Bangabandhu and the new generation

[sraabon]

DS has done a suppliment on Bangabandhu and the new generation today. I described how I felt about him as I grew up and how do I feel about him and I think I represent a generation. I focused on the lack of accurate information surrounding his life

The article is at

http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/08/15/d50815090169.htm

I would appreciate if some of you share your opinion about him and tell me if you agree or disagree with my assertions and why.

http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/08/15/d50815090169.htm

[chinaman]

Personal opinion only : -

Very nice read. I'd like to share a few words. See how you candidly put your own perspective, the notion of your own organization, within the article? While this is perfectly ok, it is this tendency, to a larger scale, is the key block for the public, both younger and older, to the actual information. Once tainted, the information becomes questionable.

The quest of a younger mind is depicted beautifully in your article. The rightful cry is there together with the blames. I'd prefer to include 'others' in "..fabricated information fed by the two political parties".

Truely an eye opener. Thank you very much for sharing with us.

[Rubayed]

Great stuff,,it made me ask so many questions about the history of my country which i never bothered to ask. I feel inquisitive now and i feel hungry to know more aobut my country and the war of independence. I truely believe i belong to a generation who grew up not taking any interest in either Sheikh Mujib or Ziaur Rahman simply because there were no ways of knowing the real truth caz as far as i m concerned only three version of BD history exists,,,Awami league's version, BNP's verison and Jamate-Islami's version. We need a more objective version, which we can call true bangladeshi's version.

[Orpheus]

there is no such a thing as objective version in history but there can be versions that are not so blatantly skewed....

Even the author himself is confused here.... he acknowledges that it is near impossible to get "something authentic and objective" on Mujib yet he comes the conclusion on how great a leader Mujib is but not a great visionary. How can one objectively come to this from reading not so authentic materials? The fact that Bangladesh exists show Mujib is a great visionary..... Did he not envision shonar Bangla?

Anyways its a good read!! I agree to most of it.....

[Spitfire_x86]

Very good article

[VladMamu]

interesting article. I haven't gotten that far in my history yet. Jan. 2006 i'll be taking Independence to present day of India. Bangladesh and Pakistan are essential components of that of course.

[Shubho]

What I find interesting, and admirable, is that the younger generation is looking to objectively evaluate Sheikh Mujib, as well as place him beyond partisan politics. No Awami-style cronyism, and no BNP/Jamaat-style falsehoods. This, I think, is a very significant step forward.

[ZunaidH]

Anthony Mascarenhas in his book, The Legacy of Blood, made a very potent comment about Sheik Mujib. I'll paraphrase that. Besides politics, he (Mujib) could make a living of playing poker. Apparently Mujib was an avid gambler and his "poker face" was noteworthy to his collegues and friends. The author tried to say that the man could pull bluffs quite competently. In my opinion, that is one distinctive characteristics that defines him as a man -success or not. As like any gambler, he pulled a few tricks off his hat that were quite astonishing. I don't believe for once he did any analysis on anything he did rather went where his heart took him, or sometimes the gut. One of them was taking a chance with his stubbornness at the bullish politics he did in the sixties. It was his gut, I believe drove him and at times the right opportunities came along. There are parties who would claim Mujib was a visionary; others would find Mujib really was backed up by powers such as India to take a fearless fight to the Pakistani rulers. As a nation, we, Bangalis don't take the fight to another's court. However, we are fearless on circumstances when the options are limited and optimism available at a short supply. We are a laid back nation, "mache bhatay", to all its potency.

Regardless, who Mujib was or what he will be remembered for, we should all realize one fact that he did motivate the people to do what was necessary. We should recognize that Pakistan was not an option for the Bangali folks of "East Pakistan".

