Al Jazeera report on trial of war criminals

23 February 2012, 18:00 PM

Engr. Md. Aminul Hoque, East Rampura, Dhaka

In a front page news on 17 February 2012, The Daily Star published a news about a report broadcast by Al Jazeera television channel that said the ongoing trial of the war criminals in Bangladesh would throw the country into further political instability. The report dealt with former Jammat-e-Islami Ameer Ghulam Azam standing trial for crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971. On the Al Jazeera report, The Daily Star also published comments of many renowned personalities, who strongly criticised and opposed the opinion aired by the internationally renowned TV channel. They stressed that the trial would rather bring political stability in the country. It seems The Daily Star reporter preferred to collect comments of the persons who are actively supporting the trial and there were no comments from the other side that want to turn the history back, although their numbers are negligible. But in democracy, no one should try to set aside or choke the voice of the minority. As a nation, we are confronting the problems of widespread corruption, ever-increasing unemployed population, sliding law and order situation, a scandalous share market, soaring prices of essentials, intolerable traffic jam, a dysfunctional national parliament, anti-people activities of the big two political parties, uncertainties about the next general election, closure of higher educational institutions due to unruly acts of some student factions and many more to add to the list. The primary objective of the government should be to focus on these issues but surprisingly it is spending most of the time and energy to fight the opponent political forces.