I wonder why Yunus is starting a new political party. Is he going Bhupen
Hazarika way?
***
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.
Umesh
"Alpana B. Sarangapani" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body { FONT-SIZE: 10pt;
FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma } Hi C'da:
Excuse me for butting in.
>Remember Ahmad's COUNTRY used to be Pakistan? What happened to it? And WHY?
>Ever asked that >question?
That way, we would have to remember the days and ages of India's being one
country with Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanisthan, and all other countries. No? :)
---------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 07:54:22 -0500
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [email protected]
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [Assam] Thoughts about how well ones own Bangla is running
.ExternalClass blockquote, .ExternalClass dl, .ExternalClass ul,
.ExternalClass ol, .ExternalClass li {padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0;}
Ram:
>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.
**** And----???????
Say NO to those who point it out, because it is anti-Indian, because it is
merely a ploy to DESTROY India ?
Isn't this the best the Indian intelligentsia has been doing for decades:
AGREE something is wrong, but what CAN THEY DO about it? Sorry to see YOU in
the ranks of the clueless Ram :-). What is your excuse?
>It is intriguing, that Ahmad has NOT followed some in the subcontinent who
seek to >divide their country.
*** HMMM! Glad you found something tasty to bite into :-). But aren't we
missing something here? Remember Ahmad's COUNTRY used to be Pakistan? What
happened to it? And WHY? Ever asked that question?
Ask it. And ye shall find the answer staring at you.
>Ahmad is for a united, and a truely democratic Bangaldesh.
*** And those of Assam who look out for its interests are FOR a "--united and
truly democratic Assam--" unlike those who are dedicated to see it NOT happen
:-).
c-da
At 6:14 PM -0500 3/21/07, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
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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Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
website: www.gse.harvard.edu/iep
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