The Bengalis have been subjected to miseries and humiliation for many faults in their character. Our educated ones are mostly greedy, self-centred and some of us can be easily used to betray the greater interest of the simple natured people. We are also called ‘bloody cowards’.
We are criticised for being good at doing the worst to ourselves. We are deceitful. Betrayal played a big role in the people’s struggle for freedom and democracy while fighting the liberation war. Our liberation war became the Indo-Pak war and our leadership became disoriented. We lost our cause and our leadership.
All these flaws in our character are known to us. Our eminent persons showed no hesitation in condemning such toxic weaknesses in us and told us to be bold and better.
The government in exile formed in India was confused and armed groups were organised depending on India with arms supplied by India. So the government in exile had little or no control over various armed groups. They had no claim of being representatives of the people.
Bangladesh was freed from Pakistan army occupation through involvement of India in the war with Pakistan. Our Mukti Bahini was for preparing the ground for India to go to war. But India ignored its contribution and humiliated.
Our returnees from India as freedom fighters have turned Bangladesh into a country strange to ourselves. While they behaved like victorious war heroes, at the same time they betrayed the people’s cause of freedom.
Some of these groups started fighting among us for grabbing power. Popular elections were rendered redundant. Few others were anxious to treat our people as defeated ones forgetting how fast they fled the country when the military operation commenced. Things went so wrong with us in nine months of their stay in India.
The ocean of blood our people gave and extreme sacrifices made to keep Bangladesh as theirs are shamelessly ignored. Their liaison with India is their glorious achievement and not what the people aspired.
Our government in exile in India was too weak in the unplanned circumstances. Bangabandhu’s clear direction to the leaders was not to go to India. But he himself went to West Pakistan and leadership went to India. Some of his young followers seemed to have planned it.
So our leadership was also betrayed by those self-styled heroes. Each group became ambitious for power grabbing with no respect for people and no consideration of their ability. They had guns supplied for the liberation war and used for making the country violent, unsafe and corrupt.
The international community has now officially rejected Bangladesh as a democratic country. The US has imposed sanctions on special police force RAB and some others for their excesses in violating human rights.
We have earned the reputation as liars with no shame to provide the IMF with highly exaggerated foreign exchange reserves. The lies do not last yet, it is everywhere in the management of the government.
A country is not a piece of land. The country is of the people and for the people. The success is known by the success in improving the quality of life and happiness of the people. Our people have been denied their right to choose the government and are living in fear of the government.
The government goes around telling the people of the mega projects not yet completed. Thieves are more efficient in stealing money from mega projects. We need projects for uplifting poor and unemployed young ones.
Murders have become easy so have the death sentences. This is murders versus murders. The government policy remains unchanged in using students as muscle men of politics of panic. Crimes are freely committed by the party men. The government has no guilty feelings. Life is to be insecured if the undemocratic governments have to be safe in power.
The new image of Bangladesh is a thuggish country where decent disagreement is impossible. The reason of logic has place in governance. The young ones have no hope of a better future.
The self-destruction activities cannot go on in a decent country. We must change our thuggish and vulgar image. We cannot abandon our inherent decency and must end our degrading image forever. Our democratic people do not want to be seen as undemocratic and uncivilised.
The democratic world must “lock arms to safeguard democracy” as pleaded by the US President Biden. He called for safeguarding rights and freedom in the face of rising authoritarianism – the “defining challenge of the current era”. Disarm the dictators and they will have no place to hide. The autocrats dehumanise the people and the world if they have their way for our heedlessness.
