Humanity is an integrated system of beliefs, of values, of customs and
THE MINDSET of institutions which express those beliefs, values and customs which
To be human is to engage in relationships with other and with the
world. It is to experience the world as an objective reality, independent
of oneself capable of being known. Animals submerged in reality, can
not relate to it, they are creatures of mere contacts. Human relate to the
world in a critical way. They apprehend the objective data of their
reality through reflection, not by reflex as do animals. Human are not
limited to natural sphere, but can participate in the creative dimension
as well, they can intervene in reality in order to change it. Human
engage in distinctively human activities of integrating with their
context and have the critical capacity to make choices and to transform
reality according to the choice. When human are incapable of
changing reality he adjusts himself instead, though it is the
characteristics of the animal sphere and is symptomatic of his
dehumanization. Human think and act and use their creative power to
overcome the obstacles which are either naturo-physical or
instrumental. The history of human being is a struggle to overcome the
factors, which make them accommodate or adjust. This struggle to
attain to their full humanity is constantly threatened by oppression.
Only by developing a permanently critical attitude can human
overcome a posture of adjustment. Yet what in fact happens so often is
that the ordinary people is crushed, diminished, converted into
spectator, maneuvered by myths created by the powerful social form.
In such a state, peoples creative power is impaired and cannot
apprehend problems situated outside their sphere of biological
necessity. Their interests centre almost totally around survival. Thus
they do not fulfill their vocation of becoming human of moving
forward into humanity, into a less incomplete state of being.
Development is thus development of people as human beings, it is
about human growth, and this is something which cannot be done to a
person or people, nor can even be done for them, but must be done by
them.
binds a society together and gives it a sense of identity, dignity,
security and continuity. Identity is the expression of the being of a
person or a group. Humanity is what human beings add to the world as
it is by changing it through their free action. It refers to the accepted
ways of living, how society is governed and how relations between
people are carried on. The world view of any group or individual is the
way in which the world, as experienced by them is understood. It deals
with major concerns of existence, stages of life, promotion and use of
wealth, the physical and natural world and the powers which affect the
lives the people. The rites of passage (birth, initiation, marriage and
death) and the rules that govern relationships between individuals and
groups are all expressive of the world view of the people. As identity
is an expression of the being of a person or a group, one must
understand his culture and world view. Identity sums up the main
characteristic which one would expect to find in members of that
group. But the consciousness of a population is rarely consistent and
of one piece.
Being poor is not just a question of income, diet, shelter, health and
security but it also includes consideration of opportunity for personal
fulfillment. It is common to think of development as being
synonymous with economic growth or the growth of new social
institutions. But these economic inputs into society are in fact aspects
of the concept of development that centers upon the transformation of
the identity of the people. Economic inputs into the community may
become a catalyst for development or become part of the fulfillment of
the aspiration identified by the people themselves. Thus development
implies human development- a process by which the identity of people
is transformed by themselves towards ideals and goals which they seek
for themselves. It is a holistic concept and not limited to socio-
economic advancement. External resources can be delivered to the
people, human development can not.
The vocation of people to become human beings is constantly negated
and thwarted by injustice, exploitation, oppression and violence by the
oppressors. It is affirmed by the yearning of the oppressed for freedom
and justice and by their struggle to recover their humanity. Violence
and oppression, in common parlance conjure up extreme situations
such as physical abuse and cruel exploitation. Any situation in which
one person hinders another's pursuit of self affirmation as responsible
person is oppression and it constitute violence. Violence and
oppression are structural elements is society, or dehumanizing attitude
towards other people. Indeed, violence dehumanizes people, as
violence and oppressive acts negate the true vocation of people
towards being human. The great humanistic and historical task of the
oppressed is to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well. Every
relationship of domination, of exploitation, of oppression, is by
definition violent, whether or not the violence is expressed by drastic
means. In such a relationship, dominator and dominated alike are
reduced to animals. The former dehumanized by an excess of power
and the latter by lack of power. When the oppressed legitimately rise
up against their oppressor, it is they who are usually labeled violent,
barbaric, inhuman terrorists. Among the innumerable rights claimed by
the dominating consciousness is the right to define violence and to
locate it. Oppressors never see themselves as violent.
