MY TEACHER, MY PRESIDENT

Some news arrives as a surprise. Yesterday’s did not – and yet, as I sat in my office in the afternoon watching parliament formalise what the numbers had already made certain, I felt something far deeper than the ordinary satisfaction of a story confirmed. Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was elected the 23rd President of Bangladesh. I felt proud as a former student. I felt grateful. Above all, I felt that a teacher I had admired since my college days had finally been entrusted with a responsibility that could not have gone to a more deserving man.
I consider myself fortunate to have been a student of Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. In my entire student life – and in the many years since, spent watching public figures with the sceptical eye this profession demands – I have never come across a man as honest, sincere, dedicated, humane and principled as him. He is not merely a respected political leader to me; he is my ideal, and above all, my best teacher.

I first came to know him personally in the early 1980s, when my father, who worked for the Water Development Board, was transferred from Bogura to Thakurgaon. I was then a Class V student at Bogura Zilla School. After moving to Thakurgaon, I was admitted to Thakurgaon River View High School and passed my SSC examination from there in 1983. I then entered Thakurgaon Government College, where Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was serving as an assistant professor in the Department of Economics. Those two years remain among the most memorable of my student life. 

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was an exceptional teacher. Economics can often appear difficult and intimidating to students, but he had a rare ability to make even the most complicated subjects simple and understandable. He explained economic concepts with such clarity and engagement that students of every ability could follow him with ease. His classes, attended by around 120 students in the humanities group, were always attentive. His naturally powerful voice carried across the classroom, but it was his clarity, sincerity and command of the subject that truly held our attention.

He was a simple man, but there was nothing ordinary about him.
What impressed me most was the respect he showed to every student. He never made anyone feel insignificant. He took time to explain difficult matters and was always approachable. On several occasions during my HSC years, I visited his home after classes to seek further clarification on subjects I found difficult. He welcomed me each time with the same warmth and patience he showed in the classroom.

That relationship did not end when I left college. Whenever I visited Thakurgaon after completing my studies, and later whenever I met him in Dhaka, he would ask after my wellbeing and my studies. Even when I was reading Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Dhaka, and later as I made my way through this profession, he continued to take an interest in my progress. Such concern is not something a student easily forgets.
Perhaps that is why I have followed his journey from the classroom to public life with such admiration, and why today’s formal confirmation, though long expected, still moves me as it does.

Long before he became a senior leader of the BNP, a member of parliament, a minister and now President of Bangladesh, he was a teacher who shaped young minds in a quiet college in Thakurgaon. The qualities that made him a fine teacher have also defined his public life: honesty, dedication, courage, patience, humanity and a deep sense of responsibility.

His political career has been marked by difficult times. Yet he has repeatedly shown the ability to remain calm under pressure and to keep his party united through periods of severe adversity. He has never been a leader who needed loudness or theatrics to make his presence felt. His strength has always come from conviction.
For me, his greatest quality is his courage to speak the truth. He has remained steadfast in expressing what he believes to be right, even when doing so has carried personal or political costs. At a time when public life can so easily tempt people away from their principles, his commitment to an honest path has been particularly inspiring.
His humanity is equally important. That quality was visible in the classroom and has remained visible throughout his public life. He has earned respect not only among political supporters but across generations and among people of different religious, social and political backgrounds. His broad acceptance, at home and abroad, reflects the dignity, moderation and sincerity with which he has always conducted himself.

I am proud that the man now occupying the highest constitutional office in Bangladesh is someone I once had the privilege of calling my teacher. From the classroom at Thakurgaon Government College to the presidential office, his journey is a remarkable one. But to those of us who knew him as a teacher, the office has not changed the man. The same honest, dedicated, soft-spoken and humane person remains at the heart of his public identity.
As Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir begins his tenure as the 23rd President of Bangladesh, I wish him a long life, good health and complete success. May he serve the country with the same honesty, courage, dedication and humanity with which he once taught his students. I am immensely proud of my teacher. And today, I am prouder still to call him the President of Bangladesh.