The former army chief
I have gone through the article by Prof. S. M. Khashru entitled 'Political Leadership and Our Armed Forces', published in the Op-Ed section of the Daily Star of 16 June, 2009. I really enjoyed his thought-provoking, enlightening, well-thought-out and well-written article in which he rightly hinted at the lesson that should have been obtained by the politicians of Bangladesh after 1/11. In this connection, it is worth mentioning here that the divine duty of the army of a country is to defend it from both internal and external threats. After October 2006, when the 4-party alliance term in office ended, the country was really in chaos. At a point, political parties started killing opponents in the streets by taking the law in their hands. They were desperate to gain control of the administration, adding further to the anarchy. The caretaker government of Prof. Iajuddin was not politically competent enough to control the situation which led to further chaos.
At that critical juncture, 1/11 had to take place to save the country. Some one other than Prof. Iajuddin had to control the situation with an iron hand. So he took the help of Dr Fakhruddin, backed by the army. It so happened that General Moeen was its head. The political situation was so bad that we all apprehended that martial law would be declared. Prof. Khasru rightly has pointed out that the politicians of the country should learn a lesson from what happened after 1/11. It was a dire necessity at the time for them to learn that they are not above the law and should explain the misdeeds and corruption committed by them, their associates and relatives. Maybe some innocent (?) politicians had been victimized. The prestige of some politicians might have been hurt.
Finally, I would like to add that it was due to the incident of 1/11 that we had a fair election and the country is back on the track to democracy.
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