Violence characterizes all the relationships imposed by oppression
upon the oppressed, even when the relationship is supposedly one
designed to help the oppressed. Wherever a program brings to the
people something which reflects the bringer’s vision of the world,
imposing it on those who passively receive it, that is a moral invasion.
The bringers have wrought violence upon the people because they
have neither invited nor allowed the people to participate in the
decision making on the basis of true understanding of reality whether
or not they want it. Thus the people are tormented as animals or things
by the very people who claim to be working for the development of
the oppressed.
A truly liberating way of working for human growth among the
oppressed is one which places the entire process in the hands of the
people themselves. No pedagogy which is truly liberating can remain
distant from the oppressed by treating them as unfortunates and by
presenting for their emancipation "modules" from among the
oppressors. Liberation from oppression can not be given to the
oppressed, it can only be claimed and achieved by their own action
and thus can not take place until they are conscious of the reality in
which they live. However, the habits of thoughts and practices of
accepting fate, which have evolved over thousands of years, cannot be
easily or quickly transformed in an environment where poverty,
powerlessness, natural calamity and personal life crises are so
common. It is experience which transform belief and behaviors, beliefs
supported and encouraged by knowledge and until knowledge and
power are experienced by people, the people in the world view are
unlikely to became humans. Profoundly religious though, being a
Muslim is being a human. In Islam there is no scope to
compartmentalize world view. This is why the oppressors, both
internal and external are highly concern with what Islam says and so
the oppressors leave no stone unturned even to use force to wipe out
any real work towards Islamic resurgence that determine behavior of
humans in society. Occupation and articulation of alternative
explanation of oppression and injustice are ordained to be overthrown
and replaced by human well being and justice. The paralyzing belief in
fate is a mechanism evolved over the millennium by the oppressors
making the oppressed cope with deprivation, a response to the
continuing realities of poverty and powerlessness. According to
patron-client relationship a man is entitled to subsistence from the rich
he is dependent upon. In daily intercourse a person with higher rank is
accorded the right to extract labor, service and respect of lower rank.
He in turn assumes obligation of patronage. This culture derived from
the Vedic Hindu caste system implies indulgent occupation of wealth,
abstract goodness and personal aura that stands totally against humane
teachings. This system has ancient Vedic Hindu cultural roots that
presuppose the acceptance of rank as the basis for ordering society- a
social value prescribed by the invader Aryans upon the Dravidians
with an ill motivated design to enslave them. In a class society the
system of authority and domination corrupts the minds of the people.
Those who have authority exert power over those who are below in the
class or caste hierarchy and this makes the former feel important. The
person dominated feels humiliated and powerless and to compensate
for this he exerts power and authority over those lower to him. As
patronage is the main hope of preferment access to credit or
protection, it inhibits the development of oppression consciousness
and class solidarity, the dialogue between the rich and the powerful
and the poor and weak is impeded. Nature, as manifested urges people
to throw away the myth of power and orders the fostering of solidarity
and brotherhood among the people and provokes them to have faith on
their united power to achieve what belong to them as human beings.
The different elements of physical poverty-patron-client and gender
relationship have to be defined afresh. Present structure of the society
consists built-in domination of the rich and undervaluing the women.
Beneath the quiet rural beauty of Bangladesh lies a web of conflict and
pain contributed to general scarcity of resources, resources unutilized
due to lack of education and knowledge and unequal distribution of
wealth. Hence the identity of the people is that they are people but
identity of human being is not expressed collectively or corporately in
any social group. If the people are to achieve an improvement in their
physical condition of life they will have to undergo a process of
changing their false identity of people to he real identity of human
beings and thus change the social structure. Such personal and social
upheaval will require creativity. There are so called reactionary
intellectuals, when asked about the oppressive social structure, says
that yet people survive. These negators and enemies of humanity made
'survival' objective of life and prescribed channeling human creativity
and energy to people's survival-and thus killing the human spirit that
might rise for humanization some day.
