The New Nation - Internet Edition

The Bangladesh School Text Book Board seems reluctant to recognise the contributions of late President Ziaur Rahman in the war of independence, in protecting the nation from anarchy in 1975 and in forming the SAARC. But who does not know that the formal declaration of independence by Ziaur Rahman sparkled the spirits of independence and stimulated the nation deserted by the political leaders in the event of military crackdown on the night of 25th march. It is he who saved the nation and the Armed Forces from complete chaos in November 1975. It is he who dreamt of a regional body on the South Asian countries. Whoso does not want to recognise the truth denies the history.

We know that history is record of the past events. It does not make any prediction nor adds manufactured stories. We also firmly believe that the historic 7th March speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the architect of Bangladesh, guided the nation to freedom, no matter he was in the Lahore jail.

Today how many of us know the history of Dhaka University and the language movement? How many of us are aware of the contributions of Nawab Sir Salimullah and Nawab Ali Chowdhury in establishing Dhaka University? Do we know that Tamuddun Majlsh founded by Principal Abul Kashem is the architect of great language movement? The nation which does not know its beginning cannot shine in life, rather crawls in every step.

Today I have a question to all how many people were killed in 1971? How many of them were Bengali speaking and how many of them were Urdu speaking? The death toll we often quote was totally computed one, it is more or less a guess figure? One must agree with the fact that man is not angel that he will know everything in a moment.

We do not like to divide the nation. Disunity halts the progress and benefits the enemies. A Vietnamese journalist said, we do not want to waste time debating on the matter who collaborated with the USA against us. We aim at a prosperous Vietnam through united efforts.

Abdullah Akber

Chittagong