Feature

Asrar Chowdhury

I happened to be at the right place at the right timein Chittagong, attending the final session of a debate competition organised by Drishti and AKTEL. Star Campus was the media partner. The venue was the Theatre Institute. I was happy to see a good institute patronising art and culture outside Dhaka.

There were two groupsschools and universities. When I entered the auditorium, the school students were debating on the relevance and irrelevance of the United Nations. Each contestant represented a particular country. I listened carefully. I soon lost my sense of time and space.

Good things don't last too long. The debate finished! Then came the university students. That debate finished, but to my relief, the school boys and girls returned for the final debatethe girls of Bay View School versus the boys of Cider International School. The format of the debate followed the British Parliament. The subject: "Bangladesh has progressed backward since independence" seemed biased against the girls, but that's beside the point.

That entire debate still seems like a picture card flashing in front of my eyes. It was evident both teams had done their homework. I was blown to smithereens. The way the youngsters were presenting their arguments, finding gaps in the opponent's arguments and counter attacking each other left me speechless. The next generation was setting examples not only for themselves, but also for us to reflect back on ourselves. The team-leaders, Maliha Ahmed and Shafkat Fahmid amazed me the most. If Maliha and Shafkat are a sample of debating boys and girls of today's Chittagong, we should all hold our breath.

And, if these young debaters represent the next generation of Bangladesh, I see nothing but rays of hope. These youngsters will fill in and grow out of our shoes to take Bangladesh to her rightful place on the world stage. This is all I can pray and hope for. But then…

As I was leaving the Theatre Institute, I was telling myself, if historical evidence is anything to go by, would "we" be able to leave a stage for the next generation to perform on? I'm sceptic, but then I have been proved wrong many times before and would love to be proved wrong once more!

(Asrarul Islam Chowdhury teaches economics at Jahangirnagar University and North South University. asrarul@gmail.com)