Last Friday night, in a get together at a friend’s house, some of us were discussing about the situation in Bangladesh, which we do almost every time we meet, and were brainstorming some ideas on how do we instigate our countryman to change the core of the society to achieve stable democracy and eradicate corruption. There were suggestions on changing the current constitution of Bangladesh to create a strong foundation for a just society and to achieve political stability. The constitution of the ISA is one such example where the core of the constitution makes the government structure such that no one branch of the government can overpower others. This is known as “The balance of power” and done through balancing the three branches of the government: Legislative branch, Executive branch, and Judicial branch. It also encoded “The bill of rights” that ensures the unalienable rights of the citizens. Such rights include: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of movement, right to receive justice, freedom to bare arms, etc. Those gave the American society a foundational base towards a just society and a stable political structure. Bangladesh needs such bill of rights for sure. However, I argue that those political structures and bill of rights, though are absolutely needed for a just society, can not guarantee a just society without having a society of educated, ethical and moral human being. The prove lies in the USA itself. This constitution is here since 1779 and we had slavery, segregation, and ethnic cleansing of the indigenous native population all through 1962. I strongly believe that we need a over the top principles and a pragmatic constitution but that can’t be dropped off to a nation. The nation has to pave the path to get that constitution and then make it sustainable. I believe we can start at the micro level to pave that path for a more just and more prosperous society:
We start with our family. We declare each of our families as free from corruption: we don’t do corruption, we don’t participate in corrupt acts, we say it loud when we see corruption. We disavow all forms of corruption in the society. Be it small like giving less in weight when we sell and buy goods or be it big like to paying bribery to officials and political leaders.
We educate our family members about the power of participation in a democratic society: make our voice heard at the grass root level staring at masjeed committee, school committee, Village committee, city and town counselors, members, commissioners, chairmans, mayors, etc.
We train our family to love others as well as forgive others in the society. A small act of good deed will create a snowball effect and cause the avalanche of good deed to flow in the society. And forgiving others will make us better human and reduce tension in our every day life.
Finally, we all strive to be better human with high morality and high ethics. No one is perfect. We all make mistakes but we all can strive to be better.
Once we have strong family of individuals with a high morality, we would be able to use that as a launch pad to reach for the top level change. It then just won’t stimulate the change in the top but also would create such enormous pressure to the political structure, like the water pressure in a dam when it reaches to threshold, that it will break us free from the dismal corrupt societal and political structure that we currently have. This wouldn’t happen overnight. This may take years to achieve but this would be sustainable and long term. In the meantime we prepare ourself with policy changes through a better constitution. We had seen the exuberance of democratic victory in 1990 which essentially gave us just few “democratic elections”. We don’t need to die for another quick victory. We can shoot for better.
We start with our family. We declare each of our families as free from corruption: we don’t do corruption, we don’t participate in corrupt acts, we say it loud when we see corruption. We disavow all forms of corruption in the society. Be it small like giving less in weight when we sell and buy goods or be it big like to paying bribery to officials and political leaders.
We educate our family members about the power of participation in a democratic society: make our voice heard at the grass root level staring at masjeed committee, school committee, Village committee, city and town counselors, members, commissioners, chairmans, mayors, etc.
We train our family to love others as well as forgive others in the society. A small act of good deed will create a snowball effect and cause the avalanche of good deed to flow in the society. And forgiving others will make us better human and reduce tension in our every day life.
Finally, we all strive to be better human with high morality and high ethics. No one is perfect. We all make mistakes but we all can strive to be better.
Once we have strong family of individuals with a high morality, we would be able to use that as a launch pad to reach for the top level change. It then just won’t stimulate the change in the top but also would create such enormous pressure to the political structure, like the water pressure in a dam when it reaches to threshold, that it will break us free from the dismal corrupt societal and political structure that we currently have. This wouldn’t happen overnight. This may take years to achieve but this would be sustainable and long term. In the meantime we prepare ourself with policy changes through a better constitution. We had seen the exuberance of democratic victory in 1990 which essentially gave us just few “democratic elections”. We don’t need to die for another quick victory. We can shoot for better.
- Disclaimer: I believe the current form of Democracy is not fully capable to solve the problem of Bangladesh or country like that but at this moment, the democratic political structure is much better suited than any other available options that we see around us, until a better structure is formed.
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