I’ve been flicking through the Bangladeshi channels over the past week sitting here in London and it’s the same celebration everywhere – triumph of the execution of the assassins of our father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It’s great news, a great achievement – but how much role did the people celebrating the event play in this victory?
I’m not a historian, and never sat down to go through Bangladesh’s history – but I do have conscience. Father of nation or any common man for that instant, the assassination of an entire family in such a brutal manner deserved just trial and punishment, and this deserved in any era, and any country. Why did it take this long then?
I was born years after the liberation. Like me, youth of today did not experience the cloud of chaos that covered the country after its liberation, nor did we face the rise in nepotism and corruption in Bangladesh during the regime of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. However, we have been fortunate enough not to experience the same over the last ten years. I say fortunate for a reason – this is so our fathers can live to compare what happened in the past with what is happening in the present. Unlike the event that took place in 1975, such has not repeated today.
Then why does the title sound so provocative? Today, the assassins have faced just punishment and we are all rejoicing and celebrating this as reclamation of our pride, honour and national interest. Where was this when the assassination took place? History leaves it’s footprints in places other than our hearts and memories. After the military coup took over on August 15th, almost every leading nation including Russia, America & China recognized Bangladesh as a new country where they could invest in. The country’s people breathed a sigh of relief after the political family regime was thrown over. I remember phrases such as ‘Only one segment amassed wealth while others were suffering, in an impoverished new nation’. Isn’t this the same nation that is now celebrating the execution of the assassins?
People will get me wrong and misunderstand me – what happened on 15th August 1975 was brutal, and what happened on the 28th January 2010 was justice. My question is, how shameless are we? And do we have any conscience at all? On one side, the nation thanked God when the dictatorship was overthrown. On the other side, the same nation thanks the same God for punishing the people who made the overthrow possible. I don’t blame the nation anymore – how can we expect our people to remember what happened 35 years ago, when our memory is refreshed every five years during the elections.
To be perfectly honest, over the last 10 or more years, only families closely attached to the Sheikh family have pursued this day – or families who directly benefit when the Awami League party is in power. On the other side, only families directly linked with the army personnel who were involved in the crime were keen to avoid this day. The common man and common population of the country is just like a swing – it rejoices and revolts only when it comes with benefits.
Shame on the nation for its weak conscience and memory. Shame on the nation for lack of its own judgement. Bangladesh is said to be one of the happiest countries in the world – I am not surprised.
I’m not a historian, and never sat down to go through Bangladesh’s history – but I do have conscience. Father of nation or any common man for that instant, the assassination of an entire family in such a brutal manner deserved just trial and punishment, and this deserved in any era, and any country. Why did it take this long then?
I was born years after the liberation. Like me, youth of today did not experience the cloud of chaos that covered the country after its liberation, nor did we face the rise in nepotism and corruption in Bangladesh during the regime of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. However, we have been fortunate enough not to experience the same over the last ten years. I say fortunate for a reason – this is so our fathers can live to compare what happened in the past with what is happening in the present. Unlike the event that took place in 1975, such has not repeated today.
Then why does the title sound so provocative? Today, the assassins have faced just punishment and we are all rejoicing and celebrating this as reclamation of our pride, honour and national interest. Where was this when the assassination took place? History leaves it’s footprints in places other than our hearts and memories. After the military coup took over on August 15th, almost every leading nation including Russia, America & China recognized Bangladesh as a new country where they could invest in. The country’s people breathed a sigh of relief after the political family regime was thrown over. I remember phrases such as ‘Only one segment amassed wealth while others were suffering, in an impoverished new nation’. Isn’t this the same nation that is now celebrating the execution of the assassins?
People will get me wrong and misunderstand me – what happened on 15th August 1975 was brutal, and what happened on the 28th January 2010 was justice. My question is, how shameless are we? And do we have any conscience at all? On one side, the nation thanked God when the dictatorship was overthrown. On the other side, the same nation thanks the same God for punishing the people who made the overthrow possible. I don’t blame the nation anymore – how can we expect our people to remember what happened 35 years ago, when our memory is refreshed every five years during the elections.
To be perfectly honest, over the last 10 or more years, only families closely attached to the Sheikh family have pursued this day – or families who directly benefit when the Awami League party is in power. On the other side, only families directly linked with the army personnel who were involved in the crime were keen to avoid this day. The common man and common population of the country is just like a swing – it rejoices and revolts only when it comes with benefits.
Shame on the nation for its weak conscience and memory. Shame on the nation for lack of its own judgement. Bangladesh is said to be one of the happiest countries in the world – I am not surprised.
7 comments:
hats off pal......a masterpiece
cant comment on history as I dont know it... but choice of words and delivery of the jist is pretty amazing. keep up the gud work amigos
- Soumya
Every time a regime changes some people will rejoice and some will mourn,it doesn't mean the whole nation rejoices or mourns in such events,the article clearly shows the pain of the writer when some brutal killers were brought to justice. So it's better to think carefully who should be ashamed.
It's so difficult being unbiased when writing on national political issues. I've written throughout the article that the justice which was brought two days ago should have taken 35 years ago. It's our nations shamelessness and lack of integrity that I am trying to bring out here.
while there r a slight contradictory, bt felt da same way exactly.. when watched da TV news !!
anyways, appreciating one of ur brilliant sentence delivery – “I don’t blame the nation anymore.. .. what happened 35 years ago, .. when we our memory is refreshed every five years during the elections.”
Nice said dosto.. Its really murmuring me about such celebration where we don't have solid historcial footprint us and next generations in books yet. My father was peronal assistant sectary of Bongobondhu during his earlier service bangladesh ministryand he is also a freedom fighter besides. Consecuently, he was just waiting for the day and his ... See morerejoicement was visible to me just hearing his voice over phone while he was informing after execution. But unfortunately, I said to him the same thing mostly as you said. His delightful voice came quite for the instance and swinged to another topic. I did realize, he understood me, understood the unfortunate reality!!
Bangabandhu will always have a larger than life presence in our history and I personally believe he totally deserves it for all the amazing things that he literally single-handedly achieved for our nation, matched very rarely by any single person, for any nation for that matter. It's a shame that it had to end the way it did for him, but the shame isn't for us, not even for the people who killed him, but for his own family who let him down so bad. Yes, if there's anyone to be blamed, it's his own family.
You don't have to trust me, just go talk to the families of thousands of people who fell victim to his sons' misdeeds. In a way, he himself was responsible for it because when people came to him, he didn't make things right. He would instead request them to go pray to God so that his sons' would change. He was a very strong man but apparently not strong enough to right his own family, rules were broken, limits were crossed, and in the end what his family brought onto themselves took them down along with the man himself.
Some people will say I'm wrong, but hey, let's take a moment and think about it. What if I'm right? How can you know for sure that I'm not? And if I'm, then didn't you just kill some of the people who had actually freed Bangabandhu's beloved nation from loads of pain and injustice? If he really loved the nation as much as we believe he did, if he was really the father of the nation first and then his children, then who knows, he might as well have been glad for what these so called killers had done. I guess we will never know. So, let's stop pretending as if we know for sure that justice has been served. Things aren't always as black and white as they are made to look like.
Wonderful blog, Tawhid. Couldn't have agreed more with you. Glad to know I wasn't the only one who felt this way.
Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu!
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