We welcome our prime minister's three recommendations at a meeting on Global Compact for Refugees to end the Rohingya crisis.

A photo published in The Daily Star on September 24 depicts how unaware our workers are about their own safety.

We agree with roads and highways officials and experts who have recently said that the lack of proper road infrastructure is a major hindrance to Bangladesh becoming a developed country.

We thank the Canadian House of Commons for their recent unanimously voted declaration terming Myanmar's persecution of the Rohingya as a genocide.

The three-point demand made by the Jatiya Oikya Prokriya should be looked at carefully by the government and not be dismissed off-hand.

We are appalled by the way police baton-charged left-leaning protesters who were marching toward the office of the Election Commission on September 20, leaving scores injured.

Reportedly, Bangladeshi expatriate workers in Malaysia are being rounded up and herded off to immigration camps at random.

We are surprised that the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has so expeditiously approved tens of billions of taka to purchase thousands of EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) that are planned to be used in the next election due to be held in 2024. It makes little sense because the next election is over five years away.

It is regrettable that the Digital Security Bill has been enacted into law in spite of the objections from all concerned. The bill effectively curtails the freedom of speech and thus the very fundamentals on which democracy is built. If a law is meant to deliver greater good to the greater mass then the new Act, we are afraid, cannot pass the test.

It would seem that many government, semi and non-government bodies believe that the electricity they consume is free. It is not free.

In a welcome move on Monday, the International Criminal Court's prosecutor launched a preliminary probe into Myanmar's crimes against its Rohingya minority, including killings, sexual violence and forced deportations.

We are extremely disappointed and shocked that a parliamentary standing committee report on the said Bill has been placed before the House without a single substantial change. The role of the JS body in this regard is disappointing.

When a sitting member of parliament (MP) decides to turn a secondary school in his constituency into a party centre for his personal use, and that too for three days during which time no classes were held, we pause to think how power goes to one's head.

On Saturday, September 15, JCD President Mashiur Rahman Rony went missing.

The report entitled “Enhancing Opportunities for Clean and Resilient Growth in Urban Bangladesh” unveiled by the World Bank is yet another reminder for policymakers and the people of the country of the monumental environmental costs of unplanned urbanisation and the lack of implementation of existing environmental laws.

It is good that Bangladesh has climbed up three spots—from 139 to 136—in the Global Human Development Index (HDI) 2017, according to the Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme. This again illustrates the tremendous progress we have made over the past years as a nation.

We are not writing this editorial to revel in a win but to celebrate the manner in which it was achieved.

Although Bangladesh has received record multi-billion foreign investments from select countries, its efforts to make the country a foreign investment destination remain hamstrung by infrastructure and bureaucratic bottlenecks. There is no reason why the country should be lagging behind because we have what many countries do not—an abundant pool of surplus labour.

It is intriguing that Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's de facto civilian leader, realises the Rohingya crisis was not handled in a way that it should have been.

The lack of security and extent of violence inside the Rohingya camps as evident from an investigative report in the latest issue of Star Weekend (“Murder in the Camps”, September 14) should be a major concern for the government and international community. It goes to show how precarious the situation is.