Category Archives: News

Aung San Suu Kyi – following footsteps of her father

We hear endless reports that “The Terrified Rohingya flee their Burmese tormentors…” now. So desperate is the plight of the Rohingya’s they are fleeing to a country that is a third under water as a results of floods in South Asia, Bangladesh. No one knowingly moves towards floods but such is their plight.

Bangladesh probably already has half a millions Rohinya’s in its densely packed country from previous occasions when they have had to flee. The last major occasion was when Burmese army attacked them in their villages in 1991/92 and the two countries almost went to war on the matter.

This has unfortunately been a long running saga dating back to at least 1947 when Aung San denied the Rohingya’s citizenship at the formation of the Burmese state while other ethnic groups were recognised in the Union of Burma. What is for sure is that Suu Kyi is following in the footsteps of her father ( Aung San ) in her total disregard of the Rohinya ‘s plight and circumstances. It clearly needs a regional solution with UN assistance and back up and Suu Kyi is clearly her father’s daughter in such matters.

We also need to remind the Buddhist hate preachers of Myammar, Buddhism and Hinduism spread to Arakan from ancient Bengal and that the Arakan and south eastern part of Bengal ( now Chittagong Division in Bangladesh) were often ruled by the same dynasties. So clearly using “Bengalis” as a derogatory remark is a denial of their religious origins.

So the short answer to why won’t Aung San Suu Kyi do anything for the Rohinya’s? She is simply her fathers daughter in this respect!

Garden Bridge – A bridge to far for London?

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A full investigation is required to find out why so much public money was wasted and make sure it never happens again but while the Garden Bridge is dead in the water, the need for bridges in East London is set to continue.

Assymetry of London Bridges across the Thames in Greater London

Let us be quite clear London needs more bridges. You just have to look at the movement of cars from South East London into Central London via Blackwall or Rotherhithe tunnel and you can appreciate it. Just as critically it is also needed to stem the isolation of places like Thamesmead, a town created within London by the GLC.

But any new bridge in London needs to be East of Tower Bridge linking East London with South-East London but certainly not in Central or in West London where you can be going on & off the bridges by car and you lose any sense of which side of London you are actually on!

Indeed at the end of Ken Livingstone time at City Hall, we had a proposed Thames Gateway Bridge linking Beckton in East London with the remote area of Thamesmead and putting them on the map for the first time. But this half a billion project immediately died a death with Boris Johnson new administration even though it had all the approvals to let the contract and would have been operational in 2013.

Little was heard of bridge proposals in the rest of Boris Johnson time till the Garden Bridge came up towards the end of his second term at City Hall. With a concerted media campaign and influential backers like the Chancellor of Exchequer of the day Gideon ( George ) Osborne it suddenly drew a lot of attention not dissimilar to other projects like the Emirate cable cars and Arcelormittal Orbit slide which caught the eye of the Mayor. Illustrating well again Boris Johnson as Mayor of London complete incompetence to strategically look at London while pursuing media generated hyped projects at huge expense to the public purse.

Not only did they want tens of millions subsidy for the construction of the Garden Bridge but they also tried to get the running costs of the bridge subsided by public purse and Westminster council did well to put a stop to it, as owners of the landing at the Temple.

The Garden Bridge ultimately was completely in the wrong place, essentially a tourist attraction and was not adding to the transport infrastructure of London, so it did not warrant any public monies. So quite how Transport for London (TfL) signed up to it, is beyond me and they do need to explain themselves. Along with their senior staff, we should also add all the construction consultants from firms like Arup who appear to have been paid handsomely for professional services which has not produced anything at all for the public realm.

How a pair of Bullingdon Club boys wasted tens of million pounds public money for their pet projects the Garden Bridge is beyond many while in public office needs through investigating as well. Also, l dare say Joanna Lumley role in it all needs looking into as well. She appears to cast a spell on politicians particularly those who she’s had on sitting on her knees! It all adds to the feel that some can get away with murder or at least spending our money without accounting for themselves. Heads must roll but I doubt it will with them.

So while an investigative inquiry is imperative, let us not allow the final legacy of the Garden Bridge to be the death of any other bridge proposals across the Thames, as we will no doubt need them. Oddly enough TfL at the end of Boris’s time returned to bridge proposals in East London.

A version of this blog has also been published in Westminster Extra this week.

No to war & racism

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We are all here in front of the US Embassy in London today, to Stand up to Trump’s warmongering and support for bigots.

Now we know he has got form on both fronts.

One of the first Executive Orders he issued when first in the White House at the beginning of the year was for increased military expenditure including upgrading the US nuclear arsenal at the expense of his foreign aid and diplomacy budget.

During August, he was added nuclear threat to South Korea with talk of “fire & fury” and “locked and loaded” and has also talked about taking military action in Venezuela.

Another one of his first Executive Oder’s involved the Muslim Travel ban for Iranians, Libyans, Syrians, Somalians, Sudanese & Yemenis.

None of who’s citizens contributed to the 9/11 attack on the US.

Now you can add his defence of white supremacists since Charlotteville troubles hit the States, to his support of bigotry.

So we are here today to tell Donald Trump to stop his warmongering and support for bigots

And also tell the UK government that it should not commit troops or weapons to Korean peninsula with any US action that might be taking.

We also want the UK govt to withdraw their invite of a state visit to the President until he drops his warmongering and bigotry.

More Petain then Eichmann – The Economist gets it wrong with war crimes in B’desh

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In the Economist editorial of the 23rd of March edition on Justice in Bangladesh it gets it wrong with its comparison with the Eichmann trial as its more like Marshal Petain when making comparison with war crimes cases proceeding in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

I made this point in a recent letter l wrote to the Economist, which l was hoping would get published in this weeks edition;

Dear Economist Editor,

Eichmann is the wrong comparison to make with war criminals cases in Dhaka in your editorial of the 23rd March 2013 on Justice in Bangladesh – Another kind of crime.

Jamaat-e-Islami and its off-shoots were local collaborators for the Pakistan army in the struggle for Bangladesh like Marshall Petain of Vichy Republic with the Nazi in France during the second world war who after the war was convicted for treason, given a death sentence and then pardon.

Its always far more difficult dealing with your own kind like fellow Bengalis who were involved in the atrocities, hence the deep bitterness and why it needs to be dealt with before the nation can move on even if it means retrials.

So its more Marshal Petain then Eichmann.

Murad Qureshi,

27th March 2013