While Bangladeshis around the world were spending time to commemorate Language Martyrs Day on the 21st of February, we saw the UK consumed with whether Shamima Begum should be permitted back into the UK or not. It is a day we pay homage to those who fought for the Bengali language in 1952 and onwards to be the state language for East Pakistan and since liberation of Bangladesh ( land of Bengali’s) has become a national holiday there and internationally recognised by UNESCO as International Mother Tongue Day. 

So it is a pity Shamima Begum freely admits this does not know Bengali and that she has not visited Bangladesh. As she would have appreciated through such exchanges how the formation of Bangladesh 🇧🇩 in its war of liberation in 1971 was a rejection of the colonial “two nations” theory at 1947. That is the rejection of a religious state let alone a caliphate. She would have certainly had relatives like her grand parents who would have around in those momentous times leading up to the liberation.   

Jihadists should also appreciate that when coming back in itself is an admission that the war to end all wars and the last days has not and not going to happen. Such an public admission should be one of many conditions of coming back into UK.

The two protests outside Mayfair auction houses in the past week are throwing light on what Housing Associations (HAs) are doing to their housing stock in Central London when becoming empty, selling them off and reducing the amount of social housing available for our desperately needy communities.

Normally all the focus on the loss of social housing is on the impact of RTB’s on our Council housing stock but we should not forget what HAs have been up too as well on this front. According to the latest figures from Charted Institute of Housing (CIH) some 47,000 properties have been sold by HAs between 2012-2018 with Notting Hill Housing Group and Peabody Housing Trust dumping over 500 social rented homes each in that period via auctions. CIH anticipate that HA’s will shed another 71,000 social rented homes in the near future.

These demo’s will no doubt become regular occurrence till the HAs stop this unjustified practise.

Please find link to my first column for Chatham House. 

https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/twt/too-big-win-stability

Thankfully the first General Election in Pakistan held in December 1970 was considered fair and conducted well, gave us the democratic mandate for the liberation of Bangladesh. If it had not been, l can only imagine how much longer the liberation of Bangladesh would have been. 

The screeching at Paddington enough to drive people on the platform away from the trains

From screeching along the platform and rattling residents living above and around tube lines with noise and vibrations, you can not get away from tube noise nuisance in Central London.

So l was glad to see that our local paper – Westminster Extra along with it sister papers – Camden New Journal & Islington Tribune – have taken up the issue of screeching tube noise on the platforms of the tube for both passengers and those working on the Tube on the Northern line as it reports tube noise levels just like being at a rock gig along the platforms of Camden tube stations like Tufnell Park, Kentish Town, Camden Town & Euston. Where perks of 109.5 decibels have been recorded. And daily commutes of around 30-45 minutes are sufficient to cause long-lasting and irreversible hearing loss.

But let us also not forget the screeching at Paddington Bakerloo Tube station. The Bakerloo line North of Paddington has been falling to pieces for a while and it starts with the screeching of the Bakerloo line trains going through Paddington. The piercing sound is enough to drive people on the platform away from the trains and not entering the carriages of the tube! It would be great if similar recordings of the noise can be made by experts like Dr Sollini and report back how it measures against the other lines already recorded. The Bakerloo line desperately needs an upgrade but let us at least get the  basics right while managing the line with issues like reducing the screeching. Do remember it was only a few years ago when the line had the worst seating on the tube!!!! And it was only repaired by TfL when it was highlighted to them by the general public on twitter.

Tube noise and vibrations has also been an issue for long suffering residents living above and around stations on tube lines something l first brought up at City Hall with the previous Mayor, Boris Johnson when the night tube proposal was first being investigated operationally. He famously said that he would not let the service begin if it is “….rattling residents tea cups at three o’clock in the morning” If the responses to media coverage, blogs l have written and day-to-day conversations in neighbourhoods like Marylebone are anything to go by, the number of cases has increased substantial across much of Inner London. As long suffering Londoners come out and tell their stories. It ranges from very loud announcements on the platforms to noises from the tracks in deep tube tunnels as it appears the speed and frequency of trains going through tunnels has gone up causing them sleepless nights and mental fatigue. So the first thing we could have from Transport for London (TfL) is a full acknowledgement of where the problems are with the latest update of all the complaints that have been received in the public domain.  Furthermore a study of the levels of noise across all the tube lines with some academic rigour to see if any patterns are emerging that can tell us what type of strategy is required to bring the levels of noise and vibration disturbance down. Something that was last done by the London South Bank, University Acoustic Group.