Interestingly, for an independent country, the gambler in Mujib wasn't going to cut it. As inevitable, if one plays long enough at the game, "the house eventually wins." Mujib wasn't upto the challenge of Kissinger's politics of "us" and "them". His gambler heart never gave away to the scrutiny of walking the fine line as most politicians do. There is not head or tail in politics. Under the circumstances, the right choice would have been something in between. Mujib always lacked the analytical mind in my opinion. Men of little political depth of mind surrounded him. Therefore, the man was served harshly for his inadequacies. There are numerous number of my "cha posha" relatives, who were apparently "happy" at the news of Mujib's execution. Interestingly, these are the same people who were once inspired by Mujib's leadership and had fought the independence war with limitless courage. The radio kept them going while they were hiding in the bunkers of distant villages, thwarting Pakistani armour trucks. In short, Mujib had no idea how to run a country. Unfortunately, all the corruption rolled back to him. A leader should be held responsible for his people. And he was. Thirty years after his execution, people still talk about evils spawned by Mujib, his family and his cohorts. The stories about bank loot by his son, the corruption during the famine largely, and a few other acts by his family members had the man in disfavour of the people. The one-party rule was just a step close to starting another revolution. The disgruntled may say, "What was he thinking?" I personally believe, he probably wasn't thinking. A gambler is motivated by the gut and not the mind.


Eventually, the man called it wrong when it was all tail he thought it was head.


P.S. I belong to the same generation as Sraabon. In fact we went to the same school togeher in Dhaka.

Edited on, August 15, 2005, 4:45 PM GMT, by ZunaidH.

[Fazal]

>> Thirty years after his execution, people still talk about evils spawned by Mujib, his family and his cohorts.

Wake up people. Drink a cup of expresso.... 30 years already gone... people should find out a better excuse by now for their failure... if you guys don't find any better scapegoat then alteast blame to our night-guard wahid, it will be much more convincing though

>> Eventually, the man called it wrong when it was all tail he thought it was head.

And the moral of the story? Play poker as much as you wish, even take high-stake risks. But never ever under-estimate and bet against USA and its cronies! They are more powerful than you think. Even in their lean and mean period.

Edited on, August 15, 2005, 5:02 PM GMT, by Fazal.

[Dream theater]

I personally feel we bangladeshis are too much involved with mindless past like who,why,when,what killed Sheikh Mujib or Ziaur rahman in that matter. Nobody is bigger than our country. Should remember that. lets focus more on what the greatest sons of our country- the freedom fighters wanted. A Bangladesh where nobody lives under the poverty level, a country where people make their own decision or a homeland where politicians do not spend millions of Taka remembering those while thousnads dont have jobs or any mean to survive.

[Dream theater]

Originally posted by Fazal
.

Wake up people. Drink a cup of expresso.... 30 years already gone... people should find out a better excuse by now for their failure... if you guys don't find any better scapegoat then alteast blame to our night-guard wahid, it will be much more convincing though

Edited on, August 15, 2005, 5:02 PM GMT, by Fazal.

May be drinking expresso and getting high on caffine is not part of the solution. Sheikh Mujibs rule is tainted with millions of examples of misrule. Famine, killing by rakhii bahini, taking away peoples right to choice etc etc.

Would you be little more clear about your scapegoat rhetoric. It will be interesting to see whom do you blame .

[Fazal]

Originally posted by Dream theater
Would you be little more clear about your scapegoat rhetoric. It will be interesting to see whom do you blame .

Two points.

Point One:

Time factor and the time span he ruled. You can blame Mujib and his cronies for their failures around 75s and at that time. (out of 34+ years so far he ruled 4 years). And eventually he and most of his families paid price with their life for that. And to me it should be the end of all hard feelings that people may have against Mujib after 30 years. Unless someone lost his love one due to Mujib. That I can understand. But to sing the same old song as if due to Mujib;’s eveil influence we are somehow still suffering is kind of BS to me. If we are failing (in some aspect) its not due to Mujib its due to our own short-coming.

Point two.