The experience of sufferings is the outcome of fear, fear of starvation
fear of the violent and the powerful and it affects the self human image
of the people and their belief in what they can achieve. The aspiration
of the people consist both of material things- food, shelter, security
and a host of non-material things- social status, economic justice,
equality of opportunity, to participate in civil political and cultural
affairs. The sufferings entailed by the non fulfillment of their
aspirations are very great and people should be conscientised as to
how these suffering comes about. The process under which the people-
identity can be transformed to human identity is inextricably tied up
both with the world view and with the Bengali and Islamic culture as
humans. As for humans the world view is not just a material world and
many aspects of behavior and the way in which they experience that
world are influenced spiritually. People know what it means to be
rejected, powerless, cheated, tortured and they experience it both
physically and spiritually. Therefore, to transform to human identity
and to be able to transform and fulfill their aspiration in a process of
true human growth both material and spiritual elements have to be
involved. Materials i.e. external resources will have to become
available to the people, and the existing internal resources will have to
be redistributed in a way that is consistent with full humanity, which is
equal to that of the rich. This cannot be done by outsiders on behalf of
the people, but must be achieved primary by their own efforts.
Liberation occurs when the reality of oppression is transformed for
both the oppressors and the oppressed into a process of becoming
human. This transformation to real is a process of action and
reflection, i.e. dialogue. This dialogue process contrasts with
'assistencialism of non government social organizations which is that
form of social assistance that attracts the symptoms but not the causes
of social ills, and therefore vitiates popular participation in the
historical process of change. Dialogue is the only way, not only in the
vital questions of the political order, but in all expression of human
beings. Only by virtue of faith, does a dialogue have power and
meaning, by faith in human beings and their possibilities. In the
process of dialogue human beings are engaged in allowing
relationship, based upon humanity, trust, hope and a critical awareness
of reality. Anti dialogue is the basis of loveless, arrogant, helpless,
mistrustful and critical people relations. Dialogue is the basis for
relation between two or more subjects, anti-dialogue in the basis of
relation between the subjects and objects. One very important element
in dialogue is trust, which leads to cooperation and solidarity. In true
dialogue all are subjects and no one is dominated, where it is possible
for the people to trust each other and their initiators who are seen as
leaders of social revolution. Thus they are able to move from
consciousness of themselves as people and oppressed to a
consciousness of themselves as human beings forced to oppressive
system and this open up the way to unity and cooperation.
In the initial stage of the struggle for liberation people have to learn
and acquire knowledge about their human potential. Self depreciation
is the characteristics of the oppressed, which they derive from their
internalization of the opinion of the oppressor’s hold of them. So often
they are told by the oppressors that they are good for nothing, know
nothings and are incapable of learning anything, that they are sick,
lazy and unproductive that in the end they become convinced of their
own unfitness. Almost never do they realized that they too know and
have learned in their relations with the natural world and with other
human beings and that they should not lost confidence in themselves.
Having internalized the oppressive behavior taught by the oppressors
they are dehumanized and need to liberate themselves. When
liberation is achieved by acquiring knowledge he becomes a human,
neither an oppressed nor an oppressor, instead a human in the process
of achieving freedom, i.e. liberty, equality and fraternity.
This process of freedom cannot start while the people's understanding
of the social structure and the world view is clouded. Reality cannot be
transformed and people cannot participate in that transformation in any
authentic way unless they develop an authentically critical position.
This a person can only do by his own intervention in and integration
with his own context. The more accurately people grasp true causality
the more critical his understanding will be. In order to surmount the
situations of oppression, the oppressed must first critically recognize
its causes. People has to be taught the distinction between the world of
nature and the world of culture, the active role of human beings in and
with reality, culture as defined in nature and what purification they
should bring about as crown of creation to a world they did not make;
develop human culture by human labor, and make ceaseless efforts to
create and recreate. Knowing is the job of human beings. In the
learning process he not only really learns, but also appropriates what is
learned, apprehends and thereby reinvests the learning and is able to
apply the appropriated learning to concrete existential situations.
