Dhaka, Feb 21 (bdnews24.com) – Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has urged the Bangladeshis living abroad to join the government efforts to make Bangla one of the official languages at the United Nations.
"I myself have already placed a proposal before the UN General Assembly to make Bangla one of the UN official languages. I urge all Bangladeshis living abroad to raise public opinion globally in this regard," she said on Tuesday.
The prime minister made the call while inaugurating a three-day programme marking the Language Martyrs Day and the International Mother Language Day, 2012 held at the International Mother Language Institute premises at Segunbagicha in the city.
She said the International Mother Language Day "tells us to become global citizens, respectful to all. With this spirit, all countries and people of all languages will benefit. And this will lead to unity in diversity."
She recalled the contributions of language martyrs Salam, Barkat, Rafique, Jabber, Shafiur and others.
The premier said the language movement had shown the way for preservation and flourishing of Bengali language, culture, non-communal philosophy of life, democratic ideology and human values.
Referring to the making of Feb 21 as the International Mother Language Day, Hasina said that some ordinary Bengalis living in Canada had written a letter in 1998 to Kofi Annan, then secretary general of the United Nations, requesting him to accord the day the status.
"The then Awami League government was also in touch with the UN," she said.
On Nov 17, 1999, the UNESCO declared Feb 21 as the International Mother Language Day. Since then countries across the globe observe the day to promote linguistic diversity and multilingual education, and raise awareness about cultural traditions based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.
Hasina said that since 2000, the Day is being observed in 193 countries of the world in a bid to preserve and spread language and cultural diversity.
The prime minister also said that the government has taken steps to turn the International Mother Language Institute into an international organisation where researches and work to preserve languages of various ethnic people of the world would be preserved.
The prime minister said that her government's aim is to build the Bengali nation a science-oriented and technology-efficient one. "We've created scope for extensive use of Bangla in all spheres of science…it's easier to impart education and acquire knowledge in the mother tongue."
She said as part of its efforts to build Digital Bangladesh by 2021, beginning this month, the government has made mandatory installation of full-fledged Bangla key pads in basic mobile handsets of all brands. Besides, initiatives have been taken to formulate the 2nd country-coded top domain dotbangla apart from dotbd (.bd).
Stating that all those countries advancing in the innovation of information technology (IT) and their application used their mother languages, Hasina said her government has taken the initiative to use Bengali in IT. "Even the rural people can now avail of e-services."
The function was presided over by education minister Nurul Islam Nahid, also the chairman of the governing council of the International Mother Language Institute. Education secretary Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury gave the welcome address.
Prof emeritus Dr Rafiqul Islam presented the keynote paper.
bdnews24.com
