From the Editor
This year Independence Day Special Supplement has been dedicated to the young generation of Bangladesh - the young professionals, entrepreneurs, academics and to all those young men and women that may belong to any other callings. They are our future leaders and on their hands we must entrust our destiny. And to them it is our call to dedicate themselves in whatever position they may be in, to the task of nation building.
But there is one concern that we cannot but mention, and that is the marked apathy of the young towards politics. It may perhaps be because of the poor state politics in Bangladesh has fallen into. But we feel that new opportunities have emerged in the national life which should encourage the young to make their contributions in their own fields, toward building up Bangladesh using whatever means, expertise or channels they may want to.
We are celebrating our Independence Day this year under a caretaker government. The political turmoil preceding the end of the 4-Party Alliance tenure and the few weeks that followed its handover to the caretaker government, have given way to an atmosphere of hope under the present dispensation.
In the interregnum people of various walks of life are going over their minds as to why our politics had come to this. What went wrong and what might be the way out of the quagmire that we had been thrown into. There is great deal of public discussion on the issue of reform in politics and on creating a healthy political culture that will help politics shed all the negative connotations that are being ascribed to it at present.
However, in the public discourse what we find lacking is the voice of the young. We feel that they must be provided the opportunity and the space to vent their views. And that is what we have done in this supplement.
There is great concern in the public mind about accountability of the people's representatives and public servants and the need for transparency of the administration, as also the need for ethics and competence-driven polity that would be motivated only by the need to preserve the interest of the people. We have seen the abject depravation of the administration brought about as a consequence of the politicisation of the public institutions.
No one will contest the fact that Bangladesh has suffered in great part the consequence of crisis in leadership. There cannot be a situation worse than one in which among the plethora of self-declared leaders in the political realm there was hardly any one that the nation could look up to for sane action let lone sagacious leadership.
These are some of the issues that have been addressed by some of the young lawyers, academics, and entrepreneurs of Bangladesh, both at home and abroad in the supplement. There are interesting views, from the state of politics and how they think political culture should develop to matters of political acrimony, politicisation of the administration and ways of dealing with corruption, and the Bangladesh of the future they would like to see, find articulation in this supplement. We hope the readers will find the articles both insightful and refreshing.
I would like take this opportunity to thank the many writers for their contribution.
Before concluding I would like to once more repeat the call to the young to embark upon nation building activities from wherever they are and in whatever capacity they can. They must, henceforth, also take more interest in politics and national affairs.

© thedailystar.net, 2007. All Rights Reserved