bangladesh is still under military subjugation or control in spite of a free, fair, transparent and credible election. Under such aggressive security guardianship, it can neither improve its image nor can attract increasing FDI. #
Dr. Abdul Momen [abdul_momen@hotmail.com] is a professor of economics and business in Boston, USA
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU HAVE BEEN TO BANGLADESH....
ReplyDeleteBDR should be dismantle and each of the culprit should be hanged.
ReplyDeleteThe Ultimate Guide
When an armed government organization shows utter disregard for discipline and order this is dangerous and most unfortunate. It?s not unlikely that the ordinary members of BDR may have genuine grievances and there must be some proper channel to express their grievances. But the recent tragic events show that the concerned authorities have ignored them for a long time which resulted in these consequences. Bangladesh being a sovereign nation must establish some procedures to address these issues rather than dragging them to violence and anarchy. The armed forces, Bangladesh Rifles, Police are vital national organizations and the nation depends on them for protection and security. The people who belong to these organizations are subject to rigorous norms of discipline and order. There must be a uniform policy to manage their remunerations and other facilities. There must be respect and recognition while executing these responsibilities.
ReplyDeleteIn a democratic system the executive branch of the government must have the last say in administering these vital national organizations. India can be the finest example of this system. Bangladesh can learn from its closest neighbour. Another lesson must be learned from this episode that any kind if grievances must be recognized and dealt with at its very beginning. There is a tendency to let a deaf ear to people?s grievances till it goes out of control. This mentality must be changed.
I strongly agree with your article but at the same time we need to investigate this issue? "How and where this BDR got the empower to perform nationwide revolt," its need to be thoroughly investigated and need to find-out if any neighbour nations diplomacy involved in it, this should be the first and foremost priority for this new democratic government. We need a "united" Bangladesh and strong politicians (leaders) to create a strong democratic nation. Thanks BMA (Bangladesh Army) for their patience and patriotism.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this timely and well thought out piece. Not only do we
ReplyDeleteneed to move the cantonment out of the capital city (for more than one
reason, as laid out by Mr Momen), it is high time we need to rethink
the need for a regular army altogether. Given the geopolitics of the region, all we need is the BDR and a coast-guard strong enough to deal with the crazy generals from Myanmar.
On the other hand, it is widely known (thanks to Army officers
themselves) how the army officers deputed to be at the various border
posts in command of the BDR rank and file make enough for their
life-times during a single three-year stint. I'm surprised the long list of BDR complaints didn't mention any of that. I guess they (BDR people behind the "mutiny") get more than their fair share from the smugglers. They are just unhappy about the less than expected cut from the *so-called* profits from this Operation DalBhat or whatever.
I also could not agree more on the idea of civilians being in charge
of DGFI, NSI, etc for now (army units mostly targeting civilians).
But we'll need to get rid of all the Retd Gens from many other "more" civilian govt positions before that will happen (the BTRC -- the telecoms regulatory agency -- just got a new one at its helm, another retard gent, I mean).
The current elected civilian govt has much more power than any other
in Bangladesh's short history --- they are even seriously talking
about pursuing the '71 War Criminals, and MP Saber H Chow has raised a bill against torture! --- so let's also hope Mr Momen's ideas will reach the minds of the powers that be!
As usual, ur arguments are all valid and logical.
ReplyDeleteI quite agree with u, as with many others for a long time, that both HQs of BDR and the Armed Forces be relocated, away from the main city. Even the main international airports should be further away from the city. In these cases, even 20 or 25 yrs Master Plan aren't adequate, these should be for a minimum pd of 50 yrs.
Nothing more could be more unfortunate than the incidents of Wed 25 Feb'09 at the BDR HQ.
Certainly, it's not bcoz of the apparent grievances. More reasons could be found out, that were created behind the scene by groups with vested interest, not in support of the current democratically elected v popular govt. Otherwise, why within wks after they took over? Have the present govt failed? Did the govt have the time yet to attend to BDR issues? Was the time ripe enuf?
