Bangladesh today
Two letters to editor by readers in a local daily on 20th February made interesting and contrasting reading; with fairly reasonable viewpoints! One was by Juliet Kausar from Iran giving the writer's views on the issue of "custodial torture", and the trampling down of "human dignity" and the "arrogance of power" with a real life example! The fact remains that this is the reality of Bangladesh today!
On the other hand, Azad Miah from the UK talks of wholesale corruption and nepotism of the dynastic political governance that we experienced through decades of democracy (?) or call it "democratic" governments that we saw in Bangladesh only yesterday, in historical terms. He is very right to state that "dynestocracy" supported with full scale obnoxious practices of pliable public officials was the order of the day. Here "chamchas" were the centres of power. and "yes-persons" the props! Will the proposed elections next year eliminate this somewhat entrenched norms of our style of democracy, that we saw for so long?
Who are responsible for this? Not the poor rural people; who are the vast majority of hard working rather quiet people, who only silently desire something better in their lives, but never get it-- democracy or otherwise.
The culprits of all these misdeeds are the vast majority of educated persons whose greed knows no bounds! This is what is Bangladesh today! Noble, honest and simple educated persons are few-- "a few, too few for drums and bells" as the poet said.
We the unfortunate "literates" are the curse of Bangladesh today! Maybe only Allah can help us mend our ways.
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