Thirty-five years is not a little time for a country to achieve remarkable development. Many countries in the world like Malaysia have developed within a period shorter than that. It could be equally true for Bangladesh. But we have seen failure to reach such a point. We are sure that the prospect of Bangladesh in the post-independence period was not less. But our goals have not been realized due to a lot of problems. People now believe that all the problems are rooted in political leadership. If the leadership could play the right role the other problems could easily be addressed.

The common people have now become frustrated with the present political trend. The condition is worsening day by day. People believe that the present trend of power shifting from BNP to AL or AL to BNP will not bring any good for them if the positive changes among the political leaders do not come.

In fact, Bangladesh is now crossing a critical time, which we expect to be the turning point for a better future. The present condition cannot continue any longer. But how is it possible to overcome the problems? Who will take the initiative? It's true that if any individual either political or non-political takes an initiative for the betterment of people, he will get the maximum support of public. Because people now do not trust most of our so-called political leaders.

We should start right now. The civil society can certainly play the pioneer role in this regard. The conference of civil society held on 20th March 2006 organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), The Daily Star and the Daily Prothom Alo was a significant moment for us.

Let us work together with the initiatives planned by the civil society. Let us turn it into a social movement.