Death came suddenly to Wali-ur Rahman. Only days earlier, he had been in a Zoom discussion on some of the critical issues facing the nation, arguing his points vigorously. But that was what he always did, give his arguments the flavour of energetic defence. Since his retirement from the nation’s foreign service, Rahman created fresh space for himself as a defender of the political principles that had gone into a shaping of the national ethos during the War of Liberation in 1971.
Wali-ur Rahman was among that brave band of Bengali diplomats in the Pakistan foreign service whose patriotism manifested itself in ways that even at this distance of time leaves one amazed. The amazement has to do not with the decision of these diplomats, young as they were, to link up with the Mujibnagar government but with the fact that they were turning their backs on what were cushy jobs in government and looking to the future when they would be serving a free Bangladesh. It was a risk which Rahman and all his fellow diplomats took, risk because there was no time factor attached to the achievement of freedom.
Nevertheless, Rahman had the conviction --- as did the others --- that the uncertainty of the future notwithstanding, he needed to throw in his lot with his tortured land. He did that with courage and, one might add, with finesse. Having been a diplomat since the later 1960s, with foreign policy shaped in Rawalpindi, Rahman had by 1971 acquired the skills that would be of benefit to Bangladesh once it made its appearance on the global stage. Suave and distinguished, Rahman, then in Europe, went around employing his persuasive skills in articulating the case for Bangladesh among those who mattered in that important global region.
In independent Bangladesh, Wali-ur Rahman served in the young, war-ravaged country’s diplomacy with distinction. Posted in Geneva in those early days of national freedom, he set up the Bangladesh mission, giving it a touch that was reflective of the desires of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. His interaction with the Father of the Nation commenced around that time, when Bangabandhu travelled to Geneva for recuperation after medical treatment in London. Over the next few years, Rahman, inspired by Bangabandhu, performed his duties with due diligence.
His return to Bangladesh on home assignment shortly before the tragedy of 15 August 1975 promised to open new doors for him in the diplomatic structure. Bangabandhu’s assassination left Rahman, as it left other freedom fighter diplomats, in a sudden straitjacket. Military rule was beginning to take a toll. Even so, Wali-ur Rahman persevered. He served the nation well in that era of darkness. His sense of thrill was but a rapturous celebration of the country when the long national nightmare ended twenty one years after 1975, in June 1996, with the formation of the government by Sheikh Hasina. He would serve the new prime minister as her special envoy.
In his post-diplomatic life, Wali-ur Rahman threw himself into the task of reclaiming history through systematically pointing to the mischief which anti-national forces had indulged in. His was a powerful voice against the war crimes committed by the local collaborators of the Pakistan army in 1971. At seminars, on television talk shows and through articles in the media, Rahman made a comprehensive case for the trial of the war criminals. To his friends abroad, he patiently and emphatically laid out the case for justice to be done even if decades had gone by since the commission of the crimes.
Wali-ur Rahman’s was a life lived in the excitement that comes with determination toward achieving the goals one sets for oneself. Having been to Oxford and having been a prominent diplomat, he charted a new course in his career through taking over as executive director of the think tank Bangladesh Institute for Law and International Affairs (Bilia), where he organised symposia on crucial national issues. Moving on, he set up the Bangladesh Heritage Foundation, a body he served with love till the end of his life. At BILIA and BHF, Rahman’s focus was without ambivalence. He sought to restore the history of the country that had been damaged over the years. It was the young he thought needed to be enlightened on the idea of Bangladesh.
A restless spirit till the very end, Wali-ur Rahman oversaw during the nation’s infancy Bangladesh’s entry to the World Health Organisation. He was the nation’s representative to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Food Programme and IFAD. In his diplomatic activism, he projected Bangladesh brilliantly in countries such as Italy, Switzerland and Tunisia, where he happened to be posted.
Wali-ur Rahman’s passing is the concluding chapter to the tale of an illustrious freedom fighter, one to whom upholding the national cause mattered.
Syed Badrul Ahsan is Consultant Editor, Dhaka Tribune.
