What's going on?

While the recent political stories, i.e., AL's die-hard movement, emergence of Dr. Kamal Hossain led national platform for unity, Dr. B Chowdhury's frantic effort to offer people an alternative, and finally, worry over political situation in Bangladesh by the international community can definitely compete with cricket, it is a pity that our interest in governance or politics extends little beyond the high ups and the national positions. National issues evoke as much passion especially among residents of the capital city but what about the rural people? It is certainly extremism to attack a renegade MP personally and destroying his businesses but there are hundreds of such stories in our districts and villages that are subjected to organized hooliganism and violence. The minor attention given to people's miseries and hardship together with the governance situation is regrettable given that the choice of local people could actually matter more than national politics. Two of our renowned editors of the English dailies that I did read ran tougher commentaries apart from writing tough editorials regarding the recent vandalism. Its praiseworthy, but how to protect the educated urban limited income class together with the literate or illiterate rural poor?

Competent and development-oriented leaders can make a difference in delivering better, cost-efficient services, it is true. We know such good leaders do exist, but the challenge is to get people to know them. Here, I use people to mean the majority voters of our land, who, most of the time, need manoeuvring. And here it should be the job of all concerned to promote them, if we really think that the conventional parties should be abandoned. So, perhaps, we could open our conversations with, "something positive is going on in our country, isn't it?"