The Embassy of Bangladesh in Bangkok observed the National Mourning Day on Wednesday 15 August 2018.
On this day 43 years ago, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated along with most of his family members.
Prof. Joyashree Roy, the Bangabandhu Chair Professor at the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Change, AIT along with Bangabandhu Scholar Hasan Ahmed and other students from Bangladesh at AIT joined the observance.
Here is the translated version of the excerpt of a speech delivered by Prof. Joyashree Roy in Bengali on 15th August 2018 at the Embassy of Bangladesh on the occasion of the National Mourning Day.
“It is a practice that any holder of Chair (named after a personality/institution) professor position tries to uphold and advance the ideals of the person/institution. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during his liberation movement in 1971 desired to create a Golden Bengal for wellbeing of people of Bangladesh. He named the country driven by culture, tradition and language -Bangla. He started building Bangladesh with international cooperation. Today when development discourse talks of tradition, culture and language to sustain traditional knowledge and international cooperation for enhancing technology and knowledge exchange for faster transition on sustainable development pathway it is heartening to see Bangabandhu started practicing that in early seventies. To me ideal of Golden Bengal, attainment of Developed country status for Bangladesh by 2041 on Sustainable development pathway are closely interlinked. With deep homage to the great leader of the world -Bangabandhu – whom I always remember with other names like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mendela, I wish to express my desire to work with cooperation from Bangladesh Government, researchers and students in revisiting roadmap for Sustainable energy solutions for Bangladesh with gratitude.”
Expatriate Bangladeshis living in Thailand which includes Bangladeshi professionals working at UNESCAP and different universities, leading businessmen were among the attendees.
