Dear friends, I wish the coming year will be a happy one for us all.
If you had kindly given some time to read my article titled “The happy man” all the way back in January 2017, this is now “the very happy” version of that.
Despite a rather hazardous 2017, I am no less happy than I was at the beginning of this year.
I have experienced many difficulties in my life, starting from 1971, when my family suffered a tremendous shock with the death of my father -- a brave martyr, but I also strongly believe that the Almighty Allah puts us through trials to give us new insights into life.
These insights have made me a wiser man, alert when it comes to distinguishing between friends and enemies, and also taught me how to remain cool in very uncomfortable situations.
I did not have an inkling of what lay ahead for me in 2017 sitting in my old office in the Bangladesh High Commission in London.
The office room I had inherited had no shape, no decor, some non-functioning equipment, and a photograph of Bangabandhu in a broken frame.
Appalled and surprised by such a sorry state of the office room, I had moved to another room which I decorated with paintings and proper furniture.
And, just before I returned home, I managed to get a chandelier, while two chandeliers had been beautifying the office of the Deputy High Commissioner for months.
After all, the office room should have a respectable look to reflect our beautiful Bangladesh.
Nevertheless, I am a ‘very happy man’ as I am back in my motherland where I do not have to take the stress of the job
It was the start of a series of unfortunate events.
Then in 2017, I came to know of a conspiracy to oust me as friends in the foreign ministry indicated the top brasses were sending files containing complaints against me, but I was never told or given a chance to defend myself -- a journalist on a diplomatic stint.
During a trip to Geneva, I had an allergic condition. And, so in one of my articles, I had written about Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), which was facing a financial crisis but continued its services with fewer staff and other cuts in spending.
The allergic condition tortured me for weeks and I wondered why was I being punished by Allah.
I picked up my old habit of offering prayers and asked the Almighty to forgive me.
Then came the information that a pressure was being created on the prime minister to get me out of London using the “man-made” crisis over one of my articles analysing the last British elections.
The objections against me were that the article had supported the Labour Party at a time when a Conservative government of Prime Minister Theresa May was in power.
No complaints were issued to the British government, indicating that I have upset people with my analysis, according to some sources, as it was “instigated by a few from the British-Bangladeshi community” with the possible collusion of at least one high commission official.
Indeed, May did not sweep the polls as forecasted ahead of the June elections and actually lost several seats.
But that failed, too, as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked me to stay on during her visit to London en-route to Sweden. She had, according to her office sources, considered my good work and also that I was the son of a war hero.
I, too, wanted to leave London long before my two-year contract ended and was elated when I was asked to return home four months after my contract ended.
Questions remain as to why the premier was forced to change her decision.
The premier had taken her decision definitely after taking into account the pros and cons, while, according to friends in London and Dhaka, the British Foreign Office did not ask for me to be taken out, as circulated.
The other question is, after intelligence reports had confirmed that it was a “man-made” situation and identified those behind it, why has no action been taken against the criminals?
In fact, the key criminal, as per some staff members, is now being welcomed in the High Commission by some officials.
The answers may reveal what distorted and fake information have been circulated to oust me.
Nevertheless, I am a very happy man as I am back in my motherland where I do not have to take the stress of the job.
“Some things should not have happened,” I said in my farewell speech in the London High Commission.
The lesson is: Do not give up. Bad people may win momentarily, but the good will eventually and eternally prevail.
Nadeem Qadir is a UN Dag Hammarskjold Fellow in journalism.