Knowledge requires transforming thought into action and action into
reality. Because a liberating education consists of acts of cognition
and not transferals of information, the education adopts a different
approach- the dialogue. He presents to the people problematic social
political cultural and economic realities, in which people find
themselves, for their consideration. Through reflection and action,
action and reflection people come to know of humanity and how far
they are from it. Dialogue works against hopelessness and fatalism
because it challenges the distorted view of reality on which they feed.
As critical perception is embodied in action, a climate of hope and
confidence develops which leads people to attempt to overcome the
limiting situation in which they find themselves.
At this point some members of the lower oppressor class finding time
is running out develops a strong sense of social responsibility and of
engagement in the task of transforming society and start organizing the
people for struggle of the oppressed to be more human. Society comes
to be seen as a challenge rather than as a hopeless limitation. It is a
profound rebirth. These members though act as initiators play a
fundamental role, yet it is not proper for them to think of themselves
as agents of change. For the task is a two fold one-educational and
liberating, those who join them and those whom they are trying to
educate and liberate are subjects and not the objects of his action. It is
not invasion, manipulating or conquering. It need faith, faith on the
vision and on the people that they will hold fast and will not
disintegrate. The vision is a revolutionary framework urging the
process of transforming society and creating a world in which it is
easier to love, to care to establish justice and is seen as both
necessitating and working a total change.
Leaders from the class of oppressors who have the characteristics of
creating temptation to manipulate the people, keeps alienated from the
people instead of acting in communion with the people, tend to
prescribe to them and to dehumanize them with slogans and obscene
cultural activities, to seek to create sycophants and conquer them by
dividing into classes and ruling and promoting a section with a view
that it were the parts 'that promote the whole and not the whole which,
in being promoted, promotes all the parts' - is but a leader who
ultimately becomes oppressor himself. The manipulation by the
leadership is sometimes carried out directly by him or indirectly by a
group of elites. The populist leader who rises from this process is an
ambiguous being, an amphibian who lives in two elements, shuttling
back and forth between the people and the oppressive dominant rulers,
he bears the marks of both.
With enormous problems faced by the people, the day when they can
create a truly new society in which human rights, peace and justice
reign is a very long way off, and those who lead the work of
conscientisation must be content with seeing an identity or regaining
the old liberal identity of Islam and liberalism and Bengali slowly
develop among the people, that is human identity. This requires two
things: (i) a very high degree of personal dedication and a deep change
in their own attitudes and (ii) a new vision of human development
based upon faith in God, the creator and judge who emphasizes on
human equality of basic necessities and supremacy of leadership in
merit only. An oppressive leadership hold a distorted view of good and
propagates a completely deterministic view of good which implies of
events as 'all being the will of God,' but does not go on to elaborate
what a true view of God is, yet in the process of humanizing the
dehumanized people it is required to have faith on humanity rather
than faith in God, who himself do not do anything, but do so through
people turned human beings. The dominating oppressors, who have a
tendency to sell God are not to be feared or allowed to inhibit the
fulfillment of the aspirations of the people to be human. Distinction
must be made between the world beyond sight and the natural world
that manifests God’s will. The oppressors strictly materialistic concept
of existence are dominated by desire to possess and dominate property,
means and output of production process and people, reduces all
including humans to the state of objects at their disposal. It is the
vocation of human beings turned people to become human, yet if the
idea to become human is limited to an essentially materialistic concept
of humanity, it lacks spiritual dimension causing confusion and
unreliability that they may too turn into oppressors being materialistic
monsters. A very materialistic attitude to life, in that the individual
pursuit of resources, very often overrides the dictates of what is known
to be right or good behavior and not harming to others i.e.
individualism. Violence dehumanizes human being into people and so
the eradication of violence and the emergence of the oppressed into
their true vocation to become human beings, who know things and can
control the nature, is what humanity is all about. The idea of humanity
must have in it the idea of forming union with human beings and the
animals and the rest of creation, that we call environment. The
determinants that turn human beings into people are (i) a view of life
in which all the ills are the fault of the oppressor alone, and that only
by eradicating the oppressor oppression can be cured and (ii)
oppressed are more conscious of themselves as individuals rather a
class and contributing to the root cause of their problem.
