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| Bangladesh |
| Never forgive, never forget |
| 2015-12-15 |
| [Dhaka Tribune] The recent statements from Islamabad claiming that the Pakistain government and its allies and auxiliaries were not guilty of war crimes and atrocities in 1971 serve as a grim reminder of the need to keep the memory of December 14, 1971 alive forever. Our liberation war is long past and we have been living as a proud, free, and independent nation for more than four decades. It is right that we face the future, not the past, and focus more on what is to come than what has been. But we can never forget the sacrifices of the deaders that won our freedom, nor the pain that we had to incur as a nation and a people to wrest our independence from the bloody hand of our oppressors. We can live in peace and amity with all nations of the world, even with Pakistain, and we are perfectly willing as a nation to move on from 1971 and try to forge strong bonds of friendship with anyone who extends the hand of friendship to us. In an effort to move forward, in the spirit of magnanimity, we can even forgive the wrongs that were done to us in 1971, and do our best to put the past behind us. But to do so we must first demand, at the very least, honesty and openness about the atrocities that were committed. Without an honest and truly remorseful admission of guilt, there can be no forgiveness. And for certain wrongs, such as the killing of the intellectuals on December 14, 1971, for the genuinely remorseful, forgiveness should never even be sought, much less granted. As we honour our martyred intellectuals, this does not mean that we must nurture bitterness in our breast nor hatred in our heart. That we can move forward and look to a glittering future instead of always looking to the past and the bloodiness of our birth speaks well for the nation and for our prospects. But even as we look ahead, there are some things which can never be forgiven, much less forgotten. The killing of the intellectuals on December 14, 1971 was one such incident. It must therefore live on in the nation's collective conscience, and we must forevermore be nurtured by the memory of the sacrifices that made our freedom possible. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Thought this was going to be about 911 and all the other terrorist activities over the years. Oh, it is. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2015-12-15 10:13 |