Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08DHAKA1327
2008-12-21 12:02:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Dhaka
Cable title:
ALL IN THE FAMILY: PARTY NOMINATES SPOUSES OF
how-toVZCZCXRO1740 OO RUEHCI DE RUEHKA #1327/01 3561202 ZNY CCCCC ZZH O 211202Z DEC 08 FM AMEMBASSY DHAKA TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7988 INFO RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO PRIORITY 8767 RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD PRIORITY 2507 RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU PRIORITY 0006 RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1902 RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 0987 RUEHGO/AMEMBASSY RANGOON PRIORITY 2706 RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA PRIORITY 1613 RHHJJPI/PACOM IDHS HONOLULU HI PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 001327
SIPDIS
PASS TO PEACE CORPS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM BG
SUBJECT: ALL IN THE FAMILY: PARTY NOMINATES SPOUSES OF
JAILED POLITICIANS
Classified By: Ambassador: James F. Moriarty. Reasons: 1.4 (b) and (d)
------
SUMMARY
-------
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 001327
SIPDIS
PASS TO PEACE CORPS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM BG
SUBJECT: ALL IN THE FAMILY: PARTY NOMINATES SPOUSES OF
JAILED POLITICIANS
Classified By: Ambassador: James F. Moriarty. Reasons: 1.4 (b) and (d)
--------------
SUMMARY
--------------
1. (C) The spouse of a notorious Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP) politician convicted for arson and looting told PolOff
on 12/16 she was running for Parliament to hold the seat for
her jailed husband. The wife of former Deputy Minister for
Land Ruhul Kuddus Talukdar Dulu said once her husband left
jail she would resign to allow him to reenter Parliament. In
supporting the scheme, the BNP clearly signaled its election
manifesto promise to promote good governance was little more
than window dressing.
--------------
THE MISSING CANDIDATE
--------------
2. (SBU) Missing from the campaign for the Natore-2 seat in
Parliament is the previous winner, former Deputy Minister for
Land Dulu. A local court in July 2007 sentenced him to eight
years in prison for guiding and abetting arson to houses in
three villages, according to a report in the respected
English-language newspaper The Daily Star. The verdict, said
the newspaper, sentenced Dulu to five years for arson, one
year for looting, one year for rioting with deadly weapons
and one year for directly guiding and abetting the crimes. In
separate reporting the newspaper raised allegations linking
Dulu to the rise of Bangla Bhai, one of Bangladesh's most
notorious Islamic terrorists. The report claimed a
longstanding link between the two men until Bangla Bhai's
arrest in 2006; the terrorist was hanged with other leaders
of the Jaamatul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) a year later.
--------------
THE REPLACEMENT CANDIDATE
--------------
3. (C) A handful of spouses of convicted former BNP lawmakers
are running for the seats their husbands once held. Dulu's
wife, Sabina Yasmin Chhabi, told PolOff in a brief meeting
December 16 outside a Natore auto parts store that local
party leaders urged her to run in her husband's stead. She
said the party decided that should she win the seat and Dulu
subsequently be freed, she would resign to allow her husband
of 19 years to reenter Parliament in a by-election. Local
party leaders who surrounded her as she described the plan
did not contradict her.
4. (SBU) Chhabi described her campaign platform strictly as
carrying on her husband's work for the constituency and
seeking to get him released from jail. "He was working for
the people, and now the people think he is in jail unjustly,"
she said. When asked if she had a political agenda of her
own, she thought a minute and then said, "I want to keep the
people of Natore happy." She appeared the political novice
when she later addressed a group of about 100 campaign
workers at the start of her day's activities. Speaking for
only three minutes, she had the acting district party
president whisper in her ear several times to remind her what
to say.
5. (SBU) PolOff subsequently accompanied her on two campaign
stops, including one at Hobidpur village a few miles outside
Natore city. Dressed in a simple gray sari, a shock of hair
falling free of the pink patterned shawl covering her head,
Chhabi stepped out of her blue Mitsubishi Lancer and gave a
slow, regal wave to the approximately 100 women and children
awaiting her visit. She quickly plunged into the crowd and
told her tale of personal suffering since her husband was
jailed nearly two years earlier. She urged the women to help
free her husband by voting for her. She appeared to have a
sympathetic audience; at least two of the women who crowded
around her started to cry. But a second year college student,
Shahin Alam, who watched the event from a nearby bridge, said
he thought Dulu would have been a stronger canadidate because
of all he had personally done to develop the area.
