Need to work more
Each year-end is a time for reflection, as each year's beginning is a time for resolutions. These may be on a personal of public level of course, and most conscientious citizens I would think need to engage in both. And that is why I would like to set out here some resolutions we might have made at the start of 2009, that have not been met, and some resolutions we might make anew at the start of 2010, and endeavour to do better in our efforts to meet.
The most glaring aspect of 2009, in how it was different from the year, or two, that preceded it, was the fact that democracy had returned to Bangladesh. Two years of the state of emergency which had at one stage looked like perpetuating itself, ended with the conduct of a free and fair election that brought the Awami League to power with a thumping landslide. It's fair to say the Bangladeshi public had never granted quite such a mandate to any one party at any election. And so obviously, expectations were raised for a period that we would witness some of the change that the League had promised in its manifesto. We would consolidate and enshrine the principles of democracy this year, is I think a fair way of generalising the New Year's resolutions at the beginning of the year gone by.
It is doubtful whether we have been able to quite do so however, although I don't think we have done too badly overall. I think democracy has been done not the greatest service by the shams that paraded as the two major parties' national councils, which were meant to breed democracy within the parties as everyone agrees democracy within parties is essential for democracy to take root outside the parties, within the whole of society. Also, the bitter bickering that still goes on between our parties, which often descends to the most pettiest of levels, such as the one over seat allocation in parliament which saw the first boycott by the opposition BNP this year, is still prevalent. The opposition is still absent from parliament as the New Year rolls around, and this surely, can't be a big help to democracy.
Against this though, we had the landmark ruling in the Bangabandhu murder case, which was surely a big fillip to the rule of law in this country, and the rule of law as we know is everywhere the foundation of a democratic society. So overall, one has to say the year has been a mixed one. Let us resolve however, to make 2010 a more definitive one, in terms of our efforts to achieve the good society that espouses above all the democratic principles upon which this country was founded.
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