Counterpoint

Bangladesh's Draft AI Policy: Vision Needs Velocity

Zunaid Kazi

Success depends on three commitments that cannot be deferred: Speed. Visible, funded action in year one. Not plans for action. Action. Resources. Specific, budgeted commitments, not proposals

DNCC Rent Control Will Cause More Problems Than It Solves

Raisul Sourav

The government and the local authorities must focus on establishing a quickly implementable, balanced and transparent legal framework, not an imaginary policy. Otherwise, this guideline will remain on paper as always, and homeowners and tenants will bear the consequences.

When Welfare Becomes Withdrawal

Hasan Ferdous

In the hands of Jamaat-e-Islami, a five-hour workday is not welfare. It is soft patriarchy, cloaked in empathy. Bangladesh should not repeat the mistakes of others when better models are already visible.

Women, Life, Freedom, Bangladesh

Ehteshamul Haque

We should treat the promise of this election with the respect it deserves. The students who gave their lives, the activists who risked everything, the ordinary citizens who stood up against tyranny, did not do so for narrow partisan advantage. They did so for Bangladesh.

Is Jamaat a Bangladeshi BJP? Not Quite.

Muhaimen Siddiquee

The End of Politics?

Sujaul Khan

The crisis of politics is not its end, but its hollowing. The machinery we inherited was not designed to govern algorithmic power or planetary limits. Recognizing this is not defeatism but intellectual honesty.

An Egg Today or a Chicken Tomorrow: The Economics of Time and Trust

Tashzid Reza

Ultimately, the wisdom of “an egg today is better than a chicken tomorrow” is not a rejection of the future. It is a reminder that time, risk, and trust matter. The future must earn its value; it cannot merely be promised

The Bangladesh Story in Eight Charts

Syed Akhtar Mahmood

The economy is busier, but not necessarily more capable. After presenting eight charts, they tell basically one story. On the economic front, Bangladesh’s achievements are real. But the transformation is still incomplete.

Convenience for Users, Uncertainty for Workers

Tashzid Reza

Platforms expand opportunities while simultaneously consolidating economic power. Those who control digital infrastructure and data ecosystems enjoy disproportionate gains, while workers and small entrepreneurs absorb most of the risks.

How Jamaat is Still Maududi's Party When it Comes to Women

Monica Beg

The problem here is not Islam. The problem is the elevation of one man’s subjective, historically contingent interpretation to the status of immutable religious truth. To present such views as 'Islamic policy' is intellectually dishonest and politically dangerous.

A (Darwinian) Manifesto for Dhaka’s Walkers

Zakir Kibria

Dhaka’s walkers are not Darwinian subjects -- they are Darwin’s teachers. They have mastered the art of evolving within the apocalypse, turning every sidewalk and sewer into a classroom.

Let's Not Turn a Blind Eye to the Kol Displacement

Nafew Sajed Joy

The Bengali nation is one of the largest in the world, a people of immense resilience and rich culture. Our greatness is not diminished by lifting up our smallest communities; it is defined by it. To stand with the Kol people today is to affirm the sentiment captured on a wall during the recent peoples uprising: "This country doesnt belong to any one group. It belongs to all of us".

An Open Letter to Barrister Zaima Rahman

Ashraf Ud Doula

Whatever path you ultimately choose, I offer you my sincere best wishes. May your journey ahead be guided by wisdom, courage, and purpose -- and may it be as smooth and fulfilling as destiny permits.

The Politics of Responsibility and Compassion

Jyoti Rahman

Every Muslim knows the phrase Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim -- the most Beneficent, the most Compassionate. Can we reorient our moral compass towards the politics of responsibility and compassion?

Who Should Speak About Earthquakes?

Sirajur Rahman Khan

Responsibility for earthquake and tectonic matters should logically rest with the Geological Survey of Bangladesh. What scientists can do is identify risk zones and recommend safer building practices.

Teesta Without Tripwires

Nazrul Islam

Whatever the causes, Bangladesh cannot wait indefinitely. It must build damage-reducing infrastructure without delay. This does not replace a water-sharing settlement; it reduces damage while politics drags on, and it must be designed with geo-politics in mind.

Will Turning Korail Into a High-Rise Solve the Problem? Not So Fast.

Mariha Tahsin

The Korail high-rise promise is not just a construction project. It is a governance challenge shaped by misaligned incentives, fragmented land control, extreme density, contested beneficiary selection, weak tenure enforcement, and post move-in affordability.

The Ganges Treaty and the End of Discretionary Diplomacy

Nazrul Islam

Turning water into a nationalist symbol may mobilize sentiment, but it has never produced water -- and it has often delayed the reordering of ties that scarcity now makes unavoidable.

Too Shallow to Dive

Shanim Tasnim

I’m not against using AI, I never was. I just want you to use it cautiously. Because the more you are replacing AI with your own mind, the more it will take space in your soul. If we keep asking AI solutions for every simple problem, our mind will become too fragile to face challenges.