The people lack solidarity as a class. They degrade and exploit each
other by treating their women folk as things, by quarreling over scarce
resources, by joining factions, by discriminating against each other on
the basis of birth and caste thinking, and by simply non co-ordination
with each other almost all of which, in Islam, against the dictates of
humanity, because these prevent the people form growing in
brotherhood and solidarity, which is the main need if the structural
violence in the society is to be challenged to pave way for liberalism.
Identifying the oppressors as the only cause of all social problem,
tends to reinforce a feeling of lack of personal responsibility which is a
major constituent in the belief in fate and the apathy which can
engender dependency attitude and can work against will to work for
winning back the norm i.e. the liberalism. Strong emphasis should be
given to make people think themselves as subjects and start dialogue.
There can be no doubt at all about the truly liberating power of
dialogue through which people discover that they can change the
world, can participate in their own improvement by taking action, can
achieve a measure of justice by acting together, can improve their self
esteem, self image and self confidence immeasurably. They can move
form a completely hopeless outlook towards one of hope, tomorrow
begins to hold out prospects of which many of them could not even
dream or imagine. People cease to be submerged into subjugation by
the present and they start to participate in building the solidarity for
liberalism and start to form strategy.
The leaders’ followers has to be filled by absolutely dedicated, skillful
people, prepared to reject all the oppressive tendencies in their
education and culture be themselves a true being with the people,
rather than being "for them" or a being "over them", that they
subscribe to the vision and show it in the way they do their work, so
for most of their attitude has be learned and assiduously developed on
the job. It is made all the more difficult by the constant need to be
affirming, encouraging and questioning people whose behaviour and
self image tempt the educated and the skillful to believe in their own
superiority. The vision therefore, to develop, calls for a quality of
person as human being who really exists, in fact, in this respect it fails
to take adequate account of human nature as it really is. These are
great vocation of the people as human beings to liberate themselves
and the oppressors. Liberation can not be bestowed as a gift, it has to
be an act of cognition, a positive achievement of the persons liberated.
The vision looks forward in the achievement of a complete liberal
resurgence in society where, justice, human rights, individualism,
reason replace oppression and violence; where it is easier to love and
all people participate in the creation of human culture. Looking
towards the inspiring vision of liberalism, liberating the oppressor
from the dehumanizing effects upon themselves of oppressing the
oppressed is seen as an act of being declassed. Yet there is no worked
out theory or hold fast strategy of just violence, organized non
violence, passive resistance or self defense. This is a major omission
left out to situation.
One of the most common reaction to the situation of the people is
despair. The more a person thinks about the depth to which the
violence is entrenched in society, and the more he experiences the
weakness and division of people in the face of such violence, the more
he inclines to despair. It is sheer a shameful failure of faith in his
power.
This present oppressive world view of the people needs to be
presented to them as a problem, as inhibitions to the meeting of their
aspirations and to their becoming closer to their destiny as human
beings. Theistic understandings of humanity affirm the concept of
human responsibility. Problem of lack of trust and mutual solidarity
gives rise to mutual exploitation and cheating among the people
themselves. This is attributed to corruption in all levels of society-
which is so endemic and so deep that its presence is felt by the people
in almost all activities. Favor is dispensed to the clients by executive
against the prescription of impartiality, justice for the people or the
activities of the law enforcing agencies is not available as there is
corrupt practices, business is completely riddled with corruption,
marriage is happy where the bridegroom has additional income, loan
taken from financial institutions are granted with mutual agreement
between the borrower and the lending institutions and much more.
