At 65 and survivor of 19 assassination attempts, Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is undoubtedly destined to pursue the fulfilment of her nation's long-awaited ambitions that were championed by her late father Sheikh Naguibur Rahman. Nor did several years of detentions or a series of house arrest warrants throughout the 1980s frustrated her steeled determination she inherited from her father. Sheikh Hasina picked the spade and got down to hard work the moment she was given her country's reins again in 2009 after a landslide victory in free general elections; her Awami League-led Grand Alliance took two-thirds of the seats in parliament. She invited the bleeding Bangladeshi people to overcome the tortuous memory of the past under the military ruling and foreign occupation and get down to work to rediscover their huge potentials and take pride in themselves and their national identity. Since then, Sheikh Hasina's government has been fighting in different battlegrounds to resist a diversity of foes, including an aggressive nature, which hits without warning. Although the government of Sheikh Hasina is exerting much efforts to quicken the pace of its economy, its chief battle is being fought against fundamentalists, who are campaigning to set the clock back in the country. In a press conference with foreign journalists held in Dhaka on April 10, Foreign Minister Dr. Depu Moni said that her country was at a real war against Islamist extremists. Ahead of the general elections scheduled in December this year, the opposition is playing an absurd role in Bangladesh's politics. Although it is led by a woman, the Bangladeshi opposition has allied itself with misogynists represented by Jamat-e-Islami, which threatens to lock at home more than three million Bangladeshi working women. The expulsion of such a huge number of women workers would undermine the economic prospects of no less than 15 million people, whose livelihood is largely depending on their female members. Democracy is one of the weapons the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is arming itself with to protect secularism and economic gains. The opposition retaliated by provoking instability and organising a series of several-day hartal (strikes and shutdowns), which easily deal a painful blow to the nation's economy after it thrived remarkably over the past four years. Businesses and stores, which would violate the hartal are attacked, ransacked and burnt. Worse, store owners, who would insist on resuming their businesses during the hartal, would risk their lives for their obstinacy. Concerning economic woes and concerns, there is a vast area of comparison between Bangladesh and the post-Revolution Egypt. Like their counterparts in Egypt, businessmen and investors in Bangladesh are appealing to politicians not to involve the nation's economy and businesses in their differences. In the meantime, political instability in the post-Revolution Egypt prompted the IMF (the International Monetary Fund) to ignore impatient appeals by the government of Prime Minister Hisham Qandil to get US$4.8b. Egypt's January revolution in 2011 led to the outbreak of workers' strikes, barricading roads and railway lines; and abduction of tourists and wealthy people for ransom. Two days ago, IMF's officials warned the traumatised Egyptian nation that the release of the US$4.8b loan was fully associated with political stability in the country. Regardless of the big differences in the situation and the kinds of crimes, justice and fair trial of suspects of crimes against the nation are another fertile area of comparison between the two Muslim-dominated nations of Egypt and Bangladesh. While the trial of ex-president Hosni Mubarak and his cronies for several charges (including the killing of demonstrators) in his 30-year rule has been limping in different courts for two years, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina managed to bring justice to the victims of war crimes in 1971 and their bereaved families. In March 2010, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina established two international crimes tribunals (ICTBD) under the International Crimes Tribunal Act of 1973. Dr. Moni explained to foreign journalists that the two ICTBD were mainly suggested to end decades-long culture of impunity suffered by the nation. “ICTBD is also the legal tool used by the democratic Bangladesh to uphold the rule of law and bring justice to the victims and families who suffered from war atrocities committed under foreign occupation and in collaboration with military-trained local auxiliary forces," Bangladesh foreign minister said. About three million Bangladeshi civilians, including intellectuals, women and children were killed brutally based on their ethnicity and religion during the War of Liberation in 1971. About 300, 000 women were raped and 10 million people fled to refugee camps in the neighbouring country of India. No less than 10 million people were homeless. Like millions of her people, the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is the victim of atrocities committed by the military ruling. She lost almost all her family when treacherous military officers launched a night attack on the family residence in Dhaka on August 15, 1975, assassinating her father Sheikh Najibur Rahman, the founder of the independent Bangladesh, and 11 of her family members. Being in West Germany at the moment with her sister Sheikh Rehana, Sheikh Hasina escaped the massacre.
