Judicious responses to my following post might have, I am afraid, left an impression in the minds of the respectable free thinkers that I am a great fan of Zia, which I am absolutely not as should be evident from my earlier posts on Zia. I have used the word "undid" to summarize all the notorious things he did. He undid our basic constitutional principles. He undid the very political system based on which the country could have moved forward the democratic movement towards perfection. He has made every thing almost a mission possible and we are now in a total mess.
I have used the word "pragmatism" in a narrow sense--it was a pragmatism exclusively from the perspective of Zia and his perpetuating the power.
Yes, every ruler has made "adjustment" and is still making "adjustment" with the foreign interests. It is the power politics. They will compromise at the costs of national pride and freedom and stay in power. We wish our rulers would not give in and work independently. The solution is not very realistic as our leaders would not risk losing power. This makes us as a nation unfortunate. And we know we are not alone.
Again I insist that we do not need a foreign ruler to take care of our business. I am conscious that it will not happen in one day. Our leaders should have greater reliance on people and that should be the source of their strength.
Sent from my iPhone
Sent from my iPhone
The Zia example does not prove that he was a man of low self esteem. The opposite was true. With his high self esteem and iron rule he did and undid things to his people and the political system of Bangladesh which nobody else could do. He would have never welcomed physically a foreign agent to supervise his job as the head of the country and the head of the state. This is true for any ruler Bangladesh has ever seen.
It is possible that under Saudi request Zia stopped deploying female police on the street. Now as nation heavily dependent on foreign aid and earnings, Zia simply took a pragmatic decision. And this is typical of any ruler we have seen so far. It has nothing to do with the self esteem of a particular leader.I was referring to those intellectuals who believe from heart that the people of Bangladesh are not capable of running their own show and hence they need a foreign ruler.
Sent from my iPhoneMr. Chakrabarty is not aware that much of the administrative decisions
are apparently not homegrown. Not long ago, it came from Pindi; now
it comes from Delhi. A lot comes also from New York, Peking and
Washington. During the tenure of Zia-ur-Rahman, Female Police were
not allowed on the street by an order from Saudi Arabia.
Before SC measures the self esteem of someone else, he should do it to his own.
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