[shaad]

Good points, Navo.

Originally Posted by Navo
1. Identity crisis. Are you a Bengali first or are you a Muslim foremost? Are you Americanized, Bollywoodized, Ingrej or khati deshi? Is it possible to reconcile their differences? If so, how? Or, better yet, how without being hypocritical or a mixture of contradictions? And what about those Hindus/Christians/Buddhists and Tribal/Indigenous people that we hear about in the news from time to time? Bangladesh has been sold as a homogeneous country for a long time but it's clear that we're not. We need to accept these differences, respect and celebrate them. Easier said than done of course and we can see the kinds of problems that established heterogeneous countries like the USand India have..

Personally, I believe the identity crisis could be largely ameliorated if we pushed Bangladeshi first as our primary identity. During the Liberation War and its aftermath, Bengali identity was paramount as that served to unite and distinguish us from the Pakistanis. But, in its exclusion of our aboriginal/tribal/indigenous people, it obviously has limitations.

Zia did push a Bangladeshi identity during his regime, although his reasons were somewhat different. It had more to do with serving as a delimiter from the previous Mujib/AL administration and fostering better ties with other Muslim (read Middle Eastern) nations, who had not been that favourably inclined towards us after splitting apart from Pakistan. Unfortunately, this also led to the non-denominational nature of this identity being compromised (particularly during Ershad's and Khaleda's regime).

The most recent victory of AL in the elections has led to the Bengali identity being promulgated again. Once again, it is primarily to distinguish themselves from previous (BNP) administrations; sadly, our politicians have yet to reach the level of maturity which would allow them to continue even the useful policies of their rival party. Personally, I think this is a mistake, because AL has, in many ways, been more sympathetic to our tribal/indigenous populations, and could effectively push for a more secular and inclusive Bangladeshi identity that most of our people would welcome.

2. Lack of political and legal education. An elected government has relatively free reign but an opposition party(ies) need to know how to effectively oppose in and out of Parliament and the public needs to be more aware of their rights.

Navo, I think a more critical issue here is having MPs be more responsible to their constituencies and voting as their conscience and reason dictate, even if it means going against the avowed wishes of their party leader. As party policies now stand, all MPs of a particular party vote as one, essentially making themselves sock puppets for either the PM or the Leader of the Opposition. This effectively means that once your party is in opposition, there is nothing you can do (other than stage hartals) to oppose the ruling party's policies.

Yes, ensuring the public knows how the game is rigged would be one approach to altering the current state of affairs.

3. A truly independent judiciary with a more efficient and transparent criminal justice system.

Agreed.