Thankfully the London Assembly has taken up the issues with affected residents being given the floor at Committee meetings to air their complaints at City Hall recently just before the Christmas break. This while the Mayor has a statutory responsibility for ambient noise in Greater London is hopefully covered within his all encompassing environmental strategy, as undoubtedly noise is the main environmental concern of Londoners when we remember this includes aircraft noise as well around London airports.

And finally, surely a public body like Transport for London should acknowledge its has a statutory responsibility for such public nuisance caused by the noise of the tubes it operates over WHO recommended levels. Causing its residential neighbours, employers and passenger much nuisance. It should not have to take a test case in the High Courts for them to accept their responsibilities to their London neighbours, passengers and staff before full mitigation works are undertaken to deal with such headaches for many Londoners going about their daily life.    

Finally this blog has kindly been published in the Westminster Extra (1st Feb 2019 edition)

Sarawak Assembly delegation in London ask innocently what the hell is happening in the House of Commons?

With the continuing Brexit mess unfolding in the House of Commons, can people around the world see our parliament as the Mother of Parliaments ever again? 

Since the beginning of the year, the UK government has been held in contempt of parliament. It has also seen the biggest government lose on a piece of legislation. As the Prime Ministers Brexit deal, otherwise known as the Withdrawal Agreement was rejected by a whopping 230 votes.

So let us face it, the Mother of Parliaments looks a real mess over the Brexit issue. At the heart of it is the conflict between the sovereignty of the people vs sovereignty of the parliament. It does not help that we have an unwritten British constitution as it confers total sovereignty on parliament as the epitome of a representative democracy rather than a direct democracy. So it seats very uncomfortably with the notion of asking voters to make policy choices like it is done regularly in Switzerland. That is a representative democracy where we elect members to represent us on a host of issues not necessarily on a singular one like Brexit. 

Now the process and manner of our democracy may not matter to us much as we make it up as we go along but it does leave many visitors of our democracy in the Commons perplexed on how we actually go about undertaking it.  Indeed one member of Sarawak Assembly delegation who watched one of the Brexit sessions at the Commons from the public gallery said while we were entertaining them at the Chinese restaurant  “May you live in interesting times”. The well known Chinese proverb or curse seen very appropriate indeed. All l could say was that you have certainly come to our shores in very interesting times. 

So as and when this episode is eventually finished, the adoption of the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy and its practises by many countries around the world will be all the more unlikely. As many will look back over this period as a clear example of how not to run a democracy at all. 

In the FT Weekend (15/16th December ) column by Sunder Katwala he argued “English Football & Society have to dig deeper to root out racism” but we should not also forget older forms of racism on like anti-semitic chanting in our terraces of some grounds in the UK.

I was quite astonished to hear such anti-semitic chanting in a game l went to watch at Stamford Bridge ( Chelsea vs Blackburn ) from the Matthew Harding Stand as part of a delegation organised by Show Racism the Red Card in 2009 which prompted me to write to the club to do something about it.

So l am glad to see almost 10 years after the events Chelsea FC have since the beginning of 2018 started dealing with the issue with bans on fans found to have committed such chants. Though it still appears the club still has the problem at their away games both home and aboard. The last away game in Europe illustrated this well and could well land them a UEFA crowd ban at home and then we had the away game in Selhurst Park where an ex-Spurs player was abused. 

So lets not forget anti-semitic chanting as well.

With Crossrail indefinitely delayed it gives us an opportunity on making some improvements to Oxford St which have not really been taken on board, in response to the Council’s proposals . Ultimately its the hugh increase of visitors in the West End anticipated which will need dispersing, many of whom may well need a black cab or two to get them around for the next leg of their onward journey, which determines this need.  

