In last few days, it is the hotcake of the country (Bangladesh). Most popular daily newspaper The Prothom Alo & The Daily Star born under investment ULFA, Indian terrorist Group. Here post Two Articales, one was published by Sunita Paul in Popular "Global Politicina" & another was published by Kalyan Barooah in Indian Popular Daily newspaper "The Assam Tribune"
When the media turns into evil
Sunita Paul - 6/8/2008
Media can play important role in up building a nation, while the same media, being influenced by evil forces or vested interest, could turn into devastating element for any nation. Take the example of Bangladesh's leading media group named Transcom Media, which owns a vernacular daily newspaper named Prothom Alo, an English language daily named The Daily Star, two periodicals named Shaptahik 2000 and Anandadhara. Recently the group has acquired ownership of an FM radio station named 'Aina Broadcasting Corporation' (ABC). The group is rather known as 'Daily Star Group' in Bangladesh, because of tremendous influence of its English language daily as well as its top most position amongst all competitor dailies.Before going into notoriety of Daily Star group, let me first put focus at the back ground of the emergence of this business-media group. During early nineties, present owners of 'Star Group' turned financially bankrupt when its main figure Latifur Rahman's paternal property W Rahman Jute Mills at country's Chandpur district had to declare lay-off thus leaving thousands of workers and labors unemployed. Numerous cases were filed with the Chandpur district labor and criminal courts against Latifur Rahman and other members of the factory, as they defaulted payment of worker's wages. On the other hand, W Rahman Jute Mills was listed as one of the top defaulting enterprises with Bangladesh Bank (Central Bank) for long standing loans.But, luck started moving in positive direction, when Latifur Rahman's wife's cousin Anup Chetia (leader of ULFA separatist group) came forward with hidden help of finance in businesses in Bangladesh through Rahman. It is learnt that a few million dollars were placed with Latifur Rahman in re-organizing his collapsed business and ULFA kept a secret stake of shares in all businesses initiated by Latifur Rahman after receipt of this secret fund.Latifur Rahman understanding his failure in running industrial enterprise profitably launched a company named Transcom, which began businesses as the sole distributor of Nestle brand milk products in Bangladesh. Initial response although was very poor from the local market, due to solid financial back up from ULFA, Latifur Rahman managed to ultimately penetrate in the business and in few years, Transcom emerged as one of the mightiest enterprises in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, when Dhaka's well respected journalist S M Ali took the initiative of launching an English language newspaper, Latifur was suggested by ULFA to buy shares, as such investment would buy media influence for the separatist group, which fights against Indian government in separating seven North-Eastern states within India.S M Ali was successful in placing Daily Star at the forefront of Dhaka's English press, because of his extra-ordinary qualities and courage. Just in few years, this newly launched newspaper sub sided most of the competitor dailies such as Bangladesh Observer, Bangladesh Times (now defunct), New Nation, Morning Sun (now defunct) and Financial Express. But sudden demise of S M Ali opened the opportunity for Latifur Rahman to swallow the newspaper. He brought Mahfuz Anam as the editor of the newspaper, who subsequently ousted ancestors of S M Ali and grabbed his shares. This was the beginning of notorious journey of Daily Star group.Later, when Anup Chetia was arrested by Bangladeshi law enforcing agencies, Latifur Rahman stopped paying any share to ULFA. This was the first beginning of feud between notorious ULFA separatists and Latifur Rahman. It is widely rumored in Dhaka that, ULFA had hidden hands behind murder of Latifur's daughter Shazneed Rahman, who was brutally raped and murdered right inside her residence at Dhaka's posh Gulshan area.But, the handsome investment from ULFA, gave Transcom an excellent opportunity to grow. Latifur decided to launch a vernacular daily newspaper with the initial capital of 10 million Taka in 1997. Prothom Alo recruited large number of top newsmen from Dhaka's press community. It also had dynamic Matiur Rahman as its editor, which helped the newspaper to rapidly turn into one of the leading dailies in the country. Later two vernacular periodicals were also launched by this group, one with celebrated journalist Shahadat Chowdhury as its editor.In some years, Transcom group acquired ownership of Pepsi, Phillips and several large industrial enterprises. Luck always clicked in favor of this business group, as far as its investments in media was concerned. None of the newspapers, belonging to Transcom group had ever faced any financial adversity.Due to such influential ownership of media projects, Latifur Rahman got the excellent opportunity of continuing various illegal businesses including import of goods from abroad under false declaration. Several consignments imported by Transcom were stopped by customs