The spirit of the liberation is not something to be learned now from those who were born afterwards. It was known when Awami League was born in 1949 to fight for democracy. More elaborate arrangement was embodied in the six-point programme launched by Awami League to provide the economic backbone for democracy to work without depending on the politics of West Pakistan.If democracy is not the spirit of liberation war then that spirit of the liberation is not ours and it is for them to spell that out for our people to judge. They may find out the reasons for the difficulties they are having for getting an elected government of their own.Everybody knows from the beginning that there are many things hidden in the story of our liberation war. Those in the government should be careful to claim full credit with all the arrogance that went with it for the liberation of the country. No care was shown also for those who gave their lives without leaving the country or surrendering to the occupation army of Pakistan. Mr Bhutto’s vicious and highly ambitious conspiracy used the army as it was used.Now the questions are being raised more bitterly about who were genuine freedom fighters and who were not. To be treated as freedom fighters it is now asked who got paid by whom? Mr Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, a freedom fighter, is not ready to accept the martyred intellectuals as freedom fighters who were killed during the liberation war by Pakistan occupation army. The reason being they were in the employment of the government of Pakistan and getting salaries from Pakistan government.He quite disrespectfully called the martyred intellectuals fools saying by implication that they should have also left the country for their safety like the others.Any sensible man will have no hesitation to admit that to go to war was not our plan, it was thrust on us. We had no preparations for war. Our belief was in a negotiated settlement. Their (martyred intellectuals) fault was they stayed by the side of the people.The background of the liberation war had complications for which there is no easy or simple explanation. Mr Goyeshwar may be able to tell us who paid the expenses of the freedom fighters like him in India. The exiled government of Bangladesh had no money of their own. The source of money had to be India and some other countries. It is also said, but we could not be sure that the Bengali government officers who defected were fully compensated. It cannot be denied that Pakistan was our country and we created it. The money paid as salaries to the martyred intellectuals was our tax paid money.One can more specifically seek to know on whose money our other university teachers maintained themselves in India? Such questions are not relevant if we want to achieve the supreme purpose of the democratic struggle of our people leading to the liberation war in 1971.After more than forty years if anybody gives a new definition and different complexion to united liberation war for making the same a class affairs of only those who went to India that will not make things easier for them.But those in the government have not to do the job of historians, they have to prove their ability to govern the country. Let them talk about their ability to govern. The fact of remaining in power and showing success in governance cannot be the same thing. Who is a freedom fighter is no consideration for running the government efficiently, although in our view, we are all freedom fighters. One may be a good freedom fighter but no ability to run a government.The government should be sensible enough not to rely on corrupt sycophants to know how unsafe the country has become under their mismanagement. Engineering the elections and running the government successfully are different things. For running a good government one needs honesty, sense of public services and overall public support.
