Let us forget politicians and politics

Sir, Politicians of this country have forgotten us. the people. This statement. I believe, does not need any elaboration. In order to make our presence felt. I propose the following steps only for one week.

a) We shall not discuss anything related to politicians, political parties or politics in our drawing rooms, offices, restaurants or in corner lanes.

b) We shall not visit houses of any politicians, be him a national or union/ward leader.

c) We shall wear (not necessarily) a badge saying 'we do not discuss Politics & •Politicians'.

The newspapers can also support this. Please Join this silent protest. This country belongs to the people and not to 'so-called .politicians'.

Dr M Rafiqul Islam Dhaka

The political scene

Sir, The Establishment is learning to get practical, instead of depending entirely on verbal power and propaganda. It has mentally oriented to the reality and evil power of hartals. and under public pressure, accepted the cat-and-mouse game by announcing that the government offices would be kept open on weekly holidays to compensate for the hartal days.

The question is for how long? 180 days? Why 180 days? No clariflcatiori is needed. How-a the public will buy it? No-

r knows.

The regime has opened other fronts some risky. The madrasah education would remain or continue, it has been officially asserted. What if lakhs of madrasah students go oh a movement? Can't lathi-charge students/ the liberators in any country, nor tear-gas them incessantly. How to get the support of the Muslim world? That is a big question, regardless of the Taliban bogey. Cannot ignore this world, with 90 per cent Muslim population in the country.

The risk may be calculated, but who will benefit, and what percentage would be disgruntled? Whatever be the issue, only an overall majority will ensure stability. When the nation last tried any issue through Referendum? Will it work in this country and provide a true picture?

These questions are not irrelevant. Such situations might arise one day. so why not be mentally prepared? Those who ask questions are also patriotic, and are not traitors of antinational!

AZabr Dhaka

Destructive politicians

Sir. In a couple of hours many of us. citizens of this nation, will cross 70. We had

all our days of pleasure and displeasure, exuberance arid dismay, satisfaction and dissatisfaction, ethos and lack of it, hope and despair. In all these stales of mind, there was always a string of ethos that lead us to the later stage of life with the continuous process of evolution in our private or personal life. Events like the Second World War. influx of Burmese refugees. Gandhi's non violent movement to. oust the British Raj. the Language Movement. 21 — later 6 — point demand for autonomy by the citizens of this part of the then Pakistan, crack down of Pak army lead us to the path of war of independence culminating in the establishment of the new nation — the People's Republic of Bangladesh.

We started with high hopes and aspirations, with immense will to sacrifice for building a new nation. The people believed and were ready to sacrifice the present so that the nation would become a happy and a prosperous one. We gave our politicians a free hana to write a . constitution and the politicians faithfully produced the most commendable constitution to guide the nation to a process of establishing a democratic way of life. But what followed next was the path to destroy' the constitution, leading to a bleak future.

Without recounting what has happened to this nation one can safely say that the people are frustrated, dismayed and counting their days in misery with no sign of fight for the

coming days. The moral values and beliefs that were supposed to safeguard the people's nght. now usurped and seriously affecting our sensibilities.

We are being humiliated by the destructive powers of the politicians.

Syed Waliullah Dhaka

Commendable campaign

Sir, Over the last couple or weeks, the DS has published a senes of reports highlighting the use of leaded fuel in our country and its adverse effects on humans. These reports have helped to increase public awareness for a problem we know is present, but have often disregarded.

I was even more disturbed to know that the country's lone oil refinery had been lying idle for a long period of time. Such negligence on government’s part in failing to tackle problems at hand despite resources being available is reproachable. One is lead to believe that the only reason measures were eventually taken to revive it by our government while paying heed to public concerns was the recent wave of reports. I thank the Dally Star for its commendable campaign to clean our city's air and taking a positive step towards public health.

Asif Zaman

Dhanmondi, Dhaka