Which Way Is Our Nation Going?
Mrinmoyee Rahman, Bangladesh
It was the dream of a "Digital Bangladesh" that prompted us to vote the current Awami League government to power. We, the first-time voters, were shown dreams of a "digital" nation that would be more modern, up-to-date and would fulfill our modern-day needs more perfectly well. While the previous government could not show us any such "dream", it was these shrewd people who manage to persuade (or tantalize) us the first-time voters; and they got it!
More than one and a half years gone, and we have seen – with hearts full of grief and discouragement, feeling that with them we have lost everything – how each and every dream has been shattered. The first big bang on our dreams came with the 2/25 incident of BDR carnage in 2009. All those majors and lieutenants and high-rank army personnel killed, we are now left with a backbone-less BDR and an unguarded border. The first question that comes to the mind of anyone on such an incident is: "Who has got benefited most?"
A look at the more frequent killings of Bangladeshis in the border regions by the Indian BSF of the powerful neighboring country may give the answer. We now are so used to the news of BSF killing Bangladeshis that we forget to mourn at the news of another. Though the answer seems clear to us, the government and opposition still go on blaming each other for such a huge loss of the nation and we the general people are still a long way from knowing who were behind the perpetrating of that tragedy.
The chaos game in the universities, where the main players are the gangs of the pro-government student organization, is no more a secret now. How many days our student population are collectively losing from their valuable student life, while passing their days in fear and apprehension because of this game will remain always unanswered. This is one of the many questions that we have got used to living with without an answer.
The price hike – leaving many living below or around the poverty line – has shattered the "dream" of basic sustenance for many – though it should have been a basic and fundamental human right. One and a half years are not too long for them to forget the promise that they collectively believed, consequently voting for nouka marka (boat, the symbol of BAL). I am talking about our honorable Prime Minister's promise of feeding us rice at Tk. 10 per kg.
Then comes the slow poisoning of democracy. We have been witnessing one tyrannical act after another. The closure of a newspaper and television channels, the arrest and brutal torture of an editor in the name of remand, recurring remands being awarded to the senior opposition leaders and torturing them in police custody, mass-arrests of opposition people, people being arrested and tortured at their homes, taken to remand and being tortured for reasons as small as "attending a political meeting" or "distributing opposition leaflets" day after day without any medical check-ups, and the list goes on.
With our borders unsafe, our primary rights unmet, our democracy questioned, we the young generation sit and wonder whether this is the "digitalization" of Bangladesh we were promised.
When we expect practical steps taken by our government to all these current problems in which our country is clearly submerged, we instead have to be content with being taken to the past! Our Constitution, they say, has now gone back the constitution of '72.
With that, we as a nation, step four decades back, while yet, we are told to dream of a prosperous and developed nation by 2021!
That reminds me of a word of wisdom I once heard as a young: "Regrets of the past, colorful dreams of the future and unplanned present is the life of a fool".
I hope our leaders will have some time to reflect on this saying and do something to rescue us all from the burden of being labeled as a foolish nation.
Mrinmoyee Rahman, Chittagong.
E Mail : r.mrinmoyee@gmail.com
More than one and a half years gone, and we have seen – with hearts full of grief and discouragement, feeling that with them we have lost everything – how each and every dream has been shattered. The first big bang on our dreams came with the 2/25 incident of BDR carnage in 2009. All those majors and lieutenants and high-rank army personnel killed, we are now left with a backbone-less BDR and an unguarded border. The first question that comes to the mind of anyone on such an incident is: "Who has got benefited most?"
A look at the more frequent killings of Bangladeshis in the border regions by the Indian BSF of the powerful neighboring country may give the answer. We now are so used to the news of BSF killing Bangladeshis that we forget to mourn at the news of another. Though the answer seems clear to us, the government and opposition still go on blaming each other for such a huge loss of the nation and we the general people are still a long way from knowing who were behind the perpetrating of that tragedy.
The chaos game in the universities, where the main players are the gangs of the pro-government student organization, is no more a secret now. How many days our student population are collectively losing from their valuable student life, while passing their days in fear and apprehension because of this game will remain always unanswered. This is one of the many questions that we have got used to living with without an answer.
The price hike – leaving many living below or around the poverty line – has shattered the "dream" of basic sustenance for many – though it should have been a basic and fundamental human right. One and a half years are not too long for them to forget the promise that they collectively believed, consequently voting for nouka marka (boat, the symbol of BAL). I am talking about our honorable Prime Minister's promise of feeding us rice at Tk. 10 per kg.
Then comes the slow poisoning of democracy. We have been witnessing one tyrannical act after another. The closure of a newspaper and television channels, the arrest and brutal torture of an editor in the name of remand, recurring remands being awarded to the senior opposition leaders and torturing them in police custody, mass-arrests of opposition people, people being arrested and tortured at their homes, taken to remand and being tortured for reasons as small as "attending a political meeting" or "distributing opposition leaflets" day after day without any medical check-ups, and the list goes on.
With our borders unsafe, our primary rights unmet, our democracy questioned, we the young generation sit and wonder whether this is the "digitalization" of Bangladesh we were promised.
When we expect practical steps taken by our government to all these current problems in which our country is clearly submerged, we instead have to be content with being taken to the past! Our Constitution, they say, has now gone back the constitution of '72.
With that, we as a nation, step four decades back, while yet, we are told to dream of a prosperous and developed nation by 2021!
That reminds me of a word of wisdom I once heard as a young: "Regrets of the past, colorful dreams of the future and unplanned present is the life of a fool".
I hope our leaders will have some time to reflect on this saying and do something to rescue us all from the burden of being labeled as a foolish nation.
Mrinmoyee Rahman, Chittagong.
E Mail : r.mrinmoyee@gmail.com
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