The Middle Eastern Job Market Is Dead

Kawsar Chowdhury

The countries that thrive in the next decade will be those that export skilled humans -- not bodies. The countries that survive will be those that build talent -- not hope for visas. And the countries that collapse will be those that cling to dead models and call it “tradition.”

Where War Turned to Wonder

Sharin Shajahan Naomi

Superpowers are increasingly reluctant to send their children into combat and expose them to trauma. This gradual shift  has opened vast, hard-to-predict possibilities for new forms of warfare with their effects rippling outward like the countless waves of the sea.

Jamaat-e-Islami and Growing Islamism in Post-Hasina Bangladesh

Taj Hashmi

While it would be presumptuous to predict a Jamaat victory in the upcoming elections on February 12, the BNP and other secular and liberal democratic parties must acknowledge the emergence of a Third Party with a moderate Islamic agenda that could gain power in the next round of elections in 2031.

Is Jamaat Coming?

Mir Aftabuddin Ahmed

Arithmetic still points to a BNP-led alliance winning, with a Jamaat-led alliance more likely to land as the principal opposition. The caveat is that Bangladesh has not had credible elections since 2008, so any confident prediction about voting behaviour is just that: An informed forecast, not a guarantee.

Ali Riaz’s Big Bet

Naomi Hossain

Is tinkering with the formal rules of the game the triumph of hope over experience (this time politics will be different)? Or a more technocratic faith in the power of institutional architecture to push back against the potent political imperatives of rents and control (we can design our way to democracy)? Either way, fixing the rules seems a misplaced focus when history has shown that the amassing of political power rapidly renders such niceties ornamental.

How Do We Stop Giant Corporations Taking Over Bangladesh?

Manzur Rahman

Society needs a new compact to rein in the empire of corporate giants. This is as true for Bangladesh as it is for the rest of the world. Else we will all descend into the servitude of a new feudal system headed by giant corporations and the handful of their beneficiaries.

Building Bangladesh’s Next Multi-Billion-Dollar Export Industry

Kawsar Chowdhury

The global shortage is real. The demand is guaranteed. The opportunity is enormous.

The Unlikely Reinvention of the American Dollar: From Oil to Blockchain

Saif Sayeem

This is the quiet evolution of empire -- from military enforcement to financial automation. The dollar isn’t dying, at least not anytime soon. It’s being privatized.

The Song Remains: Freedom, Memory, and the Refusal to Forget

Shamaruh Mirza

Whether it is a party that markets itself as the sole heir of 1971, or a hardline movement that once mocked that struggle and now sanitizes its record, the exploitation is the same. Both seek to convert freedom into political capital. Both demand that citizens forget what they saw and felt. Both ask us to trade memory for myth.

The Great Blue Jeans War: How Sydney Sweeney’s Genes Powered Trump’s Spectacle Engine

Zakir Kibria

The question for a republic is whether it can learn to look away from the dazzling, authoritarian image long enough to see -- and rebuild -- the dull, demanding, and essential foundations of a reality-based politics.

Learning from Tehran: A Warning for Bangladesh’s Democratic Future

Azeema Anhar Humaira

The decision for Bangladesh is simply this: Either we recognize what is happening to our degree of liberty now, or we will soon read about it in the pages of history books as if it is a novel about something that was simply unavoidable.

The J Z Show। Ep 13 । Zafar Sobhan। Jon Danilowicz

Zafar Sobhan

Tarique Rahman's Homecoming and New Political Alignments

The J Z Show। Ep 12 । Zafar Sobhan। Jon Danilowicz

Zafar Sobhan

Hadi dead. Daily Star and Prothom Alo Attacked. What Next?

The J-Z Show | Episode 11

Zafar Sobhan

The shooting of Osman Hadi becomes a lens through which Jon Danilowicz and Zafar Sobhan examine political violence, institutional accountability, and the deeper fault lines shaping Bangladesh’s current moment.

Counterpoint Generations | Ep 8

Zafar Sobhan

In Episode 8 of Counterpoint Generations, the discussion explores Bangladesh’s electoral journey from the 1970 election to the present, examining how voting behaviour, political participation, and institutions have evolved over time. The episode also addresses contemporary questions around minority voting patterns, and why opinion polls often fail to predict real outcomes. A reflective conversation on elections, uncertainty, and democratic change.

Counterpoint Generations | EP 7 | Professor Rehman Sobhan | Zafar Sobhan

Zafar Sobhan

In Episode 7 of Counterpoint Generations, Zafar Sobhan and Professor Rehman Sobhan discuss Manchester United’s recent win, revisit how their shared love for football began, and reflect on the current state of global and Bangladeshi football.

Counterpoint Generations | Episode 4

Zafar Sobhan

A timely conversation on media, culture, and power, as Professor Rehman Sobhan and Zafar Sobhan reflect on recent events shaping Bangladesh’s democratic landscape.