Sweet victory and awful defeat
WHEN victory showered this nation on December 16, 1971, two things came to our then young mind: the birth of a free nation and at last the enemy has been defeated. It is not possible to put in words now after so many years elapsed, the relief sweet victory brought to this nation.
Nevertheless, personally, I tasted the victory first hand when I encountered in broad daylight several hundred disarmed enemy soldiers marched through a narrow gate with their hands up on their head at Narayngonj IWTA Terminal, hardly a few days after December 16, 1971. It is hard to describe the feeling if one has not seen such a scene before. Hundreds and thousands of onlookers watched the march of the defeated enemy soldiers.
I can clearly remember the face of a Pakistani soldier on this march with whom I suddenly had an eye contact from a distance. This person perhaps was in his mid-thirties with an unshaved face, but certainly a face with full of hate and agony.
One may ask, after all those years, why this came back to haunt once again? The answer is simple. One feels totally devastated watching helplessly, how a once-proud nation, has been suffering from extreme greed, fraudulent politics at the top, and failing in prosecuting Bengali war criminals after 36 years.
The other day, I was moved by going through a piece in a Bangla daily contributed by a young journalist. The message of his piece was so powerful it has given me a huge shake. The write up was titled: "I have not seen the victory, alas, have seen the defeat."
This was from a person who was born after 1971, though having extensive knowledge about December 16, but is puzzled by witnessing the post-1975 defeats one after another. Indeed, the present generation has only been seeing a once-proud nation having endless defeats in politics and society. They have seen this land been plundered and incarcerated by its generals, presidents, and prime ministers, who, in turn, made the people hostage to their own land.
Why has the victory unfolded like this? Why our own leaders began acting like aliens? Why the nation has fallen into cycle of endless defeat? There are, I am afraid, no easy answers. However, there is no doubt in mind that a new dawn has broken on the day of January 11. The military-backed interim civilian government came forward and rescued the nation from a potential man-made catastrophe of a scale that was never felt before.
To look ahead, it is impossible not to drag in history. In all nations, the government's law and home affairs play major roles in shaping and establishing the rule of law in order to protect the citizens against criminals. Certainly, this becomes a paramount job for the ministers concerned everywhere.
Unfortunately, in our case, what have we witnessed? We witnessed our law and home minsters presided over regime after regime how not to establish a rule of law. In this regard, two names immediately come to mind. One is the former law minister, and the other is the former state minister for home (both are now in custody).
The former law minister had a very colourful life. He is a UK-trained barrister who has been around for long and was minding the affairs of the nation under several regimes. He was a minister during general Zia's time, was a colourful PM and vice-president under Ershad and lately the minister for law and justice under Khaleda-Nizami. A colourful man indeed, however, has a long list of dirty laundry.
As recent as last week, the highest court of this land despatched verdicts on two cases on which he presided over in the capacity of minister for law and justice: the case surrounding fugitive Safa and the case involving former SC judge, Justice M A Aziz.
Allegedly, in the case of fugitive Safa, the minister was the mastermind in setting the proceedings up and in the case of Justice Aziz, it was the minister who paved the way for this judge illegally holding two constitutional positions concurrently or over 20 months. In both the occasions, he allegedly played dirty tricks to deceive the nation in order to satisfy his masters.
Coming back to the former state minister, he acted even more ruthlessly. The cases against which this person has been taken into custody are certainly hair-rising. This man was known as an unscrupulous trader in political circles and a close ally of the law minister, who was in charge of preserving law and order of this land during the last government. Indeed, both the men politicised the law enforcement agencies to establish their writ on this land.
These men and their actions brought awful defeat for them as well as for the people. The actions and inactions of these former minsters, and others like them, had almost totally wiped out whatever shred of victory was left from the face of Bangladesh.
In recent months, unfortunately, it seems conspiracy has not been waning. The ground is being prepared for inviting a clash. In this regard, the cases against the DU teachers and students immediately come to mind. Conspiracy or not, the nation sees no reason to drag any more the cases against the teachers and students under custody. They have suffered immensely already.
It will be a mother of all defeats if no respectable solution can be found to this crisis. The nation expects an immediate action by the president. The president's former colleagues under Duta (which he led in the past) are pleading to the government for releasing the teachers and students under custody before the Eid festival. Will the honourable president listen to their call?
To put simply, the nation does not want to watch another self-inflicted defeat in the month of victory. The solution to the crisis needs to be found before it gets too late.
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