To carry forward the memories of national heroes
Of late, we have noted with grave concern the use of offensive language against political opponents. We often feel highly embarrassed when the younger generation tells us that we want them to be sedate and polite towards those whom they interact with while we ourselves violate at ease the norms of behaviour that are supposed to make us civilised.
They even doubt our professed commitment to uplift our image as a people who are tolerant and patient towards others' views, which is regarded as a golden rule of democracy.
They think that we have left them in a political turbulence, which induces them to decide against serving a nation that, even after about four decades of liberation, has not even decided whether to commemorate the heroes of our independence movement and the liberation war or to carry forward their memories to rebuild our nation in the contemporary mould.
Our knowledge about how several nations have rebuilt themselves, emerging from the ashes of war, raises question as to why we have failed. To my mind, most of our four decades of independence have been spent in image building of the party icons of the past and present by blaming opponents.
Why are we involved in such petty acts of immodesty and selfishness that put at stake the fate of the millions who hardly have any concern for anything other than food, clothing and shelter?
Perhaps no nation other than ours has spent so many working hours pondering over who gave us a nation. In the ultimate evaluation, Maulana Bhashani and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman marshaled our nation by their inspiring role, and the rest was done by the 75 million Bangladeshis who fought the enemy with their blood and sweat.
We may miss another truth if we fail to glorify the role of our Mukti Bahini, which was comprised of regular soldiers of the armed forces, members of the law enforcing outfits and tens of thousands of freedom fighters who formed the rank and file of the force in fighting, inspiring, planning and executing the war plan. We must also honour Shaheed Ziaur Rahman for turning the "bottomless basket," Bangladesh, into an emerging South Asian nation.
Members of the young generation ask why we still make claims and counter-claims about what is already an established fact. Why do we rewrite our history every five years?
Anybody who thinks our memory is so short as to forget what happened between the late '60s and early '70s must be suffering from schizophrenia.
With utter sadness I have witnessed a great slide in the exuberance of our new generation about our glorious past because we have thrown them into confusion by contradictory statements pertaining to our historic struggle for independence.
The tendency to carry forward their memory has created fierce divergence of opinion among of our polity belonging to different political faiths. The nation has witnessed the efforts of the two major political parties to desecrate the role of the opponent, which is nothing but a mean iconoclastic act that brought about massive indignation. To me, they are jealous, and unfit to show the way, lead the way and go the way. Such efforts may ultimately demean those great leaders.
The fading exuberance of the young generation is resulting in their running away from the country, as if in a quest to protect their lives and liberty. The plummeting morale of the young generation has caused a brain-drain, which is limiting future possibilities for our national development.
This is destined to cause partial impairment to our development goal, which is equitable distribution of national wealth and resources, freedom from servitude, empowerment, democracy with extended jurisdiction of the parliament, and protection of the right of universal franchise.
I would like to preserve the memories of those great leaders as national treasures to inspire the future generation to inculcate the spirit of sacrifice, unremitting commitment and undiminishing zeal to work for the people's welfare, which was their goal. This calls for a resolve to commemorate these great leaders so that their acts of valour, propriety and commitment could be referred to for eschewing the political divide.
The present leadership should come out of their present frame of mind and work for the people belonging to different political and religious faiths who fought hand-in-glove for our independence so that we feel inspired by their commitment and perseverance with which they pursued their objective, which was freeing us from the clutches of the West Pakistan clique.
I call upon all our patriotic citizens not to get embroiled in the ongoing simmering criticism aimed at tarnishing the image of one by the other. Only timid leaders fear that they have something to lose if the image of the other remains unblemished. Let us not forget that the only thing that can stop fulfillment of our dream is us. Who does not know that bitterness consumes the vessel that contains it, and that those who do evil expect evil? I fear that if the blame-game continues then the entire nation will be doomed to decay.
Let us get together regardless of caste, creed, culture and political ideals to honour the deceased leaders for their deeds, and despise those who are threatening our future possibilities by dividing our nation. Let us decide to stick with love for each other because hate is too great a burden to bear.
We must not miss the opportunity to bask unitedly in our glorious achievements, whoever may be the claimant of the honour of inspiring our nation to fight for our independence to give us a nation. So, let us commemorate the memories of our great leaders instead of desecrating them for political reasons.
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