BNP Secretary General and Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Sunday stressed the need for more objective and high-quality research on the life, works and multifaceted contribution of Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman to the nation.
"To remove the injustice and stinginess that has been shown to history, there is a need for comprehensive research on the entire life, thoughts and works of Shaheed Zia," he said.
The BNP secretary general made the remarks while addressing a discussion titled “Mass Media and Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman” at Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka.
Jatiya Press Club organized the discussion on the occasion of the martyrdom anniversary of Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman.
Chaired by Jatiya Press Club President Hasan Hafiz and moderated by General Secretary Ayub Bhuiyan, the meeting was also addressed by Information and Broadcasting Minister Zahir Uddin Swapon as a special guest.
Speaking as the chief guest, Mirza Fakhrul said apart from the book written by the late eminent journalist Mahfuzullah, there is no such information-rich and research-based work on Shaheed Zia.
He said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting now has the scope to conduct a major research project as a state initiative to properly present the contribution of this great leader to the new generation.
Shaheed Zia, in just three and a half to four years of rule, had taken measures in every fundamental field of a state and initiated success, Fakhrul said.
He said the biggest contribution of Shaheed Zia was to establish the own and distinct geographical identity or entity of the people through the philosophy of “Bangladeshi nationalism”.
Recalling Shaheed Zia's deep faith in democratic values, the LGRD minister said after the changeover in 1975, Ziaur Rahman introduced a multi-party democracy by uniting all the political parties together from the ruins.
He said Shaheed Zia rehabilitated various political parties, including the Muslim League, in politics and formed the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to ensure a “liberal democracy” or a liberal democratic system.
Citing the 1974 famine, which he termed a man-made disaster, Mirza Fakhrul said Shaheed Zia, through his hard work and leadership, revived a fragile economy that was then referred to as a "bottomless basket" by the international community.
Shaheed Zia walked all over the country and went to the doors of farmers to illuminate a light of hope in the peoples' minds, he said.
Reminiscing about his experience, the BNP secretary general said during his visit to Dinajpur, President Zia suddenly stopped his car and entered the cottage of a poor mother to drink water.
As a result of such solidarity with the common people despite being a statesman, lakhs of people spontaneously joined the namaz-e-janaza after his martyrdom and broke down in tears, he said.
Fakhrul said Time magazine had also highlighted this unprecedented and emotional display of public affection for Shaheed Zia in one of its reports.
Mentioning Ziaur Rahman's groundbreaking steps in agriculture, education, culture, sports and foreign relations, the minister said his contribution to the modernization of the Rice Research Institute, Agricultural Research Institute and Sugarcane Institute along with the canal digging program was undeniable.
Besides, he took the unique initiative of arranging a tour of the Bay of Bengal and Bangladesh on the ship “Hizbul Bahar” to make the young people and students patriotic, Fakhrul said.
Criticizing the flattery of a section of the media during the previous regime, he said the media has now become a representative of corporate or business houses.
The struggle of journalists for a free journalism and democracy, free from the flattery of the previous regime, will have the full support of the incumbent government and the patriotic people, he said.
Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) Secretary General Quader Gani Chowdhury, Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) President Shahidul Islam and Daily Jugantor Editor poet Abdul Hye Sikder, among others, spoke at the event.
Speakers discussed Shaheed Zia's state philosophy in protecting the freedom of the press and various aspects of his contribution to nation-building.