Today I want to tell our readers the story of our country through a walk around the heart of our city that we love but are destroying every day. I start from Poet Nazrul Islam's graveyard, located next to the Dhaka University Mosque.

As I sat in a corner of the mazar (grave) I couldn't help but notice what an unique statement the whole place made about our national character-showering eulogy on the occasions of birth and death anniversaries of our heroes and then burying them in heaps of dirt, fallen leaves, untrimmed grass, animal waste and overall neglect for the rest of the year.

We call Nazrul our 'National Poet'(I have never understood what it really means), and yet we miss no chance to destroy the values he stood for and wrote about. What ever happened to his messages of justice and freedom? Bangladesh today is a land where justice is available, if at all, only to the rich, so said the sitting chief justice just the other day. Ami gahi shamyer gaan? (I sing the song of equality) was Nazrul's lifelong song and he would sing it with such passion. Today, Bangladesh has a greater gap between the rich and the poor and more unearned income and black money in the hands of a corrupt few than it was ever imaginable.

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There are those who spend hundred thousand takas on a lehenga (a certain type of women's dress) or more on a diamond studded watch-band while millions are chronically malnourished to the extent that they will never be able to lead a normal life. Known once for its strong middle class with values of compassion and empathy for the masses, today the income gap between the 'haves and have nots' far exceeds those in highly discriminatory societies elsewhere.

Nazrul blended the diverse legacy of Bengali culture more comprehensibly, more beautifully and more naturally than anyone else. He wrote Muslim devotional songs in one breadth and Hindu religious songs in the next. His creativity spanned the true breadth of our cultural heritage.

In its place today we have built a culturally divisive world so intellectually narrow that the Persian word 'Khoda' has to be replaced by the Arabic 'Allah' to call the Almighty, though most Muslim writers have used this word for centuries. Many of Iqbal's (the man who is credited with having 'Dreamt' of Pakistan) outstanding poems would be quite unreadable if we take away the word 'Khoda' from them.

Though it started much earlier, an aggressive and anti-intellectual tide is engulfing Bangladesh as never before. Open-minded discourse and the right to hold divergent and unpopular views are becoming nearly impossible because of rising intolerance for anything new or different. A vulgar and militant partisanship is permeating into our every discourse. Mindless tempering with our school textbooks is producing a confused younger generation devoid of any idea of how great his or her cultural and intellectual heritages are.

Nothing represents the bankruptcy of our mind, the narrowness of our vision and anti-historical nature of our present political thrust than the anti-intellectual environment that is now throttling our creative potential. Sitting at his graveside I could not help wonder what Nazrul would have written in today's circumstances.

A walk across from Nazrul's mazar brought me face to face with Suhrawardy Uddayan, the place where Sheikh Mujib gave his historic 7th March speech, the venue of the surrender of the Pakistani army to the joint command which marked the military victory of our Liberation War. It is also the biggest and the best gathering place for families out for a sample of nature.

My heart sank at the derelict site of what was once the most beautiful open space in the city. Just as the state of Nazrul's graveyard reveals so much about us, so does the present condition of the Uddayan, which speak volumes about our present day political rivalry.

After assuming power Ziaur Rahman, in an effort o dilute its historic significance, built a children's park near the spot where Sheikh Mujib delivered his oratorical masterpiece. When Sheikh Hasina came to power she wanted to build a memorial tower (Swadhinata Sthambha) to restore the site's historical significance, no doubt with the added motivation of restoring her father's deserving glory. Now after recapturing power Khaleda Zia wants to destroy Hasina's efforts by sheer neglect. The result is one of Dhaka's most beautiful spots looks like a miniature jungle.

A slight walk southwards brings me to Dhaka University. In 1967 when I entered its economics department one could feel the simmering anti-Ayub movement in the air. The academic rigor, the cultural activism (Sangskriti Sangsad), the extra-curricular

programmes (debating) and of course the student politics made our University life most creative and challenging. Student politics for us was a learning experiencelearning about society, about people, about development, about rights, about freedom, about cultural identity, about national independence, about equality and later about armed struggle. It was never about money, about tender business, about armed cadres. Politics was always an integral part of DU. But politicisation of the teachers, student and administration staff was not.

Mushrooming private Universities have turned higher education into a business while some public Universities have become den of corruption. The JU, CU, RU and National University are all under pressure of politics, and are suffering from lack of qualified teachers, requisite funds for research, proper academic atmosphere and a deteriorating student-teacher relations. The schism between private and public education now goes right from nursery class to the University, making the best of it available to the rich while nobody could careless for the middle and lower middle classes. We are not even mentioning the poor.

