Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Frequently Asked Questions about BHANGEELAAR! The Campaign against an elected mayor in Tower Hamlets
London
Wednesday
27 October 2010
Editor © Muhammad Haque
Frequently Asked Questions about BHANGEELAAR! The Campaign against an elected mayor in Tower Hamlets Question:
What are we campaigning for?
Answer by Bhangeelaar! As the front page announcement says, we are continuing to "FIGHT FOR A DEMOCRATIC ACCOUNTABLE and DIVERSE COUNCIL in Tower Hamlets".
Question: Why?
Answer by Bhangeelaar! We want to constitutionally, lawfully and democratically stop the smashing up of the “Tower Hamlets Council”.
Question: Who is smashing up Tower Hamlets Council now?
Answer: The Council is being mashed up by the imposition of an “elected executive mare”. Question: What is your evidence for saying that?
Answer: We have been saying that right from the start of the Bhangeelaar campaign.
Question: What have you been saying?
Answer:We have been saying it on the front page, in English and in Seelotee. We have quoted the English part above.
Here is the Seelotee language bit.
Mayor-ray bayshee power deeaa Tower Hamlets Council-or democracy BHANGEELAAR! We have been saying in the Seelotee language that an elected executive mayor would destroy the democratic structure of Tower Hamlets Council.
In off line, print publications and releases, we have been arguing against an executive mayor system because we believe that such concentration of power in the hands of one individual, whoever that may be and whatever Party or Group affiliation status they may have, would entail nepotism, abuse and corruption.
The overwhelming majority of the people we have spoken to agree with us. As do the voters who said NO on 6 May 2010.
The reason why our OPTION the 'NO' question in the referendum [dated 06 May 2010] got just under 40,000 votes is not at all to do with the informed choice. We have been arguing, on evidence, that MOST people who voted on 6 May 2010 did so without being given adequate information or the correct information by the Returning Officer.
This has been one of our legal challenges that the Returning Officer has not been able to refute.
[More on the legal and constitutional law challenges.
Follow this site and also our twitter site http://twitter.com/notomayor for updates]
Question: Why the Seelotee language?
Answer by Bhangeelaar! Seelotee is the language spoken by the second largest number of people in Tower Hamlets. It is spoken in other major UK cities and regions by people coming from Bangladesh. Seelotee is also the main linguistic audience that is addressed by the known satellite TV channels broadcast from locations in East London.
[To be continued]
TELLING Guardian’s London Blog to stop being Harriet Harman’s Pravda in her assault on democracy in Tower Hamlets....
26 October 2010 4:19PM
Your latest blog reads as if you have been buying into the party bureaucrats. First the Peter Golds and the Tory group’s propaganda, now the line that would have made Harriet Harman very pleased with your service.
What about the records of the various place men and their women counterparts as councillors? Have you the necessary unfettered and objective access to the records IN OFFICE of those?
And are you as interested in examining those records, as you appear to be in retailing the various diktats and the sterile [or, to coin a phrase] Stalinist positions of the intimidating entities the ‘mainstream’ bureaucracies disguised as political parties.
It is on the basis of the evidential foundation that the campaign against an executive, "elected mayor in tower hamlets" came into being and is continuing. This pro-democratic campaign for a locally accountable local Council in Tower Hamlets represents the reality that the ordinary people are not convinced that Tower Hamlets Council is doing a good job.
Contrary to the various plugs being peddled for various individual councillors and their sidekicks and hangers on, the truth is that the mainstream bureaucracies are in the business of robbery of the remnants of democracy that are just about still visible.
As we have told you in previous comments, Abbas Uddin ‘Helal’ when claiming to be ‘opposed’ to the elected mayor system was involved in the setting up of a web site dated 9 February 2010, which then published a list of defects that an elected mayor system would bring. It was around that time that he was asked to state what the UK labour Party said about the system.
Abbas Uddin ’Helal’ replied that the “Party policy was to oppose the mayoral system”. When asked further to cite Party decision with date and location and occasion, he required extra time to provide the answers to those detailed questions. The campaign never received the details. The next thing we knew was that Abbas Uddin ‘Helal’ along with several other “Labour Party” councillors opposing the “mayoral system” were in the running to become the Party’s candidate to be the mayor themselves!
