BNP responsible for BD Myanmar Face off: Dipu Moni

[ebr77]

bloody politicians, they should quit throwing mud at each other and do some real job.

 

[eastwatch]

I wonder if this simple headed Dipu Moni has any knowlege, even a shallow one, that the location of Continental Shelf (CS) line is the biggest contributor to delimitation of sea boundary of a country. Without discussing more complex points, I can safely say that the BD CS line has very gentle slope that has extended to a few hundred kms from our visible shore line. On the other hand, Arakanese slope is very steep. This is the reason why its CS line is very near to its visible shore.

Because of this BD has been awarded such a long sea towards south from its coast line and Arakan (now under Burmese occupation) was awarded a smaller area towards west of its coast line. I am surprised to read some people complain about demanding 30 km of sea from Burma during BNP time. But, a territory is not something to be given away to a neighbour. All the territories must be contested.

So, why this complain now? It is because the Burmese President will be coming to Dhaka for a state visit. This DM simpleton is trying to appease the Honourable guest. But, her naive statement is only sending wrong signal to both Myanmar and India.

I wonder, why does not she mentions also about a Burmese forced entry into our sea only 32 km southwest of St. Martin Island? General Moin opposed it , sent war ships and forced the Burmese oil survey ships to leave the area. Now, not only this sea territory, but also a territory about 10km east of St. Martin has been allocated to BD. AL's weak position creates problems with our two neighbours that next govts have to mend.

 

[boltu]

pussys will be pussys,literally

 

[alaungphaya]

You elect a rightwing, warmongering government and your country will be toast.

 

[UKBengali]

You elect a rightwing, warmongering government and your country will be toast.

Who will "toast" BD then?

 

[kalu_miah]

We should crank up our Type 81 factory, train and arm our 7 million ansar/vdp like SWADS and get ready for action.

 

[UKBengali]

We should crank up our Type 81 factory, train and arm our 7 million ansar/vdp like SWADS and get ready for action.

BD economy is over 3 times larger than Myanmar currently and the IMF predicts that it will be around 4 times as large by the end of the decade.

All that BD needs is the will and the Myanmese will be toast.

 

[CaPtAiN_pLaNeT]

We should crank up our Type 81 factory, train and arm our 7 million ansar/vdp like SWADS and get ready for action.

It seems like I have identified this false flagged myanmarese ... he is Indian and his numerous Indian name in the forum which got banned here is deepak / nalinda_pride....dnt reply to this troll. He is a dalit from Bihar.

 

[Icewolf]

We should crank up our Type 81 factory, train and arm our 7 million ansar/vdp like SWADS and get ready for action.

Sorry sir, it took 12 years to train 100,000 Afghan Army people by NATO, I don't understand how BD can train 7,000,000 in such a short time...

 

[scholseys]

why go to war with myanmar? we have good relations with them. BNP did not try resolving anything at that time because myanmar at that time was unstable, now Myanmar is the new love child of the west and they wont do anything irrational, so it was nice timing for the gob to resolve the issue. Dipu Moni is just using the tactic known as "when in doubt blame the opposition".
Population of BD is 16 crore and 3-4 lac more rohingyas wont do us any more harm, let them be in slums like the Biharis. We need Myanmar in good terms as they are the one that will provide us the route to ASEAN.

 

[Maira La]

You elect a rightwing, warmongering government and your country will be toast.

Behold gentlemen! Self-exiled burmans living off superstore clerk jobs in the west are getting cocky overnight on a fake dose of democracy.

 

[scholseys]

You elect a rightwing, warmongering government and your country will be toast.

you guys should try the rightwing since the leftwing has not really worked for you guys

 

[kalu_miah]

why go to war with myanmar? we have good relations with them. BNP did not try resolving anything at that time because myanmar at that time was unstable, now Myanmar is the new love child of the west and they wont do anything irrational, so it was nice timing for the gob to resolve the issue. Dipu Moni is just using the tactic known as "when in doubt blame the opposition".
Population of BD is 16 crore and 3-4 lac more rohingyas wont do us any more harm, let them be in slums like the Biharis. We need Myanmar in good terms as they are the one that will provide us the route to ASEAN.

Yes, that is what we thought too earlier, but looks like you missed out on a lot of information we have uncovered about that country in the last few weeks, while you were gone.

Bamar/Burman is a nasty little tribe of 20-25 million people, which is oppressing not just Rohingya's but all other minorities and fighting insurgency wars with them. Rohingya is a special one, as they are not considered acceptable in their nation, unlike all other minorities, because of completely different race and religion, even though they are indigenous to Arakan.

