MANKIND has progressed in all spheres in the last century like never before in human history. Progress in some areas has been questionable or remain controversial. But there is no disagreement in sensible quarters that the driving force of this progress was freedom of thought and activities. The greatest accomplishment of the last century was containing bigotry or ultra conservative notions to enable democratic and plural societies to flourish.
In fact, the cumulative experiences of mankind throughout the ages prove that such societies, notwithstanding their lapses and imperfections, are best for people . In the name of welfare of people, tolitariam systems attempted to snatch away people's liberties, their right of choice or their sovereignty over their own affairs. But the same did not work.
Therefore, we have been witnessing the gradual triumph of democracy or yearning for democracy all over the world and a prominent feature of democracy is that in such a system the values or beliefs of a section of people are hardly sought to be superimposed on the people in general. At the heart of democracy is debate, free discussion to shed light on matters of public interest to help the government guide or form policy in relation to them.
The merit of a real democracy is that it recognises that none has a monopoly of wisdom or knowledge and that the views of all sides must be heard and duly and dispassionately considered to take final decision on an issue of significance from the standpoint of the public good.
M. A. Samad
Uttara, Dhaka
Freedom of thought and expression
FE Team | Published: October 08, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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