Editorial
Dr. Wazed Mia's passing
The nation loses a man of great simplicity and integrity
WE mourn the passing away of Dr. MA Wazed Miah. In his death, the country has lost not only a man of remarkable integrity but also a scientist of national as well as international repute. It is these two attributes which in his lifetime created for him the good reputation that in his death endures. Noted for his academic and intellectual brilliance, Wazed Mia perhaps could have gone further than he did as a scientist. But the kind of man he was, maybe he did not quite feel that way about himself. The self-effacing about him was all.
As the spouse of one of the foremost political figures in the country, he played his role as the ideal companion to her and indeed was Sheikh Hasina's constant source of strength as she immersed herself in the wide, volatile world of politics. As the son-in-law of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Wazed Mia was witness to some of the momentous events in the history of this nation. Yet he was never involved in politics. Even so, in the trying times when Bangabandhu and then Sheikh Hasina faced one obstacle after the other, he provided strong emotional support to the family he had married into.
Wazed Miah's patience and strength were tested in the period immediately after the tragic happenings of August 15, 1975 when it fell on him to deal with the trauma in which his wife and his sister-in-law found themselves in foreign land. For the next six years, as he and Sheikh Hasina, with their children, lived a life of exile in India, Dr. Wazed Miah remained the one pillar of strength for his family. It was fundamentally his strong encouragement and support that left his wife free to pursue her political career. As a husband, as a man with his own career to handle, he opted to remain in the background, so much so that he never gave anyone any opportunity to question his integrity as an individual. His proximity to power, both in Bangabandhu's era as also in his wife's time, failed to arouse in him any urge to derive any advantage from his situation. The nuclear scientist was meticulous in maintaining his individuality and certainly did not allow it to overlap with the broader role Sheikh Hasina had assumed for herself in national politics.
Wazed Miah was a decent man, a gentleman to the core. That he inspired respect in everyone was demonstrated clearly when the leader of the opposition rushed, once news of his death came through, to comfort the prime minister. It was a flickering moment. But it speaks of the huge degree of respect the scientist enjoyed -- and enjoys -- as a person.
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