Couldn't there be a little more waiting by the patriotic BDR? Or, would that have been less advantageous for the conspirators, who are least likely to have been the BDR members themselves?
Let the enlightened 'Probashis' like u conduct some research and help discover 'roots' so that incidents like the one of 25th Feb'09 never take place again in a free, independent nation which otherwise has all the prospects of becoming a reasonably developed country by 2021.
1. DGFI and NSI are totally two different institutes. DGFI is the forces intelligence and should be controlled and administered by army. NSI is the national security intelligence. Issue here is DGFI is always going beyond their responsibilities and taking over the issues supposed to be handled by the NSI. DGFI is highly corrupted department. These diseases are transformed from the Pakistani past to us. DGFI was designed with ill intention by the military rulers and ironically never rectified by the democratic governments. Still no sign is visible from present government’s initiatives to sanitize this dirty department.
ReplyDelete2. Its easy to say but where you will relocate the cantonment???? We don’t have enough land any where. Army bases or cantonments are not a very irregular thing to have in a big city or in the capital of other countries; too many big cities of the world have cantonments. And main issue is that having cantonment in Dhaka or relocating them will not solve our problem.
3. A country without army? Ok, USA don't need Army because it's have only border with Canada and possibely they will not fight each other. But can you think a USA without army in real life? A army is not to fight only with neighbours. We can dream a demilitarised world, I will be the most happy person to see that. But I don't like to dream a Bangladesh without army isolately.
3. You can identify few things from BDR crisis:
a. BDR is a department under ministry of home and its officers are always coming from Ministry of defense. I don’t have any example from any other country where Border Security Forces are in this kind of dilemma. BDR officers are not home grown and they don’t have any emotional attachment with soldiers. They always look to each other with different eyes. Police, Ansar, VDP, Army, Air Force, Navy every forces have their own recruited and committed officers except BDR. This is the main point of the issue.
b. This BDR DG and his wife were extremely corrupted and have very high disliking among the whole force. One of my close friends died in this crisis who was a colonel I will not mention the name. Even he was in too many un ethical pressures from this DG and his wife. I will not touch any thing personal further but you can remember news about this lady in the news papers some time ago.
c. BDR DG and his officers were in absolute command failure in this crisis. They totally failed to realize and maneuver whole incident from the beginning, actually if you have low morale you can’t command a force and maneuver it properly.
d. Our Prime Minister and her government successfully and peacefully handled this mutiny. I wish at least they will try now to identify the real causes of the trouble and will find a smart and fast remedy. Concerns raised by the BDR members have to be looked with empathy.
c. First and last thing of a armed force is it's chain of command, whatever way it is possible a effective command have to be established for BDR, we dont't want to see any thing closer to like this once again!
Hope Army Chief Moyeen U Ahmed was not behind this
ReplyDeleteIt is clear that Some other country is involved in this matter. Because they wanted to break the Internal defense structure of Bangladesh. And you know who will be benefited from this. But I want to say that Bangladeshis are brave and they are ready to sacrifice their lives for their country. We are not coward like those who did this.