Lets say we agree to accept all 800,000 Rohigya's in Bangladesh, then do you think Myanmar will give us road link? I doubt it. They will not give us road link, until they are forced by other ASEAN states and other regional countries, like Japan, South Korea and China, may be decades from now or may be never. India will of course do everything it can to stop this link and pay Bamar nation billions if they need to. They will also convince Bamars that if they give us a road link, it will mean an easy route for Bangladesh army invasion of Arakan.

Simply put these pesky Bamars cannot be trusted to do anything. My opinion is to keep 800,000 Rohingya's in Arakan and every time they create a refugee crisis, give them some threat to start a Rohingya insurgency if they do not stop the killing. Burma will remain an unsolved problem for the foreseeable future for us, we just have to connect to ASEAN by sea. A direct road link is not going to happen. They just use this false hope with us, to get what they want, which is for us to accept these 800,000 Rohingya's which they do not want to integrate with their nation, mainly because of different race and religion, although they happen to be indigenous to their land of Arakan.

The other important point is, what right do any Bangladeshi have to negotiate their citizenship away in their own motherland of Arakan, which is now a part of Burma? If they get kicked out, only then the question comes, whether we should let them in or not as refugees. But if Burma does that, imposes a refugee crisis on us, over and above the existing 300,000-400,000 Rohingya, refugees we already have, that is a good enough casus belli to start a war, unless they take all of them back.

Sorry sir, it took 12 years to train 100,000 Afghan Army people by NATO, I don't understand how BD can train 7,000,000 in such a short time...

That is because you don't know about our Ansar/vdp, these are already trained people, they need only additional training to integrate them with army command and control and some combat training. These are not new recruits.

 

[idune]

Alaol’s unfortunate children and Bengali nationalistic chivalry

July 1, 2012

It was 1978. The now-defunct Weekly Bichitra made a cover story titled, “Manush Aite achhe – naaf nodeer baner lahan” (People are coming in like flood on Naaf River). All of a sudden, a group of people living in the Arakan region of northwest Burma, and who happened to be of Bengali ethnic lineage and Muslim in faith, started leaving their homeland of dozens to hundreds of years and cross the border to enter Bangladesh in utter desperation. They came by boats, sampans, makeshift banana trunk vessels (bhela). Some came on foot through the seemingly impenetrable mountain forest. They were all escaping the atrocities of Operation Nagamin by the Burmese army. The Burmese government was suspicious of what they believed as collusion between Arakan’s communist party and secessionist thoughts of Arakanese Muslims.

Starting in April 1978, refugees started pouring into Cox’s Bazaar, Teknaf and Chittagong Hill Tract areas. By June, over 200,000Rohingyas — Bengali Muslim descendent inhabitants of Burmese region of Arakan — started living in 13 camps set up along Bangladesh-Burma border. More than half (over 110,000) of these people were children below 15.

And there was absolutely no obstruction from Bangladesh in sheltering them. Large enclosed living quarters were built overnight. Refugees were kept in those fenced out camps. A high level government official ran the program from the ground and a national coordination council led by Cabinet Secretary led the national and global efforts.

The head of the state was personally involved in every minor detail of the planning and execution of the program. And thanks to personal influence of President Ziaur Rahman on the Burmese leader Ne Win, very robust stand by Bangladesh foreign office, and smart diplomacy by the foreign Minister Professor Shamsul Huq, the Burmese government took all the refugees back within less than a year.

In July 1978, two months into the refugee problem, an agreement was signed between Bangladesh and Burma. The first batch of 58 refugees was repatriated in August 1978 and the repatriation of last stranded batch (who did not have any document supporting their residence in Burma) was completed by December 1979. Senior Burmese Ministers visited the camps to supervise the repatriation process, which they called ‘the Hintha project’.

In an extremely rare gesture, the secretive leader of traditionally isolationist Burma, Ne Win, visited Bangladesh twice, first in 1979 and again in 1980. The diplomatic breakthrough with Burma was so unbelievable that The Economist wrote:
“Was it a miracle or mirage that Burma and Bangladesh produced a month ago in the name of tidy instant settlement of their refugee problem? A month later, all details of the planned repatriation scheme still secret, the second (‘Mirage’) looks rather more likely”. (Burma and Bangladesh, August 12, 1978).

History would record that the Economist was totally wrong in its prediction.

