The day that changed it all

On August 15, 1975 I was sleeping in my home in Algiers. A very early morning call woke me up. A colleague informed me that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had been assassinated with his whole family. I was too stunned to express any reaction.

January 1975. I reached Heathrow airport from Algiers and handed over a cheque of a million US Dollars to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He was transiting through Heathrow on his way to Dhaka from Washington DC. President Houari Boumediene had given the cheque as help for the flood affected people of brotherly Bangladesh. After receiving the cheque, Bangabndhu pulled me on the side and enquired about the situation in Algeria and particularly regarding President Houari Boumediene. I told him that the Americans were after him since assuming the Presidency of the Non-Aligned Summit in 1973, Algeria was expelling Israel from the huge continent of Africa. American attachment and friendship for Israel is well known and no wonder they were upset by the activities of the Algerian authorities. Bangabndhu told me: "Tell them that they are after me as well." These were the last words that I exchanged with Bangabandhu.

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The famous US journalist Lawrence Lifschultz visited Dhaka recently in connection with the 30th anniversary of the murder of Freedom Fighter Col. Taher. Lifschultz in his writings has hinted at possible CIA involvement in the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family. Then the head of the National Security Intelligence in Washington was Dr. Henry Kissinger, right hand man of President Richard Nixon.

In 1973 during the Non-Aligned Summit of 100 Heads of State from Asia, Africa and Latin America, Bangladesh was admitted to this vast group, which was a major breakthrough in the diplomacy of the newly independent Bangladesh. On the insistence of an Algerian delegation, which had come to Bangladesh to invite Bangabandhu, he agreed to open immediately an Embassy in Algiers and send me as the Ambassador. During the Non-Aligned Summit, the widow of the assassinated President of Chile of South America, Allende, made an appearance. Her left leaning husband had won the elections and through the CIA a coup was staged under Gen. Pinochet and Allende was gunned down in the Presidential Palace. We now know from events surrounding the coup of Brig. Khaled Musharraf, Gen. Ziaur Rahman's imprisonment within the cantonment, the sepoy revolt, where Col. Taher played a leading role and release of Gen. Zia by Taher's men. Col. Taher, the romantic preparing to take Bangladesh to its Socialist destiny, somehow came to believe that Zia was his man. Zia did not take long to hang Col. Taher within the Cantonment.

Taking charge of Bangladesh, Gen. Ziaur Rahman brought about sweeping changes. The most important of which is that he virtually threw out the 1972 Constitution. Let us recall that through the magnificent leadership of Bangabandhu the entire Bangalee nation was united in 1970-71 as never before. It is thanks to this unity that the entire nation fought like one and snatched victory. It is under Bangabandhu's leadership that the Bangalee nation became free in a thousand years.

The 1972 Constitution is the fruit of this National Unity, never to be achieved. The Constitution rests upon four pillars -- nationalism, democracy, secularism and socialism. Thanks to this Constitution Bangalees could hold their heads high within the comity of civilized nations. Gen. Zia did away with that with a stroke of pen. The word "Bangalee" had been inscribed in the Constitution to describe our nationality. It was replaced by the never used word "Bangladeshi." Pakistan also never tolerated that we be described as Bangalee. In the mid fifties the two parts came to be known as East and West Pakistan. In the late sixties, when One Unit of West Pakistan was broken up the provinces under their earlier names, namely, the Punjab, Sind, North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan reemerged but the eastern part continued to be called East Pakistan and not East Bengal! For reasons best known to them Pakistan establishment had been terrified of the name Bengal.

The regime of Zia had overtones of Islam, whereas the people of Bengal have been perfectly free from religious extremism or obscurantism. Looking for allies for his newly floated party, he withdrew all restrictions from religion based parties and Jamaat-e-Islami, which had been banned because of its collaboration with the Pakistan Occupation Army, reappeared on the political map of Bangladesh.

The nine-year dictatorship of Gen. Hussein Muhammad Ershad distinguished itself in the field of corruption and religious obscurantism got a free field to operate. He added in the constitution that "state religion will be Islam." Thus he drove the last nail in the coffin of secular character of the Constitution. The 13 million Hindus and large number of Buddhists and Christians became second class citizens of Bangladesh. In 1990 the people of Bangladesh in a magnificent display of People's Power took to the streets by the hundreds of thousands and overthrew the dictatorship of Gen. Ershad and he landed in jail. He served a five year term in jail on charges of corruption.

From dictatorship to democracy, Bangladesh has seen three elected governments and Parliamentary democracy restored. The next election is round the corner. The ruling BNP-Jamaat coalition has done everything possible to load the dice in their favour. They have installed a so called independent Election Commission, which looks to the Prime Minister's Office before taking any action. The current Government has prepared Justice K. M. Hasan to head the Caretaker Government when in late October the BNP-Jamaat hands over power. Justice Hasan is a thoroughly partisan man, having served Gen. Zia as his Ambassador in Baghdad and has been a BNP partyman. The Caretaker concept was created in Bangladesh with the hope that the Head would be a non partisan, neutral person. The current government has increased the age of judges to accommodate Justice Hasan in the post. The current hot topic is whether Gen. Ershad and his party will join the current regime in power. The truth is that Gen. Ershad's Jatiya Party has been steadily losing ground and in a recent bye election in Rangpur, the stronghold of Gen. Ershad, his candidate lost heavily against the BNP candidate in spite of Gen. Ershad spirited campaign.

In spite of election politics din and noise, a feeling of malaise hangs heavy. On that fateful night of August 15, 1975, the nation lost the greatest Bangalee and has been in the wilderness ever since. If I read the popular mood correctly, the nation is rooting for a new leader, who will pull it out of its present state and carry it to great heights. The bloody birth of the Bangalee Nation will not stop at anything less.

The writer is former Ambassador and Acting Secretary General, OIC.