officials in Bangladesh and evidence of revenue evasion of millions of Taka was unearthed. But, everything was managed, by using the influence of Prothom Alo and Daily Star. Even after the political changes in Bangladesh on January 11, 2007, Daily Star group managed to send its Executive Editor Syed Fahim Munayem as the Press Secretary to the Chief Executive of the interim government. Even at later stage, when Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) issued notice on Latifur Rahman asking declaration of his wealth and assets, the entire issue was some how put into suppression with the help of Daily Star-Prothom Alo group.Everyone knows the news about cracks in Jamuna Multi-purpose Bridge in Bangladesh. But, possibly no one knows the fact that the main reason behind such cracks was due to use of a particular brand of cement, which in the name of Portland Grey Cement is in fact fly ash mixed lowest grade cement. And, this inferior quality of cement went into various high cost projects in Bangladesh just because; chairman of the company producing and marketing this brand is none but Transcom's Latifur Rahman. No one in the government dares to utter even a single word about Holcim, which supplied such cement to various projects, as they are afraid of wrath of Daily Star and Prothom Alo. Despite the fact that, both the newspapers are largest in circulation in Bangladesh, main purpose of these publications is serving the interests of Corporate Crime.Prime intention of Daily Star group is to stand against various business groups, whenever there is any business rivalry with that specific company or individual. This group went into heinous propaganda against Beximco Group, Bashundhara Group and many others in past. There is even clean track record of dubious behavior of this group is sabotaging various projects in Bangladesh, with the ulterior motive of either supporting businesses of Latifur Rahman, Transcom or members of this syndicate.Many projects were already sabotaged by this group, thus causing tremendous loss to Bangladesh's economy. The latest episode of such rivalry of Daily Star group was with Bangladesh's lone hard rock mining project at country's Dinazpur district. Maddhyapara Hard Rock Mining Project (MHMP) became a pray of Daily Star for past several years. It is learnt that, some vested interest groups, including importers of stones and stone-chips from India, Myanmar and Malaysia are patronizing such media terror by Star, thus attempting to sabotage country's most prospective project, which not only is already saving millions of dollars, but, also is set to turn into a huge prospect of earning millions of dollars from export of world-class Granite Tiles. First rivalry with the MHMP began when Bangladesh government appointed Polish consulting firm Kopex SA, defying the fact that this firm had no experience of hard rock mining. It is learnt that, appointment of this Polish firm was a result of heavy persuasion from some high level corrupt bureaucrats in the Energy Ministry and Petrobangla. From the very appointment, the Polish consultant had been frantically trying to sabotage the project for reason unknown.In June 2006, Kopex SA submitted a paper with the Energy and Mineral Resources Division saying, "Maddhyapara Hard Rock Mining project has become 'virtually sick' and the employer (the government) has suffered huge financial loss."It said Petrobangla and the project authorities, Madhyapara Granite Mining Company Limited, should ask Nam-Nam for final commissioning and test production immediately to ascertain the actual status of mine development."The Petrobangla and MGMCL should take over the mine after ascertaining its actual state and on documentation to establish the legal ownership of the mine," it said.Kopex said, "The Nam-Nam has complemented major installation of the mine in over 12 years but they have not yet done the final commissioning and test run although the original development period of the mine was 6.5 years since the signing of the agreement between Petrobangla and the company in 1994."Sources in Petrobangla, however, ditched the Kopex report, saying that the consultant should also be held responsible for the delay as it failed to come up with proper plan."Kopex also wants to be involved more with the mine for which it came up with such a report," Petrobangla source added.Meanwhile, on October 15, 2005, The Daily Star published a front page news item titled 'North Korean company looks for legal coverage to finish task'. In this report, Daily Star said, "When completed, the Maddyapara hard rock mine will commercially sell 1.65 million tonnes of granite a year. The country annually imports 3.4 million tonnes of granite. Local production will save between $38 million to $58 million US dollars. The project has a life span of 45 years. However, the price of Maddhyapara granite will not be cheaper than the rocks that are commonly imported from India because of the increased project cost"It was clearly understood that the report was published with the very intention of killing the project to protect the interest of importers-exporters syndicate, which enjoys business of millions of dollars every year by continuing to import stone from India and other countries. In this report, Daily Star claimed that