The caretaker government has already taken several brave and pragmatic decisions to curb corruption, anarchy and terrorism. The efforts may cleanse politics of dirt and filths. Money and muscles may not dominate free and honest politics if the present actions are successful. Bringing the godfathers to justice, recovering government properties from grabbers, controlling the misuse of energy, making meaningful changes in EC, ACC , police and administration-- all these have been acclaimed by people. But the main focus must be on conducting a free and fair election. For that the necessary reforms of electoral laws, preparation of an authentic voter list, further cleansing of the commission etc are essential. These may not take more than 6 months if all of us support the efforts. The government must not deal with hundreds of issues at a time. If the major issues discussed above are taken care of, the rest will automatically cure. But if too many issues are handled at a time, the government may get bogged down. It is not possible to clean all the dirt of several decades in a limited time. Please set the tune and let the political government elected through free and fair election do the rest.

People of Bangladesh will never make any mistake if only they can exercise their voting right and if money and muscle do not prevail.

In 1971, this country was freed from the external enemy through the 9-month long liberation war. This time the war is against the internal enemy. All evils from our national life must be uprooted totally and a new order has to be established. To save the nation is the top priority and the CTG must be bold and determined to fulfill its mission and thereby create new history. The people are with them and this is real democracy.

Parliamentary elections can be delayed as long as it is necessary to effect radical reforms not only in the electoral system but in the political and governance systems as well. No scope should be left to return to the old corrupt system through a hurried election.

It may be pointed out here that in order to eliminate the influence of money (black or white), election campaign by parties/candidates should be replaced by projection meetings organised by the EC. And it is time to mull whether party-less democratic polity can be organised and run, starting from the grassroots level local bodies.

After all, it is the party system which breeds all evils!
Md. Hashem, Mirpur Road, Dhaka

The chief adviser, Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, along with his council of advisers have come out victorious. We have come to know that this caretaker government is going to take steps to bring about reforms in the education sector as well. We are ready to welcome any positive drive of this government.

Here we would like to draw the attention of the authorities to the sheer injustice done to the private college teachers by the past governments. They get a small amount as house-rent per month with which even a place in the footpath cannot be found. Again, they are yet to get the increment and medical allowance of the past national pay-scale of 1991.

We do our shopping in the same market as other people, commodities are not cheaper for us. But the hard reality is that we enjoy a little of the national pay-scale.

So in order to promote quality education in the private colleges, the caretaker government should come forward to stop the discriminatory treatment given to us. We earnestly hope that it will look deep into the problems of the teachers of private colleges and take the right decision.
Shafiuzzaman Khan, Senior Lecturer in English