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Some societal reforms is
what is urgently needed in Bangladesh
A desperate appeal from
Mukto-Mona to the PM of Bangladesh
Begum Khaleda Zia
Honorable Prime Minister
People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Fax: 88-02-8113244, 88-02-8111015, 88-02-8113243
E-mail: pmo@pmo.bdonline.com
Dear Honorable Khaleda Zia,
The recent events in Bangladesh have perturbed the minds of many expatriate
Bangladeshis all over the world. Mukto-mona (www.mukto-mona.com),
an internet-congregation of Freethinkers and Secular Humanists of mainly
Bangladeshi origin requests your office to go over the recent posting in
myriad e-forums such as 'Mukto-Mona', 'NFB', 'Mukto-Chinta', 'Vinnomot',
'Nirvana', 'Drishtipat', 'Alochona', 'Future of Bangladesh' etc. to see
for yourself the outrage ordinary Bangladeshis are showing over the recent
attack on Professor Humayun Azad. We all love our motherland and we can no
longer sit back and be passive at this time. The attack on Prof. Azad is no
isolated event. Many freethinkers, educationists, prominent members of the
civil society, and some well-respected politicians such as Dr. Kamal Hossain
have either received physical threats or their civil rights were grossly
violated. A list of such persons who lost their life, endured such attack, or
who received death threats from extremists are now available in Mukto-Mona
web-site. The list contains all documented cases. Under this dire backdrop,
may we respectfully place before you the following proposition?
1. Create congenial surroundings in Bangladesh so that people having
diversified opinion can harmoniously exist side-by-side. Unfortunately, a
group of religion traders is creating enough miasmas in Bangladesh to poison
the proverbial air that we all breathe. No monolithic idea should dominate
in a pluralistic society such as Bangladesh.
2. The judiciary and law-and-order enforcing department should be freed
from politics. For a pluralistic society such as Bangladesh, the judiciary
and allied departments should have a complete independence and free from
executive branch. This separation is necessary. Please exercise your power
and influence to make sure that Bangladesh's judiciary and police are free
from influence generated by the executive branch of the government.
3. Much is desired of Bangladesh's antiquated primary and secondary
education system. The future generations of Bangladesh who one day will rule
Bangladesh should be groomed with a broad-based educational system that is
so lacking in our motherland. The overhauling of the system is urgently
needed. The archaic syllabus seriously lacks an upgrading. Students in their
formative years should be exposed to more humanities subjects including
anthropology, history of the world, European enlightenment movement in
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Students graduating from our high
schools have slightest ideas who are Hume, Mill, Marx, Emerson, Darwin,
Russell, Aroj Ali Matubbar, Ahmed Shariff; never mind their creative works.
For better or worse, the world we now live in is globalized. To live and
compete in this environment one has to know the evolution of modern
mercantile system and the underlying ideas that shaped everything from
philosophy to modern biology. Unfortunately, Bangladesh's educational system
has failed miserably to truly educate our future generation. Instead of
receiving a broad-based scientific, rational and liberal education, what the
schools are teaching is a plethora of archaic subjects including the history
of 6th century Middle East. The rest of the world is teaching their
children modern science, history, philosophy; creating awareness of civil
and human rights so that they can lead their life in an effective way to
communicate knowledge. Bangladesh on the other hand is taking a
retrogressive journey by promoting parochial schools. The sheer number of
Madrassahs boggles one's mind. Therefore, educational reform is what the
nation needs very desperately.
4. Bangladesh is marred by fanaticism of a handful fringe groups and
sectarian feuds have just started. These do not bode well for our
impoverished motherland. We do not like to see Bangladesh treads the
slippery slope religious intolerance as practiced by defunct Taliban regime
of Afghanistan. By changing the course and curriculum of our primary and
secondary schools and by saying no to religion traders we can help build a
modern Bangladesh imbued with a modern spirit. Let science and rationalism
be our guide. There is always a place for religion in our society but that
should be a private matter. Freedom to practice religion should be an
inalienable right of any individual but the state should maintain a healthy
distance from it. Increasingly we see that religionists are making inroads
into our public life and soon they will make demands that will infringe on
civil rights that we esteem very much.
In summary, Bangladesh is now at a crossroad at this time. Either we do
nothing and let the nation plunge into a state of hopelessness or despairs or we
do need to take corrective measure to make amends to things that we have done wrong in the
past three decades. The choice is yours, Madam Prime Minister. As conscious
Bangladeshis, we took it incumbent upon us to draw your attention to myriad of
problems our motherland is facing now. Nothing will please us than seeing our
motherland grow and prosper in this very competitive world. Corrective actions
are needed at this time. With an anticipation of that we close this
appeal.
Spontaneous Reaction and Protest:
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Prof.
Sirajul Islam writes ...
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Dr.
A. H Jaffor Ullah writes...
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Humayun
Azad: The marked man
Only few days
ago a nervous but
determined writer, Prof.
Humayun Azad, sent e-mail
to the moderator of a
forum for freethinkers by
the name Mukto-Mona.
(Read
more...)
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More reaction and protest
from Mukto-Mona members...
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