A Statement Of Hope
What I Dream For The Future
When our nation was liberated almost fifty years ago, we were engulfed by uncertainty. We found ourselves in an unjust war waged upon us. We were against a military who tried to silence our voices by taking our lives. Our choice was not only between tyranny and freedom, but between good and evil. It is astounding on many levels how we won a war so unequal within only nine months. But there was something that persuaded us. Our weapons were taken, our military was deliberately weakened, yet there was something that made us go on. There was something that made us continue fighting. Our people fought against evil with a dream. A dream of an egalitarian society.
The dream that our freedom fighters carried, the dream that our forefather carried seemed almost impossible even after the long-awaited victory. We had a nation where millions were killed and our most intellectual people were purposefully murdered; Our infrastructure was destroyed, our economy was devastated and we had seventy million starving people with no food.
Yet we went forward. Because we had a dream of a better future. There had been times when it seemed like everything we fought for, the lives that were sacrificed was in vain. Maybe there were times we had to take a step back or two. But despite how dark the days ahead seemed, we hoped, we believed in the possibilities.
I want to believe, I want to hope that the best days are still ahead of us.
I hope for many things.
I hope we would be more tolerant towards one another, we would learn to value others’ opinion even though it contradicts our own. I hope we would be more respectful towards each other, not based on peoples’ professions or economic statuses, but based on the fact that all of us deserve to be treated with respect. I believe, only then can we wish to make better judgments when we learn to see things from multiple perspectives. It isn’t always possible to pick the middle road. If leaning towards any side is received with criticism, people would choose to compromise their integrity to maintain impartiality. The issue of respecting other people is particularly important because we have a tendency to succumb to arrogance and pride the moment we hold any position of importance. We treat variety of opinion as hostility and try to assert ours at any cost. This leads to a situation where flattery is valued more than intellectuality or meritocracy.
We have to listen to the other side. We don’t want to hear others if they are against our political, religious or personal belief. People often react violently when other people suggest unorthodox ideas. I believe that acts of violence or physical threats only portrays the flaws in our views. If our goal is to make people agree with us, the way is through civilized debate. We need more educated debates among ourselves on the topics that we disagree on. If we want to reach out to people and spread our ideology, we cannot wish to impose it upon people. We have to respect their conscience and ensure people intellectual freedom on what they feel right.
We have to stop discriminating people based on their religion or gender. We must respect people’s choices of belief. There are people who believe in different Gods and there are those who believe in none. We cannot force someone to submit to our belief nor can we criticize theirs. But just because someone does not believe in any God does not give them right to vilify others. Even if nations around us oppress or discriminate based on religion, that does not justify us to do the same. We are better than that. Vengeance towards the minorities in response to other nations’ actions is never the solution. We can challenge the worldwide discrimination only when we are united as a nation.
It is an ominous sign that the religious division among us is becoming more prominent every day. Domestic and foreign forces may try to disrupt our religious harmony by creating anarchy and spreading misinformation. They would only succeed if we let them create rift among us. We must not attend to those who benefit from our division. If this nation is pushed towards a religious conflict, it will undone everything we have accomplished so far.
We have to promote our women to do great things. We have to make sure that our women do not get objectified in our national life. We have to stop picking on the personal lives of people, their religious beliefs or their dress choices. We have to glorify greatness when we see it, no matter who is it coming from. If we prioritize our sense of superstitions and prejudices and let it cloud our judgments, greatness will not prevail.
I hope one day the children of this country can learn with curiosity and joy, something our generation was not lucky enough to do so. One day, little kids will not be subjected to the inhumane pressure of sitting in a useless public examination anymore. The children must learn about empathy, kindness and the social values from their teachers. We have to encourage them to follow their passion and should not narrow their choices. Every career path has its possibilities. If we continue to hold some over the others, the students may feel pressured to choose among very few, suppressing their own passion. The main purpose of going through sixteen years of education should be two: developing a moral conscience and preparing for the job market. Our current education system does none.
