Editorial
Pledge on Victory Day
Improve politics and governance to realise growth potential
Like every other Victory Day of the past, the nation will again revisit the epoch-making events that had gone into the Bengali people's success in winning the war against the enemy forces leading to the victorious march of freedom fighters into the capital city 40 years ago. Basically, we take stock of our successes and failures since national independence.
At 40, we can no longer claim to be young. It is time we take charge. In fact, we have made no mean achievements in the face of great odds. We have shown an extraordinary resilience at sustaining ourselves and make stride in spite of natural disasters, recessionary trends in the advanced economies and political uncertainties at home.
In the social sectors including Human resources Development (HRD), literacy rate, child mortality, women empowerment and so on the indicators are getting better every year.
There is, however, no room for complacency because formidable challenges remain. In particular, the infrastructures in the communications and energy sectors are in need of serious addressing for a definitive improvement.
The successes are being threatened to be eclipsed by the confrontational nature of politics, and weak governance characterised by lack of transparency, accountability and answerability. After every parliamentary election, the winning party assumes, as it were, the sole ownership of the country and begins to trivialise the role of the opposition and the civil society. The government conveniently forgets that it is for the people and not for the party. Unfortunately, the finer values of democracy are yet to strike roots in our political culture.
Globally, Bangladesh enjoys an enviable position among the list of the countries that are rated very high for their potential for growth.
If we are to realise this potential, we will have to undergo a wholesale change in our political culture and system of governance. Only then the government will be in a position to deliver the goods and facilitate realisation of our potential for growth.
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