Good morning ladies and gentlemen. It’s
spring in Bangladesh now. The trees are adorned with flowers of different
colors, the air is heavy with the charming Of new leaves. Unexpectedly enough
I can’t experience it all in person, and I don’t know when again I can breathe
the air of Bangladesh, when again I can bathe in tears of happiness on
Bangladeshi soil. But I do feel very proud to be able to represent Bangladesh
in today’s session of forum Asia- the Bangladesh that I cherish in my heart,
the Bangladesh whose air-soil-water are mixed in my blood , the Bangladesh that
earned its freedom through a bloody war. I acknowledge with gratitude the help
I have received from Forum Asia during the difficult time I have been through
after being brutally attacked by Islami terrorists on 31st October last year.
You all know that Bangladesh is passing through a very crucial time with
regards to freedom of expression through writing and publishing such works. On
one hand is the secretive attacks of aggressive followers of politicized Islam,
and on the other is the compromising attitude of the government who are more
concerned about the number of votes than the safety of its people. And stuck in
this catch twenty situation are the free thinker bloggers, writers and
publishers of Bangladesh. I hope Geneva’s sessions like this one will be effective
to some extent in helping the current difficult situation of Bangladesh.
1
I don’t know any practical way of being safe from the terrorist attacks and murders that are taking place in Bangladesh right now. Moreover, these are being fueled by certain laws and the attitude of Bangladeshi government. A blogger or writer publishes his/her work through blogs, newspapers, or books. His pen, his keyboard are his only weapon; they don’t carry real weapons like the killers. They can’t always move about in groups to protect themselves. Therefore the responsibility for their safety lies upon the government. We know that the resources of Bangladesh government are limited , but what seems really unfortunate and embarrassing is their callousness towards ensuring safety of free thinking bloggers and publishers. Even the police and other law-enforcement personnel openly say to writers and publishers that Bangladesh is not a good place for freedom of expression. If you want to speak your mind, you better migrate to Europe or America. This is really frustrating. This attitude of the government works as an encouragement to the Muslim terrorists to continue with the attacks and killings. There is plenty of evidence to support this. The attackers of Humayun Azad at the Book fair ground haven’t been brought to justice as of yet. Avijit and Bonnya were attacked, penetrating the three fold safety system of police. The seriously injured Bonnya was fortunate enough to survive but police hasn’t been able to arrest the perpetrators yet. And the same goes about the real killers of Ananta Bijoy. We feel that even the ordinary people of Bangladesh think the government could get these murders arrested if they wanted to, but we have no idea why it is not being done, and why the safety of the free thinker bloggers, writers, and publishers is being neglected.
I don’t know any practical way of being safe from the terrorist attacks and murders that are taking place in Bangladesh right now. Moreover, these are being fueled by certain laws and the attitude of Bangladeshi government. A blogger or writer publishes his/her work through blogs, newspapers, or books. His pen, his keyboard are his only weapon; they don’t carry real weapons like the killers. They can’t always move about in groups to protect themselves. Therefore the responsibility for their safety lies upon the government. We know that the resources of Bangladesh government are limited , but what seems really unfortunate and embarrassing is their callousness towards ensuring safety of free thinking bloggers and publishers. Even the police and other law-enforcement personnel openly say to writers and publishers that Bangladesh is not a good place for freedom of expression. If you want to speak your mind, you better migrate to Europe or America. This is really frustrating. This attitude of the government works as an encouragement to the Muslim terrorists to continue with the attacks and killings. There is plenty of evidence to support this. The attackers of Humayun Azad at the Book fair ground haven’t been brought to justice as of yet. Avijit and Bonnya were attacked, penetrating the three fold safety system of police. The seriously injured Bonnya was fortunate enough to survive but police hasn’t been able to arrest the perpetrators yet. And the same goes about the real killers of Ananta Bijoy. We feel that even the ordinary people of Bangladesh think the government could get these murders arrested if they wanted to, but we have no idea why it is not being done, and why the safety of the free thinker bloggers, writers, and publishers is being neglected.
2
I started publishing a little magazine
called Shuddhashar, when I was in the first year of college in 1989. We were
young then, we used to like reading write-ups that truly pictured life. We
dream of bringing out in writing the true perceptions and viewpoints of
people. We enjoyed experimenting with different writing styles, thus we formed
our little group. A little magazine has different philosophic standpoints. We
used to feel a little magazine doesn’t work towards pleasing people, but to
awaken their souls.
