Foreign ministry on Wednesday started ‘Bangabandhu Lecture Series’ with former Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith as first lecturer while Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Kumar Sen is scheduled to appear at the second lecture on Bangladesh’s founding father.
“We need to do research on his (Bangabandhu’s) life, his legacy and his way of thinking,” said foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen in his virtual welcome speech while inaugurating the Bangabandhu Lecture Series, held at newly built Foreign Service Academy at the Sugandha marking the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“In this historic month of December, we started a historic event, the Bangabandhu Lecture Series …. in the next month, we propose to have Nobel Laureate Professor AK Sen as our keynote speaker,” Dr Momen announced while welcoming former Finance Minister Muhith as the first lecturer.
The foreign minister said Bangabandhu was an institution, a visionary leader who spent his entire life especially to establish rights of people, to end discrimination, disparity and deprivation and to empower people.
“He was an ardent believer of democracy, rule of law and people’s power. He was truly a friend of common people,” he said.
To know better vision and wisdom of the Father of the Nation, Momen said foreign ministry has recently established the “Bangabandhu Center for Diplomatic Strategy and Research” at the Shugonda, the 1st office of Bangabandhu as the head of the government of independent and sovereign Bangladesh.
“Bangabandhu always said, “Peace is essential for development.” Therefore, we proposed to organize the “World Peace Conference” in Bangladesh next year during our 50th anniversary of independence of Bangladesh,” Momen said.
During this ongoing Mujib Borsho, he said, the foreign ministry has established 68 “Bangabandhu Corners” out of our 78 missions abroad and decided to honor and recognize two outstanding diplomats each year; one a Bangladeshi diplomat, and another a foreign diplomat serving in Bangladesh.
“We hope to declare the names of the Gold Medal Awardees on the 16th December, on our Victory Day,” he added.
In his lecture, AMA Muhith said Bangabandhu was not just a man for Bangladesh but a great man for the world having the nation-building capacity starting from zero, a rare quality in the world.
“The world must be proud of him. He had the capacity of building a nation from nothing, from zero,” he said.
He recalled the then legislature passed 519 laws and covered almost all the areas of public concern during the Bangabandhu’s three years and seven months tenure as the Prime minister.
“The law of the Sea, it was almost a decade later that the principles of the consensus for the Law of the Sea were adopted by the global conference on the Law of the Sea. But Bangabandhu passed a Maritime Law in 1974,” he said.
Terming Bangabandhu’s assassination the most unexpected one, he said, Bangabandhu could not think that anybody in Bangladesh would be assassinating him.
“Bangabandhu always demonstrated his determination and courage as well as generosity and compassion for the poor. He is a rare breed of great man,” he added.
(Source: BSS)
