Lack of democracy and good governance

Incidents of kidnapping and forced disappearance are still on in our society despite a lot of uproar about it. Often we read about news on forced disappearance and on occasions the relatives of the victims hold the members of law enforcing agencies responsible. Opposition politician Ilias Ali  disappeared in 2012 and almost three years have passed but he still remains untraceable.
Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches and in this case, the victims' family knows how excruciating the pain is! The incidents of kidnapping and forced disappearances have created a sense of helplessness in our society and every citizen feels his/her life is not safe. This is affecting our image abroad and we can blame nobody but ourselves for it.
Our foreign development partners are urging our government to ensure transparency and good governance, but sadly, we have been able to achieve very little in this direction. If we fail to ensure safety and security of the people, our dream for a truly democratic system will never materialize. I only hope that good sense shall prevail and the government will soon realize that peace and security are the most important preconditions for democracy and development.

Masud Rana
Dhanmondi, Dhaka