October 19, 2007

General Moeen's Q&A in London

Update 2: General Moeen's interview with BBC can be heard here courtesy of E-Bangladesh.

He's talking about some bank loan controversy and I saw something similar in all the newspapers today, such as in The Daily Star, The New Nation and Amader Shomoy.

Unfortunately, since I read the newspapers closely everyday, I have NO idea at all what he is referring to. Surely a question as big as this would have been brought up by the free media and welcomed by the democracy-establishing and accountable government that we have enjoyed since 1/11. That way General Moeen would have cleared up the entire matter before leaving for the U.S. That is after all what accountability means.

Leaves me wondering why it didn't quite happen that way ......

Updates: Same press conference, covered by a UK-based channel. Plus another report featuring the General's dinner with a "non-political" outfit called Jago Bangladesh which also features Awami League protesters outside.

Would appreciate it if someone could point me in the direction of a video of his interview at JFK. Thanks!

Jago Bangladesh dinner and AL protesters.


Britain-based channel reporting on the same press conference


Channel i Report


Readers' comments only. Nothing personal please!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

When we see Moeen speak on issues in seminars and public forums we see a "think tank;" when we see Moeen distribute relief materials to flood victims, we see a man with "charitable disposition;" when we see Moeen in army uniform, we see a smart soldier and a "true patriot." Moeen's antagonists may now take pause after he announced that he had no interest for the presidency.

From Daily Star:
http://www.thedailystar.net/pages.php?id=02

I wonder what Mr Dewan sees here.

Anonymous said...

Why does he talk like he has the authority to talk about governance in Bangladesh?
As the chief of army his job is to monitor the defense force, and officially should work under the directives of the head of the state, i.e., the President (who is never seen or heard these days). The ministry of defense is under the office of PM, in this case the Chief Adviser.
So basically MUA has no legal authority to intervene in governance.

On the issue of having an election when the politicians (including former PMs) are held in jail he challenged the questioner to show an honest person and flat out declared “they are known to be corrupt”.
So, the CTG can throw someone in jail because ther are “known” to be corrupt?
Then why shouldn’t he and his bro be thrown in jail for the way they manipulated Trust Bank?
And why aren’t there any concrete proof of the all the “allegations” of multi million dollar loots?
Why are these “corruption charges” not being made public?
Who made him the judge and jury?

On what grounds are the DU and RU professors or Arif qualified as ‘corrupt’?

The arrogance of this man is unbearable!

Anonymous said...

When I hear Moeen or even Yunus ( Not mentioning Moinul etc.) talk, experience their hollow rhetoric, constantly flip flop on issues and the blame it on media, I can't help reevaluating our perception of our politicians.
8 months in power, this general started hollow rhetoric based speeches, uncorroborated blame games, unsubstantiated remarks, constant flip flops and unbearable display of arrogance. Compared to this I would say, our political leadership were much restrained, less flip flop and arrogant even after 25-30 years of uncontested leadership.

( On the face of aggressive advertisement and promotion of this blog by Dhakashohor, I had no option left but to visit and post a comment here. Chhere de ma kede bachi. :). )

a said...

lol@last part of statement!

a said...

We are no shaky government: Moeen

Fri, Oct 19th, 2007 1:15 pm BdST

New York, Oct 19 (bdnews24.com) – General Moeen U Ahmed has said the interim government backed by his forces is not a "shaky" one as he says people are "happy" with the administration.

"Why do you think we are shaky? Do you live in Bangladesh? We are open enough to accept the opinion of others. It does not mean that we are shaky," the army chief said to a questioner as he faced a barrage of queries from expatriate Bangladeshi reporters in New York.

"People are happy (with us)."

Moeen met local community journalists at the Office of Bangladesh Consulate General in New York Thursday evening (New York time). Bangladesh permanent representative to the United Nations Ismat Jahan and consul general Shamsul Haque were present at the meeting.

Moeen arrived in the United States Wednesday from London and is expected to deliver a lecture at Harvard University.

On the negation of his being president of the country, he said the statement he had delivered in London was wrongly quoted by the press.

Moeen emphasised that he had never said he did not want to be the president of the country, rather he said he "had no intention" to become the president.

Replying to a query about if Moeen was in New York as a campaigner, protector or theoretician of the present government, he initially grinned and humbly said: "I am nothing of the government."

He said the government had nothing personal against two former prime ministers.

"We could set up a military tribunal to try them. But we didn't do so because we want to deliver justice," he said. "Justice should not be denied."

He said the military could take over in the wake of the chaos before Jan 11 when president Iajuddin Ahmed declared a state of emergency to quell weeks of street violence over political reforms.

"But we didn't go by that. We helped install the caretaker government," he said.

Courtesy: BDnews. (h/t SA)

tacit said...

General Moeen is offering us his narrative of events. We need to see how we can show parts/ the whole of it to be false, if we believe it to be as such.

It shouldn't be too hard to do, parts of all the evidence needed are strewed in blog posts and newspaper reports from the past eight months, and in our collective conscience. We just need to place it centrally, somewhere.

tacit said...

I see no reason to let Asif bhai corner the market on shameless blog promotions. :-)

Thus: http://sotacit.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/questions-for-the-curious/

Anonymous said...

*****As per instruction from blog author, this comment will be completely impersonal*****

Moeen seems like a very self-assured man. His body language was interesting, especially when he talked about other countries wanting to emulate his model of taking over a country. Moeen does not look like a man who will give up power easily. He has tasted power and seems to be enjoying his newfound celebrity.

Oh, and he has a bizarre idea of justice. Its not up to those arrested to prove they are "honest", its up to the government to prove they are guilty. A person who does not understand that basic point should not even pretend to talk about ushering in democracy - and at the point of a gun, at that.

a said...

Hahahah! Ok, so I didn't do a good job of wording it. In my defence, it was 3 in the morning when I put that up.

Just didn't want to have some commenter come and say something like the following:

"X looks so good in the uniform" (admirer)

or

"X doesn't have enough hair" (critic)

Thankfully Mash, your level of discourse always stays above this!:)

Anonymous said...

Moeen emphasised that he had never said he did not want to be the president of the country, rather he said he "had no intention" to become the president.

---If he is emphasizing the point that he never said he did not want to be the president...does that mean he wants to be the president, but have no intentions?
I am confused.?!??!!
So does it mean he wanted to be the president, but does not have any intentions of becoming the president. i.e he will be the president if circumstances want him to be(maybe to save the contry from a civil war or something along those lines ;-)

Anonymous said...

i liked the line 'just wait until 2008 december... then you'll want us to sort other countries out'.

Found him more impressive than Dr F in terms of being to get things done and vigour.

and i'd imagine the international diplomacy people might have a more interesting time dealing with a non-donkey power player in BD.

The 'prove them honest', leaves questioners riddled with worry and on the back foot and the pretentious ones pondering philosophically.

nobody had any interesting questions it seems.

If I were there I'd have asked him ' Amir Moinudeen, How are you protecting yourself from bad advice and from those senior or close to you who in our society always bugger things up. Your advice would be instructive, because this is a problem we all have.'

Anonymous said...

You got to give them man credit though. He's quite well-spoken, and I found that his answers to be intelligent...

Rezwan said...

I think he will have to do better to build defense against the points raised on the basis of an audited document of Trust bank. More here.

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