So who or what got them to feel so free from any obligation to explain to the community that they had changed their positions on the serious issue?
It could only have been the Harriet Harman-like Party bureaucrat.
The same applies to the Lib Dems and the Tories. Both those Parties were claiming that the elected mayor system would be a disastrous step backwards and that the Tower Hamlets community needed to stop any move to abandon the relatively democratic system of a Council made up of a leader with a cabinet answerable to the full list of councillors.
Then we found that neither the Lib Dems nor the Tories were really campaigning for a “No” vote at the 'referendum' not as fervently as they were doing fir their council candidates or parliamentary candidates.
All the evidence we have found shows that the three Parties secretly abandoned their part in the “NO” campaign.
That is why there is a staggering numerical discrepancy between the numbers of votes overall that the Parties’ parliamentary and council candidates polled and the votes cast for the “NO” box.
The figures speak for themselves. This is why we had been calling for months for a probe into the conduct of the referendum. And who is among our sources to lend undeniable veracity to that?
Why step forward none other than the very same Abbas Uddin “Helal’ himself who signed on 17 September 2010 'that dossier' which included an entire paragraph of allegations about wrongdoing, vote fraud over the same referendum.
At the end of September 2010, the ‘local’ “East London Advertiser" belatedly but accurately reflected the relevant abuses that had gone on by running the front-page splash “SCRAP THIS TAINTED BALLOT”. These facts show that you are not right to promote the line based on Party [whatever the Party is] bureaucrats’ agenda to continue to mislead and to misrepresent the local community.
BHANGEELAAR! evidentially citing Google News about TOWER HAMLETS at 1115 GMT Tuesday 26 October 2010
UK: OFCOM clears 'anti-Islamic' doc
Lutfur Rahman and IFE: Ofcom rejects all complaints about our Channel 4 ...
Ofcom rejects complaint againt Channel Four investigation into Islamic group
We examine the OFCOM report about complaints against Andrew Gilligan's Dispatches programme about Tower Hamlets
1100 [1050] Hrs GMT
London
Tuesday
26 October 2010
Editor © Muhammad Haque
AADHIKARonline Comment on the reported report of OFCOM about reported complaints over Channel 4 Dispatches programme shown in March 2010.
Our comments is the first of a series. This follows the “news” that Brittan’s official regulatory body on broadcasting standards, OFCOM, has just exonerated the makers and the publishers of the programme of any blame or wrongdoing.
We understand that almost one thousand separate complaints were lodged against the programme with OFCOM.
That edition of the Dispatches programme was taken off from Channel 4’s online site following the complaints.
The contents of it were, however available via ‘unofficial’ republishers.
AADHIKARonline will publish the first summary of a longer report on the OFCOM conduct in the near future.
Here we set out why the various individuals who had been featured on the particular edition of the Dispatches programme must answer the allegations that were made against them in that programme.
What do we mean by that?
What we mean [in brief for now] is this: If the Channel 4 Dispatches programme called “Britain’s Islamic Republic” and as fronted by Andrew Gilligan contained untruthful claims then those whom it referred to including George Galloway who was still MP for the Bethnal Green and Bow Constituency [in March 2010 when the Dispatches programme was aired] have a right and a duty to say out in public that the contents concerned are untrue.
This is a position that is universally warranted and justifiable.
In the months since that programme was broadcast, we have asked various individuals in Tower Hamlets about it. Nobody has given us any indication as to what, if anything, the named and characterised individuals were doing about the claims by that programme or about the allegations made in the programme.
In June, before the ‘mobilisation’ of 20 June 2010 around the then ‘threatened invasion’ of Tower Hamlets by a group described as racist, we asked one of George Galloway’s known associates about what they had made of or done about the allegations.
Based on the words in response to the questions, we can say that they did not appear to us as being particularly bothered about the allegations or by the role being played by Andrew Gilligan or by his identifiable links.
Why had we asked George Galloway’s known associate about anything?
The answer is that Andrew Gilligan pointedly referred to Galloway in that programme.
