Shah Husain Imam

PLEASURE IS ALL MINE

Columnist, The Daily Star

An album on the poet of politics

My first impression of Bangabandhu dates back to around the mid-sixties. A helicopter service had been in operation between Dhaka

5y ago

An avoidable mayhem

Last Tuesday, from the northerly Himalayas, a blustery wind cascaded down to Haripur area of Thakurgaon leaving a patch of ruins in

5y ago

Uprooting corruption: We can do better

The seasonal discussion on corruption is back in full swing following the release of Berlin-based Transparency International's global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), 2018.

5y ago

Which way is pluralistic democracy headed?

We have known democratic pluralism, pluralistic democracy and multi-party system to be synonymous terminologies. But is it as simplistic as that? Conceptually and ideally, it is; but in practice and real-world situations, it may not be so!

5y ago

Change of style or substance?

With at least 27 new faces and only a few septuagenarians around, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was greeted on her re-election to a record fourth term at Gono Bhaban on Tuesday.

5y ago

Sheikh Hasina's fourth term

It is the huge gaps in the numbers of votes polled by the winners and the losers in the 11th national election that apparently unveiled a “controlled and patterned” nature of the process of polls.

5y ago

Wintry mist from a non-level playing field!

If almost every past election in Bangladesh had been a test case for democracy, the one the nation is going to in two days' time is a veritable litmus test for the country's democratic future.

5y ago

Nomination cauldron bubbling away, electioneering heat awaited

It was for the BNP leaders “a strategy” of filing multiple sets of nomination papers to cover the contingency of rejections. This came in the way of 141 party nominees out of 696 who had applied to the EC for a go-ahead.

5y ago
August 17, 2018
August 17, 2018

Not exactly Turkish delight!

Tit-for-tat goes on between the US and Turkey with surprising frequency and fury. Ankara has declared a “boycott” of all electronic goods from the US. This is in retaliation—of a narrower calibration—to Washington having doubled tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from Turkey.

August 11, 2018
August 11, 2018

Child is the father of man

This is entitled not to a freaky triumphalism but to a celebration of human compassion for the collective risk to lives on roads. This found a powerful utterance and demonstration through our tender-aged progeny's intelligent intervention for a few days.

August 3, 2018
August 3, 2018

Can Imran be his own man?

The Western press by and large has called the elections in Pakistan “staged managed”—meaning the military had a hand in it.

July 20, 2018
July 20, 2018

Dhaka: Where will it go from here?

Dhaka, once the Venice of the East by virtue of being surrounded by four ebullient rivers, is now an urban behemoth. In our university days, going home on a long vacation, we would be literally pining for Dhaka after a couple of weeks of sojourn with parents.

July 13, 2018
July 13, 2018

In apocalyptic breach of Hippocratic Oath!

Last week has been a happening spell, in an untoward sense, for the public health landscape. From Chittagong to Khulna to Rangpur, a litany of serious lapses, irregularities and unauthorised hospital activities has come to light.

July 6, 2018
July 6, 2018

Of conflict of interest and public accountability

People in high places are privileged with getting away with minor indiscretions, especially in a developing country.

June 22, 2018
June 22, 2018

BNP LEADERS' INDIA TRIP

A three-man BNP delegation's visit to New Delhi on June 3-10 has raised more questions than provided answers for. This trip was led by Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, member of BNP National Standing Committee; Abdul Awal Mintoo, the party's vice chairman; and Humayan Kabir, its international affairs secretary.

June 15, 2018
June 15, 2018

Peace anywhere seeks peace everywhere

Sir Winston Churchill, with his superbly imaginative and insightful mind, once said something like this: “Jaw-jaw is better than war-war.” That means use vitriol, threats, intimidation, even go eye-ball to eye-ball if you must, but do your utmost to stay away from war.

June 8, 2018
June 8, 2018

Can't they get a better deal?

It may appear as though we are looking for a sledgehammer to crack a walnut, but believe me, it's not as funny as that. It is actually a desperate disease calling for a desperate remedy.

June 1, 2018
June 1, 2018

From a high moral ground to a high legal perch

That Bangladesh offered a safe haven to close to a million Rohingya refugees fleeing wholesale persecution from Myanmar put Dhaka on a high moral pedestal.