The Asian Age: 11 Years’ Journey and Challenges

 

14 September 2024 marked the 11th founding anniversary of The Asian Age, a daily English newspaper. I founded The Asian Age with the dream of establishing freedom of press and people’s liberty to express their opinions freely though I was not from journalism background at all. As I launched The Asian Age 11 years ago, I mainly spotlighted on making Bangladesh a corruption-free country buttressed with equal rights and socio-economic justice. But I had very little ideas that doing a good work would face so many bitter challenges and grim impediments in our country.

To define the journey of The Asian Age so long, a few lines from National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam can be borrowed “Durgom giri kantar moru, dustoro parabar o hey, longhite hobe ratri nishite, jatri ra hushiar” “Unscalable mounts, impassable deserts, turbulent seas. These you must conquer in freedom’s quest in the dead of night. Sailors, beware! The surf rises in disquiet, the boat heaves, the boatman loses track.”

Patriotism, rule of law, good governance, integrity, transparency and accountability are most vital things for a country to make substantial progress. At the same time it has to be remembered that journalism is the fourth estate of democracy. A country cannot attain sustainable democracy until and unless unbarred and unbiased journalism is allowed to prevail. It goes without saying that all principles, codes, regulations and norms of fair banking and financial systems eroded in Bangladesh during the period from 2009 to 2024, to be more precise from 2016 to 2024. Massive loan scams and financial frauds hit news headlines over and over again.

The Asian Age frequently published reports and articles on unabated corruption and irregularities in banks and financial systems in Bangladesh. The Asian Age tried its best to stay objective in all its reports. However, it has to be admitted that we had to eulogize the immediate past government on a few occasions coming under severe pressure from ruling authorities and an influential intelligence force. Otherwise we would have ended up in Ayna Ghor (secret detention chambers) for sure.

The Asian Age covered a report by The Economist titled “The Government Initiates a Coup at Bangladesh’s Bank: Board Members Receive a Visit from Military Intelligence” which appeared on 6 April 2017. Following the publication of this report in The Asian Age, the then Director General of DGFI Major General Akbar Hossain threatened The Asian Age in every possible way. Even Major General Akbar Hossain went on to abduct me from my office.

The Asian Age was also forced by intelligence agencies and the ousted government to publish their party anniversary supplements covering two pages free of cost. Huge sums of advertisement bills from The Asian Age are still pending with different government offices. All these detrimental things have plunged The Asian Age into abysmal financial straits.

The Asian Age published a report on the front page on 26 February 2017 titled, “Tk 30, 000 crore vanishing trick: 60% of defaulted loans from public banks written off.” Taking this report into cognizance, the High Court ordered Bangladesh Bank to furnish full facts and figures related to the persons and amounts with reference to defaulted loans up to 31 December 2016.

Moreover, The Asian Age published some more striking reports on graft and anomalies in the financial arena such as “Scams, anomalies hammer banks” which was published on 14 March 2019; “Banking sector in bad shape” which appeared in The Asian Age on 21 December 2020; “Banks sink into abysmal woes” which appeared in The Asian Age on 10 December 2021; “Banking sector faces disastrous plight” which appeared in The Asian Age on 14 March 2022; “Mega defaulters seek more loans” which appeared in The Asian Age on 8 September 2019; “Corruption, irregularities devastate banks: Experts blame central bank” which appeared in The Asian Age on 16 February 2022; “Corruption and money laundering baffle economic prospects” which appeared in The Asian Age on 16 March 2022; “Money laundering issue comes under international pressure” which appeared in The Asian Age on 22 December 2021, “People’s Worries Over Banking Sector Deepen” which appeared on 30 June 2024 etcetera. The draconian rulers compelled many newspapers and online news portals including The Asian Age to remove some corruption reports from our websites.

In particular, an authentic and investigative report titled “Monster Behind Spoiling Banks” raised a lot of hue and cry which appeared in The Asian Age in November 2019. This report spotlighted on the blazing corruption, terror finance and money laundering allegedly committed by Nazrul Islam Mazumder who is former President of Bangladesh Association of Banks (BAB) and ex Chairman of Exim Bank Limited. Following the publication of this report, Nazrul Islam Mazumder filed false defamatory cases against The Asian Age. The Asian Age had to fight against fabricated cases in both labour court and civil court.  Furthermore, unidentified miscreants threatened to shut down The Asian Age press on 18 November 2019.

Different intelligence departments grilled our reporters days after days which was a horrid instance of harassment and a brazen attack on freedom of press.

However, both the cases filed by Nazrul Islam Mazumder were later on quashed by the High Court.
Nazrul Islam Mazumder became one of the ringleaders of financial frauds and banking rackets in Bangladesh by means of his close ties with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) while Sheikh Hasina was Bangladesh’s Premier. Nazrul Islam Mazumder donated great deals of money to the Prime Minister’s coffers every year and thus he managed to carry on financial vices. Nazrul Islam Mazumder’s pictures with Sheikh Hasina were a number of times printed on the first page of some reputed Bengali and English newspapers.

