The national election of 2007 will be a turning point in the democratic course of Bangladesh. Identifying the weight of upcoming election, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and two major dailies of the country the Daily Star and the daily Prothom Alo jointly arranged a dialogue on March 20.

At the end of the dialogue, a 24-member citizens' group was formed with a prospect to form a vision of advancement. We surely hope that this drive can play a crucial role. But there are some debatable proposition have come out which already spawn an extensive opprobrium midst the political groups.

The most contentious fume is the "competent or clean candidate movement." Because how will it be determined who are competent or clean and who are not. I cogitate this sort of concept will create a litigant position with the political parties. Here an inquisition may arise. Whether any citizenry initiative should be an opponent to the political parties or it will work as a pressure group by raising voice to nominate clean and competent candidate in the election.

It is an obvious reality that there are a lot of enigma in the political parties and they do prefer to nominate those who have a chance to win out in the election rather than honouring their competency and honesty. Regardless, the media and civil society should work to make a change to such kind of practices. We can cite the instance of the position of the media and civil society against using arms in the student politics. The media and civil society of our country has worked as a pressure group and the situation is far improved than the previous years.

May be our beloved country at present duration has been undergoing its ever worst time. Considering the existing circumstances, we should elect those people who will strenuously work to shape Bangladesh as a secular, progressive country and as well as protect the sovereignty. In this regard media and civil society should work together prioritizing some issues:

The fanatics who are trying to establish militancy in the name of religion and their godfathers should not be elected.

Those who have earned a lot of money by corruption should be boycotted in the election.

Loan defaulters should be barred to run in the election.

Those who want to make Bangladesh a Taliban country should be resisted.

To fulfill these issues and vision of progress of CPD, the Daily Star and Prothom Alo initiative some strategies can consider:

The dialogue should organize in all districts not only in Dhaka or major cities. They can invite one private television channel as a partner.

One page of the dailies should be classified with various contents of the next election and it should publish regularly.

It is urgently required to make people cognizant of different issues of next election applying poster, sticker and airing programs in private television channels.

Delwar Hossain Arif is Assistant Professor, Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Chittagong.