Reaching out to the public

The first concert was quite a while ago. The question is, what's next?

Take Back Bangladesh's initial focus on free and fair elections without hartals only works if there are political candidates worth voting for. This issue has been finally been brought to the foreground by the arrest of quite a few senior politicians yesterday on allegations of corruption.

Everyone will no doubt agree that we need a political renewal to make democracy work in Bangladesh. But there seems to be a shortage of ways to accomplish it. In this vacuum, sometimes it seems as if our only hope is for Professor Yunus to use the momentum of his Nobel Prize to start a new party. That only raises another question, though. He's one person; even if he wanted to start a new party, what could he do on his own? There isn't any grassroots movement which could push for clean candidates all over the country in the way that the established political parties can.

The segment of the population which has the most to gain from cleaner politics is the youth. After all, they will have to deal with Bangladesh's problems for the rest of their long lives. Furthermore, most of them are being totally marginalized by political parties who only care about recruiting more hooligans for their street agitation.

In the 1980's, the youth of Europe and North America were introduced to the issue of famine in Africa by means of the Live Aid concerts. That youth-based activism seems to have paid real dividends. Global issues relevant to the poor, such as fair trade and climate change, are a far bigger issue now than they were 20 years ago. It's no coincidence that Bob Geldof who organized Live Aid has also become a spokesperson for fairer trade agreements.

This model of political engagement driven by youth culture needs to be transplanted to Bangladesh. The question is how. More rock concerts? Political street theatre? Something totally different?

If you have any suggestions, please let us know by commenting. And please get involved.