Editorial
The passing of KG Mustafa
He kept faith with his beliefs
K.G. Mustafa belonged to a generation we can rightly regard as pioneers in our world of journalism. His death at the age of eighty-four is therefore a harking back to a time when values underscored the presentation of news and with that a formulation of opinion in newspapers. Throughout his adult life (and it actually commenced in his teens), Mustafa made it a point to remain steadfast to the vocation he had opted for, a position he did not waver from in his long life. Following the partition of 1947, he clearly seemed to have decided that while the newspaper was going to be his preoccupation, both as a principle and as a profession, it would also serve as a vehicle for the promotion of political and social causes. The trajectory of his life shows all too well that Mustafa upheld the causes he believed in. In the chaotic politics of 1950s Pakistan, followed by the harshness of the decade-long Ayub military regime, Mustafa and a very large number of his peers saw little reason to suspend the battle for truth.
Mustafa's long career in many ways went beyond the call of journalism. His identification with such progressive causes as the 1952 language movement was an obvious pointer to the path he had chosen for himself. In the more dramatic era of the 1960s, when Bengali nationalism was beginning to be defined in all the substance of purposeful politics through the Six Points and related developments, Mustafa knew he needed to make his contribution to politics as it was fast shaping up before the nation. Like many others in his profession and millions of people across a soon to be liberated country, he played his role with finesse and with foresight. It was his singular devotion to the Bangladesh cause, his dedication to the task of seeing it reach fruition, that convinced Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that Mustafa's was a voice that needed to speak for the country abroad. In Lebanon and then Iraq, the diplomat in Mustafa made a deep, necessary impression. There are yet people around who speak of the skills he employed as our ambassador in a region desirous of understanding Bangladesh a little deeper than it had till then.
Our tribute to K.G. Mustafa is, therefore, a recalling of the times and the values that defined the generation he belonged to. Mustafa believed in a higher purpose that underlined journalism. And he kept faith with that belief right till the end. And we are today left a good deal poorer by his passing.
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