Editorial
Victory Day
Still in search of real victory?
On this day in 1971 our freedom fighters aided by the allied troop of the Indian Army liberated our land from the clutches of the occupying Pakistani forces. Thus after nine months of blood letting, during which atrocities of unimaginable nature took place, our war of liberation ended. As the victorious army entered one liberated city after another a sea of joyous people welcomed them finding it almost unbelievable that the nightmare had finally ended. Naturally the outburst of joy was the most intense in Dhaka where every street, every open space and every neighbourhood and every house, not to mention every human heart was the venue of celebrations.The joy knew no bounds nor the patriotism that seemed to flow from every vein of all those who witnessed that historic event. On this day 35 years ago we forgot all our pains, our losses, our pettiness and our divisiveness and had only one thought -- the fact that we were free and independent. After so many years of struggle, so much sacrifice and after millions of lives lost we were finally independent. That sense of freedom, the feeling that we will never have to take orders from others in running our country, that none but our own people will be masters of our destiny gave us an all new sense of pride that we never knew before. Today as we recall those joyous moments, it seems so far away, as if these things happened in a different planet, to a different people and in a totally different time. Why these memories seem so distant? Is it because the Bangladesh of today is a far cry from that of our distant dreams? Is it because the democracy, the rule of law, the common people's republic that we had visualised on victory day 35 years ago have not been fulfilled? Is it because not only have we not realised our dreams but also for the most part we have forgotten what those dreams were? The answer to the above is not a simple yes or no. It is a combination of both and many more things included. However, the message we want to shout from the top of our voices today is that regardless of our failures and half realised dreams we have a country that is free, independent and our very own. We may have been bad managers of our affairs but we ourselves are the managers not any outsider. In many ways we have let our people down but in many other ways we have fulfilled some of our potential. On our Victory Day today let us renew our pledge not fret over what we have missed (but definitely learn from our failures) and commit ourselves to build on what we have successfully implemented. Bad politics remain our biggest bane and good politics the best antidote against it. There is no substitute for democracy but we have not worked hard enough to make that work. When and how we'll be able to replace the bad with the good is an open question whose answer is getting fainter by the day. On this auspicious day we pray and hope that good sense will finally prevail over our leaders.
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