We may think whatever we want, but unless with the help of USA and their agents, removal of Mujiib regime would never be possible. It may helped us to avoid complete one party dictatorship, but make no mistake, they didn't helped us to bring democracy for u;s they did it for their own interest. And who else (out-sider) had first-hand involvement creating the Famine during that time and the removal of Mujib? If you don't know about that do your own research with open mind. I am pretty sure you will find out..


Edited on, August 15, 2005, 6:00 PM GMT, by Fazal.

[cricfanz]

Great article and a good read. Only scrumple I have with it is the overgeneralisation of the younger post-Mujib generation. I mean, I am 16 now but was fascinated by Mujib since i was 8...(although after 14, i didn't have as much time to read up about him anymore). I really admire and respect him, but I dont believe ALL the stuff AL says about him or ALL the stuff BNP says...I guess, we have to take every piece of information and opinion with a pinch of salt...

Thats history..fabrication...

[Dream theater]

Originally posted by Fazal

Two points.

Point One:

But to sing the same old song as if due to Mujib;’s eveil influence we are somehow still suffering is kind of BS to me. If we are failing (in some aspect) its not due to Mujib its due to our own short-coming.



Edited on, August 15, 2005, 6:00 PM GMT, by Fazal.

I dont think anyone blamed Mujib for anything except what he has done. He was the ruler of Bangladesh during 1971-75 period. So , it really falls under his domain to make sure people dont die of famine, people have the minimum right to excercise their freedom. If you dont blame Mujib for the suffering during his regime whom you r gonna blame???

On your second point, yeah everyone knows foreign element was involved in the killing. It did not give us democracy on the next day but it sure paved the way for the democracy we have today.

FYI, under Ziaur Rahman first multiparty election took place. Two factions of Awami League took part.

[Fazal]

>> I dont think anyone blamed Mujib for anything except what he has done. He was the ruler of Bangladesh during 1971-75 period. So , it really falls under his domain to make sure people dont die of famine, people have the minimum right to excercise their freedom.

I do believe some people still do. And my comment was based on that as I highlighted that in my original message. Please see , "Thirty years after his execution, people still talk about evils spawned by Mujib..." by ZunaidH. I think ZunaidH.made a good observation about some people who still beleive its all Mujib's fault for their current problems.

On one hand AL tries to franchise Mujib, on the other side BNP tries rewrite history and not even give him any credit during the creation of Bangladesh. Both are pathetic.

>>If you dont blame Mujib for the suffering during his regime whom you r gonna blame???

Where did I said I don't blame him. But I also look beyond that and try to find out what are the other contributing factors there.

Sure Mujib is to blame for his misrule. But as I said before, there were other forces inside and outside who were to blame also for the famine to make it happen. And they are not our friend. Basically they made a calculated move to gain upper hand at the cost of innocent people who died the famine.

>> FYI, under Ziaur Rahman first multiparty election took place. Two factions of Awami League took part.

... and in the discussion of Mujib and his rule and there you bring the party politics and your true color. Like Mujib, Zia made his own legacy in the history as well as made his own mistakes. To discuss about his legacy and his mistakes it requires another complete separate thread.



Edited on, August 15, 2005, 7:41 PM GMT, by Fazal.

[ZunaidH]

Fazal;

Don't take anything personally. This thread was started to discuss people's knowledge of Sheikh Mujib. As DreamT points out no one is blaming Mujib for things he wasn't responsible for. Whatever I wrote are pretty much fact. How I perceive that is my personal choice though. I hope you can respect that much.

Anyone who takes a leadership role such as the head of state should accept the fact that he or she will receive some form of judgemental evaluation. If you note Americans frequently send out job approval rating for their president. On a personal note, I fail to see him as "jatir pita" and that title "Bongo bondhu" is a tad bit tacky too.

Once again, I have nothing personal against Mujib. I haven't see the independence war. At the time Mujib died, I wasn't old enough to comprehend. But, now I can see clearly things he did right and wrong from a moral/ethical point of view. I think your two points suggested you were a bit defensive on my gambling analogy. That's how I feel and there is nothing anyone can do to change. I hope you can live with that.

