To be aware of a single shortcoming in oneself is more useful than to be aware of a thousand in someone else. ~ Dalai Lama
Our two sarkars are involved deeply with each other, and the depth of their perverse romance or rivalry causes an equally deep scar in the progress of our nation.
Picture two children, insisting on doing one thing, with the reasoning "He did it first!". The question of 'first' doesn't usually have to enter the picture, so just the "He did it too!" is often heard. If you took a child and scold her for doing something wrong, you might also expect this as an answer. She doesn't understand the right and wrong of it yet, knows only that she has seen her brother of the same age do it. We can see the same happening here, on a national scale by the two children we've elected year in and year out to lead us somewhere. Digital Bangladesh or not, we have been continuously made to feel bad for our choices over the years.
Let us take into account, the pardon granted recently by our President to the convicted murderer and his accomplices. Proving that we are still holding on to some sense, questions were raised as to what overtook our main man to show such sympathy for the devil. The Man didn't answer, and we failed to understand what went through the head of the man, whose wife was murdered in a bomb attack meant for the current PM. Forgive and forget? None of those should have been his prerogative, when in this case, he was not victimized. When the media reached out to the government for answers, we received replies unexpected. We were told that the President acted within his rights, and we should not question it. Some replies even carried the connotation that it was wrong of us to question it. While they were answering, they also spit out the "He did it!".
The deaths of 5 on a bend of a highway that claimed many lives before, included two very liked personalities (see previous blog), that pulled a cloud of gloom over everyone. It also brought out statistics of how many people die on road accidents, and the lion share which involved buses and trucks. Two issues lay in here - the insufficient highways (slimmer than the roads in our city!), and the dangerous antics of our professional drivers. A brief hailstorm came out of all this, when citizens took these issues out and demanded they be corrected immediately - citizens want safer roads, and responsible drivers. First, the communications minister tries to weasel out of it, denying that roads are not in bad shape. He has been working on some big projects, and he didn't think it worthwhile to keep an eye on the current state of roads. As bad fortune will have it, at that moment highways in many areas had been damaged badly and filled up with rain water, increasing the travel time along those road to two times or more. Also, in that same moment our shipping minster showed face, said whatever insensitive statements came to his loyal-to-the-party and loyal-to-the-bus-truck-drivers mind. Previously, a news report claimed that he was pressuring the communcations minister for licenses of 24000 professional drivers licenses to come out. To that, he did not perceive a conflict of interest, in representing a minsitry and also an association working on behalf of transport businesses. He and his family apparently, are also owners of buses. He claimed that there wasn't any pressure, that the authorties were unable to handle such large amounts of licenses in a short time, and also went ahead and said that we should consider giving out licenses to those who don't have a formal education as long as they can identify signs - in his words, as long as they can distinguish between a goat and a cow.
A representative of the government did come to TV and claim that the roads were bad since it was raining. So, we needed that guy to come and tell us that our roads are in the shape that they are, by no fault of the government. Meanwhile, in one parliamentary session, some government members got up and strongly criticized the two ministers for their actions and words. The citizens had meanwhile been rallying up support for the sacking of those two. People suddenly started feeling that their voices might finally be heard! That was until three days ago, our PM took center stage in parliament and criticized those who were criticizing. To her ministers, she said, why focus on things that went bad, and why not talk of the good things we are doing!? Then, she listed some of those good things. Then she even criticized the citizens who were protesting. She alleged that many of them are also holding licenses they took out without getting tested. An ironic comment, since that only points to the corruption that exist in BRTA. So, she came to the defense of her two ministers. An in that speech she blamed the past government and the caretaker government, the prodigal son, for the state of the roads.
The statement that really annoyed me, was "don't arm your enemies!". This was a message to her ministers to not criticize their own. Was she totally blind to the public reaction that was similar to those ministers' critique? Is there a reason that the public shouldn't construe her words to mean, that the citizens are the enemy? Likeliest, is that she meant the brother of the same age.
Both parties had had their golden days, and what we're left with is bickering children. If we look back to our lives over the years, we'll also see that our situation was better than now. We should not always look to the politicians to fix things, but we do expect them to support us in living the right way, doing the right things. This needs a lot of thought. Please vote responsibly.