We started our journey by publishing books written by writers from our group. Very soon our publishing house became quite well known in Bangladesh due to the fact that we published books by young and free thinking writers with a view to changing the mentality of Bangladeshi people. We hoped people would be freed from superstition, religious and social bigotry . And we saw some light of hope, some change started happening. As a result of the joint venture of blogging and publishing there has been a huge change in Bangladesh in the last ten years in terms of free thinking. The curiosity to know the truth about life and the world, as well as the courage to challenge any ism has been kindled among the youth. I feel the books written by the brave free thinking writers as well as blogging has contributed a lot towards this positive change.
We started our journey by publishing books written by writers from our group. Very soon our publishing house became quite well known in Bangladesh due to the fact that we published books by young and free thinking writers with a view to changing the mentality of Bangladeshi people. We hoped people would be freed from superstition, religious and social bigotry . And we saw some light of hope, some change started happening. As a result of the joint venture of blogging and publishing there has been a huge change in Bangladesh in the last ten years in terms of free thinking. The curiosity to know the truth about life and the world, as well as the courage to challenge any ism has been kindled among the youth. I feel the books written by the brave free thinking writers as well as blogging has contributed a lot towards this positive change.
3
Whatever I have written as a blogger or published as a publisher was due to my natural instinct. We thought what Bangladesh and the world need most are people who are capable of thinking freely, are cultured and have an understanding of democracy and that’s what we have tried to achieve through out work and we are striving to continue our conquest. Now we are dreaming of developing Shuddhashar into an international organization. And I feel it is my responsibility to do something for all those bloggers, writers and publishers whose lives are in danger.
Whatever I have written as a blogger or published as a publisher was due to my natural instinct. We thought what Bangladesh and the world need most are people who are capable of thinking freely, are cultured and have an understanding of democracy and that’s what we have tried to achieve through out work and we are striving to continue our conquest. Now we are dreaming of developing Shuddhashar into an international organization. And I feel it is my responsibility to do something for all those bloggers, writers and publishers whose lives are in danger.
4
After Avijit was murded on 26th February, I was threatened that I would be killed and my office would be bombed. It was published in local and international newspapers. I informed the police. This was the first written threat for helping writers and publishing books though I had been threatened indirectly before. I started getting calls from mystery callers so I had to change my number. When I started receiving regular calls on my office landline, I almost stopped going there. This hampered my business, both the production and supply of books. I hadn’t been to work for four days prior to being attacked. I had done this for my safety to confuse anyone who might have been following me. Sometimes I took different route home, but not matter what I did I always felt someone was following me. Sometimes unknown people came to my office, but I could never believe something so brutal as the attack on 31st October could really happen. But it has. The attackers had probably thought I would be alone there, but Tareq Rahim and Ranadipam Basu’s being their took them by surprise and perhaps that’s why we are all still alive. On the same day they killed Deepan, another publisher of Avijit’s books.
This is the current reality of Bangladesh. You can’t be safe even if you withdraw from living a normal life. And how far can one withdraw themselves? You have a life to live, a job to do, children to send to school, and so on and so forth. I think there are about 200-300 writers, bloggers, or publishers in Bangladesh whose lives are in danger. If we can relocate them, and put them in an environment where they can freely write from, perhaps we can change the thought process of people of Bangladesh. Also, we have to make the government understand the need to change these black laws in order to restore the right of all to be able to express freely. And I don’t think bloggers or writers should have to compromise with the situation at all.
I dream of a more humane Bangladesh, a more humane world.
After Avijit was murded on 26th February, I was threatened that I would be killed and my office would be bombed. It was published in local and international newspapers. I informed the police. This was the first written threat for helping writers and publishing books though I had been threatened indirectly before. I started getting calls from mystery callers so I had to change my number. When I started receiving regular calls on my office landline, I almost stopped going there. This hampered my business, both the production and supply of books. I hadn’t been to work for four days prior to being attacked. I had done this for my safety to confuse anyone who might have been following me. Sometimes I took different route home, but not matter what I did I always felt someone was following me. Sometimes unknown people came to my office, but I could never believe something so brutal as the attack on 31st October could really happen. But it has. The attackers had probably thought I would be alone there, but Tareq Rahim and Ranadipam Basu’s being their took them by surprise and perhaps that’s why we are all still alive. On the same day they killed Deepan, another publisher of Avijit’s books.
This is the current reality of Bangladesh. You can’t be safe even if you withdraw from living a normal life. And how far can one withdraw themselves? You have a life to live, a job to do, children to send to school, and so on and so forth. I think there are about 200-300 writers, bloggers, or publishers in Bangladesh whose lives are in danger. If we can relocate them, and put them in an environment where they can freely write from, perhaps we can change the thought process of people of Bangladesh. Also, we have to make the government understand the need to change these black laws in order to restore the right of all to be able to express freely. And I don’t think bloggers or writers should have to compromise with the situation at all.
I dream of a more humane Bangladesh, a more humane world.
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