IT needs attention

The IT industry is evolving very fast and gradually spreading to every nook and cranny of Bangladesh. The process of spreading IT awareness and introducing our professionals to the advanced part of this wonderful technology might have taken a bit time, compared to the neighbouring countries, or the countries which claim to be far ahead in this regard, but the good news lies in the fact that the wonder of this technology has already been tested by our industries and, in this way, the enthusiasm about IT has increased dramatically in Bangladesh. In fact, even the mushrooming cottage industry in our country has become responsive when it comes to buying software for managing their offices more efficiently. Consequently, the demand of the professionals is shooting up.

The world has marched ahead from the beginning, whereas we are still trying to make the mark in this area. The yawning technological gap between Bangladesh and other countries has further widened.

In the past few years, I have noticed that we have an abundance of IT professionals but we are still lagging behind other countries; the reasons might be numerous, the foremost being the IT Infrastructure, of course. Thus, sensing the urgency of the subject the IDB-BISEW has taken the initiative in this regard and has created a pool of skilled manpower that this country was lacking. Here, I would like to draw your attention to the word 'skilled'.

The noble effort of IDB-BISEW is instrumental and has been hailed with lot of appreciation by the industry itself. But a single effort is not

enough; building a nation requires collective efforts. This industry has great potential but it needs basic infrastructure to excel further.

Mithilesh Kumar Singh

On e-mail

Good candidates for 2007 elections?

In a recent meeting of Nagorik Songlap held in Dhaka, political parties were urged to be careful in nominating their party candidates for the next general elections in 2007.

But if we go through the present system of selecting the party candidates, we find that very few honest and highly qualified candidates are nominated by the major parties. The beneficiaries of the existing system are the dishonest traders, black money holders and black marketers; every party gives nomi-

nation to those who can give a good donation to the party funds. Sometimes that donation or subscription may exceed Tk 1 crore.

So it is not easy to get good candidates nominated by the parties.

Peerzada Syed Rofiqul Hussain Hiala Shaheb Bari, Habigonj

We, the youths

We, the youths, are now moving in different directions to reach the destination which is completely unknown to us. We think about our own lives. We have no time to think about the country. Everybody is ready to go abroad without thinking twice.

We just want to make money; it doesn't matter how it is earned. We all want to be rich in money, unfortunately not in mentality.

The vicious cycle has to be broken

at any cost.

Korak Sen On e-mail

Civil society and good governance

Observers on the socio-political dynamics of Bangladesh should be elated with the recently formed civil society body to elect “competent and honest people” in the next parliamentary election. This has arisen out of the continuing and frustrating failure of the elected governments since 1991 to deliver essential services to the people and at the same time ballooning corruption that simply put unearned wealth in the hands of a small number of people. This is again a great moment of victory for the common people, as the movement is likely to gain momentum and change the

course and quality of democracy in Bangladesh. Let us all unite with the movement so that the nation gets out of governance by the party in power and the one in opposition, rather two sides of the same coin. I would however like to mention that the movement should be a long term one and continue beyond the next election. I would suggest that the movement also demand holding of upazila and district level elections at the time of holding the general election as per our constitution.

This will go a long way in our efforts to bring power back to the people. Let more and more honest and competent people participate in the governance of the country and bring the fruits of real democracy to the doorsteps of the people. The people of Bangladesh deserve it and that is why the movement has originated from among the people at

large.

M. Shamsul Haque Prof. IBA, DU

Police action on opposition activists

A couple of weeks ago we saw that the Awami League activists kept the roads of Dhanmondi blocked for many hours while holding a rally. The leading newspapers are writing about how the AL activists were beaten up by the police, but none of them published any picture of how people remained stranded on the roads due to the protest rally. When the protestors started to throw stones at the cars police had nothing else to do. There were kids who were going back to their homes after their class, many of them were students of playgroup who even did not know what was happening. I saw a lady crying with her daughter

in her lap and she was urging the so-called activists not to break the glass of her car.

But no one had any concern about that; her car got hit by a stone and her child started crying. We claim we love our country and our people. I think the newspapers can play a very important role in condemning this kind of acts! But unfortunately no one seems to have that courage to come up and protest against this kind of vandalism.

The government should take some tough measures to stop such activities. If they can talk about human rights when police beat up opposition activists, why can't we ask for protection from the government?

Syed T. Haque

Lalmatia, Dhaka