If we cannot create incentive for business, the impact on the economy may be disastrous. The growth of a country is determined by the people who keep the economy stable. The problem with our society is we create the impression that to enjoy even the basic rights, we have to be associated with the powerful people. We create an impression that to be socially respected, we have to be able to be bending the laws. The fact that we value social power more than economic growth is deeply concerning. The young generation isn’t interested in starting businesses, mainly because we have failed to brand self-employments as glorified jobs. We must inspire those trying to make their own by themselves. We have to eliminate the stigma that certain people deserve better than the others. We need to vitalize business as the most important job sector for our own sake.
We must respect the idea of democracy. We must ensure that the people get to participate in the decision making, they can participate when it comes to electing their leaders. We have to secure our democratic institutions from any corruption or vulnerability. Our democracy must be immune to any attack to it, which is only possible if we, the people hold guard to it. In our darkest days, when it may seem like despair is imminent, we must have to believe in the power of the people, we must trust their judgment and make sure that we can trust the elected leaders. We must discourage unconstitutional forces to withhold power and remember great leaders are created only by the choice of the people. We must not normalize unelected leaders. If people tolerate despotism, it becomes tradition.
We have to believe that we deserve nothing but greatness from our leaders. Our submission to lower standards may leave us vulnerable to incompetent leadership. The choice should not be between evil or lesser evil, but between leaders with separate ideologies. The harder the choice is, the stronger the base of democracy is. The only difference between us and the developed nations are that we failed to establish respect from the leaders to the common people. The road towards progress can only start when we acknowledge the weight of the opinions of every single man. Leaders must fear the common people, not the other way around.
Democracy tells us, the wealthiest man in this country or the most powerful man sitting in the throne is equal to a poor illiterate farmer in destitute. When we learn to appreciate and comprehend this sense of equality, we understand that no one is above the law. Certain rights of ours are not prescribed by common law, but comes from God himself. Our freedom of speech, freedom of religion and our right as human beings are divine. When government tries to restrict them, defiance is necessary.
We have to ensure that our police force is independent of any unlawful influence and even though the police is a part of the executive branch, we cannot allow it to be used as a weapon of the government. Everyone has a right to a fair trial no matter how heinous the crime might be. The fear of criminals getting away by legal loopholes may make the civilians support police brutality to extract information and killing alleged criminals without trials. Giving the law enforcement forces power above the judiciary system brings the possibility of a police state. We must not allow that. Our bureaucracy must not become more powerful than our democracy. If we continue to associate government jobs with the abuse of power, the public servants will not feel the sense of accountability towards the people. When the government clings to the civil servants to secure power, it creates a precedence of corruption.
We must preserve our constitution as a sacred document and make sure that no forces against democracy can change it. It happened in the past. The constitution was amended in order to secure unlawful power, to extend tenures of unelected leaders. We often forget that the constitution is the property of the common people and it is our duty to ensure, the laws of the constitution are enacted and executed the way it should be and any amendment to it reflects the general interest rather than any partisan one. Only the representatives of the people should have the authority to add or abolish amendments, not even our Courts.
I believe one day there will be only one side of the history. One day all the people will rightfully honor those who sacrificed their life for this country, rightfully honor our founding father, the four leaders and remember solemnly how they stood against all the odds. They will not forgive those who pledged their loyalty to the wrong side and killed our brothers in the battlefield, those who killed Mujib and the four leaders when the nation needed them the most. And when they remember those who protected these traitors, reestablished the war criminals and tried to alter our legacy, they will only feel sheer loathe and contempt. I believe we will be able to honor those who united us, and those will not be forgiven who tried to divide us.
I hope every one of us feel the love for our nation the way our forefather did, the way our freedom fighters did. I believe how divided we may seem from the outside, we still believe in the same things when it comes to the betterment of our nation. I believe no matter how much people try to divide us, they will fail every single time. Our unity is our greatest strength. Whoever tried to undermine it in the past, failed.
I dream that one day people of other countries will look at us differently . They will look at us differently because they would know our history. They would know, we weren’t born lucky. We were a tiny nation with a huge population. We were born out of a bloodbath. Our founding father was killed by the people he trusted. Power had been seized by the dictators. It took us long to return to the path of democracy. People were skeptical about us. We were skeptical of ourselves. Yet we survived. Yet we prospered.
It wasn’t easy. It will not be easy. But there is nothing wrong in dreaming. Nothing wrong to hope. And I do that with all my heart.
