"The winner is not the richest, happiest or most virtuous place, but the one that has improved the most in the previous 12 months", contends The Economist, one of the most prestigious British media outlets, to justify its selection of Bangladesh as the Country of the Year. If the choice of a country now tottering on the brink of an economic crisis raises many an eyebrow, the sceptics cannot be blamed. After all, the advance made by the country is not something tangible or visible to the naked eye. In fact, the opposite on the economic, political, social and other fronts is true. Then where has the country improved so much that The Economist crowned it as the number one country of the year 2024?
In terms of tangible achievements, Bangladesh still has little to show. But the youth dynamics that have gone through a paradigm shift sweeping on its way everything like a tsunami hold before the nation unlimited possibilities. It is this sky-high expectation, hope, aspiration and confidence that have been rewarded. The July-August movement is unique because unlike a victory in armed clashes in Syria, here the winners are the unarmed protesting students and mass people who joined the movement in the hope of a change in their lot following a radical transformation of the system where they are not only neglected but also reduced to insignificance.
This uprising, like the ones before, has given the opportunity of connecting the missing link between a Bangladesh veering from its axis and the nation that decisively preferred to traverse in 1971. It is like a fresh attempt at rediscovering the true worth of the people, its cherished identity after the ideals of equanimity of the Liberation War. This time the rallying cry of the protesters has been building a country free of discrimination. That obviously calls for systemic radical change. In that sense, The Economist's recognition may look somewhat post-haste because some of the countries it rewarded with the title met with extreme reversals. Here the best example is close by in the shape of neighbouring Myanmar. Crowned the Country of the Year in 2015, Myanmar soon after started persecution of the Rohingya people and forced their mass exodus to Bangladesh. That country is now enmeshed in unending civil wars with large areas falling to insurgent groups.
Can any such hidden danger waylay Bangladesh on its fresh journey? The political parties which earlier were unanimous in giving enough time to the caretaker government for reforms have been showing their growing unease and discords on this issue and the timing of election. Some of the leaders of the party touted to be the likely power contender are even claiming that the reforms be better left to an elected government. They find the panacea for the country's political misery in an election. The student leaders who spearheaded the movement could not disagree more. Asif Mahmud Sojib Bhuiyan, one of the two young advisers from the student coordinators serving in the interim government, was prompted to comment that the impatience political parties are showing for election is hurting the reform process. He and his comrades have reiterated several times that so many people did not lay their lives just for an election.
Indeed, if the issue of mere holding polls gets the better of the national yearning for a desirable system of dispensation, the objectives of the movement will lose ways in the wilderness. So long, the focus has been on the forces of the deposed despotic regime who might take every opportunity to undermine the interim government. It is now time to mind the disparate agendas the anti-revisionists or counter-revisionists are out to promote and execute.
Thus when an 85-year old valiant freedom fighter is subjected to the ultimate humiliation of wearing garland of shoes around his neck for public demonstration, it undermines the treasured sanctity of the Liberation War. Accusing fingers have been pointed at the defeated forces of 1971.
None of the political parties ever to have ruled the country has an enviable track record. With their origin in military barracks, two of those spoiled politics to a great extent making the nation's journey on the road to democracy a difficult proposition. Even after the fall of autocrat Ershad and the best ever election held under President Shahabuddin Ahmed-led caretaker government, partisan politics vitiated administration, leaving hardly any space for liberal voices. Once any political party was in power, it wanted to monopolise it. They, without exception, played every trick to consolidate their strongholds to the denial of flourishing either a bi-partisan or multi-party democratic rule. Under the undemocratic political practices, the common people were deprived of their fundamental rights.
With such track records, how reliable today's political parties are in defending democracy and people's rights? If they have learnt a lesson from the just fallen government, things may get better. But some unnerving developments like that of Cumilla and internecine strife within the main contending party do not augur well. It is because of all this, the ongoing reform programmes prove particularly crucial. The restiveness of political leaders over election and civil servants' ruckus over administrative power fall far short of the mental makeup needed for building a new Bangladesh based on equitable distribution of wealth and protection of human rights for all. Without the mental reform of political leaders, the cherished agendas espoused by the non-party student leadership cannot have a firm footing. Leaders and followers may not have a political philosophy but if they were erudite and culturally advanced, their integrity would have developed enough where their sincere appeal could speak to people's heart. The country would get its option and destiny right.
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