And some day, the same history will also condemn our present day leader and the foreign minister to utter failure in protecting fellow Bengalis from persecution at the hand of a cruel de facto military junta.

***

Speaking of history….

The history of Bangla literature can never be completed without the mention of medieval Bangla literature exercised at the Arakan Kings’ court. Alaol is unquestionably the greatest medieval Bengali poet. He still remains relevant for masterpieces like Padmavatee, Tohfa, and Soyful Mulk Bodiuzzaman.

Born in Hathajari, Chittagong, Alaol migrated to Arakan in the early 17th century. Alaol was not a rare Bengali migrant to Arakan. The Arakan court was full of Bengali Muslim bureaucrats as well as writers like Magon Thakur and Doulot Kazi.

There is no denying of the fact that many Bengali Muslims settled in Arakan, Rangoon and other regions of Burma. Starting from the 9th century till mid 20th century, migrants from all parts of India, not just Bengal, constantly moved in all directions. Due to religious affiliations, migrant Arabs also aligned themselves with Bengali Muslims. And until mid 20th century, such movements were not considered illegal migration — subjects of the Queen resettling to another part of the Empire (from British Indian province of Bengal to British colony of Burma) was absolutely legal.

After 1960, when Burma fell under dictatorship, to buoy its power with nationalistic fervour, the regime trumpeted a pumped up mono- racial Burmese nationalism. As a direct result of this, state sponsored violence started gaining momentum against ethnic and religious minorities including Bengali Muslims.

The Junta only needed an excuse to start major scale ethnic cleansing. In 1978, Ne Win’s Operation Nagmin was initiated and it was totally based on unfounded reports of Muslim campaign of secession. In 1978, under pressure of Ziaur Rahman’s diplomacy, Ne Win could not but take back all 200,000 refugees.

But in the absence of continued engagement from post-Zia Bangladesh, he took more tangible steps towards ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas. A constitutional amendment of 1982 took away citizenship rights of Muslim Bengalis of Arakan. Ethnic cleansing campaign slowly resumed and another refugee crisis ensued in 1991.

***
When Taliban government in Afghanistan wanted to initiate special colour coded ID system for Sikhs and Hindus of Afghanistan, the whole world shuddered in pure disbelief. However this same world has no idea that hundreds of thousands of ethnic and religious minorities in newly renamed Myanmar carry colour coded cards for decades.


Photo: Reuters

These colour coded white cards identify a large number of Burmese of Bengali heritage Muslim religion as “Bengali Muslims”, not Burmese nationals, nor Arakanese. The mainstream locals of Arakanese call the Bengalis as ‘Kala’ — a racial slur.

The carriers of these cards don’t have any rights that other Burmese nationals enjoy. They are not even allowed to marry across cultures.

These people live amid unbelievable level of poverty, uncertainty, exploitation and discrimination. Many don’t have access to basic healthcare, education, shelter and even food.

And every now and then on the slightest excuse, the whole state and military wrath comes upon them, forcing them to flee with life.

***

These Bengali descendent Muslims are living for generations in Myanmar some for several centuries, since the time of Alaol or Magon Thakur. Others moved to British Burma several decades ago for job or business, got married and settled down there.

The root of Bengalis in Arakan is much deeper than Indian migrants in West Indian and Pacific Ocean Islands, Turkish migrants across Europe, North African migrants in Persian Gulf states or Bihari Rail worker migrants in Bangladesh and Pakistan.

If these Bengali descendent Muslims of Arakan are illegal immigrants in Burma, then perhaps half of world’s current population are illegal immigrants in their current homeland.

***
Tamil extremists pioneered suicide bombing and killed an Indian Prime Minister. Yet Tamils of India used their political and economic muscle to protect ethnic Tamils from annihilation in Sri Lanka. Indian diplomacy earned privileged, expedited immigration status for Tamils in Canada, France and other first world states.

We casually call Rohingya refugees terrorists. Our trademark allegations against them is that it is indeed the Rohingyas who are doing all the crimes in the gulf states and giving Bangladeshi passport holders a bad name.

It is impossible to overstate the crassness of such irresponsible comments. What terrorism have they committed in Bangladesh? Of the handful of Islamic terrorists hanged by authorities in Bangladesh and of the thousands of Islamic radicals in Bangladesh jails, how many are from refugee camps in Cox’s Bazaar/ Teknaf? Of all the Bangladeshi passport holders in jails of gulf countries, how many of them are from Cox’s Bazaar refugee camps and surrounding areas?

