"Don't get angry. You get angry with me again. I don't say anything to intellectuals. I respect them. I only say this, spend your intelligence in the service of the people. I don't say anything more than that. Will I die saying, 'Father,' they will write books against me again." Bangabandhu himself said this targeting intellectuals.
A surprising thing in Bangladesh is that most of those who succeed in educational competition are deep down low, low-minded; envious, small-minded, yet they think of themselves as pure and the bearer of extreme ideals. For Bangladesh, Bangabandhu's single selfless sacrifice, courage, thoughtfulness, proper management, and infinite efforts to take the entire nation forward as a leader are rare in the world. Yet, Bangabandhu has always been belittled by most of the educated people of this country during the Pakistan period and after independence.
The first step for any nation to move forward is to establish a political identity and gain independence. No matter how extraordinary the leadership of Bangabandhu and his political party was, Bangladesh's separate identity and independence were almost impossible to achieve. These two impossible tasks were largely possible, the reason we achieved both of them in 1971 was the extreme stupidity of the then military and civilian leadership of Pakistan, the special international situation at that time, and the presence of a Prime Minister like Indira with a tough and personality in power in India.
Without this triad, our independence would have been impossible. Mujib brought these three parties to his support with his political knowledge, honesty, straightforwardness and personality, yet for the educated people of this country, immediately after independence, that same Mujib became the great enemy of the educated elite who benefited the most after independence. There are many social and political reasons for this incident. There is the greed and jealousy of dirty military politics. There is the constant conspiracy of the brokers to sell the country to the Western masters and the religious geopolitics of the Middle East. There is the unlimited greed and arbitrariness of the privileged class that suddenly got an opportunity.
But I think there is something beyond all this that is psychological. That is the mentality of those who are highly educated, especially in professional education or STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in this country. The gap is the inability of those who are talented in a particular field of knowledge to see the whole. They are unable to see the overall reality of the rest of the world except for the subject of their own scholarship. They fill that inability by projecting imaginary ideals. In their imaginary ideals, Bhutto is wiser than Mujib, because his clothes are more stylish and his English is much better. His demeanor is heroic.
Humayun Ahmed was admitted to Dhaka University, probably in pharmacy, one day he saw a professor of chemistry. He was so impressed by his clothes and smartness that he immediately left pharmacy and enrolled in chemistry. Then he also became a professor of quantum chemistry, but the faith remained intact after the reading of the water of the Pir. Our core mentality drives us. If jealousy drives us, then even the meditation of a sage is an effort to belittle another sage, not to get close to God.
After independence, many of the leaders who started the first and strongest intellectual and armed struggle against Mujib and independence were graduates of BUET. Many of the leftists, including Siraj Sikder, were engineers. Those who supported them and joined the national and international opposition to Mujib were also highly educated.
Bangabandhu himself said:
“I told the people, I told my brothers, I told the sons of the Liberation Army, surrender your weapons. They surrendered their weapons. But a group of people - I know, those to whom Pakistan had given weapons - did not surrender their weapons. They started killing innocent people with these weapons. They even killed five members of parliament. Still, I gave elections with a constitution. But if the people of Bengal vote for me in the elections, then it is not my fault. Out of 315 seats, the people of Bengal gave me 307 seats. But a group of people say, why did the people give me power? No country seizes power through an armed revolution and gives rights to anyone like this. But they forgot the responsibility that comes with it if they want to enjoy their rights. I said, you create an opposition. They created it.
They started giving speeches. But at the same time, they started killing people in the dark. If necessary, they want to confront us with weapons. They were threatened with weapons. It started with killing people. By destroying railway lines, destroying fertilizer factories, sinking ships, they created such a situation that foreign agents who are in the country got an opportunity. Our duty is to save the people. There is a cry all around.
With the independence, the prices of all the things in the world gradually increased. We have to buy from all over the world. We have to buy food, clothes, medicine, oil. We were a colony of the British for two hundred years, a colony of Pakistan for twenty-five years. We have to buy everything from abroad. But even after that, the people of Bengal have started working by accepting the hardship. But they do not allow them to move forward and work.
Another group got an opportunity abroad. They brought money from abroad and created chaos in Bengal. They tried to destroy independence. Why am I saying this today? I have said it a lot, there was no need to say so much. But the faces of the people are flowing before my eyes. The blood of the people of my country is flowing before my eyes. The souls of my people are flowing before my eyes. All those martyred brothers are flowing before my eyes, who fell like flowers, became martyrs. On the Day of Judgment, when they say, I liberated the country with my blood, you are destroying independence, you could not protect it, then what will I answer them?”
Even today we see the same pattern. When most of the people of the country want peace, want food security, want a good future for their children. When they see a hope of getting it. They also think about the fear of being disappointed that maybe they too can get a good future if the last ten years continue as they have been doing. So most of them have given the mandate in that hope. But like 75, some educated people are not able to tolerate it. Because as soon as there is a possibility of being good, their subconscious mind gets busy to ruin it.
But then why are the talented people of other countries of the world different? They study the same subject with the same brain. I think the difference is the hyper-competition in the first life. In other countries, that is not the case. In other countries, an ordinary student acquires the qualification to become a doctor, engineer or PhD. Whereas in our country, it takes the ability to leave thousands of people behind. In this way, we select the most successful on one hand and the incapable on the other. But is this the reason for these intellectuals to commit suicide? The opportunity that the country and the nation have They are intellectuals by identity, why are they the killers of the vitality of that country and nation like Mirzafar?
I was reading why successful companies fail, why do they go bankrupt. There is a saying called Hand Grenadeing Your Own Company. When entrepreneurs' businesses are successful. When a lot of money starts coming into their hands, several entrepreneurs start making strange suicidal decisions. As a result of these decisions, the company soon falls into financial crisis. Researchers have seen that many of these entrepreneurs suffer from a subconscious negative inferiority complex about themselves. When they become successful and earn a lot of money, their subconscious mind starts feeling uncomfortable about it and thinks that they are doing something undesirable. That's when they start doing things that will make their efforts fail. This struggle with your own subconscious is very dangerous.
In 2024, we saw the final form of this suicidal Hand Grenadeing Your Own Nation.
Sirajul Hossain
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