The Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam's appeal to the ‘new generation leaders’
Democracy cannot operate as a simple majority steamroller, as we also saw in the early days of our independence.
The idea of dedicating a day to promote harmony and peaceful coexistence—a day that fosters diversity, justice, and understanding across borders, cultures, and beliefs—seems promising in theory.
Dissent in Bangladesh has been met with hostility, with individuals being labelled as traitors or enemies of the state for expressing opposing views.
The euphoria of August 5, and the momentous days leading up to it, especially since July 15, are now being overshadowed by a cloud of uncertainty.
There is much to learn from both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, two South Asian countries, as they navigate their shifting landscapes.
Young people have been at the centre of a major political transition.
Sri Lank's neighbours have to come to terms with the fact that AKD was the democratic choice of the mass people.
More than half a century after its independence, Bangladesh still finds itself at the crossroads of crafting a state built on durable democratic foundations.
The theme of the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)—“Towards a Common Future”—was announced recently by British Prime Minister Theresa May on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly Meeting in New York.
This is inconceivable in modern democracy that the parliament passes a resolution to nullify a supreme court verdict. But our Parliament unanimously did it on Wednesday, setting a unique example.
Democracy advocates in civil society and government have managed to push back against global corporations, but much of their progress hangs in the balance this month.
Capitalism prioritses policies that promote efficiency in resource allocation, while democracy espouses ideas of equality and fairness.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia says extremists and militants are raising their heads in the country due to undemocratic and intolerable acts of the government.
It is hardly surprising, then, that citizens on both sides of the Atlantic feel that they are no longer masters of their political fate. For all intents and purposes, they now live under a regime that is liberal, yet undemocratic: a system in which their rights are mostly respected but their political preferences are routinely ignored.
When people resist what the government would like to wholesale, impose, or force-feed as “development”, democracy seems quite at ease to quell people's resistances, violate pledges and dismiss the age-old demands of the adivasi communities.
Even the chief election commissioner (CEC) has admitted that violence has escalated in the fifth phase of the elections.
The top leaders of BNP turn down the government’s allegation that the party is conspiring with Israeli intelligence agency Mossad to topple the government.
The US Department of State’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs William E Todd will lead an interagency delegation on a visit to Bangladesh.
