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Dialogue with Young Professionals

Young professionals at the dialogue (October 14, 2006) underscored the need for unified and scientific education system and bringing a change in the political culture for overall development of the country.

If the education system is appropriate, many of the existing problems would be eliminated while the 'political dynasty' should be stopped for flourishing democracy, they said, adding that frequent amendments to the constitution for serving the cause of the individual should be stopped.

The Nagorik Committee 2006 organised the dialogue at Brac centre in the capital with collaboration of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), The Prothom Alo, The Daily Star and Channel i as part of its quest for preparing a vision paper for Bangladesh in 2021.

The meeting congratulated Dr Muhammad Yunus, who is also a member of the Nagorik Committee, for winning this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

Pressure from the political parties destroyed most of the professional bodies, the young professionals said.

There should be a provision that no one should be elected prime minister for more than two terms and the members of parliament should be allowed to express their opinion beyond party stand, they said.

They demanded transparent ballot boxes and underscored the need for a provision for negative vote in the ballot paper.

The young professionals also suggested reducing imbalance of salary structure between public and private sector employees for reducing corruption.

Sixty-two young professionals involved in teaching, law practice, banking, journalism, research, agriculture, garment export, information technology, architecture, engineering, and business took part in the discussion.

In his presidential speech, Prof Zafar Iqbal suggested that the Nagorik Committee bring the education issue at the top of its priority list.

The young professionals rightly pointed out education as the main problem in the country, he said.

Prof Rehman Sobhan, convenor of the Nagorik Committee, urged the young professionals to take charge of the country with passion and commitment. He recalled that it was the younger generation who had taken the leading role in preparing the manifesto of the country's independence.

Nagorik Committee member ASM Shahjahan suggested turning the politicians' faces towards lights for resolving problems.

The young professionals got locked into a debate on the question of what role the Nobel prize winner Dr Muhammad Yunus should play in the next election.

Several speakers suggested giving him the charge as chief of the caretaker government for holding a free and fair election while some others observed that Yunus should remain above party politics and out of all controversies.

The next-day world will be divided into two groups -- efficient and inefficient, Editor of The Daily Star Mahfuz Anam said, adding that Bangladesh should try its best so that it does not fall in the inefficient group.

He suggested the young professionals to acquire knowledge from the world at large and utilise those for development of the country.

Anam spoke for an intelligent patriotism of the people instead of blind patriotism. People should feel proud that we have an independent and sovereign country that many peoples cannot achieve even after fighting for long, he said.

CPD Member Secretary Debapriya Bhattacharya conducted the discussion.

The young professionals who took part in the discussion include: Monir uddin Ahmed, engineer S Fahim, Ashiful Bashar, Shamim Ahsan, Mujibur Rahman, Suman Kumar Mitra, Shakhawat Hossain Khan, Sadrul Majumder, Dr Rifat Zaman, Sumana Sharmeen, Amit Dasgupta, Hishamuddin Chisti, Tarin Hossain, Suman Salahuddin, Syed S Kaiser, Farhana Sharmeen, Mostafizur Rahman Khan, Nazim Farhan Chowdhury, Ali Baset Chowdhury, barrister Tania Ameer, Tazim Anwar, Kamruzzaman, Azad Bin Mahfuz, Moshahida Sultana, Munni Saha, Shakil Ahmed, Monjur Elahi, and Iad Ali Fakir.

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