[mukto-mona] It’s time to look forward

Dear Editor,   Hope you are doing well and thanks for publishing my previous write-ups   This is an article titled "It's time to look forward". I will be highly honoured if you publish this article. I apprecite your time to read this article.   Thanks   Have a nice time   With Best Regards   Ripan Kumar Biswas New York, U.S.A ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's time to look forward   Ripan Kumar Biswas Ripan.Biswas@yahoo.com   The two presidential nominees Sen. John McCain(R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) walked shoulder-to-shoulder down a long ramp toward the site and made the ground zero their common ground, free of politics and infused with memory as the 9/11 attacks remain a deeply emotional issue in the United States, even if polls show that pocketbook concerns, particularly the parlous state of the housing market, now top terrorism fears.   To get together to bring peace for all is a good noble endeavor. Today in most countries, political ideologies of political parties largely concern themselves with how to allocate power and to what end they should be used. Very few political parties follow country first, politics second. It means to support something that is not politically expedient. It means if someone in the party asks a favor; if it isn't noble- don't need to do it. It means doing something for the good of the country, not for just the good of the candidate. It means to be a servant to the country and not necessarily be a man/woman of the people, but a man/woman for the people.   Negative political rhetoric will only serve to drive the country further apart at a time when everyone needs to be working together. Too many in Dhaka are putting politics first and country second. Too few are setting aside their own interests to work together on solutions for Bangladesh. Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, who is now out of prison by the executive order, came along with her same political attack rather being positive about the policies that can make the country better. Instead of finding the common ground among diverse views to execute the policies, she criticized the present interim government and last BNP-Jamaat regime in her address at a view-exchange meeting with the AL's US chapter leaders in New York City on September 14, 2008.   According to her speech, the interim government once carried out anti-corruption drives and now busy making the corrupt clean. The government even made the things worst rather taking necessary actions against the backdrop of widespread corruption, lootings, and killings by the BNP-Jamaat regime, she added. People of Bangladesh are aware of their politicians who put their priority on attacking personality rather than examining and debating other politicians' policy proposal. They will appreciate and fight for the plan Sheikh Hasina promised on behalf of her party if they were voted to power in the next elections which includes raising literacy to 80-90 percent, providing free education for all up to honors level, ensuring food surplus in the country by 2012, and providing health and housing for all by 2013 and produce 10,000MW electricity by 2014.   In the face of the diverse beliefs and opinions represented in politics, politicians should give priority how to build support for an idea, convince other people of its merits, accommodate others' points of view without undermining their core goals, and, ultimately, find the points of agreement that will allow them to forge consensus amid the clamor of the democratic process. Politicians, who put country first, always search for the common ground among diverse views, negotiate with those who agree and disagree with them, and make adjustments to their proposals without betraying their core beliefs or threatening what they seek to accomplish.   To stop bickering and vendetta against each other, Sheikh Hasina and BNP (Bangladesh National Party) chief Khaleda Zia, who is now on bail, should sit together in the interest of the country and democracy. Commerce and Education Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman of the military backed caretaker government again placed their hopes to bring them together for a discussion on September 14, 2008. "Major political parties are expected to show tolerance shunning the practice of mudslinging in the interest of democracy and the nation," the adviser expected while he and his colleague AF Hassan Ariff, adviser of Ministry of Law, Justice & Parliament Affairs, phoned Barrister Rafique-ul Huq, who defends both former prime ministers in court, to take an initiative to bring both the party chiefs to a discussion table.   Most of the political leaders and activists in Dhaka expressed their positive reaction to the government's attempt to bring the two top leaders of the country in a dialogue with each other urging that they should sit together as people always expect them to do so while AL acting chief Zillur Rahman questioned the caretaker government's motive behind the attempt and ruled out any necessity to sit together.   Now, more than ever, Bangladesh needs a servant for the country who does not mind stepping on toes to get the job done. Now is the time when future generations will look back and say, this is when Bangladesh started working again. Now is the time when each and every political parties need to get back to the basic democratic ideals and values. Politicians don't need to find common ground among themselves on every single issue but to find those areas on which common ground can be found, and then see if they can become the catalyst for bringing that common ground to the effect. They should put more emphasis on the potential for cooperation rather stifling the competition.   People in general, believe that political parties should exist for the convenience of like-minded people working together to promote candidates. In legislatures, their function should be to help like-minded members work together for goals they have in common. In addition, working together will help good government agenda.   In line of peoples' interests about democracy and political parties' attitude, the notion of intra-part democracy has increasingly caught up the attention of democratic activists and practitioners. Internal party democracy is often advocated as a desirable and/or necessary set of organizational practices that parties should adopt in order to meet the expectations of their members and supporters as well as the broader public for greater inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability.   There is always a question, especially in the democratic culture of Bangladesh, should politicians have a retirement age so that more youth can be accommodated and empowered to take up leadership roles? Inter-dependency and joint efforts will mutually benefit them as well as the party only while youth will bring in high energy and fresh blood to politics and senior leaders will bring in vast experience in the executive, legislature and other areas to strengthen the party and create a talent pool for the next generation. There was a good sign of intra-part democracy while Begum Khaleda Zia declined the offer to be chairperson of the BNP for life to show her respect for democratic norms. Like her, other political parties and leaders should have to aware of the democratic norms.   Beautiful words cannot make the lives better, but a man/woman who always puts country and people before him/her, before politics and who has leadership qualities in order to construe or scrutinize the minds of the people, can.  Although Bangladesh is now in critical political juncture, but people still have faith and hope and want to say like John Fitzgerald Kennedy, "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." (Inaugural Address on January 20, 1961 as 35th President of the United States)   September 16, 2008, New York Ripan Kumar Biswas is a freelance writer based in New York

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Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh

http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm

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Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
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Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona 
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MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm

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German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:

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