UNB, Dhaka :
Terming poverty the main enemy of South Asia, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday urged all, including poets and littérateurs, to work together to ensure peace in the region by freeing it from poverty.
“The main enemy of this South Asia region and the Saarc countries is poverty and we’ll have to come out of its vicious cycle, and this is our main target,” she said.
The Prime Minister said, “Let’s work together to turn South Asia into a poverty-free and peaceful region so that the people of this area could lead a better life.”
Hasina was addressing the inaugural function of the two-day Saarc Literary Festival -2014 organised by WRITE Foundation, the Bangladesh chapter of the Foundation of Saarc Writers and Littérateurs, at the National Museum at Shahbagh in the capital yesterday. The Festival has been organised aiming to promote literary and cultural activities in the Saarc member countries with the theme of ‘Beyond Borders: Towards Trust and Reconciliation’.
Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor, President of the Foundation of Saarc Writers and Literature Ajeet Cour and Eminent poet and writer Syed Shamsul Haq also spoke at the function. President of the WRITE Foundation Selina Hossain delivered the welcome address. WRITE Foundation general secretary Rubana Huq gave the vote of thanks.
Speaking at the function, the Prime Minister expressed her belief that the real life-oriented literature could bring back people from the darkness of clashes and ferocities to the path of light.
Sheikh Hasina said, illiteracy, ignorance and narrowness on religious knowledge are some of the major problems which are creating obstacles to enrichment of the people in the region.
Stressing the need for maintaining close contact among the people of the region, the Prime Minister said politicians and cultural-minded people are the most capable sections of society in creating bonds among the nations as culture and literature have no geographical boundary.
The premier said literature not only arouses the artistic bent of mind but also works as the lighthouse of a nation. “Literature is the highway of human history. Traveling through this highway, people across the world are interconnected.”
Hasina said that the Saarc countries are interlinked when it comes to history, tradition and literature-culture and language. The geographical boundaries separated people, but their mindset, and hopes and aspirations are identical.
Noting that literature is very important for any society, the Prime Minister said a society which advances through nurturing of literature could never be suppressed like in the case of Bangladesh.
“Those who unearth their own lives through the practice of literature; then flourish of their language, culture and literature would happen,” she added.
