General Moeen U Ahmed's army career stalled until BNP was elected to power in 2001. General Ahmed is from Noakhali, in South-Eastern Bangladesh. Noakhali is close to Feni, birthplace and bastion of BNP supremo Khaleda Zia and her family. General Ahmed made this geographical proximity his selling-point and started strenuous efforts to ingratiate himself with theBNP power-brokers. He paid special attention to the two men who would emerge as the ultimate arbitrators of all military postings and promotions for the army, navy, and the air force during 2001-2006: Khaleda Zia's brother Major (ret.) Sayeed Iskandar her nephew, Saiful Islam (Duke).
Incidentally, these two men have a lot to answer for. They have been responsible for ruining some of the most promising men in our armed forces; men who were too straight-laced and professional to kowtow to them. Fortunately for him and unfortunately for us, Ahmed was not one of them. He ingratiated himself with these two men very successfully, and managed to get for himself a prize command in Chittagong and also positioned himself as a key contender for the post of Chief of Army Staff.
Incidentally, these two men are the only two members of Khaleda Zia's family who were part of the government apparatus for the last five years, but have not been asked to provide wealth reports to the current military government. Anyone familiar with power politics in Bangladesh is aware of the intense speculation and jockeying that precedes the appointment of the Chief of Army Staff. Various factions vie for the ear of the Prime Mnister to get their own candidates chosen. There was general consensus that Lt. Gen. Hasan Mashud had been an excellent Chief of Army Staff, and appointing another decent general after him to lead the army would have gone down well with the country in general and the armed forces in particular. Quite a few members of Zia's kitchen cabinet were against this appointment going to a political general like Moeen U Ahmed, and her military secretary went as far as to write an official note recommending her against this appointment.
History, however, was on General Moeen's side. During her previous administration, when it came time to pick a Chief of Army Staff who would serve through the 1996 election, Begum Zia opted for efficiency and service seniority over political expediency, and picked Lt. Gen. Nasim over commanders perceived to be more loyal to the government. Proving the adage that no good deeds go unpunished in Bangladeshi politics, Lt. Gen. Nasim promptly tried to stage a coup and overthrow the government. Keeping that particular lesson in mind, Zia decided to take the low route this time and pick a political general who would know during every second of his job that he was only there thanks to his servilityto his political masters. This, she thought, would ensure his loyalty.
The rest, of course, is history. General Moeen staged a bloodless coup on January 11th and imposed indirect military rule; he has ruled Bangladesh in all but name for the last eight months, given himself a promotion to four-star General, changed the command structure of Bangladesh's armed forces in order to manage the nice shiny fourth star on his car, and become the first Army Chief in the last twenty years to have his effigy burnt by Dhaka University students. So this is where our Chief of Army Staff has been. What do you think his future plans are? And more importantly, what do these plans include for us,and for the future of Bangladeshi democract? Remember, whatever these plans are, he'll be trying really hard to sell them to various American officials, during his visit to the US, as the best thing that could possibly happen to Bangladesh at this juncture.
this article is collected from http://sotacit.wordpress.com/2007/10/16/everything-you-need-to-know-about-general-moeen-u-ahmed/
