Surfing turbulent water

Rafiq Hasan

Mostafa Kamal Majumder is a very known face in the arena of English journalism in Bangladesh. Starting from a university correspondent and a cub reporter he reached to the height of the editor- a top position in the field of journalism profession. Therefore it is needless to introduce him to this august gathering.

For over five decades, Kamal has been serving the people by providing basic information for improvement of the quality of life in the society and upgradation of overall people’s living standard. He is a career journalist. He is soft spoken but very bold in expression of his opinion and maintaining moral and ethical standards.

He has set an example of serving people with neutral and unbiased news. Actually, today, we gathered here to unveil his newly published book Thorny path of journalism –a Bangladeshi editor’s narratives.

We know journalism is a very risky profession in Bangladesh as it is throughout the world.

A journalist has to face a lot of difficulties in performing day to day duties throughout his career. He has to face strong opposition and resistance from various quarters mainly belonging to government and political high ups. It is very normal for a dedicated journalist to become a victim of harassment, physical assault, even life-threat for disclosing facts and unveiling truth.

Only a section of people who has passion for truth can survive in this difficult field. Mostafa Kamal Majumder is one of them. Facing all kinds of journalistic hazards, he continued his journey and nothing could refrain him from performing his responsibility and commitment to the people. He chose this hardworking profession aiming only to serve the people.

Mostafa Kamal spent almost whole life surfing this turbulent field. Therefore, the name of his book, actually a memoir, has been termed as a thorny path. I think this is a perfect title for a career journalist who looks back and collects his memories and experiences.

I am not going to analyze the book in detail. I stand here just to give you some synopsis of the book so that you can have a firsthand idea of the subject and realize him. The book contains a total of thirty topics describing his experiences as a reporter and an editor. He served almost all the main English newspapers in the country.

Kamal started his career by joining as a university correspondent in the now defunct government owned English daily the Bangladesh Times. Following that Kamal worked for The Daily Star, the Independent, the Morning Sun, the Telegraph, the New Nation and the Asian Age at various positions. He was the editor of the famous national English daily the New Nation for nearly a decade. Now, he is running a news portal Green Watch Dhaka as founder and editor.

Now-a-days, reporting has been divided into over a dozen beats. But when Mostafa Kamal started journalism, reporting was in its nascent stage in Bangladesh. There were hardly any divisions. Most of the time during his career, the country was under martial law or dictators. Therefore, the scope of reporting was very limited. Still he continued his journey braving all sorts of pressures, threats and ignoring lucrative offers. He even turned down an offer to become the press secretary to the honorable president of the country.

Earlier, reporters used to cover politics, crime and sports beats on a regular basis. The other areas were focused only occasionally once or twice in a year.

But Kamal, a master’s degree holder from the department of Mass Communication and Journalism in the University of Dhaka started cultivating new areas like environment, health and education. He has been termed as a pioneer in reporting of a number of new areas in Bangladesh.

Therefore, he had to study a lot in surfing new areas. None can sustain in an area without having vast knowledge on the topic.

As a reporter, he used to cover politics, environment, health, finance and education beats. When he became editor he tried to diversify the areas of focus in the newspaper. He also tried his best to make the newspaper under his leadership economically viable. Like every other editor, he had to face a lot of difficulties in bringing about changes in the organizations. These are the main topics of his book.

The editors in our country hardly write on these issues. Mainly they try to deal with ongoing political and socio economic ups and downs in the country. But Mostafa Kamal has brought to light a new area and focused on a number of topics which normally remain in the dark. Credit goes to him for bringing those issues to the light. The readers will get a firsthand knowledge about journalism and journalists in this country. With these few words I invite the honorable guests in this august gathering to share their views and give their thoughtful opinions about the book.

The book has been published by Ma Sera Prokashon owned by Masuda Sultana who also has a journalistic background. The book, containing 158 pages with an attractive cover, is priced at Tk 1000. The book is available at the ongoing Amar Ekushey book fair at Suhrawardy Udyan stall number 348. I hope the book by a renowned journalist like Mostafa Kamal Majumder will be a great attraction to general readers.

Wish him and his book all the best. 

Rafiq Hasan is a poet and journlist