The youth of this generation are the children of the global village. Due to the development of information technology, with the free flow of information, above all, for the welfare of Digital Bangladesh created by Sheikh Hasina, everything in the world is now inside a mobile set. If a mobile phone is set in hand, he can recognize the whole world. Every corner of the world is now very known to the youth people of Bangladesh.
As a result of knowing the world in this way, the young generation came to learn what a better life is. Even ten years back from now, the youth of this country did not know what a better life is so clearly like now. Now they know it, and this created a demand of developed life among them.
In the advanced countries of the world, the way the young people being happy and well off move on towards creating a better future, the young people of Bangladesh also have the same desire today.
People can never dream of this advanced life being ultra- poor or living under the poverty line. When the standard of living of people increases at a level, a minimum of flexibility comes, only then people dream about a developed life.
With severe poverty and hunger, people can never dream of a developed life. Ten years ago, 90 percent of the young people of Bangladesh did not have the opportunity to dream of a better life. Because, just after waking up in the morning, they used to see their family could not afford the main foods like rice, pulses, and fish. When the family is not able to provide the minimum required food, dreaming of an advanced life becomes just a luxury to that family.
That situation in Bangladesh has entirely changed in the last ten years. Today, even a farmer of Bangladesh earns the money to buy 20kg of rice a day. So, today the child of his house also dreams of better education and a better life. Even today the environment of madrasas in the country is not the environment of poverty. The touch of information technology reached there along with the desire for advanced life.
How does this expectation of advanced life come? What happened in the last ten years? In the last ten years, if it is watched in a concise way, what comes is that the country has become self-sufficient in the main food rice and flour. Besides, Bangladesh's position in the world is fourth in fish production, third in vegetable production, and country's necessary meat is now produced by the country itself. So, it is clearly visible that there is no scarcity of the main foods of the country.
Next is clothing. The cost of all types of clothes in Bangladesh is much lower than in other countries. The price of the shoes is low as well. Foreign brands of T-shirts, polo shirts, jeans and pants are available at nominal prices in the country's small market’s here and there. The price is such low that foreigners often buy their clothes from here.
On the other hand, mobile phones are in the hands of 13 crore people among the total 16 crore people of the country. More than 60 percent students are using laptops, and in tertiary level, almost 100 percent. And to support this information technology, electricity has reached 94 percent of the country’s home.
Living In this reality, the people of the southern part of the country are seeing more new dreams. They are watching in front of their eyes that the country with its own money is building the Padma Bridge. The people of the southern part of the country, especially the youth, realise that with the starting of the Padma Bridge, there will be a huge workplace in those areas.
Large industrial groups are now buying lands on both sides of the bridge to build factories. Thousands of people will be employed. Besides, new jobs and work environment will be created there.
Likewise, the people of southern Chittagong that means the people of Sandwip, Maheshkhali and Kutubdia, are seeing the electricity hub and coal port being built there. Thousands of youth will get jobs with the starting of these activities.
Even the people of those areas will not have to go abroad for work. Once again, the new seaport, Payra seaport, its partial work has not been started yet, though the area has been changed. And when it’s fully operational, it will be like Singapore.
Here comes another line of thought- this country is riverine and again a sea-land. Here the main strength of the economy is the river and the sea. The foreign merchant and British ruler made two seaports here. After that many rulers came and went, but no one built a seaport. Sheikh Hasina is the first who made another seaport. The small island country like Singapore took itself forward with their seaports. So if Bangladesh can make two seaports in the next five years, then it will be easy to understand that five seaports will make this country equal to many Singapore.
The youth can understand that the country will have more seaports in future, their country will be more developed, and the employees at these new ports will change their livelihoods.
Along with this, a few hundred economic zones are being built, so lakhs of young people will be employed there. So, the youth of our country are thinking to have the same life as the youth of other developed countries.
The youth of Bangladesh now desires to have a country of their current developed life and a country with various types of opportunities in future. At this moment, there is unemployment in the country, it’s true, but no one is jobless.
From the child of my own home, I see all the young people are earning something. In our youth, we were 100 percent dependent on our family, but that’s no more the situation. Besides, apart from a few government jobs, we had less opportunity to do other jobs in our time. Those days are gone. A majority part of the talented youth is not interested in government jobs these days. There are huge facilities in private sectors now. Moreover, there is room to use innovative power. Now the youth want the state to give them the opportunity to utilize their innovative power.
Sheikh Hasina has brought the country to a place where these youth can dream. Every young man now understands that Sheikh Hasina took the country which is sea-resource dependent and have a convenient geographical location to a place where it is possible to dream. It is possible to dream that in the next ten years, Bangladesh will be one of the top economies of Asia. In reality, the way Lee Kuan has changed Singapore, King Bhumibol has changed Thailand, Mahathir has changed Malaysia, Sheikh Hasina has changed Bangladesh too. And the fact is that people can understand what benefits Sheikh Hasina brought for them and another truth is that the opponent cannot speak about the development activities.
Today, if we look deeply, we will find two speeches of the opponent party of Sheikh Hasina. One, their leader has been kept in jail. Two, their workers are being arrested and one of their leaders is living in exile, he has to be returned to the country.The reality here is that their leader is imprisoned for being guilty of corruption when she was in power, and their workers have specific allegations, from various petrol bomb attacks to various types of terrorism.
The young people of this country know it very well what this group and the alliance did in the country between 2012 and 2015. But the number of cases is very low comparing the number of millions of terrorism happened.
Not only that, under whose leadership those petrol bomb terrorism, fire terrorism happened that is people like Fakhrul, Rizvi are living in an unimpeded way. They are joining election, doing the election work for their party. Even here, by analysing the policies of the government, it is seen that for the sake of the development of the country, they are forgiving many misdeeds.
On the other hand, Fakhrul, Rizvi can’t say anything like there was no development in the country. Besides, their absconding leader has been convicted in a case of corruption, accusations of taking the bribe. In the case, the representative of the US FBI came and testified, and in another case, he has been jailed, it is on 21st August grenade attack case. Three of the main planners had accepted that he was the mastermind of that grenade attack.
However, they are trying to save these criminals from being punished through the election. Besides, they could not speak anything against the development of Sheikh Hasina. On the other hand, they could not offer more development in their manifesto. Overall, they have no record of development. In their time, the country has lagged behind in the production of electricity and the production of food.
So this election seems to be seen that BNP-Jamaat is seeking the release of some people convicted of corruption, terrorism, and the murder under the veil of democracy.
On the other hand, there is Sheikh Hasina who has made the way for young people to dream of a better and developed life. She has brought the country to that position. So, the future of youth people is with Sheikh Hasina and the way of making the terrorists free is with the BNP-Jaamat and New Jaamati Dr Kamal (Dr Jaamat according to Muntasir Mamun).
The youth must have no obligation to release the corrupt and terrorists and take the country back to terrorism and corruption, to become five times champion in corruption like the BNP regime. Young people need a better and developed future. And the fact is that everyone cannot give a better future, for example, Malaysia had to bring Mahathir back at his ninety years age again.
Actually, not everyone has the power to improve a country. In the 47 years of Bangladesh, it has been proved that only Shiekh Hasina has that power. She will lead the future generation to a developed and better life. So the youth will be with Sheikh Hasina on Sunday election because, under Sheikh Hasina's leadership, there is a better future for the youth.
A state award-winning journalist, Swadesh Roy is the executive editor of Bangla national ‘The Daily Janakantha’. He can be reached at [email protected].