The New Nation - Internet Edition

Shahin Siddiquee

One of the most commonly used words in the West is "appreciate". For any good job, this word is expressed in so many ways that it would have been hard for me to realize unless I had experienced it myself. If these Westerns don't like something, they just remain silent, never would you hear them personally attack with words, as it is the case in our country. Even the policemen, while handing over tickets, would say nice words like "Have a wonderful day", "take care", etc.

For today, let us keep aside all the negative sides we talk a lot about Western people and concentrate on this.

The other day, at a baby center I came across 101 phrases to keep the young kids happy! "Wonderful", "Angel", "Cutey", "You are so beautiful", "You are really something", "You really are outstanding in a bunch of kids, and I am not kidding at all" are just a few among others. I tried hard to match these with the way the teachers, religious leaders or the elder ones from our part of the world behave with kids. I tried hard, but in vain. While our teachers think they have "blessed" their students by marking a little higher than the lowest, the teachers from western hemisphere start marking with the assumption that their students have gained the fullest mark, and refrain from reducing marks unless they make any mistake. These people do make fun, but of weather or animals, while we spend hours making fun of other people. Politicians don't mind joking around with their biggest opponent, causing no harm to their honor and dignity. Natural disasters like Tsunami can bring together two former US Presidents of two different poles, such as George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton. Even the people from our closest neighbor, no matter how severe division they have among themselves, they never show it to others. Like us, they don't make fun of the negative things of their own nation in front of non-Indians.

The respected elders, knowledgeable ones can come to much use, as they serve as a huge tree giving us shelter and shade. At times, with wise words from their heart, they can create a wonderful feeling among the younger ones. Though their efficiency is limited, through their personality they can create a beautiful atmosphere. That is the reason we don't even want our seriously ill, bed-ridden parents to leave this beautiful world. Even if they do leave us, we feel we are left outside in a stormy day with the umbrella taken off from top our heads.

Not to mention, never did so many knowledgeable people ever rule our Bangladesh at any given time. We must say we are lucky from this perspective. Though we have seen many graduates, post-graduates or barristers at once, this is for the first time we are experiencing so many PhD's among the rulers at a time.

Presidential role is almost similar in the three neighboring countries of the Sub-continent. Though knowledgeable, their role was to remain silent, unvoiced and provide shelter as a big tree. Unless they blow up, it is never easy to realize how far-reaching the root is of these trees. Faruk Loghari blew up twice, once in 1996 and again in 1997 and dissolved two parliaments- "kicking out" two elected Prime Ministers, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. Even our polite and soft-spoken president Abdur Rahman Bishwash once showed off his power by firing an Army Chief just before the 1996 polls. These exclusive, serious men seated on that gorgeous throne who are only seen of cutting ribbons, distributing certificates, performing prayers in opening ceremonies, visiting graveyards and placing flowers in their formal attire, sometimes also know how to exhibit their hidden power and create sense of responsibility among their people.

While the Presidents and professors of America or other Western countries are busy jogging in a T-shirt or showing off their cowboy nature, the respectable people of the Subcontinent and Asia are busy competing how far more serious can they be, or, in other words, showing off how great personality they possess!

If a student in Dhaka accidentally bumps into a teacher in a shopping mall and says out phrases like "Hey, my teacher is here" or "Are you crazy?!", it is easy to guess what will be the fate of that student, the next day in class.

As America awaits upcoming polls, interesting stories are already in the air, related to the front-runners, now Senators, Governors, Mayors, Congress Members, etc. It is heard that Mike Huckabee still refrains himself from touching a glass do 0'; while entering any store, as he didn't forget his teen memory of earning pennies by wiping off finger-stains from glass doors. Mitt Romney used to work with wrench to stop the flow of sewage pipes.

Hillary Clinton used to separate intestines from fish with a fork! Republican Fred Thomson used to work in a shoe factory. Democrat Barack Obama used to do the most odd job- collecting ice cream at Baskin's Robbins, because he used to eat more than he collected! Republican Rudy Guiliani, before going to study Law, was a priest at a church and used to sell medicine.

