In only a couple of days, the New Year will dawn in. The countdown to herald the new cycle of the Gregorian calendar is already upbeat across the world and traditional merriment will once again captivate everyone at the time-scale transition.
As it is always, the advent of the New Year brews and precipitates hopes and aspirations for everyone, irrespective of age, caste, social status and nationality. Everyone weaves new ray of hopes for the better, obviously. Everyone is locked in prayers and expressions of good wishes for others and this is certainly one unique event when the entire humanity has unanimity of goodwill.
While our thoughts and actions now are centered round the New Year, it is also normal to have a flashback of the passing year. Indeed, the year 2017 has been very eventful, much of which will definitely spill into the coming year.
Globally, regionally and locally, 2017 had several notable events which spanned from politics to economy, from sociology to ecology, from art to science etc. No doubt, each event had some impact, minor or significant, on every one's life. Certainly many of the events gauged positive impacts like achievements, remedial and innovations in different aspects but many had been on the negative side with some esteemed to be serious or even threatening. Our concerns are for those with negative labels as they live as challenges for the next year and beyond. However, life has to go on.
For us in Bangladesh, 2018 would be quite interesting but important. While socio-economic growth is expected to maintain the momentum, the upcoming year would see a highly warmed up political arena. As 2018 will be the terminal year for the current government, preparations for the general election will obviously swing high. The incumbent government would try to realise as many development projects to showcase their strength while the opposition circles would be busy consolidating their footprints.
However, the big challenges will be dealing with the Rohingya issue, rising bank scams, disciplining the bureaucracy and related agencies against corruption and price control of essential items.
Though there has been an agreement between the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar with regard to the repatriation of Rohingya refugees, there will be no comfort to this effect unless the actual repatriation starts. Experts have already been expressing doubt in the wake of the intransigent attitude of the Myanmar authorities as well as the continued support of Russia and China towards Myanmar in the international forum.
Bank scams and corruption are two other aspects that have been sporadically tempting to be socio-economic parasites that can not only be disturbing for any government but destroy the entire fabric of the society. Even the education sector is now charged with growing corruption which should certainly shake the very foundation of our sustainable future.
With hope against hope, we carry forward our deep desire to live in harmony with peace, without any fear, without any embarrassment, with security, with dignity, with marching ability to express our wisdom and ideas, and with hope to count one more successful year in the log of our lifespan. Let us hope for a happier New Year!
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