That pointed reference was made to advance the argument that George Galloway had received illegitimate backing of a group that that programme described as being an extremist fundamentalist Islamist anti-democratic one [our paraphrasing] which had been a de facto extension of the international threat against western civilisation and security.
The Channel 4 Dispatches programme also alleged that the same outfit, which it called the ‘Islamic Forum Europe' or IFE, was engaged in carrying out Entryist takeover of the Labour Party in Tower Hamlets and indeed of the levers of political power at the local Tower Hamlets Council.
We believe that these charges are very serious ones and all the named persons and groups must have publicly dealt them with.
As far as we know, they have not been.
We DO note however that there were ‘news conferences’ held at or near the “East London Mosque” at the time.
The FACT of those “news statements” were recorded by a number of “ethnicity linked” ‘media outlets”.
What there has not been is any detailed, chapter-and verse rejection with any universally applicable and tenable demonstration of the definitive rejection of the allegations that have been made and allegations that remain on the record to this day.
Will the persons now show to the wider public what if any action they are now taking if they still maintain that all the serious allegations against them are untrue?
[To be continued]
BHANGEELAAR! Tells "East London Advertiser" of a "historic moment" about democracy, honesty in public life in East London
Your [“East London Advertiser”] report marks a moment of history with this statement: “Labour which is the main opposition party with 32 members on the council is holding a meeting at Westminster tonight to discuss its policy and whether to allow members to join Mr Rahman’s Cabinet if asked.” The BHANGEELAAR! Campaign against an elected mayor in Tower Hamlets is asking the “opposition” “Labour Party” members who had appeared on various platforms saying “NO” to an elected mayor system: why do you think you find yourselves in this situation now? The role that you [collectively] as candidates played before 6 May 2010 contributed to the anti-democratic consequence we the ordinary population of Tower Hamlets now have to deal with. What evidential basis critically relevant here can you cite that objectively shows you as deserving to be taken seriously by the people of Tower Hamlets when you say what will undoubtedly be earnest things about democracy, honesty and unity in the days, weeks and even months to come? When the “Returning Officer” for Tower Hamlets Kevan Collins claimed that the ‘referendum’ had been duly [=properly in full accordance with the law and the rules] held on 6 May 2010, we demanded that he showed proof of that. We have been making that call on the record for six months. Why have you been silent? We ask because Abbas Uddin ‘Helal’ referred to electoral wrongdoing about the SAME referendum in his “dossier” he “signed” shown as dated 17 September 2010 and as put to the Labour Party’s NEC. Shouldn’t’ the wrongdoings as alleged by Abbas Uddin “Helal” be treated as warranting serious investigation?
BHANGEELAAR! The Campaign against an executive, elected mayor in Tower Hamlets. 0910 Hrs Tuesday 26 October 2010
[To be continued]
Monday, 25 October 2010
Questions to the Tory councillors follow the Guardian’s Dave Hill blog acting as the publicity officer for the Tory group.
These are the starting questions as based on your claims as retailed by Dave Hill on his Guardian London Blog.
On the evidence of your conduct as traceable by following your records in the public domain and as objectively defined on universal criteria, what claim can you as a group [and Peter Golds as the most publicised member of your group] can make "as credible supporters of democracy" on anything?
Why did Peter Golds “support” the campaign against an executive, elected mayor in Tower Hamlets and then refuse to continue to appear at later campaign events?
What FACT had changed to make the executive, elected mayor ACCEPTABLE to your Group and to Peter Golds? If any FACT had changed in the relevant intervening time then why didn’t you or Peter Golds answer the questions that were put to you and to him by our campaign on dates before 6 may 2010 the date of the so-called referendum on the "proposed change to the constitution" of the London borough of Tower Hamlets Council?
Using the Dave Hill Blog as the source of the information we are addressing here AT PRESENT, don’t you think it quite cheeky of you to flaunt a line or so about your being in any truthful way dedicated to holding anyone to DEMOCRATIC account for the good of ordinary people especially the ordinary people that live in Tower Hamlets as differentiated from the occupation blocks that you represent as typified by the owners and the profiteers of the big banks and big business now busy taking over huge chunks of what used to be called the Isle of Dogs?
