The Star 'robbed' my morning walk

The Head of Chancery opens the bag, distributes the official letters according to the addressees on the cover of the newspapers. There is demand for certain newspapers, but the least wanted is the newly published paper.

In late August 1991, the Counsellor in Stockholm Embassy laid his hand on a packet of newspapers for which there was no reader. The paper carried the mast of a Beirut daily; letters of the title were like those of a Bangkok English newspaper and landed in the Bangladesh Embassy in Sweden! His amazement was over after seeing the Dhaka dateline and the name of the editor of the newspaper. The bundle contained the maiden issue of the newspaper, which was dated, January 14, 1991 and a set of following issues for fifteen days. The style of news display, the get-up and commitment carried in the editorials were a mark of maturity and thorough professionalism. "What a refreshing departure from the traditional newspapers of Dhaka?" He exclaimed to himself!

The name of the editor of the newspaper evoked his memory of March 1979 in the Bangladesh Embassy in Bangkok. The Second Secretary thought of bringing out free of cost a supplement on the occasion of the National and Independence Day of Bangladesh. He went to see the supplement editor of the premier newspaper of Thailand, the Bangkok Post. He had no other effective tool to convince the editor except to introduce himself as a diplomat from the country of SM Ali. It had an electrifying jerk .The chemistry became perfect. He called a meeting of the sections-in-charge of advertisement and of the achieves.

A plan was worked out to raise the costs of the supplement through advertisement from the companies doing business with Bangladesh as well as from those of the paper's own contact points. The Bangladesh shelf in the archives was full of disaster news clips and photographs. The editor asked the Bangladesh diplomat to provide appropriate materials.

A multi-coloured supplement came out on 26 March at a cost of nearly one hundred thousand Baht that was roughly the same amount in Bangladesh currency without any cost to the exchequer. It was a service extended to the country of SM Ali who had served Bangkok Post as its Managing Editor. The staff simply remembered SM Ali, a magnificent man to serve with!

SM Ali reared up The Daily Star in his own image. The paper created its own readership. It also turned up to be 'bold and beautiful' over the years. A full-page letters to the editor column is an innovative approach to encourage differing opinions in the society to come to the fore. It has become a forum for public participation with a message for the authorities. Weekly Law and Human Rights page is as educative as it points out a finger to those authorities that are systematically violating basic rights of the citizenry of this society. Cry for justice is reflected in this page. At a critical time like this devoting a full page on Human rights appeared to be fully vindicated.

However, re-naming FOCUS on editorial side with POINT AND COUNTERPOINT seem to take away sharpness of the subject matters under this page that call for public scrutiny and to draw attention of the authorities. In any case, this page has not been devoted to debating issues. Perhaps Full-page letters to the Editor could be renamed as that, with a few exceptions. Lengthy articles most often become eye sore to the readers and are left half way. The Daily Star may consider publishing small articles of substance that would also provide space to accommodate more writers.

These are a few thoughts of an abiding reader and an occasional contributor to The Daily Star.