Edited on, August 15, 2005, 6:45 PM GMT, by ZunaidH.

[chinaman]

Instead of passing judgement and comparing with others, I think it is much more appreciable to share facts and info with honesty and without bias, if we can.

Look, nobody is 100% innocent apart from perhaps the infants. We all do make mistakes of various magnitudes, so do our leaders. Similarly, we all do good things one time or another and yet again, so do our leaders. If my leader is good/bad, that doesn't make me good/bad automatically. We are all responsible for our own deeds, irrespective of our leader's act.

I think the author of the article was looking for honest and unbiased information. It will be a grave dis-service to our country and fellow compatriot if we try to deliberately obliterate the fact, if we know one, to our convenience. Please think about it.

[ekatturerBangalee]

History remains witness to the many distortions, the varied embarrassments that Bangladesh was put through for 34 years after the killing of Bangabandhu. We all know now that Bangabandhu made many mistakes. However, the first and by far the most significant casualty of the coup was the set of political principles which had gone into the creation of Bangladesh. Secularism had been beaten black and blue; socialism was on the run; democracy was bloodied; and even nationalism was about to be tampered with. That was how the retreat of Bangladesh began, and in the years which followed 1975, military and quasi-military regimes made certain that Bangladesh politics stayed removed a good distance from what it used to be in the years in which it reflected the ethos of the country.

I salute Sraabon for his great article on the Daily Star. Our younger generation must know our past history and the supreme sacrifices of our forefathers towards the creation of a free nation that we are now proud of. The Daily Star recently published a report of Lawrence Lifschultz, a veteran US journalist, who made it clear that there was a deep-rooted conspiracy behind the dark episode of August 15. A must read for our younger generation.

************************************************** *************

“…It was the summer when citizens of the United States first heard acronyms like MONGOOSE, COINTELPRO, AM/LASH and elaborate details of assassination plots against Lumumba in the Congo, Castro in Cuba and Allende in Chile. The covert hand of American power had touched far and wide. Now the tip of the iceberg was publicly emerging so that for the first time Americans could take a clear look. Yet, all that was happening far away in Washington, in a muggy heat as sultry as any South Asian monsoon…”
“…Lifschultz in a number of investigative reports published in newspapers made it clear that Khandaker Moshtaque and a quarter of US embassy officials in Dhaka were closely involved with the small section of army officers in the August 15 coup. At long last, Lifschultz disclosed the name of his "very reliable source", the then US ambassador in Dhaka Eugene Booster with whom he has maintained close communication for the 30 years. Booster repeatedly objected to the conspiracy leading to the August 15 assassination, even issued written instruction in this regard, but failed to prevent the then station chief Philip Cherry of US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Dhaka office from doing the conspiracy. Lifschultz's plan to publish an interview of Eugene Booster in this regard remained unfulfilled as Booster passed away on July 7 last.
The new-born Bangladesh could not save herself from the wrath of then foreign secretary Henry Kissinger who could never forget that Bangladesh was born in opposition to his suggestion. Along with Salvador Allende of Chile and Taiyoo of Vietnam, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was in Kissinger's political vendetta.
What USA started during the Liberation War in 1971 with attempt to split the Awami League using Khandaker Moshtaque and his accomplices continued after the independence following a direct US instigation, resulting in the carnage on August 15, 1975. …”

http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/08/15/d5081501033.htm

[allrounder]

Can anyone take an initiative of creating a series of documentaries on the life of this controversial figure of Bangladesh? It would be great for our nation to see something that is not biased to any party politics of present and let history unfold itself.

Is it true that he was also involved in our language movement?

Also why is Awami League known as a party of Sheikh Mujib since he is not the founder of it?