And if such stories of our great respectable people ever come out in the air, no wonder how ashamed they would be! Well, time has changed a lot these days.

Anyway, we were talking about the most recent President of India- the nuclear scientist in sandals- Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam. Just a few days before he retired, he delivered a speech in Hyderabad and he himself distributed it among Indians worldwide through e-mail. Talking about e-mails, although the young generation school kids of our country have got themselves already used to e-mailing and chatting, it is heard that it is not very well practiced among our senior executives. Some bigmouth people have already spread a rumor related to this: One of our senior executives had once gone to Australia to attend a conference. During break time, delegates from other countries asked him his e-mail address. He replied, "I didn't get it yet, I will give you after asking my secretary". Well, this is also just another joke that has no last answer. So, we do not know what the delegates replied. Well, criticizers did their job; let's not believe in it.

We were talking about the speech by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam. As the topic of his speech matches so much with the case of Bangladesh, it is sensible enough to talk about it.

He asked his fellow Indians:

"Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? Weare such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? Weare the first in milk production. Weare number one in Remote sensing satellites. Weare the second largest producer of wheat. We are the second largest producer of rice. Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters." He says, "I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper.

It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid and a granary." "It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to.

The gory, details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news. In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE? Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts, we want foreign technology."

He asks the conscience of the people of his nation, "Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14-year-old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India." He seeks 10 minutes from his nation saying, "You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation. Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is yours"

"YOU say that our government is inefficient.

YOU say that our laws are too old.

YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.

YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke, The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination.

YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.

YOU say, say and say."

Now he asks the hard question, "What do YOU do about it?"

Then he tells his nation, "Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name - YOURS. Give him a face YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they aret.

YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to, 'see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else. 'you would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, 'Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so son. Take your two bucks and get lost.' YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand.

Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India?

Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay, Mr. Tinaikar, had a point to make. 'Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place,' he said. 'And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels?

In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?' He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and thro~ it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity.

This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public, When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child! and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse?

'It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry.' So who's going to change the system?"

In his one and a half page long speech, he gave many more thought provoking examples like this. "Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system", he says. "When New York becomes insecure we run to England.

When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money,"

He finished his speech echoing J. F. Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indianst..

We can also end this discussion like him. But before that, let us pay a little attention to how we do ourselves is:

Our newspapers make lead news of how three brilliant students from BUET dies in Buriganga, but we never hear of their golden success stories. In this 21st century we get to see how hundreds of hunger-stricken people compete for the food thrown from a helicopter in those rural areas where SIDR had taken away millions of lives, but we never get to see anything to make them overcome this trial and gather back their strength to live again. Where do we hear the story of how, with the same hands these energetic people gather the tom out body of their closed ones from trees and paddy fIelds, put it into grave and get back, with the same hands to earn a living. When the whole world appreciates us with a "Well done Bangladesh" for the way we fought back with one of the greatest disasters of the century, we are busy blaming each other instead of participating in the effort to bring them back to life.

In the June 2007 0 Level exams of University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), three Bangladeshi kids, Ibrahim Mohammad Junaidur Rahman, Nabil Tarik Hossain and Sajjad Khan Moushum scored the highest number in three subjects across the whole world! Where the Director of CIE doe's not hesitate to feel proud of them, none of our newspapers, except very few came forward to write an editorial on these golden kids, pride of our nation.

Another Bangladeshi origin American Mohammad Rahman, is doing PhD in Bio-engineering in a combined project of American Texas University and Indian TAT A Memorial Hospital. He discovered an unbelievable patent, researching on "Oral Cancer Screening Device", he invented a machine named The Portable Screening System (PS2), which is cheap and can be run on battery. It can diagnose oral cancer by differentiating between normal and pre-cancer tissues. Even the M. D professors of University of Texas are proud of him. And in our country, days after days Yaba queen Nikita gains a big portion of the lead news, while our pride Mohammad Rahmans' news is hardly in the lead. These few are not the only success stories we have. Many such examples are scattered around us. But we the unfortunate are only busy with the rotten dead bodies of the animals and ill-fated people, the diseases around us and the terrorism of our country.

