IT WAS the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel who taught us: ‘We learn from history that we do not learn from history.’ What an all-encompassing pithy remark, for all time to come! It was right yesterday, is right today and will unfortunately remain right tomorrow. If Sheikh Hasina had believed in it, she could have remained a venerated person, with or without power. What is missing? Hitler, Mussolini, Ceaușescu, Miloševic, Karadžic,m etc were not only powerful but also extremely popular for sometimes while they were in power.
But their power went to their head and they became extremely arrogant, over-confident and power-monger. They thought whatever they thought, they said and they did were right and that bucks stop at their doorstep. They did not fathom that they were losing relevance and were no more connected to the reality that their citizens see and feel all around them. They would neither listen to any views of concern nor to any dissents. History has always dished out the same fate to these wretched people.
So what went wrong that need to be righted? We will delve a little deeper to search out the answer to this question. To begin with, the rule of law should be above all and should be treated as supreme. None should take law in their hands and the law should be allowed to take its own course without any hindrance or influence. Adequate support should be given to creating an environment where the law of the land will be honoured by all. We need to be vigilant to any untoward incidents, including the arson and plundering of the assets of religious minorities, so much cunningly organised to bring a situation to one’s favour. There will always be shady people, waiting in the wings, with hidden agenda. They will foment the situation to their advantage, turn the newly found liberty murky internationally and create and seek opportunities to meddle in the affairs of the country.
One strategy that the Awami League government ploughed through, in short, were poaching some history for the aggrandisement of some already towering personality. Everything that the nation did well are the doings or dreams of just one person. One name chimed and reverberated in every nook and corner of the country so much so that even some foreign friends of mine on visiting Bangladesh exclaimed, ‘We heard about these photos and agitation but did not expect these to be of this extent!’ This frantic face-lifting has irked even some tolerant minds. So, in future, when we bow to someone, a limit needs to be drawn; it should not go to the stage of prostration. Those who prostrate before the batting of eyes surely inculcate a personality that is devoid of any respectability. And those who have this sort of mendicancy do not possess qualities that should be otherwise strong enough to prop themselves up with.
When they are positioned in nodal points, they give what is expected of them and nothing else as they are not capable of giving anything else or anything more. Mediocrity ruled the roost, which continues to this date — thoughtless, mindless, blank minds were given responsible positions and responsibilities which, in fact, dragged down the real development in the management culture. In future, every position should be open for competition in the public sector as is done in the private sector. In fact, it should be a practice in the public sector as it is not someone’s paternal property or zamindari and as a whole nation’s interest lies on it.
Decision-makers should not just jump on the first name that comes to their mind. A selection process should sort out a befitting office-bearer while the selection process should be exact and meticulous enough. We need to keep in our mind the saying of Chanakya that a wise enemy is better than an addle-headed friend. We need to consider the fact that our public sector officials will have to protect our national interests internally and also in global forums, where they have to appear clever and astute with their words, expressions, articulation, body language and, of course, with their depth of knowledge in relevant fields.
History is said to build national identity and people’s individuality and personality. History should, therefore, take its own course without any interference, calculative move or mockery. History does not create its own history. It does not come from someone’s dreams. It builds on research. When history is made to order to appease someone’s whims, a just society and a respectable society must discard and disown it. People should not be taken to be oblivious of facts and figures. In difficult situations, they may not raise questions and abide by whatever is fed to them silently but a made-to-order history will not sustain for long. Today or tomorrow, a day will come when it will be thrown away into the dustbin of history. So, no tinkering with the truth.
The course of action will not be easy. The incoming and future elected governments will have to sort out the background of the officials in nodal positions and take measured remedial actions irrespective of faith, social, or economic status or political affiliation. A committee of experienced and knowledgeable people with respectable past may be formed to this end. Those who were positioned only on political grounds without considering the required qualification despite a low level of qualification should be sent on retirement and replaced with someone whose suitability would be examined religiously.