There is a strong desire on the part of the people to follow some one,
and they will follow a person, not a vision. So leadership is connected
with a concept of personal aura. It is built in charisma, and therefore, a
strong and deeply felt cultural norm that a leader is a part of a wider
set of relationships carrying its own rights and obligations. In the
dialogue agenda to abandon the idea of accommodating local leaders
as a means of promoting the people would be to abandon one of the
most powerful forces for unity in society. A local leadership can be
encouraged which sees itself as leading not by patronage but by
communion with the people, an attack will be made on patronage as a
system, while at the same time prescribing and utilizing the social
norm which the people want to follow. The attack on patronage must
have three processes (i) the emergence of the new local leadership
motivated by the desire to serve the people (ii) the self denial and self
subordination of the leader and (iii) the presentation of class thinking
to the people as a problem which inhibits the fulfillment of their
aspirations. The non-government organisation are not the ones whose
programs aim at a transformation of the structures in the society,
which bind the people and keep them down, it does not address the
structural causes of poverty.
The road to a new society based on liberalism, in which all people are
able to participate irrespective of religion, caste, creed and sex and
grow as human beings is very long and hard. The prospect for any
large-scale success in the near future is not that much bright. But it is
the most fertile ground where seeds germinate very swift and easily.
Concentrating on the vision of liberalism and work with the people to
transform their identity, casting aside centuries of dependence, fear
and self doubt and discover that people themselves can grow closer to
each other and bring in a better way to live, and it is possible for them
if only they take the road together, something infinitely beautiful must
happen. It would be worthy of external funding to let the steps of the
liberals here in Bangladesh move faster, learn on the way, continue to
critically examine the success and amend in the light of study,
knowledge and experience and interaction between liberals, in
Bangladesh and liberals world over.
When a social trend develops into a conscious state in certain
individual it assumes a thousand fold intensity. The nation evolving in
a gradual manner suddenly undergoes an instantaneous and intensive
transformation. It drives forward with a historical jump and puts an
end to what Nietzsche called 'social rumination.' They are movements
for resurgence of political, social, economic and cultural nature. The
leader of social consciousness and moral conscience move by
visionary inspiration that enhance his social effectiveness and that
constitute the creative imagination of the nation. Their inspiration,
derived from collective consciousness, appear only at the inspired
moments of ingenious nations. He makes his own soul a reflecting
surface to the ingenious power concealed in a nation. Social condition
thoroughly examined by an analytical and critical mind is expressed in
a leader. Genius is the spontaneous realization of the changes taking
place in society unconsciously. Leader is not to impose and institute,
but to discover the elements of national conscience in the unconscious
level and to bring them up to the conscious level. A leader should have
clear understanding of the laws governing the order and progress of
societies and try to ameliorate the pathological factors that have
arrested the growth of the nation. The complex of rules of religion,
politics, morality, law, economics and even aesthetics exist on an
unconscious level in the life of a nation. Life is a creative evolution, a
moving vision that takes shape on the way and amends itself to
accommodate diversity and changes for development perpetually,
keeping the superstructure, intact. Tradition means creativity and
progress. Because, it has a past which knits the discrete moments to
one another and a movement which pushes forward as a motivating
force. Thus traditions always create new developments and new
orientations, i.e. something growing and creating by itself giving life
to borrowed innovations grafted on it. Tradition constitutes the spirit of
ambition, the social norms that rule its body. The traditionalist nation
lives in the freedom of history, the formalist in the bondage of
geography. Tradition not only establishes continuity and harmony
between the forces that an institution assumes at various times, but it
also shows how all of them are derived from the same origin, thus
serving to cement them together. Institution like politics, law,
economics, culture, logic, and aesthetics are all derived from religion.
They gain a living force and a dynamic life only by deriving their roots
from a religious origin. The history of civilization shows that, the
philosopher is not men who merely puts together and organize the
discrete truth which others have discovered. The real philosopher is
one who know the methods of seeking the truth and actually applies
them. They were fought not for their idealism but for their realism.
Their success rests not one what they taught but on how they faced and
fought the evil. Properties originate from physical nature and values
are natural products of social reality. The effectiveness of man over
society depends on value derived from social beliefs and laws of
nature and place of human being in natural domain.
