The journey of the Bangladesh Army from inception till date has been as tumultuous as that of the nation itself. Back in the 1970s it was no better than a ragtag army organized from the limited number of personnel who joined the war for liberation, freedom fighters and those who could be repatriated from the Pakistan Army later.
Bengalis traditionally were looked down upon as a not-so-martial race, hence we were not represented substantially in the Pakistan Army. It is through the contribution of people from all walks of life that we organized and fought the Pakistanis and snatched away our freedom.
Of course the army formed the nucleus around which all others were organized and trained. The Bangladesh military hardly inherited establishments, arms, and equipment worth mentioning. Prestigious military institutions such as the military academy, staff college were all either in India or West Pakistan after the Partition in 1947. We started our journey with only four brigade-sized establishments, that too with a serious dearth of skilled manpower, resources, and material of all kinds.
Bangabandhu, our father of the nation, realized the importance of having a well trained military for a prestigious nation at the very outset of our nationhood. Hence, we find that the very first batch of our own officers were trained and commissioned from extremely rudimentary, harsh, and mundane arrangements in 1974 at Comilla Cantonment. The other significant development we can recall is how the father of the nation made it a priority that the Indian military left our soil immediately after liberation.
Our military forces in its infancy went through much turmoil in the form of coups and counter-coups resulting in loss of valuable lives. Some of our leaders were indoctrinated into making a class-less army. This utopian idea was divisive and detrimental to the discipline and loyalty of soldiers, to say the least, which served a devastating blow and took a heavy toll.
There was the issue of raising a paramilitary force which gave rise to some doubt and controversy as analysts opine that it took away the focus from building up a professional armed forces. The worst problem the army faced was its heterogeneous elements, such as freedom fighters, elements repatriated from Pakistan and elements integrated from the paramilitary named JRB.
There were problems of allegiance, political affiliation, and ideological indoctrination which resulted in very divergent opinion, groups, and sub-groups -- calamitous for a newborn nation. This caused a serious dent in unity even among the freedom fighters which was evident from the events that followed for almost two decades.
Our armed forces now are set on a firm footing. Its expansion in size, standard of training and equipment, quality of leadership, and enduring support of the government and the people is what has built the foundation and paved the way for smooth progress to professionalism and excellence.
Bangladesh military’s contribution in various professions is now well recognized in the international arena. In particular its participation and role in peacekeeping around the globe has been spectacular. This enriched the military in gathering invaluable experience and exposure to sophisticated equipment in addition to earning a substantial amount of foreign currency. In the long process over the decades of our exchange programs of multifarious training and exercises with many militaries of the world, and participation in forums regional and international, our prestigious training institutions are now of global standards. Academies of the three services are of highest standard besides a host of other training institutes designed for advanced and specialized training.
The Defense Services Command and Staff College was established in Mirpur in 1976 when many people raised their brows as to what was going to be its purpose and if it would at all make a mark compared to very prestigious and traditional institutes such as Staff College Quetta in Pakistan, which has the distinction of being the alma mater of World War veterans.
Over the decades our staff college in Mirpur has become a very prestigious institute which, by now, has trained hundreds of graduates from many countries. It is truly an international institute which was initially run by a team of British experts. Gradually we started training and developing our own set of instructors from abroad who took over from the British team.
The transition was a systematic and a gradual process that took many years. It was in 1993 that the last foreign faculty member, a Captain of the Royal Navy, finally left. This has been a perfect example of a courageous venture. Following this success story and its footstep we now have the national defence college having attained much acclaim already in its short span of journey.
A lot of emphasis has been laid in equipping our armed forces with sophisticated weapons and devices. In addition to the inclusion of women in the ranks, their pronounced presence is felt in all spheres, from mundane desk jobs to flying aircrafts and manning ships.
Our military has been involved in a host of ventures that are not purely military in nature. The military’s involvement in entrepreneurship and business -- such as running hotels, production and marketing of consumer items, for instance -- is viewed with reservation by many. Of course, the military in response will say that these are but enterprises meant exclusively for welfare of its members and their dependents. Even there are people who point fingers at such ventures and would like to trace back the origin of such entrepreneurship to the Fouji Foundation in Pakistan.
The Involvement of the military in one particular sector, that is education, is viewed very positively for the tremendous contribution it has made over the decades. In the 80s and 90s the military was in a poor state to cater for the education of its dependents, that is children of persons employed in the military. It is because of pragmatic and prospective planning, due diligence, and integrated efforts that now every garrison or base has a good number of schools and colleges to cater for a significant size of the student population.
In the schools and colleges run by the military, the number of students belonging to non-military families is overwhelmingly higher than those from military parents. Schools and colleges in big cantonments like Dhaka, Chittagong, Jessore, Comilla, and Sylhet are popular destinations for children. These schools run multiple sessions to accommodate students. Even in smaller and comparatively new cantonments and bases, educational institutions are attractive to outsiders and are run very efficiently.
For instance, in Jalabad Cantonment, Sylhet a school and college started functioning in 2000. There were hardly any students from Sylhet to start with. But now there are more than 20 buses that run regularly from the city to cantonment to allow thousands of students to commute on a daily basis.
Why are military-run schools and colleges so successful? There are quite a few factors behind their spectacular performance. These are run under strict supervision of qualified persons to oversee everything starting from progress of teaching and learning, administration and required logistics, and other allied facilities. Selection of teachers takes place through a highly competitive and systematic process. The teachers are well looked after in terms of perks and privileges, including safe accommodation. Due to absence of harmful external influences such as politics and hooliganism, strict discipline is maintained to ensure uninterrupted education.
