Together with the rest of the world. Bangladesh has just moved into 1993 in hesitant uncertain steps, a little unsure about what lies ahead If the mood in the country is anything but a confident one. part of the reason lies in the fact that we enter the new year without solutions to most of the problems we either created or faced in 1992. at national, regional or international levels True, several of them, like the demolition of the Babri Masjid which touched off communal frenzy in different parts of South Asia, were produced by forces outside our control. But most of them were essentially of our own making and. in many cases, their solutions were very much within our reach. By the time we reached the end of the year 1992. our failure to find solutions to our problems were no longer lapses which could be set right in a matter of weeks or months. A cross section of our people had started seeing them as blunders, if not as tragedies, which had marred the second year of our (democratic regime, leaving behind some deep scars in our national psyche

Yet. there are no reasons why we. as a nation, should feel so diffident as not to be able to look ahead with a measure of courage or the kind of doggedness that, in the past, had seen us through many crises. However, courage per se may mean nothing. It must provide the basis for a practical plan of action.

In our view, this practical plan of action is nothing but a broad-based agenda for 1993. We. as a nation, should ask for it. call for it. plead for it

However, we Cannot even think of an agenda unless we identify the areas of our failure during 1992 But It is not for us to tell otir government and the opposition or. for that matter, all the political parties where they went wrong or to tell the business community and the academic circles. among others, how they might have failed the people. Let it be their evaluation, a sincere and honest one. which is based on their own perspectives Once such an evaluation is there, they would know what kind of agenda should be adopted, in their respective fields, (or 1993.

To'Start with, our national leaders may discover that there is really no need for a brand new agenda that offers a set of magic cures for our old ailments. It may well be just a question of adopting solutions that the non-partisan section of the media. Independent experts and the backbenchers in the parliament, among others, had pleaded for during last year. It may also be a question of Bangladesh learning from several countries in Southeast Asia which have moved along the road to spectacular economic progress, through politics of consensus, overcoming such obstacles as ethnic and religious differences, as In Malaysia and Singapore, and repeated army coups, as in Thailand Again, it may be Just a question of reviving some old-fashioned values and standards in our everyday political life, with our politicians finding out for themselves what's right or wrong, how they can raise the level of political debate, how criticisms can be fair and constructive and how parliamentary democracy can be turned Into an effective tool for national progress in all fields Specific solutions, good, bad or indifferent. for specific problems whether they relate to economic reforms, the fight against Illiteracy or the battle for the reduction of poverty can work only if our national leaders, Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, can make new political commitments to meet the challenges of 1993. It is this commitment that will give an auspicious start to the New Year and offer the troubled nation the promise of a new dawn.