Even Nazrul Islam Mazumder once boastfully said that his asset volume amounts to 67 billion dollars which makes him one of the richest men on earth!
I wrote in details about the abuse of power by the immediate past government in alliance with notorious financial fraudsters in an article titled “An Appeal to Our Readers” which appeared in The Asian Age on 2nd March 2020. I penned another article headlined “What Lesson Does BD Learn From Sri Lankan Catastrophe: Highest Ever Trade Deficit, Price Hike, Skyrocketing Forex Threaten Economy” which appeared in The Asian Age on 17 May 2022.

Anyway, a new dawn has emerged in Bangladesh through a student-led mass upsurge which culminated into the fall of a repressive regime which reigned the country for long fifteen years. The victory gained by the country’s youths and general masses hit the streets across Bangladesh on 5 August 2024. Local and international news agencies termed it “Glorious August Revolution” and “Bangla Spring”.

Nobel Laureate Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus arrived in Bangladesh from France at a very crucial time following the departure of overthrown Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Dr. Muhammad Yunus is a totally benevolent, philanthropic person. He never ever had any lust for power. He was awarded Nobel Peace Prize for his widespread contribution in eradicating poverty in Bangladesh through his non-profit organization Grameen Bank. Dr. Muhammad Yunus also had to go through immense trials and tribulations at the hands of the immediate past regime. Fictitious and harrowing cases one after another were lodged against him. All the patriotic citizens of Bangladesh including reputed economists, political scholars, students and prominent citizens called upon Dr. Muhammad Yunus again and again to hold the country’s helm. Afterwards Dr. Muhammad Yunus took oath as an interim government’s Chief Adviser on 8 August 2024 with his cabinet colleagues who are esteemed legal experts, decorated retired military officers, eminent bureaucrats, environmentalists, financial connoisseurs, former Bangladesh Bank Governor, human rights organizers and so on.

Some instability came up right after the regime change that took place on 5 August 2024. Attacks on some Awami League leaders were carried out by unidentified assailants. Even in several parts of Bangladesh religious minorities, particularly Hindus, faced attacks too. This undesirable situation happened because police force abstained from working after the above revolution. However, now things have come under control though all members of police department have not yet reported to their respective workplaces.

The mass uprising from July to August 2024 was triggered by the Anti-Discriminatory Students’ Movement which started from Dhaka University. The movement was waged against quotas in Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) jobs. Sheikh Hasina’s fatal flaw was instructing the law and order forces to crack down on the demonstrators instead of inviting them for negotiation. Within a matter of a few weeks the movement became a countrywide mass upheaval which led to the downfall of Awami League from power on 5 August 2024. My article hailing Bangla Spring appeared in The Asian Age on 6 August 2024 titled “Bangladesh Wins Freedom Once Again”. I wrote another article titled “An Appeal for Unity and Justice” which appeared on 25 August 2024 in which I urged everyone to work together forgetting about silly conceptual dissimilarities for making Bangladesh a prosperous country and thus to pay tribute to the hundreds of martyrs who laid down their life during the Anti-Discriminatory Movement.

The spirit and the essence of Bangla Spring have to be retained and protected. The aim of the revolution was to establish equal rights and justice for all. So, it is the most important thing now to do is to ensure the safety and dignity of religious minorities, tribal clans and small ethnic groups across Bangladesh. Even the demand for changing Bangladesh’s national anthem does not sound relevant at this time because reforming state machineries is much more vital than dealing with emotion-driven issues. The major political parties who welcomed Dr. Muhammad Yunus when he took over the charge of the interim government’s Chief Adviser, should give him and his cabinet members adequate time to thoroughly reform banks and financial institutions, judicial service, electoral system, police force, anti-corruption drive etcetera. Nobody should put pressure on Dr. Muhammad Yunus to organize elections in a hurry before these indispensable reforms are properly implemented.

Students played unforgettable roles in the Language Movement of 1952, the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1969, the glorious Liberation War of 1971 and the Anti-Autocracy Agitation of 1990. We must pay due honour to our undeniable history. We cannot do anything which debases the Liberation War of 1971. We also should preserve our cultural legacy which has been there for thousands of years and which is explicitly associated with interreligious harmony.

We should not harbour antagonism towards any particular country. In the current globalized world it is very much difficult to move forward without keeping up sound diplomatic and commercial ties with big neighbours. Dr. Muhammad Yunus has told Deutsche Welle (DW) in a recent interview that Bangladesh wants to sustain best affiliations with India. While concluding, I would like to cite a few words from American author Helen Keller who once said “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”


Shoeb Chowdhury is Chairman,
Editorial Board of The Asian Age.