Do we really have a future?
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Shamsher Chowdhury
BANGLADESHIS simply must come out of this psyche of living in the past. By now we have sufficiently confused ourselves between legacy and the present-day realities. History and legacy have their own purpose in the life of any nation. To be honest it is my feeling that we have indulged ourselves unduly with our past since we became an independent country. The result, we now find ourselves caught in a cobweb of mismanagement, undue conflicts and loosing our focus. There may be other factors that are responsible for the ongoing state of affairs but it is my conviction that our political leaderships lead the way. They have for years indulged in hollow rhetoric, lies and deception that have misled the people.
Whereas our efforts should be to rationalise the frenzy of celebrations, with the passing of years it seems that are being blowing them out of proportions. Each year we celebrate Ekushey February, Victory Day, Bangabandhu's Birth Day, Independence Day, Bangabandhu's Homecoming Day, Bangabandhu's, speech on 7th March 1971, Bangabandhu's Birth Day, Mujibnagar Day and Pahela Baishakh and a host of others. Show me one country of the world that spends so much of time in similar kinds of festivities. I am not against "celebrations and festivities' but the truth remains that of late we have carried it too far. If things are allowed to proceed in this fashion be rest assured that we shall remain a Third World country for ever and ever despite what the so called professional analysts and optimists may or may not tell you. Just ponder for a while that there were as many as 15 thousand members of our law enforcing agencies deployed to oversee the safety and security of the people participating in this year's Baishakhi celebrations alone. Besides even after that there have been incidences where a university teacher and a girl student were subjected to harassment at the hands of rowdy elements. Media has this report also that the 'blessed' student cadres made some quick bucks building stalls and arranging open air concerts at the Dhaka University compound and that too without due permission from the concerned authority. Many of the celebrations are slowly loosing their focus and the stated purpose. On the other hand without exception many of these important national days are highly politicised.
What hurts me most is that we are yet to learn any lesson from these events for better. Have we been able to truly honour those who gave their lives so that we could breathe freely in an independent country? Mere ritualistic glorification of their sacrifices is not enough. Despite the fact that we celebrate each year these glorious days in the life of this nation, we have not even made any conscious effort to uphold the spirit of it all. I am afraid, time and gain we have allowed our emotions and romantic notions to get the better of us.
We are too much into politics anywhere and everywhere, starting from politics in the family, student politics, teachers' politics, labour politics, playing politics with religion etc. We are highly vulnerable to rumour mongering. We are not a thinking nation. We often jump to conclusion without going into details of an issue or analysing the consequences to follow if implemented. It is my impression that often people at the helm of affairs like the Secretaries and Cabinet members of the government too arrive at important meetings without duly going through the agenda or the contents thereof, where they need to deliberate and decide on issues vital to the interests of the entire nation and the people at large.
Today I recall with sadness that famous saying, "When money is lost nothing is lost, when health is lost, something is lost, when character is lost everything is lost". I have no hesitation in saying that we have already lost some vital elements of our character starting from the highest to the lowest.
We have closed minds. We can neither do things ourselves nor are we ready to learn from others. I have interacted with people who are comparatively better trained and academically sound. They are also happen to be widely travelled compared to most of the people. Yet I found many of them, having closely interacted with them for years, to be rather ill informed either of their own country and people or of the outside world. The only thing we are good at, is running after money and degrees rather than, learning and acquisition of knowledge.
We have a classic combination of poor political leaderships and narrow partisan thinking. These two are the key factors that stand in the way of our development and progress. The other factor is our lack of professional acumen amongst people entrusted with the job of running the affairs of the country.
To add to all this, scientists have predicted that most of our coastal areas are likely to go under the sea in the coming two decades or so. The size of our cultivable land is shrinking by the day. In addition, Bangladesh happens to be, perhaps, the most densely populated countries of the world. The backbone of our education over the years has been systematically broken.
Despite what I have said in the foregoing I do believe that in the coming decades we should be able to do better provided we work on the following with wholehearted commitment in addition to what I have said in the foregoing:
1. We must refrain from telling lies and indulging in self deception.
2. There has to be a qualitative change in our work culture.
3. We simply must bring to an end to this matter of raping and violating of women and their dignity
4. We must allow the judiciary to be "absolutely" independent and perform freely without fear or favour.
5. We must drastically improve upon our records on Human Rights violations of all dimensions.
6. We must get hold of our heightened emotions and euphoria and develop a more practical attitude towards life as a whole
Believe me sheer wishful thinking that things will turn out for better since we may have a considerable depository of gas, coal or perhaps oil is not enough. Thus for now I remain somewhat skeptical about our future. What about you?
