Bangladesh celebrated 21st February
2001 with more enthusiasm and dignity than ever before. That was well
done. But more needs to be done. The minimum this year is to invite the 10
pioneers to Bangladesh as state guests and honour them.
The pioneers I am referring to are (i) Albert Vinzon, (Philippino)
(ii) Carmen Cristobal (Philippino), (iii) Jason Monir (English), (iv)
Susan Hodgins (English), (v) Dr. Kelvin Chao (Cantonese), (vi) Renate
Mertens (German), (vii) Karuna Joshi (Hindi), (viii) Nazneen Islam (Kachi),
(ix) Rafiqul Islam (Bangla), (x) Abdus Salam (Bangla). Mr. Rafiqul Islam
is the president and others are the members of 'Mother Language Lovers of
the World' in Canada.
These ten persons had been awarded the 'Ekushe Padak'
last year and as the system goes the medals will actually be presented
this year. They need to be invited by our government. It will be an honour
to honour them. As a matter of great co-incidence, two out of the ten have
same names as the famous SALAM and RAFIQ of 21 February 1952 fame. These
ten have honoured the people who speak 6528 Mother Languages across at
least 188 countries spread over all continents.
On the 17th November 1999, the UNESCO General
Conference during its 157th session, unanimously passed 21st February as
the International Mother Language Day. That decision is as historic as the
Day itself. People all over the globe must be made known about the
background of both the days. But here I will talk of the latter days only.
Rafiqul Islam stays at Vancouvre with family. He was
born in April 1953 in Comilla. He and his younger brother Saiful Islam
were freedom fighters in 1971 and Saiful became a martyr in direct combat.
Another gentleman staying with family in Vancouvre is Abdus Salam. Salam
hails from the district of Chittagong. These two sons of the soil spent
days and nights pondering how to advance the cause of Mother Languages. So
on 9th January 1998 Rafiqul Islam wrote a letter of proposal to Kofi Annan,
the Secretary General of the UN. Rafiqul emphasized the necessity of
protecting and nurturing mother languages of the world. Many mother
languages have perished for want of such protection and cultural or
linguistic aggression. Much effort had been made to preserve endangered
species (among animals) but little effort have been made to preserve
endangered mother languages. Hence the declaration of a day and its
befitting observance could go a long way to achieve this goal. Rafiqul
Islam and Salam proposed that no other day could be better or more
relevant than 21st February.
On 23rd February Mr. Hasan Ferdous (who is the Officer
in Charge of Public Enquires Department) of the Secretary General's Office
wrote back to Rafiqul Islam and advised him to arrange for such a proposal
to be placed or pleaded by any one or more member states. The advice was a
step forward and also demanded wider action. So Rafiqul with nine others
formed a ten member organization called "Mother Language Lovers of
the World". Then onwards, the Language Lovers acted unitedly but they
were mostly represented by Rafiqul and Salam. They approached Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Canada. They continued to pursue the matter with Mr.
Hasan Ferdous. Rafiqul and Salam were directed to the UNESCO headquarters.
Ms Ana Maria Mailof was very enthusiastic and supportive. With her
informal advice, Rafiqul and Salam contacted the National Commission for
UNESCO of Canada, India, Finland, Bangladesh and Hungary and requested
them to formally propose the matter to UNESCO. On 16 April 1999, Hungary
responded and it was the first. Then other countries followed. At
Bangladesh, the then PM Sheikh Hasina was apprised but rather late. The
dead-line to reach the proposal to UNESCO was before 10th September 1999,
if it was to be acted upon in 1999. The Prime Minister was instrumental in
ordering a 'short-circuit' of the procedures so that the proposal reached
Paris in time. The then Secretary of the Education Ministry Mr Quazi
Rakibuddin, the then education Minister Mr. Sadeq, UNESCO National
Commissioner of Bangladesh Secretary Professor Kafiluddin, and Mr. Moshiur
Rahman (one of the Directors in the PM's Office) played active role in
managing the matter in Dhaka. Mr. Tony Huq who is a Senior Advisor to the
Director General of UNESCO and Ambassador Syed Moazzem Ali and Mr. Ikhtear
Chowdhury of Bangladesh Embassy in Paris also played a very active role in
expediting the process. The entire embassy in Paris was enthusiastic.
Finally 29 countries including Pakistan co-sponsored the proposal which
was unanimously adopted.
Bangladesh celebrated 21st February 2001 with more
enthusiasm and dignity than ever before. That was well done. But more
needs to be done. The minimum this year is to invite the 10 members of the
organization to Bangladesh as State Guests and honour them. Convener of
the Bangladesh Chapter of Mother Language Lovers of the World, Mr. M H
Mehrab, is working hard towards this goal. They would need state
patronisation. We hope the PM and Education Minister would be around with
enthusiasm.
Major General (Retd) Syed Muhammad Ibrahim, BP,
freedom fighter, is the Executive Director of private sector think-tank
"Centre for Strategic and Peace Studies" at Dhaka.
