Talk show guests
Though it is not recommended to begin anything with a negative statement, but to call spade a spade, we are worried about our nation's immediate future. Yes, it is true that we had always been worried about many aspects of our national affairs since its independence: politics, governance, unemployment, price hike, education system, health facility, traffic jam, corruption and, lately terrorism. But, now we are witnessing an entirely different type of challenge.
While we were preparing to combat internationally acknowledged terrorism linked to religious fundamentalism, who could foresee something terrifying was going to happen just round the corner in the quiet of Dhaka that would bewilder the nation, and distress numerous families across the country. We need to examine the BDR incident from various perspectives, because we have been careless about small yet, important issues in many ways, for too long.
The BDR tragedy showed us that national crisis can have new dimensions. Such crisis calls for new thinking. Many factors need to be taken into consideration. Outside involvement, instigation by vested interested groups, ineffective management, etc. The list may be even longer. The nation has the resolve to find the cause and bring the culprits to justice. That's the least we can do to pay back for the service the brutally killed brilliant army officers had rendered. While dealing with this grievous incident, investigation must be completed promptly, and justice delivered without a second thought. Justice should be allowed to take its own course and it has to be seen to have been done.
The idea of involving the UN, Scotland Yard and FBI is not credible. It has become a common move by the government in power to call these agencies in such situations. We have seen it in the past. The public does not know the outcome of their involvement, so it can be perceived to have no value. The activities and resolve by the government and other law enforcing agencies to go to the bottom of the cause of the massacre are reassuring to the people. We now have a vibrant media--print and electronic--capable of moulding people's mindset. It's a power, a tool that can be perilous like any other weapon. People possessing such a tool also have responsibility. Just flushing out information for the sake of providing news without examining the short and long term consequences and lasting affect on the nation or on part of the population is irresponsible.
If we carefully examine the media hype just before and during the last two years of the caretaker government leading to the last parliamentary elections, a disturbing pattern will emerge. Day in and day out viewers and readers were served with audio-visual reports of civil disorder. We were showed the killing of an activist by his opponents in the street. Yes, it was newsworthy and people had the right to know about it. Nevertheless, was not there a better way to convey this incident to the viewers without showing the naked brutality in motion picture style? Would such showing be allowed in any democratic western country? May be not.
To reverse this trend we have to make a concerted effort to build confidence of the people on their leadership and future. One way of doing that is to talk positively about the future of the country with programmes that benefit common people. Problems must to be seen as challenge, rather than the end of the road. The country desperately needs genuine leaders to hold it together.
Leaderless countries quickly become failed states. We only have to look at the world map to agree on this phenomenon.
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