ReplyDeleteCheck this link for a U.S Report
http://indianterrorism.bravepages.com/RAWterrorism.htm
Voice:
ReplyDeleteIt is no more the land where I was born. Power greedy, money hungry, ambitious people with wrong culture and tradition occupied the country. I suffered enough and ended up in hospital. Dhaka is a polluted city and there are dusts, mosquitos, virus and bactarias everywhere. To live a healthy and civic life is impossible there. How strange! Bangladesh got a Government but citizens cross streets in their own risks because Government doesn't care to install any traffic lights in major 'street crossing places'. Cities don't have enough roads but a big number of public drive cars, bumper to bumper, like characters in Cartoon movies. They made buildings but regime doesn't provide with electricity for peoples breathings by fans, by air-conditions. Citizens burn inside their homes and there is a outcry on this. Governments are failed governments in there but voters still vote same old people/party for few bucks or for valueless cheap patriotism. They don't have any system amongst, the judicial system of the country is the worst. Briberies, injustice, delayed procedure, buying justice etc. are in court premises. Citizens don't have rights to their own properties. Even the police doesn't do anything about illegal possession of property. Thanks god that I left that 'cursed' Bangla land. The country took the blood of my father in 1971. The country is like a hell on earth. It's terrible there. In the past, people killed their 2 presidents and many others. Government acts like a 'Gangster' there. Almost a year ago, they threw their 2 prominent ex prime ministers in jail for doing disgusting corruption. Military already leaked out their crimes and brought to the attention of the whole world about how much corruption past administrations did. Srangely, regimes in power, even military dared to destroy the reputation and or image(if there was any) of their own governments and of the country. I think, new govt. got hands with the Army chief to come to power. Bangladesh Army never had a good reputation. It would surprise me to think that they orchestrated the recent killings of the para-military's(border police)top officers in their own head quarter because of few hidden agendas or for greater interests of the newly elected Government. None needs to be genius to figure out how many billions of USD were smuggled between India and Bangladesh in distracting BDR to a nonsense bloody drama. The simple math is someone got could got the benefits of the cowardly killing of felloow men. Lets do some more homework. These governmental people made black money in the past and still doing the same. There is nothing good about them. Hence, leading a civic life is impossible in Bangla. Buildings, bricks and pollutions are everywhere. Citizens are suffocating in their homes everywhere and rulers are not going to proper direction. Their hands are not clean and are stained with blood. I am sorry as I had to tell my anguish and opinion about Gangsters of Bangla.
Voice:
ReplyDeleteIt is no more the land where I was born. Power greedy, money hungry, ambitious people with wrong culture and tradition occupied the country. I suffered enough and ended up in hospital. Dhaka is a polluted city and there are dusts, mosquitos, virus and bactarias everywhere. To live a healthy and civic life is impossible there. How strange! Bangladesh got a Government but citizens cross streets in their own risks because Government doesn't care to install any traffic lights in major 'street crossing places'. Cities don't have enough roads but a big number of public drive cars, bumper to bumper, like characters in Cartoon movies. They made buildings but regime doesn't provide with electricity for peoples breathings by fans, by air-conditions. Citizens burn inside their homes and there is a outcry on this. Governments are failed governments in there but voters still vote same old people/party for few bucks or for valueless cheap patriotism. They don't have any system amongst, the judicial system of the country is the worst. Briberies, injustice, delayed procedure, buying justice etc. are in court premises. Citizens don't have rights to their own properties. Even the police doesn't do anything about illegal possession of property. Thanks god that I left that 'cursed' Bangla land. The country took the blood of my father in 1971. The country is like a hell on earth. It's terrible there. In the past, people killed their 2 presidents and many others. Government acts like a 'Gangster' there. Almost a year ago, they threw their 2 prominent ex prime ministers in jail for doing disgusting corruption. Military already leaked out their crimes and brought to the attention of the whole world about how much corruption past administrations did. Srangely, regimes in power, even military dared to destroy the reputation and or image(if there was any) of their own governments and of the country. I think, new govt. got hands with the Army chief to come to power. Bangladesh Army never had a good reputation. It wouldn't surprise me to think that they orchestrated the recent lacrymal killings of the para-military's(border police)top officers in their own head quarter because of few hidden agendas or for greater interests of the newly elected Government. None needs to be genius to figure out how many billions of USD could have smuggled between India and Bangladesh in distracting BDR to a nonsense bloody drama. The simple math is, someone might have got the benefits of the cowardly killings of felloow men. State minister Sohel Taj Didn't have a life and death sickness and He even was the main guy in the BDR event which was under his own ministry. But how dare who gave him a leave and none said a word about his absence during the massacre. It is indeed a mystery. Lets do some more homeworks. Present governmental people made black money in the past and still doing the same. There is nothing good about them. Hence, leading a civic life is impossible in Bangla. There are Buildings, bricks and pollutions everywhere. Citizens are suffocating in their homes and rulers are not going to proper direction. Their hands are not clean and are stained with blood. I am sorry as I had to tell my anguish and opinion about Gangsters of Bangla.