Editorial
Happy birthday to Nelson Mandela!
He is a tower of strength to humanity
WITH the rest of the world, we wish a happy birthday to Nelson Mandela as he turned 95 yesterday. The UN also marks the day as Nelson Mandela Day to celebrate the idea that each individual has the power to transform the world.
In fact, the entire life of Mandeal bears testimony to how as an individual imbued with high moral principle and conviction can change the fate of his people by freeing them from the chains of subjugation, oppression and racial hatred. He accomplished near impossible task of dismantling the oppressive system of apartheid and thus brought all South Africans regardless of their colour and creed under the same roof.
What is the source of his extraordinary power?
When F.W. de Clerk the last apartheid president took office in South Africa, Mandela thought, as his lawyer George Bizos narrated, "Let's help him. Let's not keep him in his corner by calling him an oppressor." Thus moving Clerk from his 'corner,' he made a partner out of a potential 'oppressor' and won his own and his colleagues' freedom from prison and his country from thraldom.
We in Bangladesh have a lot to learn from Mandela's life, especially his struggles. He treated his worst political enemies with compassion.
In his characteristic manner, Mandela has been defying all odds posed by his medical conditions at a hospital bed in Pretoria. We join in prayers with the rest of the world for his early recovery.
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