-------------- ---
COMMENT: CANDIDACY HELPS ILLUMINATE BNP PRIORITY
DHAKA 00001327 002 OF 002
-------------- ---
6. (C) Several weeks earlier in Dhaka, BNP Joint Secretary
General Nazrul Islam Khan told PolOff that in a few
constituencies the party had no viable candidates other than
spouses of convicted party leaders who were barred from
running for reelection themselves. Perhaps more to the point,
the spouses were seen as the candidates with the best chance
of winning; they also could be expected to resign their seats
should their spouses later become eligible to return to
Parliament in a by-election. The nomination of Chhabi and
other spouses clearly illuminates BNP priorities: The
campaign pledge to fight corruption takes a distant back
seat to winning and preserving the political careers of
tainted leaders.
MORIARTY
SIPDIS
PASS TO PEACE CORPS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM BG
SUBJECT: ALL IN THE FAMILY: PARTY NOMINATES SPOUSES OF
JAILED POLITICIANS
Classified By: Ambassador: James F. Moriarty. Reasons: 1.4 (b) and (d)
--------------
SUMMARY
--------------
1. (C) The spouse of a notorious Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP) politician convicted for arson and looting told PolOff
on 12/16 she was running for Parliament to hold the seat for
her jailed husband. The wife of former Deputy Minister for
Land Ruhul Kuddus Talukdar Dulu said once her husband left
jail she would resign to allow him to reenter Parliament. In
supporting the scheme, the BNP clearly signaled its election
manifesto promise to promote good governance was little more
than window dressing.
--------------
THE MISSING CANDIDATE
--------------
2. (SBU) Missing from the campaign for the Natore-2 seat in
Parliament is the previous winner, former Deputy Minister for
Land Dulu. A local court in July 2007 sentenced him to eight
years in prison for guiding and abetting arson to houses in
three villages, according to a report in the respected
English-language newspaper The Daily Star. The verdict, said
the newspaper, sentenced Dulu to five years for arson, one
year for looting, one year for rioting with deadly weapons
and one year for directly guiding and abetting the crimes. In
separate reporting the newspaper raised allegations linking
Dulu to the rise of Bangla Bhai, one of Bangladesh's most
notorious Islamic terrorists. The report claimed a
longstanding link between the two men until Bangla Bhai's
arrest in 2006; the terrorist was hanged with other leaders
of the Jaamatul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) a year later.
--------------
THE REPLACEMENT CANDIDATE
--------------
3. (C) A handful of spouses of convicted former BNP lawmakers
are running for the seats their husbands once held. Dulu's
wife, Sabina Yasmin Chhabi, told PolOff in a brief meeting
December 16 outside a Natore auto parts store that local
party leaders urged her to run in her husband's stead. She
said the party decided that should she win the seat and Dulu
subsequently be freed, she would resign to allow her husband
of 19 years to reenter Parliament in a by-election. Local
party leaders who surrounded her as she described the plan
did not contradict her.
4. (SBU) Chhabi described her campaign platform strictly as
carrying on her husband's work for the constituency and
seeking to get him released from jail. "He was working for
the people, and now the people think he is in jail unjustly,"
she said. When asked if she had a political agenda of her
own, she thought a minute and then said, "I want to keep the
people of Natore happy." She appeared the political novice
when she later addressed a group of about 100 campaign
workers at the start of her day's activities. Speaking for
only three minutes, she had the acting district party
president whisper in her ear several times to remind her what
to say.
5. (SBU) PolOff subsequently accompanied her on two campaign
stops, including one at Hobidpur village a few miles outside
Natore city. Dressed in a simple gray sari, a shock of hair
falling free of the pink patterned shawl covering her head,
Chhabi stepped out of her blue Mitsubishi Lancer and gave a
slow, regal wave to the approximately 100 women and children
awaiting her visit. She quickly plunged into the crowd and
told her tale of personal suffering since her husband was
jailed nearly two years earlier. She urged the women to help
free her husband by voting for her. She appeared to have a
sympathetic audience; at least two of the women who crowded
around her started to cry. But a second year college student,
Shahin Alam, who watched the event from a nearby bridge, said
he thought Dulu would have been a stronger canadidate because
of all he had personally done to develop the area.
-------------- ---
COMMENT: CANDIDACY HELPS ILLUMINATE BNP PRIORITY
DHAKA 00001327 002 OF 002
-------------- ---
6. (C) Several weeks earlier in Dhaka, BNP Joint Secretary
General Nazrul Islam Khan told PolOff that in a few
constituencies the party had no viable candidates other than
spouses of convicted party leaders who were barred from
running for reelection themselves. Perhaps more to the point,
the spouses were seen as the candidates with the best chance
of winning; they also could be expected to resign their seats
should their spouses later become eligible to return to
Parliament in a by-election. The nomination of Chhabi and
other spouses clearly illuminates BNP priorities: The
campaign pledge to fight corruption takes a distant back
seat to winning and preserving the political careers of
tainted leaders.
MORIARTY