Creating resolve for the triumph of the good
Enayet Rasul | Saturday, 5 July 2008
IT may be asked whether Bangladeshis, having successfully applied their political consciousness to establish Bangladesh, have been equally successful in using the same consciousness to develop their country in the economic and social sense. The well researched answer to such a query is likely to be strongly in the negative.
Bangladeshis have collectively failed to put pressure on political parties, institutions and governments to work dedicatedly for the country's economic and social development. Thus, they should have only themselves to blame for their present tormented existence. Nobel prize winning poet Rabindranath Tagore in one of his poems memorably stressed that those who tolerate wrong doings share the same sins and deserve condemnation like the actual doers of the wrong things. What he meant was unless sufficient resolve is created in society to protest and reject evil, conditions will not be there for the triumph of the good. Or till people are conscious enough to rise against or express themselves with enough zest and determination to have removed incompetence, bad governance, corruption, tyrannies, immorality and other ills, the same will hold sway over them and spoil their aspirations for a better tomorrow.
People with the right background, efficiency, dedication and integrity cannot rise up the ladders of political parties in Bangladesh. Rather they are even pushed down if they should reach high positions. One must not restrict the blame to party members for their humiliation. All people in the country are to share the blame.
Politically charged and conscious people voting in massive number for the right candidates could create a revolution in the election history of Bangladesh. Despite the large presence of candidates backed by the power of money and muscle, people were also presented with the choice of relatively better candidates for whom they could cast their votes. But they failed to do this repeatedly which only supports the thinking that political consciousness of people are poor and that is why they continue to suffer in all respects.
It is stated in the Holy Koran that Almighty Allah gives the people of a country the sort of leaders they deserve. It can be interpreted to mean that a people who act correctly in choosing their leaders are rewarded with good leaderships and the benefits thereof. The opposite is experienced by a people who fail to select their leaders correctly.
Every day people read in newspapers about how national resources were plundered so massively by politicos, bureaucrats and some wheeler-dealers. The catching and jailing of them by the incumbent government seemed to enjoy the warm approval of the people for a while. But the memory of our people can be also short. Otherwise, how is it that generally a sort of negative thinking and feeling is growing bigger among the people nowadays that perhaps they were better off on the whole under the rule of these persons who have been now variously subjected to the process of the law. Surely, a sort of disillusionment with the performance of the present government has a relationship with the mood change. But is it too much to expect that people ought to compartmentalize the two issues : the inability of the present government to manage the economy well and the corruption of individuals under past governments. Why the two issues get mixed up together ? While the people have every right to demand and expect better performance from the present government, the same must have no relationship to their remaining very resolved to aspire for the well deserved punishment of those who have been charged with corruption if their corruptions are proved. How the highly suspected corrupt ones can regain acceptability and respectability so soon in people's eyes or considered as fit enough to again preside over the country's affairs ?
Can the failures of the present government justify the comeback to power of thoroughly discredited, self-centred and corrupt elements under past governments ? It is up to the people to keep these issues separated. The present government will only remain in power for another six months. They will not perpetuate in power. So, people's concern should be really about who would lead them after this government and to ensure that the country can make a fresh and clean start through the election with dependable persons representing deep cleansed political institutions. But where are the signs that the people in general and the civil society in particular are adequately anxious to ensure that these positive developments do actually take place ?
The coming national elections could be a turning point in the nation's history. It could have heralded a whole new healthy beginning for this country that had been tormented and let down for long thirty-seven years by self-seeking and corrupt leaders at its steering wheel. The incumbents in power also much raised expectation by promising so much about reforming politics and political institutions to that end. But its spirit appears to be flagging. It seems that this government is in a hurry to somehow stage an election and hand over power to the same old politicos with little care about whether they have carried out political reforms in the scale they promised. The people and civil society are also seen to be rather passively allowing this drift. There is no need to explain how this lack of care on the part of almost all who matter will only endanger the well-being and security of the country.
Bangladeshis have collectively failed to put pressure on political parties, institutions and governments to work dedicatedly for the country's economic and social development. Thus, they should have only themselves to blame for their present tormented existence. Nobel prize winning poet Rabindranath Tagore in one of his poems memorably stressed that those who tolerate wrong doings share the same sins and deserve condemnation like the actual doers of the wrong things. What he meant was unless sufficient resolve is created in society to protest and reject evil, conditions will not be there for the triumph of the good. Or till people are conscious enough to rise against or express themselves with enough zest and determination to have removed incompetence, bad governance, corruption, tyrannies, immorality and other ills, the same will hold sway over them and spoil their aspirations for a better tomorrow.
People with the right background, efficiency, dedication and integrity cannot rise up the ladders of political parties in Bangladesh. Rather they are even pushed down if they should reach high positions. One must not restrict the blame to party members for their humiliation. All people in the country are to share the blame.
Politically charged and conscious people voting in massive number for the right candidates could create a revolution in the election history of Bangladesh. Despite the large presence of candidates backed by the power of money and muscle, people were also presented with the choice of relatively better candidates for whom they could cast their votes. But they failed to do this repeatedly which only supports the thinking that political consciousness of people are poor and that is why they continue to suffer in all respects.
It is stated in the Holy Koran that Almighty Allah gives the people of a country the sort of leaders they deserve. It can be interpreted to mean that a people who act correctly in choosing their leaders are rewarded with good leaderships and the benefits thereof. The opposite is experienced by a people who fail to select their leaders correctly.
Every day people read in newspapers about how national resources were plundered so massively by politicos, bureaucrats and some wheeler-dealers. The catching and jailing of them by the incumbent government seemed to enjoy the warm approval of the people for a while. But the memory of our people can be also short. Otherwise, how is it that generally a sort of negative thinking and feeling is growing bigger among the people nowadays that perhaps they were better off on the whole under the rule of these persons who have been now variously subjected to the process of the law. Surely, a sort of disillusionment with the performance of the present government has a relationship with the mood change. But is it too much to expect that people ought to compartmentalize the two issues : the inability of the present government to manage the economy well and the corruption of individuals under past governments. Why the two issues get mixed up together ? While the people have every right to demand and expect better performance from the present government, the same must have no relationship to their remaining very resolved to aspire for the well deserved punishment of those who have been charged with corruption if their corruptions are proved. How the highly suspected corrupt ones can regain acceptability and respectability so soon in people's eyes or considered as fit enough to again preside over the country's affairs ?
Can the failures of the present government justify the comeback to power of thoroughly discredited, self-centred and corrupt elements under past governments ? It is up to the people to keep these issues separated. The present government will only remain in power for another six months. They will not perpetuate in power. So, people's concern should be really about who would lead them after this government and to ensure that the country can make a fresh and clean start through the election with dependable persons representing deep cleansed political institutions. But where are the signs that the people in general and the civil society in particular are adequately anxious to ensure that these positive developments do actually take place ?
The coming national elections could be a turning point in the nation's history. It could have heralded a whole new healthy beginning for this country that had been tormented and let down for long thirty-seven years by self-seeking and corrupt leaders at its steering wheel. The incumbents in power also much raised expectation by promising so much about reforming politics and political institutions to that end. But its spirit appears to be flagging. It seems that this government is in a hurry to somehow stage an election and hand over power to the same old politicos with little care about whether they have carried out political reforms in the scale they promised. The people and civil society are also seen to be rather passively allowing this drift. There is no need to explain how this lack of care on the part of almost all who matter will only endanger the well-being and security of the country.