Move forward
With the democratic process starting from the 1990's, have we really achieved what we dreamt of? Probably those involved in politics have. The general people's lifestyle has not changed, apart from the rich and the upper middle class people who have learned to spend money on luxury. The common people, especially the ones living in the rural areas and the poor living in the cities, can hardly say they are better off now.
Bangladesh is a country with great potential. But hope is quickly fading away into the mist of mismanagement and corruption for the investors (local as well as foreign) and the poor people.
Electricity which is the essential ingredient of development has let the country down in the past 38 years. Poles have been erected, wires have been installed but unfortunately the electricity did not make it to the wires, leaving millions of people and their future in the dark. None of the past governments cared about meeting the existing demand of power. Today we know how badly placed the power sector is, (apart from the powerful people in the government and the administration). But it should have been at the top of the government's priority list. Unfortunately, the priority has been diverted to something else!
The education standard of the country has also taken a nose dive, though we see more and more students getting GPA-5, but unfortunately they are bypassing the details of learning due to the grading system. The standard of colleges and universities is no better than the SSC and HSC levels, as the same bypassing system exists there.
The agriculture sector is also in bad shape. More and more lands are being converted into industrial plots and residential houses. Moreover, the pesticides used for killing the insects have reduced the capability of the soil for producing more crops in a natural way. The boom in population has made the situation worse.
The natural reserves we had are either at the twilight of production or are not at all exploited for the development of the country. Gas is about to dry up by 2011 and the coal is yet to see the light of bulk production due to the absence of a coal mining policy. It could be a non-stop source for the next 50-60 years for producing electricity.
The rivers of Bangladesh are also dying, as none of the past governments took any serious plan/project for keeping the depth as well as the width of the rivers for smooth flow of sweet water during the monsoon and the dry season.
Like the above few points which I have mentioned, there are so many other areas which should have been developed/installed/ made operational in the last 38 years, but unfortunately we have failed to utilize ourselves as well as our natural resources for the country's development. Let's reverse what has happened in the past and instead of going one step behind, let's try to go one step forward, if we are to live in this country for generations.
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