Home ›› 27 Feb 2023 ›› Editorial
President Abdul Hamid on the occasion of the sixth convocation of Jahangirnagar University on February 25 rightly pointed out the social ills. If analyzed, his speech at the convocation categorically emphasized three social and political issues that have long hindered the development of the country.
According to the news published by The Business Post, firstly the president blamed the big businessmen for the default loan which is unquestionably true. Commoners don’t have any scope of taking big loans from banks with the intention of not paying it back. They don’t have even any kind of nexus with a section of bank authorities. In most of the loan scams involvement of a section of bank authorities is the common knowledge.
Since the independence, we have heard about default loan but the country is yet to take any stringent steps to stop such loan defaulters from taking loans. Now the country’s banks and other lending institutions have over Tk1.34 lakh crore in defaulted loan which is 9.37 per cent of the total debt. It is a staggering amount that could be spent on many development works or social safety network from which poor people could be benefited. At the same time, the circulation of such a big amount of money could keep the wheel of the economy going. We don’t know for sure if this money is in circulation within the country. In most cases, such money is laundered to foreign countries for so-called fortune makers to who the interest of the country and its people doesn’t matter at all.
Secondly, what Abdul Hamid put emphasize on, is the ethics of students. It is also true that what the country has been witnessing for quite a long time in the name of student politics is quite disheartening. Once students were imbued with the sense of patriotism and ethics what the country is lacking now. Students now are involved in politics not for ideology or a dignified life but they do so to make some quick bucks. If there is no change the country has bleak future as it is students who are ultimately going to lead a country. If no ethics and moral senses are cultivated it is quite understandable what kind of future we are waiting to see.
Thirdly, he also talked about uprooting corruption. Corruption is closely linked to the non-existence of any moral and ethical practices in the society. Even educational institutions are not out of such corruptions. The honourable president also mentioned it in his speech asking teachers to free themselves from corruption. It is corruption that is eating away all our achievements. No university of Bangladesh can be found on the list of 1, 000 top universities in the world ranking.
It is a matter of shame for a country that has already celebrated its golden jubilee with much fanfare. If those three chronic diseases can’t be cured, whatever efforts the government gives or whatever steps it takes to elevate the country to the status of developing nation will certainly fall flat. We hope and expect that the government will put its focus on those three ills engrained in our society.
Only then we can expect something positive that now seems to be elusive. The honourable president very rightly pointed out the diseases and now it is the responsibility and duty of the government to move towards their eradication. Otherwise, like a cancerous disease those three enemies will erode whatever achievements we have had since our independence.