the cost of production of MHMP hark rock was higher than imported one, which is nothing but a clean deviation from truth. It is learnt from dependable sources that, production cost for each tons of hard rock from Maddhyapara project stands at US$ 10 while the minimum import cost is US$ 22.On May 18, 2006, Daily Star once again published a front page report titled "Petrobangla to take it over from DPRK firm", where it repeated the same lie on the price of the locally extorted hard rock. It said, "Maddhyapara granite will however not be cheaper than the rocks that are commonly imported from India because of the increased project cost."Nam-Nam Corporation successfully completed and handed over the project in May last year and meanwhile; commercial production in the project is already going on. Due to timely steps taken by the present government in Dhaka, locally produced stones are purchased and used in various domestic projects on priority basis, while the cost of local stones are more than half the cost of imported ones. Being totally frustrated at the completion of the project, vested interest groups once again managed to published another front page report in The daily Star on May 16, 2008 titled "Miner now wants return of non-existent loans".In this report, Daily Star wrote, "Nam-nam is now operating the mine with 65 South Koreans under a one-year service contract due to expire on May 27. As it did not fully transfer the South Korean technology to the MGMCL, it will get yet another year's service contract, the sources said."This part of the news shows two things. One, the reporter knows nothing of the project but was writing thing being dictated by vested interest groups. In the same news, while the reporter said Nam-Nam is a North Korean company, how he could discover 65 South Koreans in the project (does he lack the minimum knowledge that North and South Korea do not have any diplomatic relations as yet?). The reporter also said that, Nam-Nam is not fully transferring South Korean technology to MGMCL. Ridiculous, who edits and passes such rubbish news in Daily Star? Being Dhaka's leading dailies, it should be ashamed of such poor journalistic quality. The entire report as well as all previous reports is part of propaganda and conspiracy to kill the entire project, which stands as the most prospective one for Bangladesh. Anyone can easily understand that, vested interest groups, including enemies of North Korea are patronizing such dangerous campaign not only to sabotage the project, but, also to give a good lesson to the North Korean company for being dedicated and helpful to Bangladesh is saving millions of dollars from import of hard rock.Bangladesh government not only needs to patronize this extremely profitable and viable project, but even needs to go into fresh negotiations with Nam-Nam or the North Korean government in signing fresh agreements for exploration of more mining projects in the country. According to mining experts several more hard rock mines are already existing in the Northern region of Bangladesh, which will be able to help the country in stopping import of stones from abroad, thus saving billions of dollars each year. At the same time, government needs to identify vested interest groups within Energy Ministry and Petrobangla in order to not only protect the national interest but also to punish the culprits for their notorious roles.Further harassment of the North Korean company will earn bad reputation for Bangladesh from the potential foreign investors. Nam-Nam deserves to be appreciated for completion of the MHMP despite series of harassments and non-cooperation from the Energy Ministry and Petrobangla.
From Kalyan Barooah
NEW DELHI, July 29 – That the outlawed ULFA has business interests in neighbouring Bangladesh is no secret but what has come as a surprise is the revelation about its stakes in a leading media house in the neighbouring country.Even as Indian security agencies kept up pressure on Dhaka to shut down the enterprises run by ULFA, the militant outfit has quietly expanded its business portfolio in the country. New Delhi had, a couple of years ago, furnished a list of businesses suspected to be owned by ULFA along with a series of account numbers. None of the business entities could be traced, Dhaka had told India.ULFA’s business interests were diverse, ranging from driving schools, nursing homes, hotels to garment export houses to deep-sea trawlers. Now wait for the stunner, it partly owns or used to own Transcom Media, publisher of the prestigious Bengali daily Prothom Aalo, English daily The Daily Star, besides two periodicals. It is better known as Daily Star Group in Bangladesh, because of the tremendous influence of its English language daily.The details of ULFA’s interest in Bangladesh’s media was part of an article ‘When the media turns into evil’ by Sunita Paul in a portal Global Politician.Tracing the history of the newspaper group and involvement of ULFA, the author wrote that in the early Nineties, owners of ‘Star Group’ became financially bankrupt, when Latifur Rahman, proprietor of W Rahman Jute Mills in Chandpur district, declared a lay-off. Numerous cases were filed with the Chandpur district labour and criminal courts against Latifur Rahman and other members of the factory, as