While we were East Pakistan what kind of passport did we have? Did we celebrate 15th Aug as our independence for 25 years?

[sraabon]

Thanks for some wonderful comments. However, there were some that started the foolish comparison between Zia and Mujib again, the very thing I talked against in the article)

The point of the article was

1. as someone who grew up in the eighties and nineties it is hard for us to make a objective conclusion about his career because there is no authentic source.

2. The young generation do not subscribe to the idea that to like Mujib, you have to hate Zia and vice versa and you can take the best from both.

3. Personality worshipping is not something we subscribe to. Just because I criticise something about Mujib does not mean I should be termed a rajakar. This is another kind of fundamentalism that drives away people from him.

4. Mujib is not the leader of AL, he was the leader of the whole nation. So he needs to be rescued from AL and BNP needs to stop finding ways degrade him (Any one saw the 61 pound cake cutting of JCD yesterday on the news to celebrate the PM's brithday?)

That sums it up. Having talked to a lot of young folks, I realise that there is no emotional hang ups on this like our previous generation. We are ready to settle this issue, give people their due credit and move on towards the future.

That's why it is important for us to speak of this view loudly. It matters. I have gotten a ton of emails since the article was printed. A lot from older generation saying "we never thought of it this way", some from the younger generation saying "it is good to know I am not the only one who feels like this". Let's speak up with the rational voice and if you want to be active from wherever you are, you can get active in any way, whether it is banglacricket, or amadergaan or drishtipat or projectbangladesh. Just be active and show people the different way that we work together --- its the issue that binds us together not any personality or ego. We are not business as usual.

phew....how was that for a speech

Edited on, August 16, 2005, 12:16 PM GMT, by sraabon.

[Tintin]

Was there media censorship during the Zia and Irshad regime ? How else did the 'blackout' happen ?

[ZunaidH]

Originally posted by Tintin
Was there media censorship during the Zia and Irshad regime ? How else did the 'blackout' happen ?

What media censorship? There was never any constructive media in Bangladesh. Media has always been and will always be part of the evil that comes with politics in Bangladesh.

[AbedinC]

Absolutely agree with sraabon - with time, there are fewer and fewer who have those stupid hangups. Tintin, the issue wasn't so much censorship as wholesale rewriting. But because history has been rewritten on some level every 5 years, there have been two byproducts of this - 1) people my age (20-something) know that our leaders a bunch of hypocrites and liars, and more interestingly, 2) we have also come to know the different sides of our history.

2) makes many nonchalant about history too, but for those interested, it has helped us see beyond the renaming everything 'Bangabondhu'-something down to the most chipa oli-goli, and the pages and pages of trash from 'chotoder Zia' and 'Zia-r adorsho shontan' that frankly is only useful to wipe stuff off of places where the sun doesn't shine.

You won't find any leader who is free of criticism who has been involved in the scale of things that Mujib was involved in. Its easy to criticise him in retrospect, but taken in context, its a much mor difficult job. Doshe-gunei manush - a concept lost to both those who declare hartals on this day, or celebrate their birthday with 100lb cakes.

[AbedinC]

Originally posted by ZunaidH
What media censorship? There was never any constructive media in Bangladesh. Media has always been and will always be part of the evil that comes with politics in Bangladesh.

I'd beg to differ. There is a lot of trash being printed these days, but the mainstream media is one of the only things that we have left that can function as civil watchdogs.

[Dream theater]

Originally posted by Fazal

... and in the discussion of Mujib and his rule and there you bring the party politics and your true color. Like Mujib, Zia made his own legacy in the history as well as made his own mistakes. To discuss about his legacy and his mistakes it requires another complete separate thread.
Edited on, August 15, 2005, 7:41 PM GMT, by Fazal.

I agree with you that my remark there is off-topic. I will not do that in the scope of this topic.

But seeing colors in people after reading a line or two is little hasty. It reminds me of some colors I have seen before, but i will refuse to see them untill i know Better.