Enabling people to savour freedom in its true sense
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
THE nation celebrates today (Wednesday) the 38th anniversary of its Victory Day, commemorating the final defeat of the Pakistani occupation forces and leading to the triumphant emergence of Bangladesh as a sovereign entity in the comity of nations. On this day in 1971, the nine month-long war of liberation, sanctified by the blood of the martyrs and resplendent with indomitable valour and courage of the freedom fighters, amid all heavy odds and also machinations by the alien vested interests and their local collaborators, reached its much-coveted turning point. It heralded the dawn of a new era for the people of this country. While observing this auspicious day with usual pomp and grandeur, the nation would recall with gratitude the supreme sacrifices made by the martyrs and the heroic struggle by the valiant freedom fighters against the Pakistani occupation force that had deployed all its brutal might to subjugate the nation.
The Victory Day, which is an annual event of great historic significance, offers the nation an opportunity to evaluate its achievements and failures over the past 38 years in the light of the aspirations and goals that had inspired it during the arduous struggle for freedom and independence. This is also an occasion for the people and their leaders to see how they have tuned themselves to the fast-changing world in all respects. While the basic goals of the war of liberation remain unchanged, people's aspirations have been changing over time. It is a befitting time for all those who have led this nation for all those years to search their souls. Unfortunately, they have not done so far in an objective, dispassionate and purposeful way. If they had done this before in earnest, they would, in all fairness, have felt themselves embarrassed, even in private, by the search results.
Despite all the statistics about impressive economic growth, nearly 40 per cent of the country's population are still living below the poverty line. That means a large number of people in Bangladesh earn, individually, less than a dollar a day. Hundreds of thousands of jobless and distressed people are dependent for their survival on the money and food the government distributes under various safety net programmes, even though these are not properly targeted in some areas. The rate of malnourishment among children is one of the highest and adult literacy rate, one of the lowest in the world. The human development indicators in this country are often claimed to be better than many poor developing countries. But the country has yet to go a long way to reach decent levels even on this score card. The government has been able to improve health sector infrastructures, but not the services that the poor need in both rural and urban areas. However, amidst the long list of failures, there are also some success stories. Increase in food production, impressive growth of export-oriented apparel sector and remittance earning etc., can be cited as such successes. Notwithstanding this, Bangladesh's actual performance has been below its potential over most of the years since independence. This underperformance does largely account for Bangladesh's present predicament.
Thus, the failure of the leaders, across the political divide, to effectively translate into reality the basic goals of the long and arduous struggle for independence, remains a cause for wider disconcert. Despite having promising potential, the country is still far away from achieving, to any satisfactory level, the long-cherished goals, because of corruption, intolerance and lack of foresight and pragmatism on the part of its leaders, political and otherwise. Unlike the last previous two Victory Day anniversaries, the nation is celebrating the occasion this year in a free and democratic atmosphere this year. The people had exercised their voting right on December 29 last year and installed a democratic government with the hope that it would manage affairs, both political and economic, of the state better than the past. It would not be fair to evaluate the performance of this government so early. Nonetheless, the people would expect that politicians, bureaucrats and all others who are involved, in one way or other, in the task of taking the country towards achieving the avowed goals of peace and prosperity would make a solemn pledge, on this auspicious occasion, to rise above any narrow self-interest. The nation would now look forward to pro-active moves by all concerned to lead it forward onto the path of a sustainable progress for shared prosperity in a transparent way.
The Victory Day, which is an annual event of great historic significance, offers the nation an opportunity to evaluate its achievements and failures over the past 38 years in the light of the aspirations and goals that had inspired it during the arduous struggle for freedom and independence. This is also an occasion for the people and their leaders to see how they have tuned themselves to the fast-changing world in all respects. While the basic goals of the war of liberation remain unchanged, people's aspirations have been changing over time. It is a befitting time for all those who have led this nation for all those years to search their souls. Unfortunately, they have not done so far in an objective, dispassionate and purposeful way. If they had done this before in earnest, they would, in all fairness, have felt themselves embarrassed, even in private, by the search results.
Despite all the statistics about impressive economic growth, nearly 40 per cent of the country's population are still living below the poverty line. That means a large number of people in Bangladesh earn, individually, less than a dollar a day. Hundreds of thousands of jobless and distressed people are dependent for their survival on the money and food the government distributes under various safety net programmes, even though these are not properly targeted in some areas. The rate of malnourishment among children is one of the highest and adult literacy rate, one of the lowest in the world. The human development indicators in this country are often claimed to be better than many poor developing countries. But the country has yet to go a long way to reach decent levels even on this score card. The government has been able to improve health sector infrastructures, but not the services that the poor need in both rural and urban areas. However, amidst the long list of failures, there are also some success stories. Increase in food production, impressive growth of export-oriented apparel sector and remittance earning etc., can be cited as such successes. Notwithstanding this, Bangladesh's actual performance has been below its potential over most of the years since independence. This underperformance does largely account for Bangladesh's present predicament.
Thus, the failure of the leaders, across the political divide, to effectively translate into reality the basic goals of the long and arduous struggle for independence, remains a cause for wider disconcert. Despite having promising potential, the country is still far away from achieving, to any satisfactory level, the long-cherished goals, because of corruption, intolerance and lack of foresight and pragmatism on the part of its leaders, political and otherwise. Unlike the last previous two Victory Day anniversaries, the nation is celebrating the occasion this year in a free and democratic atmosphere this year. The people had exercised their voting right on December 29 last year and installed a democratic government with the hope that it would manage affairs, both political and economic, of the state better than the past. It would not be fair to evaluate the performance of this government so early. Nonetheless, the people would expect that politicians, bureaucrats and all others who are involved, in one way or other, in the task of taking the country towards achieving the avowed goals of peace and prosperity would make a solemn pledge, on this auspicious occasion, to rise above any narrow self-interest. The nation would now look forward to pro-active moves by all concerned to lead it forward onto the path of a sustainable progress for shared prosperity in a transparent way.