Black cabbies operating in the West End feel the draft strategy and delivery plan for Oxford St by Westminster City Council, neglects one very important element for them – taxis ranks. After spending an afternoon having a few drinks with a old school friend who’s a regular cabbie in the West End over the Christmas break, he made the above observation. We then walked along Oxford St and he pointed out the best places for those taxis ranks near the two Cross rail stations, Bond St and Tottenham Court Rd. 

Some possibilities of a taxis rank that we discussed include the new entrance to Bond St on the Northern side of Oxford St, opens up the use of the top end of Marylebone lane as a taxis rank for all those who came off at that particular Cross rail station.Great Chapel St on the Southern side of New Oxford St serviced by taxis through Soho by the side of the new entrance to Tottenham Court Rd Cross rail off New Oxford Street. And finally Denmark Place, WC1 (in Camden) on the Eastern side of Charing Cross Rd and served through the back of the Holborn gyratory.

The taxi rank additions to the future of Oxford St District above have been highlighted in locations which should make them easily incorporated to the proposal outlined by the Council. So l hope its not to late to consider where these taxis ranks can be added to the mix along with all the other considerations in the proposals. As long as the black cabs are not idling and increasingly we have cabbies using the electric version of the iconic black cab, then l don’t particularly have any problems with having taxi ranks near the new Crossrail stations.  

New Bond St Crossrail entrance, Marylebone lane

New Tottenham Court Rd entrance along Denmark Place, WC1

Soho entrance to Tottenham Court Rd Crossrail, Great Chapel St, W1

The Indian Supreme court landmark ruling this year, legalising gay sex overturns an colonial-era law otherwise known as Section 377, illustrates well the pernicious impact still made by colonial laws in many independent states from British colonial rule. Making the Mughal’s before the British Raj & East India Company seen even more liberal now as they actually combined a number of pre-existing laws of the Delhi Sultanate into the Fatawa-e-Alamgiri. Furthermore 36 of the 53 countries in the Commonwealth continue to criminalise same-sex acts, primarily under laws imposed during the British Colonial era that were never repealed.

Very often it is the draconian powers left by the British in its former colonies which have been used after independence particularly during civil strife to stifle the opposition to the government in power. As regulations drawn up by past colonial administrators are still being used, till this day, to prosecute government opponents, detain them without trial, prohibit demonstrations and shut down newspapers. Yet the rule of law, Westminster-style democracy and strict standards in public life are often seen as among the important legacies of the British Empire.

In Bangladesh alleged attacks on Islamic society and religious feelings causing outrage amongst Muslim fundamentalism, has seen the government there charging people and organisations under a colonial-era law of “offending religious feelings”.

In Pakistan, the authorities have made virtually no changes to the administrative system set up by the British to deal with the wild tribes of the North- west frontier. Instead of attempting to impose an alien legal system on the tribesmen, the Raj gave local officials almost unlimited discretionary powers. These remain in force till this day. 

In Palestine, the system of administrative detentions created in the 1940s is still routinely used in Israel’s occupied territories. It is often said that Israel has two systems of law – one for Israelis and one for the Palestinians. The latter is based on the British emergency regulations and it is felt to lend it respectability.

Thus the rule of law, Westminster-style democracy and strict standards in public life are often seen as among the important legacies of the British Empire are largely a myth. As across the world regulations drawn up by past colonial administrators are still being used, sometimes decades after independence, to prosecute government opponents, detain them without trial, prohibit demonstrations and shut down newspapers.

Unfortunately independence constitutions nearly always preserved all existing laws and ordinances, no matter how arbitrarily they had come into existence. As a result of this historical role, Britain has been at a disadvantage when complaining about human rights abuses in many parts of the world. Indira Gandhi famously point out that the powers she used to declare emergency rule in India in 1975 dated from the Raj. This has even been the case when countries have been pushing “Asian values” as in Malaysia, yet it has had made extensive use of the more authoritarian side of their colonial legacy, again in the form of emergency powers. The activist & politician ( and soon to become PM ) Anwar Ibrahim was jailed by the same sodomy laws that the Indians recently repealed. 

