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| Volume 11 |Issue 12| March 23, 2012 | |
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Letters A Warped Democracy?
It is quite obvious that politicians of our country do not want to accept election results whether it's held under the caretaker government or not. In that sense, BNP's demand for the restoration of the caretaker system is justified in the true sense of the term. On the other hand, the steps taken by the ruling party to foil the rally by paralysing the capital and detaching it from the rest of the country is unacceptable. The common man has suffered. Is this how democracy runs in our country? People who were coming to Dhaka were searched, harassed and attacked in every possible route by the police and the AL goons, in order to prevent a section of people from participating in BNPs procession. The most alarming news, however, was that the ruling party didn't allow TV Channels to broadcast the rally live. Do they really believe in democracy? After the activities of last week, how can the opposition party trust the ruling party to conduct a credible and neutral election? Instead of trying to spoil the rally by following undemocratic practices, they could have made arrangements to help the four-party-alliance and made it a peaceful event. They could have created a new trend of cooperation in politics in Bangladesh. Md Musfikur Rahman Jony Living the Legacy 'Living the Legacy' was indeed a very impressive and informative cover issue. Readers got to know how the woman's movement in our country waded through the rough path and came this way. The ideology of our liberation war was freedom for everyone, regardless of religion, race and gender. The idea of gender equality and woman's emancipation has been immensely misunderstood in our country. The first condition of freedom is the freedom of thought. A girl in Bangladesh grows up with the notion that her family and society plants in her mind. The process of free-thinking takes a backseat from the moment she is born. A female child gets dolls to play with, and grows up reading fairy tales where the women characters need to be rescued by men. The concept of vulnerability and inferiority is instilled in her mind. A girl will not be able to break free of these conventions and think freely until she meets free thinkers and studies their work. But these days, the quest for knowledge has been replaced by the quest for luxury and beautification. I am not generalising. A number of women can and do break the norm. Women these days are successful in almost every sphere of society. Success at the workplace is not enough. A human being's supremacy depends on his/her her wisdom, diligence and determination, not on his/her gender. We have a glorious past, where courageous women fought hard for the emancipation of our country. And although today we are living in a free country, we require another mass uprising to free the women of our country. This time the objective of uprising should be the freedom of thought. Kohinur Khyum Tithila Do something for Megh Even after so many weeks we still have not received any answer regarding the murders of journalists, Sagar and Runi. We hope that the murderer will be brought to trial and receive exemplary punishment. If that doesn't happen, such incidents will definitely take place again. The law and order situation in our country continues to deteriorate. When I look at the face of Megh, son of deceased couple, on TV or in the papers, my son's face comes to my mind. I think there are several others who have been moved by Megh's tragic tale. Whenever I step outside of my house, I feel scared and vulnerable. I feel helpless when I read about the murders of innocent people in the papers. I request all journalists and newspapers to constantly focus on the murder case and allocate some space on the front page until and unless justice is served. Otherwise, like other incidents, the deaths of Sagar and Runi will be forgotten and when Megh grows, up he will blame his country-men for not having done anything for his parents. Zakaria Rahman
Culture Issues I was reading a Star Diary article entitled 'Stop promoting other Culture' on the issue that came out on February 17, 2012. In that article the author was talking about misrepresentation of culture through the usage of Hindi songs in Bengali serials. She was talking about using Bengali songs instead of Hindi songs in serials aired on 'Valentine's Day.' Now seriously I would like to ask her the question – since when did Valentine's Day become something of our own culture? I found it very ironic that the author complained about the usage of foreign songs for the celebration of a foreign practice. I agree with her point that it was wrong from the producer's part to use Hindi songs or songs written in other languages, but aren't we the ones not aware of our culture to begin with? Nahiyan bin Asadullah
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