You have not as a group supported constitutional means to hold the holders of Council power to account. What you have done, as the RECORD of your role will show, is to resort to smear, innuendo and propaganda when making your spiels in the ‘Council Chamber’ or at other ‘Council meetings’.. Every statement that Peter Golds has ever made as a Tower Hamlets Councillor has been either a propaganda for the ideology of what we now know as the CONDEM regime’s agenda of post-Thatcherite consolidated Rightwing assault on society or a smearing innuendo that could then be repeated as part of the very ignorant and backward agenda which you have been following ever since the Bliaring cabal IN CONTROL of Tower Hamlets Council and posing as the ‘representative voice of the Tower Hamlets electorate’ allowed you [as the then VERY newly emerged factor on Tower Hamlets Council] strategic leeway so that you could make the interventions that they wanted you to make. We here refer to statements that were made TO THAT EFFECT inside the formally described Labour Party councillors Group on Tower Hamlets Council. One of those remarks, attributed to Denise Jones who was in post as the ‘leader’ of the Labour Group and by that fact also ‘leader’ of Tower Hamlets Council, went something lie this: isn’t it a jolly good thing that we have the Tories on Tower Hamlets Council! By all objective accounts, Denise Jones was not being ironic,. She was referring to the presence of the Tories [as then a lone Councillor from ‘a Docklands’ Ward] as ‘proof’ that Tower Hamlets Council was ‘achieving’ things. The fact that that lone councillor carrying the Tory flag had come from a remote location in another town [and has gone on to pastures now more proximately CONDEM] was not something that Denise Jones appreciated. It is to the likes of Denise Jones as represented here, that you as a group and Peter Golds as a person, have related to with noticeable positivity. You have been the opposite when you have encountered most of the other councillors from the ‘same’ group. Why has it been so?
Your Tory Group has been receiving almost unparalleled favourable publicity in some the ‘mainstream’ media. Looking at the evidence of the past three years, we cannot find a single instance of the ‘local’ “East London Advertiser" running any mentionable item about the role you have played FOR “democracy” [as objectively defined on universal criteria] on Tower Hamlets Council that has been in any substantial way Critical of you either as a group or of Peter Golds who has been treated quite mysteriously as the fountain of all wisdom and knowledge. Why do you think you have been getting such favourable coverage from the “East London Advertiser” and from the otehrs including the London “EVENING STANDARD”, the BBC and of course from the titles which used to be owned by CONRAD BLACK and dominated by the influence of Barbara Amiel?
Your Tory Group [or Peter Golds] has not made any intervention against the daily abuse of the Council powers by Tower Hamlets Council bureaucracy engaging in the questionable and the anti-democratic conduct by claiming to be entitled to do so in the name of the elected local entity. Do you factually deny this? If you do so then for the sake of accuracy we suggest that you cite in full all your relevant records by also citing the full contexts AND THE FACTS of each of your claimed actions.
[The BHANGEELAAR! Campaign’s questions for Tower Hamlets Council Tory councillors and their mysteriously placed and ‘power’-linked spokesman Peter Golds to be continued here]
0545 Hrs GMT 0645 Hrs UK Time London Tuesday 26 October 2010
Questions to the Tory councillors follow the Guardian’s Dave Hill blog acting as the publicity officer for the Tory group
These are the starting questions as based on your claims as retailed by Dave Hill on his Guardian London Blog.
On the evidence of your conduct as traceable by following your records in the public domain and as objectively defined on universal criteria, what claim can you as a group [and Peter Golds as the most publicised member of your group] can make "as credible supporters of democracy" on anything?
Why did Peter Golds “support” the campaign against an executive, elected mayor in Tower Hamlets and then refuse to continue to appear at later campaign events? What FACT had changed to make the executive, elected mayor ACCEPTABLE to your Group and to Peter Golds? If any FACT had changed in the relevant intervening time then why didn’t you or Peter Golds answer the questions that were put to you and to him by our campaign on dates before 6 may 2010 the date of the so-called referendum on the "proposed change to the constitution" of the London borough of Tower Hamlets Council?
[To be continued]