A look at the students dormitories bring to mind the barbaric attack on the students of Shamsunnahar Hall by the students of the ruling party and the fact that nothing was done even though an inquiry committee report headed by a highly respected judge clearly pointed out the culprits. The absurd situation of gun-fights to occupy student halls- reminiscent of scene from the American wild west-has now become a routine affair. So much for the rule of law.

As I walk pass the Atomic Energy Commission and Bangla Academy I can only imagine what these institutions could have given us if their potentials were not ham-

pered by unthinking government decisions, inappropriate appointments at the top and of course political interference in their work. In spite of all the impediments Bangla Academy has produced some sterling volumes and its Ekushey Mela, though getting increasingly directionless, remains a top attraction for a people hungry to participate in some constructive nation building activities.

The Curzon Hall, the seat of DU's science education and the old High Court building are testimonies of how callous we are about our historical buildings and beautification of our city. While hundreds of crores of takas are being spent on making, breaking and remaking perfectly usable roaddividers, our city mayor or urban planners have not spent a minute or a taka on restoring this jewel of an urban spot. It was, and can be, one of the most beautiful pedestrian walkways in the city. Taken together with the footpath of the Suhrawardy Uddayan, the new High Court premises on one direction and Shahid Minar, Salimullah Hall and the British Council on the other, this can be pedestrians dream come true in Dhaka.

A few minutes walk brings me near the secretariat, the principle seat of the government machinery. It is from here that the government works-or does not work, given what has been your particular experience. It is said that if you want to bury something under a procedural maze then send it to the secretariat.

My impression is not so bad. I think a lot does happen. But a lot more can be made to happen if our bureaucracy is given the right environment to operate within.

What has crippled our public administration is the overriding politicisation that is now taking place. There has always been an extent of political influence in the secretariat but following the "Janatar Mancha" episode it has

gone totally out of control.

BNP is justified in considering it as an Awami League inspired revolt back in '96 in which public servants had no business to participate. However in order to prevent such a thing from re-occurring BNP has gone totally over board and has made political consideration a prime pre-requisite for appointments, transfers and extension of service to key posts. The resultant politicisation of the bureaucracy is threatening the very existence of public service as we know it.

There cannot be any question about the need for an efficient, motivated and committed police force if we want to make any improvement in our law and order and governance. Crimes, violence and threat to normal living have never been so frequent and extensive as now. Yet practically nothing-save making a special unit-has been done to improve the overall police service. One cannot emphasize enough the need to invest more resources in our law enforcement agencies. They suffer from a lack of motivation, commitment, training, equipment and social recognition. We need to revise their pay scale and make it realistic. Most of all government of the day must stop using police for opposition bashing and narrow partisan goals like protecting its own criminals.

My last stretch of walk brings me to the Paltan Maidan, the place for public rallies that is most intricately linked with almost all our political events. The historic Paltan was a majestic vast open space parts of which successive military regimes gave away to build sporting facilities, thinking that politics will disappear with the disappearance of the Maidan. Today's Paltan is a pathetic relic of the old just as today's politics is only a disappointing, distorted and destructive shadow of the pro-people politics that Paltan Maidan is a witness to. If there is a single factor that can be

identified as holding Bangladesh back, a factor that permeates into everything else and one which like a virus is infecting all other institutions, groups, professions and social classes is our DESTRUCTIVE POLITICS. The BNP and the AL, both of whom have been on either side of the government-meaning in power and in opposition- seem to have learnt nothing. Their confrontational politics has led to cadre based violent politics where gun totting activists dominate the show and not experienced political workers.

We want to conclude this dismal walk with a snap shot from a Daily Star event that took place last November. Our annual Award ceremony for the highest achievers in the internationally conducted "O" and "A" examinations had a boy from Green Herald School who got the highest marks in English world-wide. Imagine a Bangladeshi student, not a native English speaker, studying in a Dhaka based school out performs his fellow students from all over the world, including native English speakers. There was another girl from a school in Chittagong who got record marks in mathematics world-wide. There are similarly bright students in the Bangla medium schools who perform brilliantly when they go for higher studies abroad.

We welcome the New Year by pinning our hopes on these and other students. We reinforce our faith in the ordinary Bangladeshis, in our younger generation, in our creative entrepreneurs, in our innovative community leaders, in our highly successful NGOs, and in our determined women leaders who are fighting tremendous battles at the grassroots level. All of them collectively and independently, will surely take our nation to a level of success, if they are given a chance. The question is, will our politicians give them that chance?