16 May, 2012
Letter to Sheikh Hasina
BY DR. ALI ALGHAMDY
Your Excellency, let me introduce myself to you as a Saudi diplomat who visited Bangladesh before it became independent. I was dispatched in the 1960s by the Saudi government to Chittagong to issue Bangladeshi pilgrims Haj visas. In the 1980s I returned to Bangladesh as a plenipotentiary at the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka.
After retirement, a group of people who love Bangladesh decided to form the Saudi-Bangladeshi Friendship Association in Jeddah. Our objective was to strengthen bilateral relations and help the Bangladesh workforce in the Kingdom. I was honored to be appointed the secretary general of the association. As founders, we did not have any material interests – we just wanted to enhance the relations between the Kingdom and the world's third largest Muslim country.
I was honored to meet your father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Karachi, specifically at the Round-Table Conference which was held at the behest of President Ayub Khan. The reception was held by G. M. Sayed, Pakistani politician, and I was one of the invitees. I met your father there and was impressed by his charisma and eloquence.
I was honored also to meet you when I was assigned to the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka. During the rule of General Hussein Muhammad Ershad, I followed your activities.
I still vividly remember the day when opposition leaders were arrested and when policemen approached you to arrest you. You said: "Do not touch me, I'm a Muslim woman." This incident depicted the fact that you are a God-fearing Muslim woman. Besides, you were always keen to perform Umrah whenever you had a chance.
For all these reasons, I would like you to read the following points with mercy and justice.
1. You know very well the difficult circumstances your father faced following his release from prison and return to Dhaka where he took over as Prime Minister and worked hard to solve the problems from which the country was suffering. He issued several laws including the war crimes law by which 195 Pakistani military officers were convicted. The law did not include any Bangladeshi civilian or politician. Besides, the 195 officers were later pardoned, thus your father won the praise and admiration of the entire Muslim world. At the time, he made his famous statement: "I want the world to know that Bangladeshis can forgive and forget."
2. At the time of your father's tenure, the government passed a law incriminating those who collaborated with the Pakistani army. Although over 100,000 individuals were arrested, none of them were politicians. Your father decided to pardon and release them. Throughout his tenure, he never leveled charges against any politician. When you became the Prime Minister following the 1996 elections, you did the same. You did not accuse nor did you arrest anyone for war crimes or collaboration with the Pakistani military. You did not do that because your father was decisive about this matter and he pardoned all the individuals involved.
3. Everyone was surprised when the wise decisions taken by your father were annulled and the issue of war crimes surfaced again. Some consider the revocation of these decisions as disrespect to your father, which is an unacceptable matter. Among those who opposed such revocation was the opposition party and your former government.
4. Nothing can justify the unjust decision to arrest Muslim leaders who were not arrested during your father's tenure and yours as well. This decision does not bring any good to the country; on the contrary, it divides people and stirs up trouble, a matter which has direct detrimental consequences to you as the leader of the world's third largest Muslim country. As someone who loves Bangladesh and its people, I would like to say that many Muslim leaders all over the Muslim world are upset about the arrest of Muslim groups and leaders such as Professor Ghulam Azam who was accused of charges that no one would believe. He was charged with things that were done 40 years ago. He was not charged with them at the time.
5. I hope that you will reconsider the decision of arresting those Muslim groups and leaders without justification for such arrests. For the sake of your father who did not arrest anyone on similar charges at the time, please order the release of those arrested as such a decision will win you people's appreciation and will be a way of showing your deep love for your late father.
— Dr. Ali Alghamdy is a former Saudi diplomat who specializes in Southeast Asian affairs. He can be reached at algham@hotmail.com
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