they defaulted payment of worker wages. On the other hand, W Rahman Jute Mills was listed as one of the top defaulting enterprises with Bangladesh Bank for outstanding loans.At this point ULFA stepped into the scene, when Anup Chetia came forward to finance businesses in Bangladesh through Rahman. It is learnt that a few million dollars were placed with Latifur Rahman to re-organise his collapsed business and ULFA kept a secret stake of shares in all his businesses, Paul wrote in her article.Latifur Rahman launched a company named Transcom, which began businesses as the sole distributor of Nestle brand milk products in Bangladesh. Initial response, however, was very poor from the local market, but due to solid financial back-up from ULFA, Rahman managed to ultimately penetrate the business and in a few years, Transcom emerged as one of the mightiest enterprises in Bangladesh.When a senior journalist, SM Ali, took the initiative of launching an English language newspaper, Latifur, allegedly on ULFA’s suggestion, bought shares.SM Ali was successful in placing Daily Star on the forefront of Dhaka’s English press. However, sudden demise of SM Ali opened the opportunity for Rahman to take over the newspaper. He brought in Mahfuz Anam as the Editor of the newspaper.However, Paul reports that ULFA and Rahman fell out when Anup Chetia was arrested. He reportedly stopped paying ULFA. This was the first beginning of a bloody feud between ULFA and the business tycoon. But the handsome investment from ULFA gave Transcom an excellent opportunity to grow, says the author
Mr. Mahfuz Anam, Editor of " The Daily Star" Protest:
The Editor of The Daily Star of Bangladesh, Mahfuz Anam, in a letter faxed to The Assam Tribune, has denied a report wherein it was stated that the ULFA has stakes in the Star. ‘Rather belatedly, due to my leave, I have come to read a piece, published in The Assam Tribune titled “ULFA has stakes in Bangla media”, datelined New Delhi, 29 July, 2008, written by your correspondent Kalyan Barooah. I strongly protest the content of the piece, which is full of lies, distortions and inaccuracies.Your correspondent admits he based his write-up on a piece in the Internet portal called Global Politician written by one Sunita Paul titled “When the media turns into evil”. Should a journalist write a report purely based on an Internet piece without verifying anything himself. Your correspondent made no attempt to contact us for our comments nor did he do any research on his own to find out the veracity of the Internet piece.Your reporter writes, “it (meaning ULFA) partly owns or used to own Transcom Media publisher of the prestigious Bengali daily Prothom Alo, English daily The Daily Star besides two periodicals.” The simple fact is that there is no media house called Transcom Media. The Daily Star is owned by Mediaworld, which is a registered private limited company and has six shareholders who have been the directors of the company from the outset. Prothom Alo is owned by another company called “Mediastar” with few of the same owners as Mediaworld.Mr Kalyan Barooah selectively quotes Sunita Paul, without verifying the facts, that Latifur Rahman, one of the owners of The Star and Prothom Alo became bankrupt in the nineties when Anup Chetia gave him a “few million dollars to reorganise his collapsed business”. These are deliberate canard and outright lies. Mr Latifur Rahman was and is one of the most respected businessmen of the country and has been elected, starting from the nineties, numerous times as the president of the most prestigious business chamber of the country, namely the MCCI (Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry), a post to which he has been recently re-elected.Transcom, as a company, was not started, as your reporter quotes Sunita Paul, in the nineties but has been in business since early seventies, after Bangladesh was born. Again, it was not Latifur Rahman who brought me to the Star, as claimed by your reporter quoting Paul’s piece. I am one of the founding directors of the company and was the founder Executive Editor of the paper at the start and became editor at the untimely death of SM Ali within less than three years of the birth of the paper.About the writer of the Internet portal piece, Sunita Paul, suffice it to say that Paul never contacted me or any of my administrative staff while writing the story to ascertain facts about our company and its finances. To the best of my knowledge she did not talk to any senior staff or any of the other directors of the paper, or any of the other persons who could have given her some facts about The Daily Star and Prothom Alo.Mahfuz Anam, Editor-Publisher, The Daily Star, Dhaka
About Sunita Paul:
[Sunita Paul was born in 1952 in an affluent family in Kochin, India. She obtained her twice Masters in Political Science and journalism. Later she worked with a number of research institutions and started writing for nuemrous newspapers and periodicals in India and overseas. In recent times, her works have appeared in Sunday Ledger, African Times, Global Politician, Jerusalem Post, Women's World, Insight Magazine, Europe Post, The Asian Tribune, Countercurrents, American Thinker, Intelligence Reporteur etc.]
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