| Spotlight
Things we could do better without
 Mahdin Mahboob
in·de·pen·dence (nd-pndns)
n.
1. The state or quality of being independent.
2. Archaic Sufficient income for comfortable self-support; a competence.
26th March, 2009 would mark the 38th year of our independence. On this day in 1971, we as a nation finally found our identity after having been ruled by foreign invaders for hundreds of years.
The early traces of civilization here in Bengal date back to four thousand years, and the first settlers included the Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic peoples. Although the exact origin of the words 'Bangla' or 'Bengal' is unknown, it is widely believed to have been derived from Bang, the Dravidian-speaking tribe that settled in the area around the year 1000 BC. Since then, Bengal has seen itself being ruled by many foreign forces.
After being ruled by Hindu and Buddhist kings, Muslim invaders, the Mughals, the British and finally the Pakistanis, we finally managed to have our true identity in 1971 as Bangladeshis. But after thirty-eight years of being independent, one may ask how much of the values of the War of Liberation have truly been fulfilled? How much have we truly progressed?
Perhaps it is easy to make excuses about the many problems we face as a small country with a staggeringly high population and very few natural resources. Perhaps we would still like to be called a young nation. But how logical would these claims be? Let's have a look at another Asian country, similar to us in many aspects, but yet so different!
Singapore, a small island city-state in South Asia, with a land mass two hundred times smaller than that of our country, gained its full sovereignty in 1965, not long before our independence.
Starting off with problems including mass unemployment, housing shortages, and a dearth of land and natural resources, Singapore today has not only overcome all these problems, but has grown to be the fifth most economically solvent country in the world with a per capita income of over $50,000/yr, just about fifty times of what we earn! In spite of having a population density of 6814/km2 (six and a half times that of our country), Singapore today has to import manpower from different countries across Asia, including Bangladesh.
So, did the government in Singapore have a magic wand? They definitely did not; what they had was consistency and long term plans, which sadly, we always fail to achieve. In spite of the huge human resource available in our country we have failed to truly achieve according to our potentials. What are the things that have been holding us back as a nation?
Lack of long term planning: A couple of months back, Prothom Alo, a leading Bengali newspaper of Bangladesh, published a four-page special supplement about the hundreds of unfinished bridges that can be seen all across the country, a glaring example of how much we fail in our long term plans. The story of course is same; if one government starts a bridge or a road, the construction work goes on till that government is in power. As soon as there is a change of government, the bridge/road/project is left stranded, just like that!
Power Shortage: The buzzword today seems to be of a Digital Bangladesh, promised to be delivered by the year 2021 by the current government. Although an ambitious plan, it is still doable given that certain prerequisites are met first. The government should make the production of electrical energy a first priority since the country simply cannot prosper with a power shortage of 2000 MW every day!
Fighting amongst ourselves: Why do we tend to fight amongst ourselves? Between political parties? Between different faiths? Between different ideologies? It's time that all of us should start behaving like responsible citizens in order to take our country forward.
Student Politics: Student Politics in Bangladesh have gone drastically wrong and it must be stopped in all institutions at once. Students of colleges and universities are meant to study and not have armed fights between themselves!
Corruption: I personally believe the single most important factor that has been holding us back is corruption. Corruption truly is the root of all evil. It is easy to remain oblivious about it and think that it is something done only by politicians and government servants only. Very wrong; we are all corrupt in our own different ways. To avoid being fined after violating a traffic law, we offer bribes to the policeman; we do that to make things work faster. Guess what? That makes us equally corrupt and hence the practice continues. It's high time that all of us change our ways.
But amidst all these obstacles, we are still moving forward because there are certain things that bind us as a nation. First and foremost is the sovereignty of the land that our forefathers fought for.
We are all one when it comes to that. Simple things like a game of cricket between Bangladesh and any other team in the world or the Pahela Boishakh celebrations show our oneness as a nation. So on the occasion of the thirty-eighth year of our independence, let us all promise to overcome these problems and build a better and beautiful Bangladesh.
The cynics would still ask, can we really overcome all these hurdles and march forward? The answer of course is, Yes we can!
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