Monaem Sarkar, the director of Bangladesh Foundation, a veteran social democrat turned centrist Labor politician and a leading Bangladeshi think tank, was on Khanika twice during his resent visit to Australia in October-November 2008.
In his first interview Mr Sarkar talked about his recent publication on Mujib, the founder of Bangladesh. Mr Sarkar said he travelled around the world in and in the leading libraries around the world he found numerous books on the Gandhi, Allende, Ho Chi Minh and even Hitler, but there was no book on Mujib who fought all his life and were in prison for 25 years to liberate his nation. Mr Sarkar's book on Mujib was published by Bangla Academy and 2,000 copies were sold just in two days highlighting peoples' interest in Mujib 33 even years after his assassination by the Military juna and the deliberate suppression on any publication of Mujib by the military and anti-liberation fascist regimes sustained by General Zia, General Ershad and Zia's Begum in partnership with the war criminals and Islamist militants.
In his first interview Mr Sarkar talked about his recent publication on Mujib, the founder of Bangladesh. Mr Sarkar said he travelled around the world in and in the leading libraries around the world he found numerous books on the Gandhi, Allende, Ho Chi Minh and even Hitler, but there was no book on Mujib who fought all his life and were in prison for 25 years to liberate his nation. Mr Sarkar's book on Mujib was published by Bangla Academy and 2,000 copies were sold just in two days highlighting peoples' interest in Mujib 33 even years after his assassination by the Military juna and the deliberate suppression on any publication of Mujib by the military and anti-liberation fascist regimes sustained by General Zia, General Ershad and Zia's Begum in partnership with the war criminals and Islamist militants.
In his second interview on Jail Killing Day, Mr Sarkar shared his recollections on Tajuddin Ahmed, Syed Nazrul Islam, Kamaruzzaman and Capt Mansur Ali. Following the killing of Mujib and Tajuddin Mr Sarkar left Bangladesh in fear of execution by the Military junta and lived a poverished life in the shanty suburbs of Kolkata for three years. On his return from Kolkata he was again kidnapped by the secret military forces unleashed by General Ershad and was imprisoned and tortured in the DGFI secret cells in Dhaka Cantonment.
Mr Sarkar has been a key organiser in most of the political movements launched by the pro liberation forces and been involved in the development of important social and political institutions scuh as Bangabandhu Museum. Mr Sarkar started his political careers as an activist of NAP (Mozaffar) and later joined Awami League with Matia Chowdhury in 1979.
Currently Mr Sarkar is the director of Bangladesh foundation which is frequented by pro-liberation Bangladeshi think tanks and they are engaged in policy development and publication on Bangladesh liberation movement.
