It happened when fax machine and mobile phone emerged in this market during mid and late 80s. Scandalous news items on the then military dictator used to pour in by fax followed by spreading through photocopiers. Such flow of information still remains out of the reach of intelligence community.

Fax was a huge blow to the state-controlled, inefficient and expensive, telex service. Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) did everything possible to block the proliferation of this ungovernable data communication device. It was lot easier to get a gun license than obtaining a so-called "no objection certificate" from BTTB to use a fax. But all hindrances of the government, against this office automation equipment, have gone down the drain.

Similarly each subscriber of the very first mobile service, launched by Hutchison Bangladesh Telecom Ltd. in the late 80s, had to obtain a so-called "security clearance" from that very military dictator's office (President's Secretariat). That hegemony of the establishment was eventually trashed by the exponential growth of mobile phone.

But the government has been violating simple civic norms by denying the mobile users' fundamental right to call the state-owned main telecom network of BTTB. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) officially denounced such lapse of Bangladesh government in its Asia Pacific Telecommunication Indicator of 2000.

But the government remained unrepentant about its deliberate violation of the globally practiced standard of the telecom industry. It became a serious offence on the part of government after it enacted Bangladesh Telecommunication Act, 2001. Because section 47 of this law mandates seamless interconnection among the telecom operators.

Interestingly, neither the mobile operators nor the civil society ever raised their voices against the government's deliberate violation of the telecom law. Because the mobile operators have been exploiting the government's lack of moral authority to regulate the industry.

The sharply polarised civil society has its own agenda. It remains mum despite such continuous violation of fundamental human rights to communicate. The telecom regulator, which is littered with retired and seconded civil servants, does not have professional competence to address such a gruelling sectoral crisis.

All these factors have allowed the private sector to operate substandard services followed by deceiving the consumers. Although the legal obligations on interconnection issues are clearly defined in the telecom law, neither the mobile operators nor the civil society has bothered to sue the government on such a high profile public interest issue.

The bottom line? Bangladesh is the only country where the right to communicate is being systematically violated in consensus among the government, the regulator, the industry and the civil society.

Now the government is planning to eliminate the people's privacy in a more disgraceful manner. The ruling BNP-led alliance government is desperate to legalise the illegal act of tapping phone calls and reading e-mails.

Interestingly, Awami League, the major opposition, has not uttered a single word against such illicit move of the government.

Since our political leadership is oblivious, it is imperative to highlight the futility of such conspiracy to invade the people's privacy.

Anybody can be the user of devices like satphones in Bangladesh. Because the country is very much under the footprint of respective satellite constellation. It is nearly impossible to track the signals of these smart gadgets. Therefore, the users of such space age communications systems always remain in touch regardless their location.

No wonder so many tech-savvy boys of Donald Rumsfeld are coming home, from Iraq, in body bags. Because, unlike the wartime, no AWACS aircraft is patrolling the Iraqi airspace to detect the enemy's eavesdropping on the ground. Since that is the case with the supreme global military might, where do we stand?

Forget about hi-tech and let's talk about the basics. "Roaming" is a general feature and the fundamental element of GSM mobile technology. It allows the customer to use the mobile, without changing its number, in another GSM network of different country.

A post-paid GSM mobile user either from India or Pakistan or from any other country can roam in Bangladesh. Thanks to GrameenPhone, country's only roaming provider. If one such user is an insurgent, or drug dealer or arms smuggler and visits Bangladesh, the local intelligence agencies may tap that call but cannot catch the caller, unless the corresponding GSM operator reveals the address.

But catching that suspect depends on the corresponding country's local police. That also depends on the state of bilateral relation. Suppose we have excellent relation with both India and Pakistan (which is impossible) and their police feel obligated to entertain the request of our police department (just joking) to nab a suspect.

Still the trickiest part of this cat and mouse game is yet to be played. What happens if the suspect carries multiple GSM mobile phones from different addresses or from different countries? Hello? Anybody home?

Let's quickly wrap up with the e-mail issue. The good old short message service (SMS) and more recent general packet radio system (GPRS) has empowered the GSM mobile users to send and receive text messages and e-mails using the handset.

Such features are available in both prepaid and post-paid GSM packages. Detecting the sender of such messages, in packetised signals from a pre-paid subscription is literally impossible. The operators are not bothered about contact details of such subscribers. (It took for this writer less than five minutes to subscribe a pre-paid GSM connection in Bangkok last month.)

The government is not expected to address these logical issues while amending the telecom law to legalise invading people's privacy. But the consumers must fight such move to legalise an illegal act. That is the best could be done, at this stage.

The writer is a telecom analyst