<It is intriguing, that Ahmad has NOT followed some in the subcontinent who
seek to divide their country. Nor does he seek independence for one portion or
the other because he feels his country's leaders are useless. Nor does he take
up arms because the system is broken, and there is malgovernance.
He is able to visualize all the problems, but is able to think positively on
ways to rebuild his country.
There is a big difference between what Ahmad is advocating and what some
netters may be thinking. Ahmad is for a united, and a truely democratic
Bangaldesh. This in definitely NOT what some of our esteemed netters have in
store for India :):) >
subcontinent who seek to divide their country----'coz India already did it for
them in 1971Nor does he take up arms because the system is broken, and there is
malgovernance. ------ HisThinking is the first step to corrective action. Armed
uprisings are one of the means to reform . This is ongoing inside Bangla
to think positively on ways to rebuild his country.-We all shd do that
truely democratic Bangaldesh. This in definitely NOT what some of our------
His Thinking has just began. In Oxom it has matured 27+ years
We are there--almost!
mm
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 18:14:54 -0500
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Re: [Assam] Thoughts about how well
ones own Bangla is runningCC: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [email protected]
Thank you Mukul da for forwarding this article by Ahmad.
And C'da, you hit the nail right on the head. Having read the article (several
times over), I completely agree with you. I too can see the "misgovernment" in
the Indian context.
I am quoting some of the sentences that Ahmad writes. They intrigue me.
(Highlights mine)
>I have spent hours debating, discussing and arguing about the developments in
>>my country, often told 'why you bother when none of this affects you, when
>your >opinions would make little difference if at all'.
>I wondered on the comments yet my brain continues to think, the >love for my
>motherland is on the rise and is showing no sign of >abating.
And, quite a few more lines like the above. Ahmad, obviously has a lot of love
and respect for his country. In spite of his take that his country has given
him precious little, he still has a great interest and is seeking ways to
improve the lot of his country.
It is intriguing, that Ahmad has NOT followed some in the subcontinent who seek
to divide their country. Nor does he seek independence for one portion or the
other because he feels his country's leaders are useless. Nor does he take up
arms because the system is broken, and there is malgovernance.
He is able to visualize all the problems, but is able to think positively on
ways to rebuild his country.
There is a big difference between what Ahmad is advocating and what some
netters may be thinking. Ahmad is for a united, and a truely democratic
Bangaldesh. This in definitely NOT what some of our esteemed netters have in
store for India :):)
--Ram
On 3/20/07, Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
This is a thinking man! Those Netters who read the article carefully, will see
the image of their own Indian misgovernment reflected here, accurately. He has
his fingers exactly on the problems, even though the solution proposed, while
being one of the elements of a series of measures, is not entirely adequate.
Ahmad is right about the party loyalty as a source of the problem. It is the
same thing as electioneering on party lines and NOT on ISSUES. But it is only
one of the problems. Another big issue is the effectiveness of the INSTITUTIONS
of democracy. Yet another is the ability to make the able and the willing to
participate in their governance.
I highlight some of the points below, because we discussed these too.
Unfortunately our netters were unwilling to see what stares at them. Perhaps
this article will sink in a tad bit better :-).
At 11:02 PM +0530 3/20/07, mc mahant wrote:
By Talha J Ahmad, UK
I have written extensively on the current crisis engulfing my country. I have
spent many nights and day, many hours of my busy life far away from my
homeland, I have spent hours debating, discussing and arguing about the
developments in my country, often told 'why you bother when none of this
affects you, when your opinions would make little difference if at all'. I
wondered on the comments yet my brain continues to think, the love for my
motherland is on the rise and is showing no sign of abating. I wondered about
the past of my country, present and the future. I wondered of the patriotism of
my leaders, political and otherwise, I wonder even now of the patriotism and
the genuine motives of the current government, I wonder of the extraordinary
remarks of our head of Armed forces. My wondering comes to no end, it continues
without an end on the horizon. But why do I wonder? I pondered on possible
answers to my paradox, but found none credible. However, I guess I can
confidently say all these wondering of my mind is a process instigated by my
feeling and concerns for my country, a country that has not given me much, but
I still feel indebted to. It is my love and affection for my country, my
genuine desire to see her flourish with all her children, my firm belief on her
potential that keeps telling me to wonder further and as part of that process I
seek to speculate on some ideas. The turn of 20th century has been marked by
freedom movement, wanting to be free from repressions, colonization. People
wanted to be free to speak, to earn and to work. Freedom movement led us to
have new states with new political culture.
The triumph of the last century however was the end of love for dictatorship
and the rising of a new era for democracy. Democracy seemed to have offered
hope to bring about social justice and economic freedom. Democracy has shown us
sign of empowering people and giving all citizens a way of being their own
master, the master of owns destiny.
But what has democracy really earned us? Or have we got the right kind of
democracy? Our nation for instance paid heavily for democracy, from the days of
East Pakistan to present, many hundreds of thousands of people marched at
different times to ensure democracy prospers in our land. People were made
hopeful; every one expected a better life. It was the prospect of democracy
that leads us to the bitter struggle for freedom, the war of independence; we
earned independence only to march again to slay the leaders of that
independence. We hoped of economic development, the betterment of education,
life standard, justice and equality, we have achieved some progress but we
cannot certainly say that we would have not achieved these prosperity without
all the bloods that we had to spare.
We marched, we fought, and we sacrificed to achieve economic freedom, social
justice and equality in a country where we all would be equal participants. We
hoped that in our country we would have no masters; people in power would be
accountable. We rebelled against dictators because we thought they were not
accountable to us. But democracy does not seem to have offered us
accountability either.
Our current government for example, they are said to be good, but how do we
hold them accountable? How would people seek to redress any wrongdoing
committed by current government? We have no true accountability. Only might and
might alone seem to have its way in terms of accountability, but not people.
Ordinary man and women do not seem to have the power to hold social elites
accountable. But this presents us with a dilemma. We have to have government,
we have to have some kind of people's participation in the governance of our
country, and we must have some means to hold our governments accountable. But
how? In lands of England, the Birth place of modern parliamentary democracy,
there are disaffections, the parliament elections are at times attended by as
low as only 37% of the population. Famous names with huge reputation in
politics raising their concern regarding accountability.
A former cabinet minister went as far as saying the current parliamentary
system is not capable of holding the executive accountable, and she has decided
to stand down as an MP from her party in order to campaign for a change, for a
better, more representative and accountable system. If that is the condition of
democracy in the land of where it was born, I think we can get a pretty good
idea as to where we stand. Our MPs are like our lords, they are the king,
queen, whatever one may wish to think. Our ministers are the most powerful of
people so much so that they can get away with whatever they wish, so it seems.
But how we change such situation?
Dr. Yunus and many others seem to think that corruption is the culprit and good
people entering politics may be the answer. Dr. Yunus himself decided to put
his reputation and hard earned celebrity status on the line. He will form a new
political party that will raise the hopes and aspiration of our nation. But he
will be joining a system that has failed us, there is nothing to suggest that
it was not systems fault too that we ended up with 'bad' politicians. So I
wonder why a Yunus factor should make me feel good. I do not want to think that
one man can change my country, I do not believe in super human. I would like to
think it is not just a few people who are the problem; I would like to think
that there is something with system too.
We have a very large number of educated people now, working in good jobs. Yet
many struggling to find an appropriate job. We now have a new generation of
middle class and affluent people. We no longer see the generation of trade
unionists, nor do we see the peculiar scenes of student politics. The politics
of fighting to take control of universities seem to have lessened to some
extent. The trend among the youths no longer is as strong towards joining
politics as it used to be. And that in some way is a bad sign. And I think
therein lies the first problem. Increasing economic sophistication made our
societies complex. The advancement in technology made our world a global
village. But that means our affairs now have more factors in it, our affairs
now involve a much wider ecosystem and not just us. Bangladesh is part of the
global community, and our problems needs to be thought from global perspective
too, which obviously means our affairs are now more complex and requires much
sophisticated solutions. Our thinking however has not sophisticated;
politically we are now less mature and less sophisticated. Our politics remain
the same in terms of its norms and fundamental roles. A complex society
requires extraordinary citizens who have intellectual sophistication, citizens
need to be more aware and better knowledgeable of situations, but that has not
happened to our new generation that has grown into the mainstream society now.
So what we need is a social class who command the society with understanding
and clear vision. We need a new kind of social movement that seek to
re-energize our citizens by making them intellectually sharper, more demanding
and sophisticate. We need social movement to instill in our citizens patriotism
and give them a common vision of our future.
Of course it is not enough to have a new social movement that will create a new
class of citizens who will be intellectually rich, politically aware and
sophisticated in their thinking. We need political forces and platforms that
will make good use of this new class.
We need political platform and political leaderships who understand and conform
to the desire of the people and rise to the challenge of building a new
society. But it is probably now fair to say that the current parliamentary,
party political system has failed. It is not so evident because the failure is
covered by other issues such as corruption and the style of governance.
But why do we have corruption? Corruption is merely the symptom of a bigger,
much wider failure. An effective government which is accountable to its
citizens cannot be corrupt, it is not possible. So if government or people
within government become corrupt and the system cannot stop it, it is the
systems fault and not those who actually are corrupt. The accountability issues
is not just a big issue in our country, it is an issue all over the world now.
UK, USA and most western countries have the problem too.
Current prevailing system of governance is that of the cabinet who are elected
along the party political line. Political arguments are presented along the
party identity. Loyalty lies to the party. Because of the party system which
has strong disciplinary force that seeks to suppress certain views and promote
certain others it is difficult to have true accountability. Largest party in
government occupies the position of power, when the other parties attack the
government, the whole party behind the government stand in defense. As long as
the party remains largest, there is no way we can hold the government
accountable. Some times, even all the major parties have no significant
difference between them, who should people choose in those circumstances? Due
to the existence of political parties, once again new initiatives and thinking
cannot take root. It is not a level playing field, yet the whole essence of
democracy is that all citizens should have equal opportunities. I therefore
intend to resolve that we need to fight to break the party system; we need a
new kind of politics in which citizens participate freely without party
loyalty. We should have one broad vision to unite us that is our patriotism and
our desire to form a better society. Apart from that we should all come to play
with ideas to tackle our social issues. If we can truly demolish the party
controls we can have an energize population where people will make their case,
articulate their ideas and in the end passionate people with articulated ideas
will be charged with responsibility to govern. We will have true democracy, we
will have genuine accountability. Of course, some would say that this is an
unworkable system; I would argue we cannot be so sure. Of course we need some
kind of organization. But that organization does not have to be along the party
lines. Our local meeting places, auditoriums, libraries and social clubs could
be the place to debate. A new consensus will emerge. We can have our civil
society to guide the nation in its argument. We could have our academics,
entrepreneurs and others to influence and inform debates through their
participation. But that will mark a new kind of politics which will have no
place for dynasty, no room for one man dominance and no room for corruption. No
one will be strong enough to have it all, and no body will be too weak to have
a say. Such society would be a genuinely democratic society where social
justice and equality will thrive, human dignity shall flourish
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