Firstly, the factors such as: Gen. Ahmed is, among other things, a citizen of Bangladesh; and the opportunity afforded to him by the conference organiser as a keynote speaker in the conference apparently qualified him at least to share, with conference participants and others, his views on democracy, among other things - as did The Daily Star when it comes to sharing the paper's view on his speech (as appropriate) with the readers through the editorial mentioned. Taking into cognizance the above - does it imply, the General by doing that "may have gone far beyond the purview of a serving CAS ..." as the editorial indicated?

Secondly, in one part of the editorial it has been mentioned "But democracy is a time-tested system." while referring to the general's thoughts on homegrown democracy. The statement tends to indicate, among other things: democracy cannot be validated through testing it on the basis of a one time fixed reality. It is fine.

But the above statement seems to contradict, in some respects, with another statement in the same editorial wherein a somewhat one time fixed reality has been suggested for testing the validity of democracy -- " ... a public discourse can be held where the validity of his thought can be really tested". It now appears the editorial suffers, among other things, from a kind of inconsistency.

In the final analysis, it can be said, democracy is, among other things, a dynamic and continuous process that, for example, takes shapes and sizes through say, challenges, opportunities, visions, missions and determinations of all those associated with it - either directly or otherwise - relative to time, space and other variables.

Let us rise on the occasion to promote and sustain, among other things, a people centered democracy in Bangladesh on a continuing basis.