Next time anyone tells you that Rohingyas are ruining our peoples’ impeccable nicety records in the Gulf States, ask them to identify at least one Rohingya culprit doing bad things in Saudi Arabia. If the Arakanese Muslim refugees in Bangladesh get themselves involved in religious fundamentalism, and some of them might indeed got trapped into such activities, it is because they are a vulnerable group and they are being used by vested quarters from mainstream Bangladesh. ‘Because Jamaat Shibir work on these vulnerable Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh and try to convert them into their vote banks, we must not shelter any other Rohingya being persecuted in Arakan’ – this is extremely cheap and irresponsible nationalistic chauvinism.

When our intellectuals make broad condemnations as Rohingyas being terrorists or when our leading government spokesman Syed Ashraful Islam makes statement that Rohingyas are rapists, we forget how India protested Idi Amin’s treatment of Ugandan Indians, how Caucasian world reacts to minority white persecution in Zimbabwe, how Turkey and Greece protect their Citizens in Cyprus, how Serbia stands tall for the Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia.

***
Tell me, when everyone is trying to escape the overcrowded Bangladesh, why these people desperately keep coming back to Bangladesh? Can we imagine what level of helplessness will force one to leave ancestral land of generations and all belongings and rush to hostile Bangladesh? Do you really believe that they are having great fun braving the ocean and rivers to coasts of Teknaf and sleep on the rough earth under the open sky in barbed wired camps?

***
Our country was founded on Bengali nationalism. After a couple of decades of ebb, Bengali nationalistic chivalry is back full court in Bangladesh. But by our acts, we are exposing the bankruptcy of this hollow nationalism. While we embrace Alaol’s Padmavatee as the greatest gem of medieval Bangla literature, how can we ignore our ethnic bond with Alaol’s descendents?

When a child is forced out of his home and is starving on the rough seas – only because she or he is of Bengali ethnicity — how it is possible that she or he would not have a shelter in the Bangladesh created by the friend of Bengal? Mujib’s Bengali nationalism now cries in vain, helplessly in front of the gun trotting border guards of Bangladesh.


Alaol’s unfortunate children and Bengali nationalistic chivalry | Opinion

 

[alaungphaya]

It seems like I have identified this false flagged myanmarese ... he is Indian and his numerous Indian name in the forum which got banned here is deepak / nalinda_pride....dnt reply to this troll. He is a dalit from Bihar.

What are you on about?

you guys should try the rightwing since the leftwing has not really worked for you guys

Oh we've had a rightwing fascist government since 88.

Yes, that is what we thought too earlier, but looks like you missed out on a lot of information we have uncovered about that country in the last few weeks, while you were gone.

Bamar/Burman is a nasty little tribe of 20-25 million people, which is oppressing not just Rohingya's but all other minorities and fighting insurgency wars with them. Rohingya is a special one, as they are not considered acceptable in their nation, unlike all other minorities, because of completely different race and religion, even though they are indigenous to Arakan.

Lets say we agree to accept all 800,000 Rohigya's in Bangladesh, then do you think Myanmar will give us road link? I doubt it. They will not give us road link, until they are forced by other ASEAN states and other regional countries, like Japan, South Korea and China, may be decades from now or may be never. India will of course do everything it can to stop this link and pay Bamar nation billions if they need to. They will also convince Bamars that if they give us a road link, it will mean an easy route for Bangladesh army invasion of Arakan.

Simply put these pesky Bamars cannot be trusted to do anything. My opinion is to keep 800,000 Rohingya's in Arakan and every time they create a refugee crisis, give them some threat to start a Rohingya insurgency if they do not stop the killing. Burma will remain an unsolved problem for the foreseeable future for us, we just have to connect to ASEAN by sea. A direct road link is not going to happen. They just use this false hope with us, to get what they want, which is for us to accept these 800,000 Rohingya's which they do not want to integrate with their nation, mainly because of different race and religion, although they happen to be indigenous to their land of Arakan.

The other important point is, what right do any Bangladeshi have to negotiate their citizenship away in their own motherland of Arakan, which is now a part of Burma? If they get kicked out, only then the question comes, whether we should let them in or not as refugees. But if Burma does that, imposes a refugee crisis on us, over and above the existing 300,000-400,000 Rohingya, refugees we already have, that is a good enough casus belli to start a war, unless they take all of them back.



That is because you don't know about our Ansar/vdp, these are already trained people, they need only additional training to integrate them with army command and control and some combat training. These are not new recruits.

I see we're getting smaller with your every post. Are we going to be 15-20 million in your next ramblings?