Remembering Bangabandhu

It is unfortunate that no government other than the AL government of 1996 showed any interest in repealing the Indemnity Ordinance that shielded the killers from the law, or has shown any interest in prosecuting them for their crimes. Please recall that apart from the killing of the Sheikh, their crimes included the murder of all but two of the Sheikh's immediate family, let alone several members of the extended family.

The fact that successive Bangladesh governments had failed to repeal the Indemnity Ordinance, and that, to this day, the murder case has not been brought to a close remains a blot on the nation's conscience.

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For the sake of the nation and in the name of common decency and truth, the efforts to erase the Sheikh from history must stop. The Sheikh's leadership of the liberation war is an integral part of the history of Bangladesh, and efforts to airbrush his role out of history or to diminish his iconic stature in the eyes of the people, are both unhistorical and evidence of a lamentable smallness of mind and spirit.

If a nation cannot find it within itself to honour its heroes and leaders and founders it is in danger of losing its soul. Let us never try to remove Bangabandhu from the pedestal of greatness his leadership so richly deserved.

The Daily Star since its early days has been calling for making August 15 a national mourning day, and we do so again today. Honouring the memory of Bangabandhu should be above politics and partisanship. He belongs to the entire nation and must be honoured as such.