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Several south-eastern districts of Bangladesh witnessed record flooding this month due to heavy monsoon rains in the area together with the northeast Indian states of Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya and the subsequent opening of the gates of hydropower plants, barrages and dams in the close-door neighbour. As a country prone to natural catastrophes, Bangladesh faces calamities almost every year, but this time the flooding has given us an opportunity to rediscover a missing characteristic of the nation - the united strength.
The empathy the nation has shown for the flood victims is unprecedented. People irrespective of their political and ideological differences united against the adversity. Their wholehearted support lessened the plight of the affected people to a great extent. Who has not extended their helping hand? From affluent sections to disadvantaged groups --- all came up with cash, food and relief materials. Students raised around Tk13 million from pedestrians at TSC on the Dhaka University campus in a single day after the onslaught of the floods began. Media reports showed children donating all their savings in piggy banks and street beggars handing over their whole-day alms to students collecting relief. A man donated a piggy bank stuffed with taka 1,000 and 500 currency notes, narrating to the media that the money was saved by her late mother and the siblings preserved it as her precious memory. There were hardly any local communities where committees were not formed to collect relief. Volunteers - both trained and untrained - coming from different strata of society rushed to the affected areas to join the relief activities risking their lives, alongside the government efforts. At least one volunteer sacrificed his life in the relief efforts.
Why has the entire nation shown these feelings to the people in distress and joined the relief efforts wholeheartedly? There may be several reasons behind it, but the most important ones are that people have rediscovered the unity among them as a nation and their abilities as human beings and that they have got back their sense of belonging. There is no denying that huge infrastructural development took place in the country during the last regime, but people lost many good things during that period - unity, freedom of speech, sense of belonging and courage. The mass uprising, orchestrated by anti-quota students, which culminated in the ouster of the Awami League government, has brought many of those back. People now feel that this country really belongs to them and they can say and do whatever they like as long as they are rational and legal.
Human beings are inherently benevolent and empathetic to others. History suggests these virtues excel when they are more free and united and enjoy greater civil rights. People in the entire Western world, who enjoy more freedom and greater civil rights than any other people, contribute most to the welfare of the world.
We hope we, as a nation, will be able to enjoy greater freedom and civil rights in the days to come. We also hope the political changeover, which has come through the sacrifice of numerous priceless lives, will be a great opportunity for advancing these virtues. If we enjoy more freedom and get united, combating disasters will be easier for us.