The crimes, exposed to or hidden from the public views and knowledge,Ìý financial or otherwise, perpetrated in the recent or the distant past that were not brought to the book will have to be enlisted and investigations should be undertaken for justice. Crimes, especially all public killings, should be brought to justice, incriminating all those who were responsible, to assure people of a nation where people believe that they will be judged without fail based on their deed or deceit. This will be helpful to discipline people’s mind and the game that they play or want to play. People should have deep faith that they live in a just world. This gives pride to the character of the people that prevents them from committing sleazy acts.
For a bold, courageous and upright nation, justice should be ensured and seen at the earliest to restore confidence in people about the government’s honesty and courage. Justice gives voice to the people and it keeps the government informed of ground realities that would help the government to take appropriate and accurate timely steps. We have to believe unconditionally that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’, a saying attributed, among others, to William Ewart Gladstone, a former prime minister of England. We need to remember that an open environment espouses truth and knowledge. But to begin with, we have to bring all the recent killings to justice, including the 2009 carnage in the Bangladesh Rifles, now renamed as the Border Guards Bangladesh. The country lost some brilliant and valiant minds. Some reparation is in order.
A formidable national loss was the missing of discipline in a department, which is supposed to be a disciplined force. Like the destruction of many institutions, police personnel also lost the basic sense of their call of duty. I have personal experience of a police sergeant, a sub-inspector, arguing with me arrogantly that whatever they do is the law and they are above law. Where does it come from? Be it as it may, it will be a formidable task to discipline the loose cannons. Either wrong people were selected for the job or their training was too flimsy or their goals were not what they were actually recruited for. A national commission has to be formed to ensure a performance by them that does not defy decency, amiability and warranted behaviour.
A separate mention of the fizzling of huge sums of money is warranted. One of the reasons of the people in joining the uprising against the government is the market tumbling — on the kitchen market as well as on the international market. The skyrocketing of prices and the exchange rate of international currencies that create hurdles in import along with dwindling of export end up in the plummeting of cash earning. But above all this, the siphoning of the money in billions out of the country broke the back of the camel.
The Awami League government at any rate would have had faced a similar, if not a harsher, agitation because of these financial mismanagement in coming years. One of the first assignments of the new government would be to look into this abyss and take appropriate and adequate measures to solve the problems, in particular by bringing back of the stolen money. This will help the new government to take a full-breasted deep breath, in an otherwise economically suffocating environment the failure of which will jeopardise and smirch the new government.
A nation divided against itself cannot stand, as Abraham Lincoln said. So, utmost efforts has to go to unite the nation, divided by the ruling clique into religion, spirit, freedom fighter and enemy of the nation, division of the professionals into different groups. Instigating people to assume inimical role and then engaging strength to quell enemies in a cauldron saps away time and strength that should, instead of spreading thin, be used for developmental pursuit. Bold and intelligent moves need to be undertaken to handle diversity, not all of which might be supportive, some may be suppurative.
An honest, unassuming and hard-working leadership will ensure that governance is far-sighted, fair and transparent, and sponsor and support capable, skillful, hardworking and efficient people without any other consideration, irrespective of political, cultural, linguistic and religious background. In future, planning and financing should be purely need-based, equitable and not taken up on political grounds or to serve ulterior motives of policy makers or politicians. Aligning with this motive will ensure efficient budgeting and allocative efficiency with best outcome.
One formidable problem that should be taken out by the root is rent-seeking practice that has become a culture with impunity in the country very fast by known and people and professionals, who use political or official identity for nefarious acts. Rent-seeking occurs in markets, on roads and highways and in offices. This practice increases prices directly and indirectly, which increases inflation.
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AM Zakir Hussain is a former director, Primary Health Care and Disease Control, former director of IEDCR, DGHS, former regional adviser of SEARO, WHO and former staff consultant, Asian Development Bank, Bangladesh.
