Editorial
President's New Year Thought
PRESIDENT Shahabuddin Ahmed's new year address to the almost half-empty Jatiya Sangsad on Saturday, with the opposition boycotting it, was a regulation annual speech of the head of state in the form of a review of governmental activities in the past year. What was sought to be mirrored thereby is the direction of events in national affairs tinged with the President's insights into how things had gone in the preceding year.
It was important for the Opposition to have heard at first-hand the President's new year address to the parliament, more because of the fact that it coincided with the dawn of a new Century. It is one thing to read it second hand from newspaper reports or even go through an officially printed copy of the same, and it is entirely another to serve public interest by critically analysing the speech on the floor of the House itself and pointing out where the government had failed. And that is where the opposition has faltered showing little sensitivity to a routine requirement, not to speak of the special public expectation for their version of things into the new millennium. And there was so much for them to say on the President's address to the Parliament.
We would like to be extremely selective with the contents of the President's speech to make our observations on. First of all, in an oblique reference to the exacerbated state of political polarisation in the country, the President urged the leaders of political parties and the people to forget individual and party interests for the sake of greater national good. He has reasoned quite powerfully as to why must the national interest be kept uppermost in our minds. We have collectively sacrificed much too much for the establishment of Bangladesh and preservation of democracy to be self-centred and bitterly partisan now in our approach to what fundamentally are social or national concerns and problems. Secondly, the political culture has become so self-serving that all kinds of institutions, political, administrative, social and economic, have been weakened by it. Thus democracy faces a wider institutional distortion than the mere fact of the parliament working ineffectively. Last, but not the least, proliferation of petty political squabbles has been a stumbling-block to the effort for strengthening the foundations of democracy which is indispensable for achieving economic freedom, an agenda that remains unaddressed even after 28 years of our attaining political freedom.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments