Stop living in the past, be pragmatic and move forward
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Shamsher Chowdhury
Living in the past has become a hallmark for this nation alongside wasting of valuable time in fixing and re-fixing issues that have long been settled and goals achieved Our glorious past is our pride but a nation cannot continue to bask on its past glories alone. We simply must attend to innumerable burning issues of the present while focusing on the future. We must come out of this decadent mindset of self-glorification and profile building.
Every independent and democratic nation has its individual history and legacy that it can be proud of. At the same time, countries bigger and more resourceful compared to ours also continue to bear the burden of tragedies of their national leaders being brutally murdered. They too honour their dead. They too have windows of excellence in literature, art and culture. Many of the nations around the globe have the legacy of revolutionary leaders of no lesser consequence compared to that of ours.
It is high time that we take some lessons from some of the present day successful nations. I have said before also, that one of the problems with the Bengalis is that, we as a nation have closed minds and a narrow vision. We are too engrossed with our personal agenda. To us personal tragedies are more important than national tragedies. We are simply incapable of turning our tragedies into strength. Faced with a national calamity or a tragedy all we are capable of is lamenting and spend days into post-facto analysis, People of the west often call us resilient which I tend as our capacity to withstand deprivations and disasters or is it some kind of inertia?
There is a band of people in this country who thrive on such issues like celebrating national days like the Ekushsey February, Pahela Baishakh including birth and death anniversaries of celebrities. Nothing wrong with it except for the fact that we tend to carry matters too far resulting into valuable loss of time on a national scale which could have been otherwise used for more productive purposes. I made a personal calculation and have come to the conclusion that we tend to loose as much as three months of workdays in a given year in such exercises. As it is we have a poor work culture. Indeed such extended celebrations and commemorations take the society further away from the realities of life and its responsibilities towards numerous important nation building activities.
Do not get me wrong. I am all for immortalizing our heroes and national leaders I am as much a patriot as any one else, if not more. What I am advocating is striking a balance and rationalizing our focus. Prophet (SA) himself recommended to his followers to follow the middle path.
For a while let us turn our attention to those national leaders of a number of other countries who were also brutally murdered at the hands of assassins in a number of other countries of no lesser consequence, like John F Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King , Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi so on and so forth. These were not only national leaders of the highest caliber but also leaders who changed the very course of history of the world for better. They continue to be both honoured and remembered by their respective nations without recourse to extended euphoria and fanfare compared to the way we indulge in this country. People of the nations who hold the proud legacy of these extraordinary leaders continue to work more on their teachings and legacies in building their respective countries than anything else. On the other hand, our celebrations/ commemorations most of the time, are exercises in empty slogans and often irrelevant rhetoric.
It is also my observation that in the process of honouring our heroes we exploit their sacred memories at the alter of narrow political and partisan interests. We also need to change this debilitating mindset of the administration of the time with regard to its campaign of vendetta and retaliation against its opponents in all conceivable ways.
I am highly concerned with this ever increasing tendency on the part of our administration, past and present, of intimidating the judiciary. Ready access to justice should be ensured across the country for all. As I said before, nothing disserves the cause of justice than selective justice. We must develop the psyche that no one is guilty until proven guilty. Besides even the guilty and the condemned have their rights as universally granted to all mankind. Of late, I find that our rulers including the media has this tendency of preempting justice by profiling individuals based on perception mainly aimed at advancing either personal or partisan interests. J.B. Morton that famous British Journalist (1893-1979) Once said, I quote, "Justice must not only be seen to be done but has to be seen to be believed" unquote.
Frankly we need to bring about drastic changes in our mindset for better as illustrated above and at the same time, move forward or else we shall continue to stagnate.
(The writer can be reached at e-mail: chowdhury.shamsher@yahoo.com)
Living in the past has become a hallmark for this nation alongside wasting of valuable time in fixing and re-fixing issues that have long been settled and goals achieved Our glorious past is our pride but a nation cannot continue to bask on its past glories alone. We simply must attend to innumerable burning issues of the present while focusing on the future. We must come out of this decadent mindset of self-glorification and profile building.
Every independent and democratic nation has its individual history and legacy that it can be proud of. At the same time, countries bigger and more resourceful compared to ours also continue to bear the burden of tragedies of their national leaders being brutally murdered. They too honour their dead. They too have windows of excellence in literature, art and culture. Many of the nations around the globe have the legacy of revolutionary leaders of no lesser consequence compared to that of ours.
It is high time that we take some lessons from some of the present day successful nations. I have said before also, that one of the problems with the Bengalis is that, we as a nation have closed minds and a narrow vision. We are too engrossed with our personal agenda. To us personal tragedies are more important than national tragedies. We are simply incapable of turning our tragedies into strength. Faced with a national calamity or a tragedy all we are capable of is lamenting and spend days into post-facto analysis, People of the west often call us resilient which I tend as our capacity to withstand deprivations and disasters or is it some kind of inertia?
There is a band of people in this country who thrive on such issues like celebrating national days like the Ekushsey February, Pahela Baishakh including birth and death anniversaries of celebrities. Nothing wrong with it except for the fact that we tend to carry matters too far resulting into valuable loss of time on a national scale which could have been otherwise used for more productive purposes. I made a personal calculation and have come to the conclusion that we tend to loose as much as three months of workdays in a given year in such exercises. As it is we have a poor work culture. Indeed such extended celebrations and commemorations take the society further away from the realities of life and its responsibilities towards numerous important nation building activities.
Do not get me wrong. I am all for immortalizing our heroes and national leaders I am as much a patriot as any one else, if not more. What I am advocating is striking a balance and rationalizing our focus. Prophet (SA) himself recommended to his followers to follow the middle path.
For a while let us turn our attention to those national leaders of a number of other countries who were also brutally murdered at the hands of assassins in a number of other countries of no lesser consequence, like John F Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King , Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi so on and so forth. These were not only national leaders of the highest caliber but also leaders who changed the very course of history of the world for better. They continue to be both honoured and remembered by their respective nations without recourse to extended euphoria and fanfare compared to the way we indulge in this country. People of the nations who hold the proud legacy of these extraordinary leaders continue to work more on their teachings and legacies in building their respective countries than anything else. On the other hand, our celebrations/ commemorations most of the time, are exercises in empty slogans and often irrelevant rhetoric.
It is also my observation that in the process of honouring our heroes we exploit their sacred memories at the alter of narrow political and partisan interests. We also need to change this debilitating mindset of the administration of the time with regard to its campaign of vendetta and retaliation against its opponents in all conceivable ways.
I am highly concerned with this ever increasing tendency on the part of our administration, past and present, of intimidating the judiciary. Ready access to justice should be ensured across the country for all. As I said before, nothing disserves the cause of justice than selective justice. We must develop the psyche that no one is guilty until proven guilty. Besides even the guilty and the condemned have their rights as universally granted to all mankind. Of late, I find that our rulers including the media has this tendency of preempting justice by profiling individuals based on perception mainly aimed at advancing either personal or partisan interests. J.B. Morton that famous British Journalist (1893-1979) Once said, I quote, "Justice must not only be seen to be done but has to be seen to be believed" unquote.
Frankly we need to bring about drastic changes in our mindset for better as illustrated above and at the same time, move forward or else we shall continue to stagnate.
(The writer can be reached at e-mail: chowdhury.shamsher@yahoo.com)