The leaders in a developing country always try to seek political
support from the people through intensive political campaigns by
making a lot of realistic and unrealistic promises that arouse peoples
emotion rather than judgement. They build up powerful militant
organisation like youth front, student front, women front and labour
front who do not hesitate to use force to hush up any opposition that
dare to term their policies anti people or try to organise pockets of
realistic politics. In Bangladesh charisma is achieve by continuous
political propaganda by demagogue politician and their workers in
different levels who tirelessly profess the greatness of the leader. Even
then, the leader may not be always successful in mastering the peoples
minds. So, he needs a strong power base and builds up that by money,
muscle, manipulation and mastermind to ensure that his power is not
actively challenged by opposing forces sooner or later. Remaining
popular for a long time, depends on the political consciousness of the
people and their willingness to take active part in politics and their
intellectual ability to counter the leader demagogue and the large
group of sycophant powerful forces. People all over the earth have
shown considerable urge to be free from political suppression,
economic exploitation, social seclusion and cultural aggression. But to
be free they need to participate actively in the political decision
making process. 99% percent of people are too poor to afford that,
they have immediate business to take care of such as working for food,
clothing and shelter, medical attendance in ill health, and direct
oppression from government officials, village headman, non-
government organizations’ money lending business with high interest
rate, education of their children etc. Citizens might is unknown to
them, democracy means only voting right in elections. Poverty and
illiteracy contribute much to the unabated exploitation that they suffer
in every day life.
This forcible unconsciousness of the people pushes the leader to loose
political active support from the people and the power base that he has
build up gradually and that weakens because of corruption, rent
seeking and overzealous organization. Continuation of their role is
threatened when a new political group surfaces, and the much needed
people's support is nowhere in sight. People can not be aroused
without coercion. No spontaneous strikes, demonstration can be
organized. The new group of political interests with support form
urban and middle class gradually gains strength. This vicious cycle
makes it impossible to build up a reliable and strong lasting power
base in the people. This is elitist politics that takes with it politicians,
bureaucrats, unscrupulous business men and industrialists and a tiny
group of self seeking reactionary intellectuals, none of whom can
command & master support. The opposition political parties are also
constituted thus. So, it is a quarrel of two or more vested interests to
gain the authority and power to exploit and subjugate the people and
rule over them to get rich to richer and turn to demi gods.
Thus a class of people should emerge from the middle class, well
educated and politically trained to overrule traditional tendencies,
economically sound and possess genuine interest in individual liberty,
equality in political participation, equality of opportunity with the
assurance that they will be supported by the state to be provided with
means to avail that opportunity, gender indiscrimination in every
sphere of life, tolerance of diverse opinion, acknowledge unity in
cultural diversity, guarantee of education as right regardless of
opportunity and means, and provision of economic opportunity and
means only can ensure personal freedom and democracy and vice
versa.
A people oriented party serves the cause of development, motivate the
masses, develop leadership and politically organize and mobilize
illiterate and ignorant masses. It can be a tool for developing
democratic institutions, of leadership and of motivating popular
participation at the grass root levels. A party should be an organization
crystallizing the political views of large portions of the population and
also as instrument, dedicated emit to organize and activate the masses
towards liberal democracy.
It is a natural tendency of all rulers or ruling elites to perpetuate their
reign. Strong internal objection to hand over political power is there,
because to rule also means to retain power, status and ever increasing
wealth. Besides, there lie in the core of the heart of the rulers fear that
the new regime may be inclined to victimize them to avenge the
repressive measures that the former have adopted against the latter.
While in power the ruler made himself the sole authority to determine
what the national interest is and anybody suggesting otherwise is
termed as agents of foreign hatched conspiracy. The oppositions also
behave in such an irresponsible way and adopts foul playing that the
rulers find no other alternative but to strengthening their belief that
rigid and ruthless suppression of the opposition will ensure their
survival.
In most developing countries stability and legitimacy is too fragile.
Everything depends on the farsightedness and the ability of the leader
in balancing the difficult real actors who are contending for power.
