Shahnoor Wahid
It is encouraging to note that young educated men and women are showing interest to join the Awami League with the intent of serving the country at every possible sector – from economy to education, from development to diplomacy. Highly educated young leaders in the party have already climbed the ladder from the lowest rung and have become MPs and even state ministers in the present government. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has her system of identifying such talented young men and women and she never hesitates to award them with the right position where they will be able to show their best potential.
This trend points at the open arm policy of AL, which is to welcome worthy young leaders to work side by side with senior leaders and learn from them about the political philosophy of Awami League because one day they will take up the responsibility of leadership at the top. The 70-year history of Awami League is the history of creating right leaders for the people.
In this connection we can recall that the political party Awami League has celebrated its 70th birthday a couple of weeks back. It no doubt has a checkered history with many milestones along the way in the journey. Not all political parties can boast of giving leadership to a long-drawn mass movement that culminates in achieving the target – Freedom. We have read the history of the Bolsheviks fighting the Tzar army in Russia and the Communist Party of Cuba that fought the army of dictator Batista.
Awami League is one such political party that could organize a movement of a large number of people, nearly 7.5 crore, and give them direction towards one single goal-- Freedom. Freedom from the rule of Pakistani occupying forces, and it did it successfully in 1971. The journey of Awami League since inception was aimed at ending autocratic rule of the Pakistanis and creation of an independent nation state named Bangladesh.
It did not take long for Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to understand that the West Pakistanis only wanted to exploit the riches of the land of Bengal. He correctly guessed that they had no great love for the people of the land. The rush of the Adamjees and Bawanis and dozens of cunning Pakistani businessmen and industrialists to East Pakistan opened his eyes regarding their intent.
Getting the Pakistanis out of the country in a peaceful way became his main objective, especially after the 1952 language movement when Bengalis were shot dead for demanding Bangla as one of the state languages of Pakistan. In order to give impetus to his desire he directed his politics towards invoking the spirit of total freedom from the Pakistanis in the hearts of the 7.5 crore people.
Bangabandhu was largely successful because of the youths of the country who rallied behind him in the movement for independence. He was lucky to have this highly motivated young force to carry forward the war of liberation even in his absence.
