Khaleda Zia in a Tower Hamlets Council Chamber looking so empty! Whose idea was it to "receive her like THAT"?

Khaleda Zia in a Council Chamber looking so empty! Whose idea was it to "receive her like THAT"?

0435 Hrs GMT
London
Wednesday
18 May 2011
© Muhammad Haque London Commentary. To the “East London Advertiser” as based on their online report about a few activities in and around the “Mulberry Place” in London E14 2 BG on Tuesday 17 May 2011. TEXTS as published by AADHIKAROnline at 0435 Hrs GMT Wednesday 18 may 2011:

Your [The “East London Advertiser” online] headline “Protests greet Bangladesh Opposition leader Khaleda Zia arriving in Tower Hamlets” is an unambiguous message saying that the visiting Bangladeshi Political Party leader is at the centre of a controversy here.

Your [The “East London Advertiser” online] pictures too support your message. The words you use refer to a “reception” held in the Tower Hamlets Council-controlled premises. Your [The “East London Advertiser” online] account is broadly supported by other information circulating in the evening of Tuesday 17 May 2011.

So what should have happened? The local Council should have arranged any “reception” that would not associate the Council with any Party Political side in another country.

Did Tower Hamlets Council consult with local people about how to go about holding such an event that would also give a genuinely inclusive representation of the Borough's population and diversities? If they did, where were the local community in the “reception” or in any other part of the "activities" that you cover?

There is a long-standing tradition in both locally elected councils and in the central parliaments both in the UK and in broadly democratic territories elsewhere in the world that they do not allow their contacts with leading members of political parties in other countries to be entangled in obvious "controversies".

Ironically, Khaleda Zia’s late husband, Ziaur Rahman too visited Tower Hamlets 20 years ago when he held the post of President of Bangladesh. But he was not subjected to a manufacturing by the local Tower Hamlets Council. In contrast to Tuesday’s events featuring Khaleda Zia, her husband 20 years earlier had been given a rousing welcome by probably the biggest gathering of Bangladeshis assembled in an open air event of that kind ever in the UK. There were under 20 persons who did chant slogans against him. But the Ziaur Rahman reception, held at the Allen Gardens, off Brick Lane, had been an event that was open to and attended by Bangladeshis of all backgrounds and political views.

Why?

Because that event was NOT organised by Party Political clique or grouping.

Non-Partisan Bangladeshis wanted to offer the person in Post in Bangladesh a broad welcome. Can that lesson be repeated next time in Tower Hamlets?

Will the Bangladsesh-based Political Parties evidently operating with increasing frequency in the UK generally and in Tower Hamlets with particular concentration over the past five years or so, show the distinction that will do lasting and democratic good to them and to the vast majority of ordinary Bangladeshis who do not belong to any of the parties?


Will Tower Hamlets Council stop behaving as a segregation corner as well on such occasions and will they instead start inviting people from all backgrounds in the borough to be part of any “reception” that is held in the “town hall” that is supposed to belong to all the people here?
0535 Hrs Wednesday 18 May 2011