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Birth Anniversary

Zia -- a visionary leader

Zia ruled the country with undiminishing ieal to restore peoples' confidence, hopes and aspirations. Soon the deteriorating law and order situation returned to normalcy. During his brief rule, Zia ensured justice and fair-play in all walks of national life and took steps to help rejuvenate the sagging economy.

Z. A. Khan
IT was about 10 O'clock in the morning when I opened the window of my office to take a look at the Calu Turag river that carries tons of silver coloured water on her chest. I saw some patches of dark grey cloud racing to gobble up the crimson red sun that was travelling along the midstream of TUrag. The leafy green trees in the surrounding seemed still. At a distance I could see a few soldiers in their marching fatigues sitting around a radio and listening to something. Some of them were wiping their eyes frequently.
Was it sweat or tears rolling down from their eyes? For a while the sound of thunder stopped and I heard a wailing sound from all around penetrating the walls and doors of my office. I dashed out of my office to reach a gathering of colleagues, only to learn about the end of President Zia who was killed by a group of ambitious young officers in Chittagong.
I was dumbfounded, aghast and short of breath, as if I was collapsing, and felt that the world had stopped
for a while. When 1 got my breath back I could see hundreds of soldiers returning to their billets with their heads down and handkerchiefs in their hands, probably to wipe the tears rolling ceaselessly down their cheeks.
As I took a look around, I saw office orderlies closing the doors of the offices and shopkeepers pulling down their shutters. The sound of honking (if at all) of vehicles was muffled by the sounds of wailing of hundreds of the soldiers of Mirpur Cantonment As I walked to my car a while later I felt weightless and blank.
While in the car. I asked myself why this ghastly act was committed on a person through whose voice so many people heard the call for independence of Bangladesh, and who had steered it out from a downhill slide.
Meanwhile. I prayed for salvation of his soul and wept a little, but no one saw it Daylight, even at midday, was getting feeble as the sun was completely obscured by the cloud. A pall of gloom prevailed upon the country.
Major General Ziaur Rahman became a legendary name in
Bangladesh for his commitment and devotion to his country. A valiant Ziaur Rahman not only gave a clarion call on March 27, '71, to unitedly fight the occupation force, that had let loose a reign of terror, till our independence was won, but also left an unforgettable mark of his valour in the Indo-Pak war of 1965 and in our Liberation War in 1971.
He was made the Chief of Army Staff in August 1975, when the country was in dire straits and rudderless. Zia ruled the country with undiminishing zeal to restore peoples' confidence, hopes and aspirations. Soon the deteriorating law and order situation returned to normalcy.
During his brief rule, Zia ensured justice and fair-play in all walks of national life and took steps to help rejuvenate the sagging economy. Although he engrossed himself in boosting the economy, he did not lose sight of the necessity of uniting the people who were divided.
His canal-digging programme was a unique scheme to get people of all hues to interact and, thus, a lot of misunderstanding was removed. Government participation in that
program narrowed the gap between the people and the administration. The entire country was busy with development activities and moving towards national unity. •
He often told the people that Bangladesh had huge potential to be a self-reliant country if could develop result oriented organisations. which was possible through organised training of our people. 1 Ie moved from pillar to post to raise funds to finance projects that would make the nation self-sufficient.
He saw to it that no plan was made that was not attainable and encouraged participatory management, ensuring accountability at the lowest level of administration. The introduction of Gram Sarkar was a milestone in his scheme of decentralising the administration.
He thought that unless the huge number of unemployed youths could be brought in to take part in nation building activities, they could become dejected and socially rejected. In this regard, he opened a Ministry of Youth, and asked it to undertake projects that would enable the rural unemployed youth to work in factories and farms or open up small businesses.
His opening of the Women Affairs Ministry will go a long way in recognising the necessity to utilise a large portion of our idle and neglected population, without whom total development of the nation would be hampered. Zia also understood that to build a nation on a strong foundation, children should be motivated so that when they grew up they could play a responsible role in the rortrnry's dcvckipmenr and thtit is why he established tire Shishu Academy.
It was he who ensured that the sick industries were refurbished to work in two shifts so that our dependence nn foreign support was decreased.
In politics and diplomacy his contribution was salutary. He reintroduced multiparty democracy, because all political parties had been disbandedto create BaksaL Zia also revoked the ban on all newspapers that were closed by Baksal. He always encouraged constructive criticism and free flow of public opinion. At diplomatic level his major success was to sign the Ganges Water Sharing Accord with India, with a guarantee clause of supply of 40,000 cusecs of water in the lean period.
Another major success of Zia was the formation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc). He thought that if Bangladesh had to survive while being a small country in the neighbourhood of India, she had to make India accommodate the wishes of our people, to respect our territorial integrity and to allow trade and commerce for proportional benefit
Zia convinced all countries of the South Asian region about its necessity. The idea was to create an environment of regional cooperation where any country not joining would be looked upon as being isolationist. This created pressure on all the countries to join, especially on India. It was during Zia's time that the world at large recognised the potential of Bangladesh and extended hands of friendship and cooperation.
Zia's trouble-shooting capability was so astute and sharp that he was invited to arbitrate many vexed disputes in various parts of the 'Muslimwnrld.> f i •
Zia. an illustrious son of the soil, will remain a luminary in the future for his contribution in making Bangladesh reach towards its potential. He inspired us to think that we were free subjects of the nation, and inculcated pride in us. He led us to forget our brief Baksal past and emboldened us to be selfdependent and self-sustaining.
While politics at that time made the nations factions, Zia injected in us a spirit of brotherhood to work hand-in-gloves for developing the country. Zia is still living with dignity in our memory as the man who gave Bangladesh anew status.
Today. Bangladesh is politically crises stricken. There is barely any respect for political belief as the political stalwarts made hay while the sun was shining, with the help of guns, goons and gold. This had consigned our hopes for development to obscurity, and landed our nation into a state of frustration and disorder.
Zia's selfless low for the country can serve as a uniting spirit now; only thus can we do our progeny proud. A new opportunity has been offered to us by the caretaker government supported by the armed forces. ZA Khan is a former senior rmitary officer.