Now let's consider the above e-mail and imagine three things: First, let's imagine Dr. Iajuddin instead of Dr. Kalam; second, let's imagine Bangladesh instead of India; and third, the way Dr. Kalam echoed how J F Kennedy addressed to fellow Americans, let's imagine Dr. Iajuddin echoing the same to fellow Bangladeshis:

"ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR BANGLADESH AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE BANGLADESH WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY"

"Dream: Not what you see when you are asleep, but what lets you not sleep is dream" - Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam.

The writer is a professional engineer working in an engineering company in Canada. He can be reached at shahin72@gmail.com. The article was originally written in Bengali language. Maimuna Musarrat who is serving as Administrative Coordinator in Asian University for Women translated it.

Farish A. Noor

As an aside to the academic work I normally do, last week I was given the opportunity to meet Tuan Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat, the Spiritual Leader (Murshidul Am) of the Malaysian Islamic Party PAS at his office in northern Malaysia. Despite the frail health of the man and his taxing schedule, we managed to pack in close to two hours worth of interview on tape and this will now be my headache for the next week, as all of this information has to be transcribed for publication purposes.

One thing, however, struck me somewhere during the second half of our meeting. I remarked to him that his home was suprisingly similar to that of Ho Chi Minh's in Hanoi, Vietnam, and that both he and the revered 'Uncle Ho' chose to give up their stately government mansions to live in humble wooden houses. I also said that he was using the same cheap, plastic BIC ballpoint pen that I had seen him use when we first met in 1999. This occasioned a laugh and a smile from him, but it struck us both that these observations were far from pedestrian. The truth is that for both revolutionary Islamic and Communist movements alike the world over, the democratic impetus and the drive for revolutionary politics were accompanied by a strong sense of disdain for worldliness, and a respect for a Spartan way of life. Whatever you may say about Ho Chi Minh, one thing you could never accuse him of was corruption and the easy life. The same applies to Nik Aziz as the spiritual leader of the Islamic party of Malaysia.

The same, however, cannot be said of the secular modernising elites of so many post-colonial societies that rather quickly got used to the comfy life of the former colonial masters they condemned and demonised, so what gives?

As someone who studies the various modes of religio-political behaviour in the Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Buddhist worlds, respectively, I am left with the rather simple conclusion that the 'moral economy of the peasant' that was talked about in the 1970s is as relevant now as it was then. With the global economy in a tailspin and many an Asian economy precariously hanging in the balance, we already see the repeat of the mistakes of the past. The list of errors and complains sound surprisingly (or perhaps not surprisingly) similar to those that came to the fore during the Asian crisis of 1998: indiscriminate credit expansion, contracts given to government contractors or those close to power, etc.

Time will tell whether this imminent global recession will see political heads roll as it did in 1998, when public protests brought down the governments of Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia, and rocked the political foundations of Malaysia, too. Then, it was apparent that the economic crisis was as much a political one as it was financial, due to the murky dealings of political fixers and the unfettered role of political parties and elites in so many Asian countries. If this were to happen though, the credibility of religio-political leaders like Tuan Guru Nik Aziz will remain intact, for the man himself has nothing to lose in the first place. Nik Aziz, above all, understands the meaning of the poverty of riches and the riches of poverty. His wealth lies in his cultural capital as a pious man whose hands are clean. And in any case he has no luxury items to give up: After all, he still uses the same plastic BIC pen today that he used 10 years ago!

(Dr Farish A. Noor is Senior Fellow, Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Research Director for the Research Cluster 'Transnational Religion in Contemporary Southeast Asia', Nanyang Tech Uni, Singapore)