Only then, inherent instability, one of the characteristics of developing
countries can be tackled. Bangladesh has witnessed in pre 20th
century, liberal rule where the ruler changed but not the system' but
after that it had a succession of new leaders bringing his own
principles and ideas as well as his personal style of government. Even
the most people oriented leader can hardly avoid taking care of the
paramount interests of the ruling elites or the groups on whose support
his own survival depends, the bureaucracy and the unscrupulous
businessmen, the reactionary civil society and cultural forces. Any
reform measure that contravenes the interest of the upper class are
withheld or delayed and the general masses are totally ignored. Any
ruler, seriously attempting to redress the plight of the people may be
compelled to face rebellion form among the bureaucracy and the
intermediary power bases and even the foreign funded self seeker civil
society. Being in power there grows all around a group of sycophants.
The ruler loses connection with the underprivileged rural and even
urban people and has very little knowledge about the real needs and
aspirations of the people. Facts are misrepresented to him or not at all
presented leading to gradual wane of popularity.
Before independence, most of the political leaders of this part of South
Asia firmly believed in the ideals of freedom, equality and popular
participation in Government, as well as in democratic institutions such
as party system, parliament, a free press, a neutral judiciary and civil
service. They believed then, once independence is achieved, shared
views and democratic institutions could be taken over and maintained.
Liberty and equality become the cry against the colonial powers and
democratic means were successfully practiced in gaining
independence from the alien regimes. By forming nationalist political
parties and by using freedom of speech and right to organize and
demonstrate they effectively raised agitation and ultimately were given
independence.
After gaining independence, the original euphoria for democracy fade
away very soon. New realities became evident in its vicious shape (i)
that democracy can not be easily established when there is illiteracy
and ignorance in the grassroots level and poverty preventing people
from realizing democratic virtues (ii) that the game of politics is
confined to a very small group of real actors and even then there are
factions (iii) that a democratic constitution is helpless against easy
procedure to amend and thus depriving a firm legal basis for
democratic stability (iv) that politics is a dangerous game and that no
politicians can afford being replaced and (v) that in the political arena
survival of the strongest, most ruthless is the order of the day.
All these mean that the basic premises for sustaining democracy and
its institutions are absent in Bangladesh. Formal democracy i.e.
multiparty system and regular election and orderly constitutional
transfer of power from one rival political group to another is there, but
functional democracy that guarantees life and living in total absent..
Although to the superficial observer it would appear that total chaos
has dominated the political scene in Bangladesh in the past decades,
the truth is that a new political pattern based on liberalism professed
by a small group of intellectuals, politicians and professionals has
evolved with its own logic and dynamics and suited to the present
particular stage of socio-economic development. The fact is that
almost nowhere has the call for greater democratic Freedom and
popular participation in Government died down altogether. It is being
increasingly heard among the large middle class. Eventual
reappearance of liberal democracy is almost inevitable.
The demands of the developed countries that the developing nations
prove their legitimacy and that the same time follow there prescription
for economic development without caring for the recipient countries
moral, choice, culture and the choice of the people are but oppressive.
They should understand the realities in the power structure in
developing countries like Bangladesh. Popularity and legitimacy are
the result of good governance.
The new elite have already adopted, apparently without much
hesitation, the materialistic culture and the value system of the west.
Once a beginning has been made in introducing western
administration, education, institution, the new ideas began to question
old beliefs and tradition of service for others. It has also found
expression in official policies. But a deliberate attempt to censure old
traditions or a particular national life style or to introduce a new one
considered more appropriate to a particular stage of development is
unlikely to succeed. Democracy can only be ensured where old
civilization be incorporated into the modern development and political
process. There is always a provision for renaissance, re-discovery of
old tradition and values at a later date.
There seems to be a host of factors, some superficial, others more
profound, that constitute a peoples national character. But most of
them tend to share liberalism based on human values which form an
integral part of all major religion and philosophies that embodies most
important of all our common cultural and critical values which
development and modernization could not altogether destroy till to-
day. What people should endeavor to achieve is the ability to enjoy the
benefits of modern age and yet remain the human beings that they are
with all their human rights intact. The mindset has to go back to norm
for the resurgence of humanity with all its mighty forces for standing
erect in the commune of the world of nations.

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