Commandant, Defence Services Command and Staff College (DSCSC) Course (2019-2020) Graduation Ceremony Speech by Sheikh Hasina Hon’ble Prime Minister Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina Complex, DSCSC, Mirpur Cantonment, Dhaka, Sunday, 26 Magh 1426, 09 February 2020 Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim My dear colleagues Army, Navy and Air Chiefs, Graduating Officers, Ladies and Gentlemen, Assalamu Alaikum. I am delighted to be present at the graduation ceremony of ‘Commandant, Defence Services Command and Staff College (DSCSC) course (2019-2020). I would like to extend warm greetings to all 241 participants including 57 from 23 friendly countries. In the history of a nation-state ‘Bangladesh’, the importance of February is immense. I recall with great honour all the language martyrs, in February in 1952 who had made their supreme sacrifice to achieve the right to speak in our most beloved mother language. I pay deep homage to the Greatest Leader of all right movements of Bangalee starting from the Language Movement, the architect of independent Bangladesh, the Greatest Bangalee of all times, Father of the Nation "Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman". I recall the four national leaders, 3 million martyrs, and two hundred thousand dishonoured mothers and sisters. I recall with deep grief all martyrs of 15th August of 1975. Finally, I would like to recall with honour, those heroes who sacrifice their lives for protecting the sovereignty of the state and also those who died in the UN Peacekeeping mission in different parts of the world. Ladies and Gentlemen, Armed Force is the key to protect the national dignity and sovereignty of a country. Father of the Nation put special emphasis on Armed Force shaping with discipline and professionalism for independent Bangladesh. He dreamed of establishing a most modern military academy in the country. At the first passing out ceremony of the cadets in Cumilla on 11 January 1975 he stated, ‘If our boys get the full opportunity, they will flourish to compete with any soldier of any country in the world. I believe we would be able to establish such an academy to showcase the institutional capacity to the outside world.’ Father of the Nation got only three and a half years to reconstruct and rebuild the war- ravaged country. In this limited time, he employed his full potential to build the ‘Golden Bangladesh’ as per his dream. We are unfortunate as a Nation that we lost him including his family member on 15 August 1975. After a long struggle and sacrifice of 21 years, we formed government in 1996. During that tenure, I modernized the whole defence system and established National Defence College as an ‘Apex Training Institution’ of the country. I have created an opportunity to train our military and civil mid-carrier officers in this institute in the field of Security, Strategy, and Development. Intending to transform into a full professional and skilled armed forces, we adopted a long-term plan- ‘Forces Goals 2030’ after forming government again in 2009 and continuing to implement the goals. During the last 11 years, we have made remarkable progress in terms of modernizing our three armed forces. We have successfully included most modern arms and equipment as well as the latest technology in the military inventory. From the inception, a total of 5253 officers have successfully graduated from this College. Among them, 1165 officers are from the Armed Forces of 42 friendly countries around the globe. All these graduates are contributing to the defence forces of their respective countries in different capacities. By this time, our staff college has earned the recognition of a ‘state of the art’ institute both nationally and internationally. For such grand success, I congratulate the former and present Commandants, faculty members and all staff of this College. Dear Graduating Officers, Today is a very special day for your life. You were waiting for the last 11 exhaustive months with hard work and diligence. You have acquired knowledge of warfare and contemporary national and international affairs. I believe this understanding after the rigorous training would help you to perform duties and responsibilities including facing the challenges in your respective working arena. It’s a matter of great pleasure that a total of 15 female officers including one female foreign officer are graduating this year. It is encouraging to see the remarkable number of female officers graduating every year, which bears testimony of ‘Women Empowerment’ in the Armed Forces and in Bangladesh, which I find to be followed by other developed nations as well. The invaluable contributions of your spouses through constructive participation in the various social functions as part of the course curriculum brought more successes to the course. In the backdrop of the emerging security scenario, the training curricula of DSCSC have been modernized with contemporary modules. The Computer-assisted war-game has been played on the campus for the first time, through which the college campus has emerged into a digitized campus. You will be happy to know that our government has taken up projects to extend the infrastructural facilities of this College. We also have approved the inclusion of more manpower in the organization of the college to make it more dynamic and efficient. In this connection, many of those have already been inaugurated and constructions of others are in the pipeline. It is encouraging to note that these have enhanced the training capability of the college. Besides, more development works have also been planned, which I hope, will expand and modernize the overall training facilities of this College in the coming days. Dear Officers from Friendly Countries, Bangladesh is a peace-loving country. ‘Friendship to all and Malice to None’- is the pillar of our Foreign Policy as accepted by our Father of the Nation. As such, Bangladesh always upholds brotherhood and fraternity in maintaining its bilateral relations and advocates for world peace in the multilateral fora. Your participation in this course has added a spectrum to our College. I believe during your study and stay, you have been well acquainted with our people, culture, history, heritage, and traditions. Your pleasant stay here would further our relations between the two forces to a new height. Let me take the opportunity to recognize you as our Goodwill Ambassador in days to come in the time of need. Ladies and Gentlemen, Alongside the responsibility of protecting our sovereignty, the members of our Armed Forces are also making significant contributions in the fields of natural and man-made disasters. They are cooperating with the civil administration in the construction of infrastructures, socio-economic development, maintaining law and order situation. They are immensely contributing to build shelters for homeless people, protect mother Hilsha, protect and conduct ‘Blue Economic Activities’ including commercial and war-ship building. Ladies and Gentlemen, Our government has adopted the ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy to protect the country and the nation from the curse of terrorism, extremism, and drug. By this time we have qualified in all parameters to graduate from the least developed country into the lower-middle-income country through proper implementation of ‘Vision 2021’. We have started the formulation of another long-term plan titled ‘Vision 2041’ to build the ‘Golden Bangladesh’. We are the first in the world to start implementing ‘Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100’ with great concern to protect ongoing development from the challenges of climate change and natural disasters. 2 We will start celebrating the birth centenary of our Father of the Nation through colourful programs on 17 March 2020. We have declared the time from 17 March 2020 to 26 March 2021 as ‘Mujib Year’. UNESCO and Bangladesh will jointly celebrate this occasion throughout the year throughout the globe. I believe, in line with the national aspiration of building a developed prosperous Bangladesh, the graduating officers would contribute their maximum and also bring more success and glory in the future for our Armed Forces as well. Finally, I would like to leave congratulating the graduating officers and their family members once again and wish them a successful career in the days to come. Thank you all, once again. Khoda Hafez. Joi Bangla, Joi Bangabandhu May Bangladesh Live Forever. ... 3 .