Editor's note

Bangladesh at forty is as much celebratory as it is an introspective and self-evaluatory occasion. Though 40 years is not too long a time in the life of a nation, the hard truth is we are getting older. As we do so, we are put willy-nilly on a scale of comparison with other nations at a similar stage of life. While pre-independence generation and the participants in the liberation war measure the gaps between aspiration and attainment, the post-independence generation weighs up achievements and failures against a different criterion. They are interested in an interpretation of how their seniors have utilized independence to enhance opportunities for their self-growth and where they have faltered.

Just as we have made strides in social sectors and the economy as well, democracy is yet to strike firm institutional roots. A built-in self-resilience, however, helped us through natural disasters and economic recession giving us a measure of self-confidence. It is from the vantage point of such self-belief that we can turn our populous country into a vibrant entity of well-developed human resources. But for this to happen, we need a stable political culture and a thrust of patriotism.