Law breaking citizens!
Zubair Sadeque, Dhaka
A little soul-searching may reveal a long list of reasons for us remaining so impoverished as a nation. Too many people, too small a country with too little natural resources may appear at the top of the list (some would argue however that too many people is a resource itself, after all, Bangladesh has gone up the ranking of human resource development! Others may argue that we have plenty of natural resources, some say we are floating on a see of natural gas!). I believe the item that should be on top of the list is our complete disrespect to the rules of law. Not following the rules seems to have become our national characteristics.The other day I was waiting in a long queue in front of the gas station at Sheraton crossing (where the queue is always long because it is regarded as the only gas station where you can get pure fuel in the right volume). One driver, perhaps in his bid to appease his owner, tried to cut in the long queue to get fuel first totally ignoring the fact that others before him came earlier and are patiently waiting for their turn to come. We constantly look for opportunities to bypass others. We look for means to get the service first. This encourages others to break the queue. Anyone succeeding in this constant endeavour to go first disregarding the rules takes the false pride of being smarter than others. This is how we start breaking the rules and this is how the system starts to fall apart. I believe no good can happen to this society of ours unless we collectively start obeying the rules of law.
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