Retired civil servant Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury’s memoir has captured his ordeals during the 2007 emergency, better known as the 1/11 regime, so vividly that it has emerged as a documented history of the time when a unconstitutional administration was running the show.
Published : 17 Mar 2018, 01:53 AM
The book was officially launched on Friday at the National Press Club’s VIP Lounge in a ceremony, attended by Finance Minister AMA Muhith and bdnews24.com Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi among others.
Describing the autobiography as “almost poetry”, Muhith said the book highlights the two most important times — the 1971 War of Independence and the time in jail in 2008, during the emergency.
“I must also make a comment on another thing … It’s a very good piece of literature,” said the finance minister, an English graduate from Dhaka University.
As a key organiser of the momentous events, he was part of that phase in national history. Indeed, he contributed to making the history.
In his book, Chowdhury went beyond the war that shaped and reshaped the life of the nation and the bloody history that took away innocence – the imposition of emergency in 2007 by an unconstitutional government.
Speaking at the discussion, bdnews24.com Editor-in-Chief Toufique Khalidi said 1971 evoked all kinds of emotions in most of the people in Bangladesh, but that’s not the case for some.
“And the number of that breed seems to be getting bigger in today’s Bangladesh. At least one gets that kind of feeling, going by all the perversity they display on cyberspace, on the social media,” he said.
Describing the 2007 clamping of emergency as the ‘third military regime in Bangladesh’, Khalidi said it was a significant episode in the nation’s history.
“Yes, I call that military-installed, military-controlled administration, a military government not just because one of its rogue, talkative Cabinet members accidentally admitted that it was essentially a military government with a civilian facade, but because it acted, in all its propensity, as one. It defied the rule of law, dictated the proceedings in the courtrooms, showed no respect for due process in anything it did.”
“Dr Chowdhury’s ordeal was orchestrated by one such major, he tells us in the book.”
People in the media knew a lot about what transpired behind the scenes, Khalidi said.
“Because many of us in the media suffered, many obliged and some were having a field day having proclaimed publicly that this was their government. One of these editors even told the man in charge of the information ministry — ‘this is our government, we brought about this change, you must listen to us’.”
Army officers were feeding stories and the editors were happy to run those without verifying, he said.
“Years later, the admission came on a live television show. The government mishandled it, and the editor not only retained his job, some American organisation rewarded him with an award for bravery.”
But it was not only editors, but academics who also followed suit, said Khalidi, recounting that while some university teachers were being humiliated by the army, others were lobbying to become vice-chancellors.
“We know of professors issuing statements in favour of those who brutally assaulted students on the Dhaka University campus in that cruel month of August in 2007. We know a bit more because seven of my colleagues were assigned to cover those events. Some newspapers did not even report the incidents for up to three days.”
“We know who that Brigadier A was. Has the democratic government done anything about that Brigadier A and the likes? Of course, it is easier said than done.”
Pointing out that the people of Bangladesh are known to have a very short memory, Khalidi said the book will help those who tend to forget things. “And one needs to recognise the fact that there’s a difference between forgetting and forgiving. Rewarding is a very different matter altogether.”
According to him, “Chariot of Life” tells a lot about the author’s childhood, youth, upbringing, values, family and friends, life in civil service and the days in 1971.
The book will do a great service to the generation educated in English medium schools and abroad, who, in his view, have been missing out on things that are mostly available in Bangla.
Suggesting a Bangla version to serve a wider as well as important audience, Khalidi said: “As you progress through the pages of Chariot of Life, you can tell the author has had a certain kind of audience in mind, not just the kind of audience here in this hall today. His getting into some obvious detail and backgrounding is deliberate and targets that audience. He tries to deal with that disconnect.”
"Jail is for criminals and the unwanted people. When a freedom fighter, who put his life on the frontline in war, is sent to jail (for political reasons), that is socially humiliating," he said.
"This glumness is there in the book. He is not alone to have experienced this but many others have similar experience,” said Iqbal Sobhan, also editor of The Daily Observer and chairman of DBC News.
"Those who have fought for the country, worked for the country should not face such harassment or go to jail like a petty criminal in future."
He said the book did not only provide a chronology of events but portrayed a picture of that period as well.
"On the one hand, he (the writer) narrated the time of the war, and on the other, he shared his experience of his time in the administrations.
"He has documented the events in a way that they would interest the readers here in Bangladesh and abroad,” Iqbal Sobhan added.
Syed Badrul Ahsan, associate editor of The Asian Age, said: "He wrote about two chapters of his life. He was kept in the jail cell where four national leaders had been killed."
"He was taken to court; sitting in front of the judge along with Sheikh Hasina. The attitude the judge showed was that neither Sheikh Hasina nor Tawfiq-e-Elahi would ever get out of jail."
He lucidly described the courtroom scene in his book, he added.
The memoir also describes his prison van journey through the Dhaka University campus. The writer saw that the students were roaming around the campus, utterly unaware that a freedom fighter was inside the prison van, said Badrul Ahsan.
Syed Ishtiaque Reza, director of news at Ekattor TV, said the 1/11 episode is one of the important chapters in the book as the takeover was a rare incident in Bangladesh's history.
"The emergency government in 2007 was brought by the civil society and backed by the army. There’s no other example of such combination in the world," he added.
"I think the best part of the book is the description of his time at the Dhaka Central Jail. The description came from the bottom of his heart. His emotion and feelings as a human being are very vivid," she added.
Ekushey Padak winner poet Hayat Saif said, "I think this book is a classical kind of masterpiece. The lucid description will keep the readers glued to the book from the beginning to the end."
The publisher of the book, Robin Ahsan, from Shrabon Prokashoni, delivered the address of welcome while former chief of the Voice of America Bengali Service Iqbal Bahar Chowdhury made the concluding remarks.
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