New Year 2024 in Bangladesh: Some Key Issues and Challenges

 

In the New Year, we will need to put extra efforts together, to reignite the economy and promote growth and also to make it inclusive and beneficial to all. We will also need to intensify investment in education in 2023. We must work together to eradicate corruption, crimes, drugs and substance abuse as well as violence against women and children in our communities. Where we disagree, let us do so with dignity and respect and promote unity and cohesion as we build our country together. The challenge now is to continue to pursue the economic and political conditions that will spread the wealth throughout the population and provide an example for the rest of the world. We must work harder to build a truly caring society in 2024.

Despite all the grand successes the country has achieved in recent years including 2023, new and old dangers – economic, political, and security-related – threaten to derail its progress. With sound policymaking, effective leadership, and enough foresight, however, can meet and defeat these challenges as well as the many more to come in the New Year. If we are human beings, we probably use the beginning of every year to reflect on the past years, make decisions and set resolutions for the New Year. It is a good thing to make resolutions, but it takes a good deal of discipline and commitment to get results that would be different and better than what we got last year. Catherine Pulsifer wrote, “The New Year symbolizes the ending of one year and the beginning of yet another. We celebrate this event, yet it is only a moment in time, like any other day. But it is also considered a time when new beginnings can happen. Be determined to have a Happy New Year!”

In the New Year’s foresight, Bangladesh’s growth initiatives may be overarching themes that place the country at the tipping point and we perceive to be key areas for intervention to keep Bangladesh on its current epicrising trajectory. This year’s format is different from years past, encompassing viewpoints from high-level policymakers, academics, and practitioners, as well as utilising visuals to better illustrate the paths behind and now in front of Bangladesh. Growth in Asia and elsewhere has shown that industrialisation is crucial to job creation, a value that has to be enshrined in the new sustainable development goals of Bangladesh.

The country has witnessed remarkable improvements in poverty reduction in recent years, but persistent challenges in inequality, education, health, and violence, among others, still plague it. As the 2024 year may provide the opportunity to be a jumping-off point for strong policies and efforts to accomplish the desired goals. We understand the assortment of opportunities 2023 provides for supporting human development efforts and argues for the central role that better data and corrective measures play in addressing them.

To explore the consequences of Bangladesh’s rapid urbanisation which historically has facilitated the country transition from a reliance on agriculture to industry and jobs. However, without strong policies to deliver services, finance and build infrastructure, and support the urban poor, Bangladesh’s rapidly growing cities, villages and intermediate cities cannot deliver on their potentials. The New Year may see a number of governance milestones and obstacles, and the march towards good governance. Any sort of violence, killing and destruction… shall have to be ruthlessly suppressed by the law and order controlling body of the government. People want peace and that has to be ensured. People do not want the anti-liberation forces and their mango-twigs to get any chance to fish out any benefits in the troubled waters. Raise your voice. Beware of that the ruffians – both foreign and local, must not get any chance to disturb us because Bangladesh is for Bangladesh’s people.

The government should reflect on the country’s growth-governance puzzle and the complex institutional changes necessary to move from economic growth to economic transformation. Historically, urbanisation is a sign of economic prosperity. As a country underwent structural transformation, and its economy shifted from agriculture to manufacturing and industry, the composition of the population of the country shifted from being predominantly rural to predominantly urban.

The fact is that that everyone has a different idea about what the perfect song or mood to transition from one year to the next should be. The new year has a litany of challenges on the National Polls scheduled to be held on 7 January, 2024, the socio-economic and political fronts like the previous years. After the national parliamentary polls, the majority party leader and its team should have successfully taken over all the levers of power both at party level and in government and deliver good governance in all levels of administration…

One of the most important areas of concern in Bangladesh is education. Without an educated population, a country cannot progress not only in terms of economic development, but also because of political development. In Bangladesh, just like in other parts of the world, parents have a strong desire to see their children progress and have a good life; hence, families are willing to make sacrifices for education.

Despite serious challenges on the economic front, together we made substantial progress in providing basic services, such as, electricity, housing, roads, water and sanitation, healthcare as well as accessible education. The country’s GDP has begun to show welcome improvements. Thus, significant strides were made in 2023 in fighting poverty, inequality and unemployment. Still the government needs for renewed efforts to boost inclusive economic growth and improve the lives of poor and working-class; and it remains a key priority of the government.

The mornings of winter fall on the last of the fogbank and will wash it away. We can smell the grass again, and the torn leaves being eased down into the mud.  The few loves we have been allowed to keep are still sleeping on the sky of Bangladesh. Here in the country, we walk across the fields with only a few young cows for company. Big-boned and shy, they are like girls we remember. Those girls are matured now. Like us, they must sometimes stand at a window late at night, looking out on a silent backyard, at one rusting lawn chair and the sheer walls of other people’s houses. They must lie down some afternoons and cry hard for whoever used to make them happiest, and wonder how their lives have carried them this far without ever once explaining anything.

Emotions and excitement will be lifted up inside eyes and mouth widely grinning hands clap together anticipation rising going through the whole body. As we wait for the sunrise, we wait for a shimmering blue sea. We shall see a beautiful golden sun. And we believe it will set us free. We put our pens down greatness without sound; love without a doubt and a heart unbound; freedom of tongues is freedom of minds; and free air is freedom of lungs.

We smoke though, temporary satisfaction for eternal sorrow; one more drag; confidence to load the mag up against our heads, we then resurrect ourselves with memories of something else. So, we are grinding again, making our way up the lane, but the cities big so we take a… Melody Beattie reminds us, “The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.”

With the moon as the conductor, the symphony of lights begins. As the heavens open in anticipation, stars one by one comes filing in with each rhythmic starlight flicker keeping in tune with the galaxy. Entire planets hold their breath in wonder from everlasting-to-everlasting nebula breeze. It all plays out in harmony keeping perfect 3-4 times and such beauty is not held by boundaries and seen and heard light years through time.

The year 2023 should be to do good deeds for the country. The winds of bearable and golden-like and sweet-note are on our heads. The winds of civility and refinements having good or auspicious marks; of commendable looks…good governance…gentleness of disposition…exquisite beauty or grace…quite consistence; very reasonable; judicious; fair; adequate; relevant; well-refined life shall prevail in our days; and we wish our readers, and people in general a glorified and restful festive season. Celebrate new life in the New Year 2024. We wish to finish-off today in the words of Goran Persson, “Let our New Year's resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.”


Anwar A. Khan is a freedom
fighter who writes on politics
and international issues.