All classes are meticulously planned and assigned to responsible teachers well before the start of the education year. Contingencies are catered for to ensure no interruption. Enough resources are allocated for teachers’ training on the job. Training aid, including multimedia and other facilities, are made available to the teachers who are adept in making their best use. Cleanliness, health, and hygiene are ensured through stringent monitoring. Setting aside cadet colleges, which are much privileged institutions, there are quality boarding schools run by the military.
When talking about tertiary and specialized education, BUP is a prestigious name which caters to a multitude of areas in spreading the light of education while MIST has already become the second popular choice after BUET in engineering education. In addition to catering to engineering and medical science, newer avenues have been opened up in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman University of Aeronautical Science and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib University of Marine Science.
Officers in the armed forces presently undergo four years basic training which used to be two years in the past. As a part of their training they are now privileged to pursue education other than purely military in a good number of social science and science related disciplines. These include subjects like international relations, business studies, CSE and a host of others. This serves to enrich their knowledge base, enhance their ability and help them become more informed citizens and capable leaders to handle the challenges of the future.
The other areas where the military has set their distinct footprints immensely promoting our national interests are rehabilitation of Rohingya refugees at Bhasan Char -- a 13,000 acre island -- by our Navy. Besides the construction of facilities, it was a horrendous task disciplining and managing such a large number of displaced and aggrieved foreign nationals.
This has added to our prestige in the eyes of the international community who appreciates our genuine empathy for the millions of immigrants evicted from their country for no fault of theirs. This has been a model to the global community as to how a resource starved country can take care of persecuted humanity.
There are a host of other projects such as Hatirjheel, marine drive road in Cox's Bazar, a good number of flyovers and under passes, river embankment, parks, etc where the military’s involvement has been remarkable.
Swarna Deep, a remote island of Noakhali is another fine example which has been in development by the Bangladesh Army since 2010. It combines the prospects of preservation of nature by organized plantation, animal rearing, and eco-tourism.
Another aspect that needs to be highlighted is the excellence achieved by our medical professionals in caring for the health requirements in the armed forces. During the recent Covid crisis in particular, they stood firmly beside a huge crowd of patients with due diligence. We sacrificed a good number of our medical professionals in the process. But they remained undaunted in their dedication throughout.
Our military hospitals are always chosen destinations of many including ministers, top bureaucrats and politicians which only reiterate the enviable proficiency they have achieved compared to many top hospitals with greater resources and allocations. This is a story of a huge transformation of a body of highly trained specialized and dedicated professionals starting from a very humble beginning.
It is a well known fact that during peacetime the prime occupation of armed forces is to train and keep them fit for any eventuality. Ours is no exception who devotes themselves to this pursuit to the best of their ability. But threats to national security are multi-faceted.
Climate change and environmental degradation is coming up with severe manifestations with every passing year. Bangladesh is one the worst impacted countries because of our geographical reality. With all the resources and trained manpower put at their disposal it is only natural to expect an enhanced role in preservation of nature and reduction of impacts of natural disasters by our armed forces.
Our military has proven their capability in many instances in this regard in the past. But now is the time we need more integrated planning at the national level whereby we can properly utilize the considerable national assets to our best advantage. To be specific, the construction of dikes and embankment systems, their maintenance along the coastal belt, and haor areas is a case in point.
This has come to the fore repeatedly that peoples’ suffering in terms of loss of harvest, livestock and habitat is mainly due to wrong planning, negligence in implementation of projects, inefficiency, delay, and large scale pilferage which are rampant in the country.
This is an area where we need to involve and integrate the military and put enough resources at their disposal to ensure optimum utilization and thereby lessen impacts and devastations and reduce risks of climate change. This will need to be decided at the highest national level since it involves a good number of ministries and other governmental entities.
We see no end in our suffering due to unending traffic congestions and rising figures of accidents throughout the country. There are many reasons but, lack of discipline is simply the prime one. We have spent thousands of cores of Taka in reining in maddening traffic in the capital city but to no avail. Many would point out the systematic traffic management inside cantonments and would argue that it is only possible in a restricted area like cantonment.
But if we go into depth, Dhaka cantonment can hardly be described as a restricted area any more. The crowd is no less than any part of the city. We shall find transports of every description plying the cantonment roads. There is a huge civilian population residing inside the cantonment. There are hawkers even selling their commodities, but confined to a market place. There are a good number of schools and colleges, private hospitals, shopping places, eateries, golf clubs, you name it. Nor the roads are any wider than Dhanmondi, for instance. But I shall reiterate that the only difference is discipline that has been enforced and has become habitual. One can reach any part of the cantonment on foot, footpaths are usable and not obstructed. One can even use a bicycle or rickshaw, but in dedicated lanes only.
In spite of all these, the digital traffic management system works perfectly here. There is no magic. Then why we cannot implement it outside cantonment and elsewhere? It is because of the fact that it is a disease; lack of discipline is easily transmissible, but discipline has to be enforced with planning and provisions for everybody.
With whatever has been described so far we can afford to bask in the glory of the achievements and present standing of our armed forces no doubt. But we shall do better to remember that to maintain a high standard of preparedness and relevance, it is only by attaching due priority at national level, strategic planning, comprehensive threat analysis, continuous upgrading of technology, training, and motivation of personnel in newer skills and thinking ahead that we shall be able to meet the future challenges to be able to live up to the expectations of our people.
Brig Gen Qazi Abidus Samad, ndc, psc (Retd) is a freelance contributor. Email: [email protected].
