Response 1:

Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dahuk/message/2867

Dear Friends of the Forum:

I have always read Mr. Mohaimen’s writing with great interest.  His writing somehow brings out the unspoken words that so many hearts would have spoken should there be a moratorium on social repercussions of one’s inner thoughts and subconscious vibes.  It is good to see that such hearts do exist in  Bangladesh who has a genuine desire of making the real changes in the society and is ready to participate in initiating those changes.  I would not have written this piece if I were not one of the participants of the dinner that Mohaimen is talking about in his posting.  Mohaimen has touched on several issues with one theme in mind and that there are things that we can be proud of about Bangladesh and that there is light at the end of the Tunnel. 

There are good things in our society that others can learn from and that we all, the RBs and the NRBs combined are proud of.  There are living examples of the success stories in Bangladesh.  There are living models of our making that other countries have borrowed from and succeeded.  There are examples that we have set in the western societies that we are honest and hard working people.  But the lingering question remains, are we any better off than we were?  Most of the recent question that I have been facing personally in the closed circles, “are we any better off than what we were as part of Pakistan?”  I hold my breath in disbelief that such a question can be asked in open forums.  I am not sure how pure the intensions are of such questions?  Or is it part of a concerted effort to discredit our self rule?

I would not attempt to portray myself as one of the Experts of Bangladeshi Affairs but have probably adequate information on the subject and that I have the skills to logically and structurally extrapolate this information into some meaningful knowledge that can lead my observations into meaningful conclusions.  I would not Claim that most of logical conclusions will be accurate to the last bit.

I have recently traveled to Bangladesh four times in a span of 3 months and met quite a number of well-known professionals and politicians and asked about their opinion on the current state of affairs.  Most of my meetings have been quite productive and meaningful in achieving its targets and objectives.  There has been no limitation in the flow of good-will among the parties that I have met and mostly they have been quite professional in their dealings.  Yes, there are the good and the bad like any other nation.   

One thing, however, I have felt is the force of undercurrents that somehow destabilizes and zeroes out the positive forces.  I am not sure what those undercurrents are but they are very powerful and quite destabilizing.  Some of the statements of Mohaimen have indicated those undercurrents in very tangible terms.  I will try to shade some light into those undercurrents and try to make some senses out of it.  Most of these undercurrents emanate from the verticalization of the institutional forces.  These institutional forces are major forces in our society and they mostly neutralize each other through their lobbying representation at the Government level as they all are represented.  The resultant force stemming out of the undercurrents somehow balances themselves out at the surface. This balancing act has a tremendous negative outcome of our overall development process.  If we are unable to deal with these under-currents then the current trends of our socio-economic development will suffer in the long run.  We can not just brush off these under-currents under the rug and pretend that it never existed in the first place. 

Mr. Mohaimen, very eloquently, depicted some of the milestones of Bangladesh’s achievements in a manner to elevate our sagging self confidence as a nation.  There are quite a number of instances which points the logic to the reverse as well.  I agree to most of the logic contained in Mr. Mohaimen’s writings except for one.  The single most big failure of the current government and those of the governments in the past were their utter failure in restoring the Law and Order situation in the country.  I am not sure that one would need a Rocket scientist to fix the Law and Order situation there but a few legislations and their strict implementation will do the job.  I had written a 7 point program at the very outset of the new government on how best to contain violence and improve Law and Order situation of Bangladesh. Without the improvement of the Law and Order situation everything else will trickle down to the Zero position.   

One of the headlines caught my eyes the other day, “we are our biggest enemy”.  Not knowing the source of the statement, I prodded through the article and came to know that the Country Manager of the World Bank in Bangladesh was the source of the statement.  The article somehow concludes that the biggest obstacle to our development is ourselves and that we are the ones who undo most of the efforts that are directed to our social and economic development.  There is some truth in the matter.  Like Mr. Mohaimen, I have witnessed the same on many occasions.  I have seen several students in Cairo have written letters to the MOFA of the Egyptian government complaining about other fellow students and their past records.  A PhD student at Al Azhar University had to wait for a year to clear his name that he had forged his certificate.  The Bangladesh Embassy and its staff came to his aid to prove that his certificates were original.  Without their help the student was about to be deported out of the country.  There were other instances where a mass letter was sent out to MOFA complaining about the past records of certain students just because that they belonged to the separate Madrassa Group.  There are quite a number of students who got deported and some are still in the jail awaiting their fate.   

Probably, we do not understand the repercussions of our actions and how we are being perceived by others out of these divisive actions.  It might be total ignorance of our mental capacity to comprehend the outcome of such actions.  We can not just put our heads in the sand and claim that nothing has been happening.  We need to confront these issues in the open and come up with a real and practical plan of action.  Let us deal with the Law and Order situation and then tackle the corruption issue head on.  Should we succeed in tackling these two issues, we can turn Bangladesh into a real Royal Bengal Tiger who can become an example for others to follow in the area.  We have all the spices to become a Singapore or a Hong Kong with such a homogeneous society and harmony among its population.

 

Kind regards,

Mohammed Saidul Ahsan (Rial)

Mississauga, Canada

Response 2:

Source:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dahuk/message/2852

Mr. Mohaimen has raised some very important and interesting issues in his article. Probably he is right that an ever-increasing crowd of non-political opportunists around the power centre has become the main problem for both the ruling party and the main opposition party. Businessmen and corrupt former army officers and bureaucrats are outnumbering the professional politicians in our politics. Although our politicians are corrupt and they lack efficiency, these neophyte politicians are much more dangerous than the professionals. They do not have any commitment to anybody, not even to their own party. They have taken it as a business and so their only goal is to make money. This group of people show extreme intolerance to other political parties and persons in order to prove their locality to the party.


I am not sure whether only the government officials are responsible for the slow progress of industrialisation. However, it is very shocking to see that the government allocates less than 1.5 percent of its development budget for the industrial sector. Is it not funny to expect mass industrialisation with this peanut?


I agree with Mr. Mohaimen that we have a tendency to highlight the negative sides of the nation and neglect the positive ones. We even turn a positive development into a negative one by highlighting the empty half of the glass. I have seen the survey report that says that 90% of our female children goes to school in paper and electronic media. However, most of the newspaper gave very little coverage and some presented it inversely as 'still 10% do not go to school'.


How to change it? Who will come forward? Can our e-forums do something in this regard?


Imtiaz Ahmed