While the world has been rallied to the moral and humanitarian case to support the Rohingyas in their flight from ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar state and their plight in Bangladesh, let us not forget the geo-politics of their situation. Notwithstanding the grandstanding of the Security Council at the UN, it is the Chinese Belt & Road initiative and in particular the pivotal place of Bangladesh within the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) corridor that has determined the recent initiative by Chinese. This is one part of the Chinese efforts to rebuild the Old Silk Roads across the whole of Euro Asia land mass, enhancing trade and interactions across the whole of the continent, shifting the central of world economic activity into the heart of Asia, through a process of Easternisation.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in a meeting with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali

This is best illustrated by the rush of the Bangladesh Foreign Secretary to undertake a bilateral agreement with Myanmar for the safe return of the Rohingya’s too Rakhine state, after Bangladesh had been pursuing a multilateral solution through the UN. This happened almost immediately after the Chinese Foreign Secretary Yang Yi came to Dhaka to meet AH Mahmood Ali, the Bangladesh Foreign Secretary.  So you could say the Chinese brokered or at least kick started the bilateral deal.

According to the bilateral agreement we have three-phases  to address the crisis and promote stability. Firstly China has asked Myanmar’s army to restore order by declaring a ceasefire to stem the flood of refugees. In the second stage, China has suggested that both Myanmar and Bangladesh should be encouraged to talk so as to find a feasible approach to settle the issue while the international community should play an active role as well. In the third stage, Wang called upon the international community to help rebuild Rakhine state.

The Chinese Foreign Secretary  can be credited for getting the support for the proposal from Myanmar’s civilian and military leaders as well as the government of Bangladesh, before unveiling the plan. The proposal, if implemented, would pave the way to restoring peace in the region and rehabilitate all the refugees who had fled to Bangladesh and other countries. And while some will maybe cynical about the Chinese involvement given it has not condemn the ethnic cleansing, China at least does have a firm handle over Myanmar because of its economic support. So it can put pressure on the army to stop the further atrocities.  Furthermore, the Chinese $25 billion offer of infrastructural investment based on the corridor to the Bangladesh government already before the Rohingya tragedy would have played very heavily on the minds of officials in Dhaka.

So as the Rohingya refugees situation plays itself out, do not forget that in the background other issues and concerns are foremost in the minds of officials involved in this bilateral deal other than the immediate humanitarian concerns.

Bangladesh Elections

With nearly 700,000 Rohingya’s crossing over into Bangladesh in the past 18 months, fleeing a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar since August last year, the Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina stated quite clearly “….if we can feed 170 million people, we will be able to feed them as well”

With an election looming on the 30th of December, there is no doubt the issue of how to host the Rohingya’s will come up during the election.

As a responsible government, it has opened its border and provided shelter to the forcibly displaced Rohingya’s. By doing so, it has not only saved lives, but also stabilised the entire region by containing the crisis within their border. Bangladesh will of course like to see the Rohingya’s returning to their homes with safety, security and dignity.  Pending their return, Bangladesh will try and address their basic needs.

Now given the scarcity of land and other socio-cultural and environmental impacts, the Bangladesh government is going to relocate Rohingya’s to a newly developed island, Bhashan Char, where they would have better living conditions and livelihood opportunities. These plans to put them on this island in the Bay of Bengal have proven popular amongst the Bengali electorate, though not necessarily globally, while we hear stories allegedly of more than 200,000 Rohingya’s have been able to hold Bangladeshi passports by corrupt means have somewhat shocked the Bangladeshi electorate.

The Bangladeshi PM at a recent UN Conference on Global Compact on Refugees reiterated that the Rohingya crisis has originated in Myanmar and the solution has to be found there. So Bangladesh would like to see the Rohingya’s returning to their homes with safety, security and dignity but pending their return, Bangladesh will try to address their basic needs.