The writer can be reached at e-mail: chowdhury.shamsher@yahoo.com
BANGLADESHIS simply must come out of this psyche of living in the past. By now we have sufficiently confused ourselves between legacy and the present-day realities. History and legacy have their own purpose in the life of any nation. To be honest it is my feeling that we have indulged ourselves unduly with our past since we became an independent country. The result, we now find ourselves caught in a cobweb of mismanagement, undue conflicts and loosing our focus. There may be other factors that are responsible for the ongoing state of affairs but it is my conviction that our political leaderships lead the way. They have for years indulged in hollow rhetoric, lies and deception that have misled the people.
Whereas our efforts should be to rationalise the frenzy of celebrations, with the passing of years it seems that are being blowing them out of proportions. Each year we celebrate Ekushey February, Victory Day, Bangabandhu's Birth Day, Independence Day, Bangabandhu's Homecoming Day, Bangabandhu's, speech on 7th March 1971, Bangabandhu's Birth Day, Mujibnagar Day and Pahela Baishakh and a host of others. Show me one country of the world that spends so much of time in similar kinds of festivities. I am not against "celebrations and festivities' but the truth remains that of late we have carried it too far. If things are allowed to proceed in this fashion be rest assured that we shall remain a Third World country for ever and ever despite what the so called professional analysts and optimists may or may not tell you. Just ponder for a while that there were as many as 15 thousand members of our law enforcing agencies deployed to oversee the safety and security of the people participating in this year's Baishakhi celebrations alone. Besides even after that there have been incidences where a university teacher and a girl student were subjected to harassment at the hands of rowdy elements. Media has this report also that the 'blessed' student cadres made some quick bucks building stalls and arranging open air concerts at the Dhaka University compound and that too without due permission from the concerned authority. Many of the celebrations are slowly loosing their focus and the stated purpose. On the other hand without exception many of these important national days are highly politicised.
What hurts me most is that we are yet to learn any lesson from these events for better. Have we been able to truly honour those who gave their lives so that we could breathe freely in an independent country? Mere ritualistic glorification of their sacrifices is not enough. Despite the fact that we celebrate each year these glorious days in the life of this nation, we have not even made any conscious effort to uphold the spirit of it all. I am afraid, time and gain we have allowed our emotions and romantic notions to get the better of us.
We are too much into politics anywhere and everywhere, starting from politics in the family, student politics, teachers' politics, labour politics, playing politics with religion etc. We are highly vulnerable to rumour mongering. We are not a thinking nation. We often jump to conclusion without going into details of an issue or analysing the consequences to follow if implemented. It is my impression that often people at the helm of affairs like the Secretaries and Cabinet members of the government too arrive at important meetings without duly going through the agenda or the contents thereof, where they need to deliberate and decide on issues vital to the interests of the entire nation and the people at large.
Today I recall with sadness that famous saying, "When money is lost nothing is lost, when health is lost, something is lost, when character is lost everything is lost". I have no hesitation in saying that we have already lost some vital elements of our character starting from the highest to the lowest.
We have closed minds. We can neither do things ourselves nor are we ready to learn from others. I have interacted with people who are comparatively better trained and academically sound. They are also happen to be widely travelled compared to most of the people. Yet I found many of them, having closely interacted with them for years, to be rather ill informed either of their own country and people or of the outside world. The only thing we are good at, is running after money and degrees rather than, learning and acquisition of knowledge.
We have a classic combination of poor political leaderships and narrow partisan thinking. These two are the key factors that stand in the way of our development and progress. The other factor is our lack of professional acumen amongst people entrusted with the job of running the affairs of the country.
To add to all this, scientists have predicted that most of our coastal areas are likely to go under the sea in the coming two decades or so. The size of our cultivable land is shrinking by the day. In addition, Bangladesh happens to be, perhaps, the most densely populated countries of the world. The backbone of our education over the years has been systematically broken.
Despite what I have said in the foregoing I do believe that in the coming decades we should be able to do better provided we work on the following with wholehearted commitment in addition to what I have said in the foregoing:
1. We must refrain from telling lies and indulging in self deception.
2. There has to be a qualitative change in our work culture.
3. We simply must bring to an end to this matter of raping and violating of women and their dignity
4. We must allow the judiciary to be "absolutely" independent and perform freely without fear or favour.
5. We must drastically improve upon our records on Human Rights violations of all dimensions.
6. We must get hold of our heightened emotions and euphoria and develop a more practical attitude towards life as a whole
Believe me sheer wishful thinking that things will turn out for better since we may have a considerable depository of gas, coal or perhaps oil is not enough. Thus for now I remain somewhat skeptical about our future. What about you?
The writer can be reached at e-mail: chowdhury.shamsher@yahoo.com