Engineer Fokor Uddin Manik

As dawn breaks, the patient named “State” wakes with a jolt. Curled up on the bed, it struggles to stand—one hand on the waist, vision blurred, ears ringing. Asked where it hurts, the answer is simple: “Everywhere!” The head throbs, the heartbeat is irregular, breathing is labored, and walking feels impossible. Yet outside, there’s noise—speeches, slogans, and promises of reform—but not a single soul stops to ask how the patient truly feels.

This republic resembles a frail human body. The head is politics, the heart represents the economy, the lungs are the media, the legs symbolize the judiciary, and the spine stands for democracy. Today, the head aches from toxic partisanship, the heart suffers blockages from corruption, the lungs wheeze under suppression of speech, and the legs have grown shaky from a lack of justice. As for the spine—democracy—it’s dislocated. Even though doctors admit that surgery is necessary, none are willing to take the risk. Why? Because the infection could spread to them too.

Worst of all, the doctors treating this State are politically polarized. Their prescriptions read “reform,” “growth,” and “self-reliance,” but the medicine is mostly ineffective. Some administer injections of illusion, others hand out capsules of dreams. Meanwhile, the media hosts seminars and talk shows, debating symptoms instead of diagnosing the root disease. As the patient groans in pain, policymakers insist, “The nation is fine—those reporting symptoms are spreading negativity!”

To complicate matters, foreign specialists have arrived. With furrowed brows, they declare: “Your democracy is ailing, human rights are in danger, and your electoral system is broken.” They don’t treat the patient—they just draft reports. They don’t take responsibility—they conduct workshops. One offers a human rights saline drip, another proposes a democracy painkiller, and yet another pushes multivitamins for development.

The NGO-driven foreign pharmacies are busy, too. Under the banner of "assistance," they distribute injections of civic education, voter awareness, and value-building. But these don’t heal the patient—they suppress its self-esteem. Domestic ‘technicians’—trained by foreign donors—hand out colorful prescriptions, saying, “Local cures won’t work unless you first study ‘Democracy for All’.”

The state’s illness is multi-layered. Corruption, like a virus, eats away at its organs. Power-centric injections cloud its judgment. The judiciary's pulse rises and falls with the political weather. The media breathes through a taped mouth—one wrong breath invites lawsuits. And the economy’s heartbeat now follows propaganda, not policy. With such a diagnosis, what’s the remedy? Foreign prescriptions—or local solutions?

This ailing state is a proud, chronic patient. It knows others may not feel its pain. That’s why the citizens have begun taking on the role of nurse, therapist, and, at times, even surgeon. They no longer fall for sugar-coated medicine. They ask: “Will this dose actually work, or is it just another political placebo?”

We must not forget—this nation is hurting from head to toe. Painkillers alone won’t help anymore. What’s needed is proper diagnosis, and treatment rooted in local reality. Only professionals who prioritize competence over partisanship, justice over jargon, and grassroots truth over foreign templates can truly heal this nation.

If that doesn’t happen, one day this patient may collapse in the street and cry out:
“This is your nation—aching all over. Where’s the cure?”

The writer is a political analyst & social thinker. He can be reached at 

email- fokoruddincse@gmail.com