Internet Propaganda of a Candidate for the Mayor of Dhaka!


This post is not a Mayoral campaign of Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky for the Mayor Election of Dhaka 2008. This news is published here because I found it as an interesting news and nothing else.

It looks like Bangladesh is entering cyber world for election campaign! Just in Facebook I’ve seen a Bangladeshi named Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky is campaigning for the Mayor Election of Dhaka 2008. Well… it amazed me much. I’ve never seen any Bangladeshi candidate running propagnda in cyber world for any kind of election before. And I think we got the first one!

His name is Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky. He has a Facebook account. He has a regular blog. And he has a campaigning page in Facebook also! It seems that Bangladesh is entering in a new era of election campaigning. Whatever I could remember that once I had read the political blog of Sajib Wajed Joy (son of Sheikh Hasina the former PM of Bangladesh) but for some reason it is now not updating anymore. Apart of this I could not recall any personal site or blog of any of our political persons. In that sense Mr. Siddiky did a great job. Also it is not a bad idea to grab the young generations by wandering in the cyber space. To my concern, nobody had done it before. No doubt that he is a learned person but the question is how perfect is he for the Mayor of Dhaka? Well if you visit is Facebook Campaign page, you’ll find some 200 supporters, and whatever I know rest of the people of Dhaka have hardly heard his name!

I am not going to the argument about his winning chances, but… hey… it is indeed a interesting fact, isn’t it?

12 thoughts on “Internet Propaganda of a Candidate for the Mayor of Dhaka!”

  1. Dear Sir,
    Thank you very much for writing about my mayoral election campaign in your blog.

    As a committed practioner of deliberative democracy, I believe citizen participation is fundamental to the democratic governance of our city. Engaging citizens in the deliberative process is essential to overcoming participatory apathy, cynicism toward government, and the apparent disconnect between citizens and decision-makers. A cornerstone of the deliberative process is the nature of the communication involved. The conventional one-way and speaker-focused outlets through which people participate to discuss the issues of our city are still there — I am going to have town hall meetings in each of the wards of the city in addition to public hearings on all major issues. However, in order to change the dynamic of these traditional means of engaging people through public meetings, there will also be electronic townhall meetings connecting people to decision-makers in formulation of all public policies concerning our city.

    Once again, Thanks for your kind support for strengthening our democracy, our city and our country.

    Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky
    Candidate for the Mayor of Dhaka, 2008.
    August 11th, 2008.

    Reply

  2. @ Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky

    I've read your Election Manifesto, that seems great to me. Well… what I've learned from the past, people are saying too much but doing slight. For the last 35 years that custom has been hardening more and more. This practice should be shattered. Let's see what you can do. Good luck!

    Reply
  3. Pingback: Cyber campaign « The 3rd world View

  4. In response to the "Cyber Campaign" post by the 3rd World Review:

    Dear Sir,
    Thank you very much for your notice of my web campaign for the mayoral elections in Dhaka and your keen observations of the trend of technological sophistication that I have set for the future leaders of our country to follow. In the future you can expect more leaders of my generation to accelerate this trend in distributing information to their constituents and receiving feedback.
    If I may also add, internet as you have mentioned, is also a rife source of misinformation. As in any market, there are good products and bad products. It is the judgment of the consumer that will determine what will be acceptable as a good product and unacceptable as a bad product. Similarly in politics, there are good leaders and corrupt leaders. It is the judgment of the people that will determine who will be elected and who will not be elected. Whether we consume information or misinformation on a candidate will therefore depend on the the power of the voters in the internet and elsewhere in the constituency to separate good information about a candidate from unreliable or bad information about the candidate. It is very important for all voters and consumers of internet based information to understand that there could be poisonous misinformation put out about a candidate by his opponents in the internet. Farid S. Rahman’s mail archived posts about Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky is a classic example of gratuitous misinformation being archived and spread about this candidate. Farid S. Rahman is not a real person. His name is Mr. Aref Chowdhury, who is the son of Mr. Mostafa Chowdhury, the only ever convicted member of the Bangladesh Public Service Commission on charges of accepting bribes for the entry position of civil servants. The fact that individuals like Mostafa Chowdhury were nominated by the political regime in power in bangladesh between 1996 and 2001 is regrettable. The new generation of leaders that are gradually emerging with the torch of public stewardship in Bangladesh will certainly not allow and resist this kind of corruption.

    Please strengthen the hand of democracy in Bangladesh and allow the people of Bangladesh to progress and not regress.

    Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky
    Candidate for the Mayor of Dhaka, 2008.
    August 12th, 2008.

    Reply

  5. This is unique. I appreciate it. This candidate is also following comments on this subject. But after all on the net, it is easy to hide identity. I want to believe this candidate is genuinely Chowdhury Irad Ahmed and has no other reasons for this.

    Reply

  7. wel its great to have a tech sabby candidate..but seriosuly..is there any realistic chance of him being elected, let alone being known by most people.

    Reply

  8. Dear Mr. Chowdhury,
    I believe so. Only the time will tell. Let us join hands to make a difference to our city and our country.

    Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky
    Candidate for the mayor of Dhaka, 2008.
    August 29th, 2008.

    Reply

  9. With regard to this candidates suitability:- I have known Irad for a number of years via internet communication. I think he ran an excellent campaign and his use of the internet is to be applauded. I think the people of Dhaka will be seeing a lot more of him in years to come. At least he has the compensation of knowing that he was not accused of any participation in the dirty tricks campaign that so many of his fellow candidates were allegedly involved in! Kudos Irad! Your time will come!
    Tony

    Reply

  10. I have also came across the website site of Mr. Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiki. I am not sure about his mayoral chance but definitely he has started a new trend of campaigning in the internet which will be followed by others in the coming days and will be enjoyed by us.

    Reply

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