Elitism and civil society
Abed Chaudhury, On e-mail
Before a civil society can be credible, it must ensure the participation of majority of our people. It is very important to hold meetings in places where people of all walks of life would have access, and not have your gatherings in places like Sheraton Hotel. Venue is very important to inculcate a spirit of non-elitism and populism. As you probably know that a typical Bangladeshi farmer with his lungi and kurta (Punjabi) does not even have access to Sheraton Hotel. Nor does he, with such attire have access to clubs of Dhaka where important members of civil society routinely hobnob. At the moment in Bangladesh elitism is a very pernicious problem and even people with populist rhetoric are elitist down inside. In spite of pre-eminence of agriculture in our society, village origin is thought to have a lower status compared to urban origin. In contrast to meritocratic societies such as US, family origin rather than talent is accorded more respect in Bangladesh. Although age and seniority is given respect sometimes, in order to cash in such respect one has to be a member of at least the middle class. Peasants, factory workers, garment workers etc are not shown any respect whatsoever by members of the affluent elite class and are cynically exploited through mere egalitarian slogan-mongering. This behaviour is not specific to any particular party but is common to all. Democratic practices such as removing a political party from power, fair elections, alone would not change such inequalities. A protracted campaign sustained over a long time would be needed to make our rich and powerful understand a minimum code of civil behaviour. Thus all ideas and programmes coming from the urban elites of the city will fail unless they are filtered through the enthusiasm and participation of the common people of our country. Only a drastic and explicit change in mindset can accomplish that. At the moment the widespread un-civil behaviour towards the majority of the country makes a mockery of the idea of a civil society. I appeal to them to take measures to display their pro-people intentions by concrete examples and not just well-meaning pronouncements. We must have a citizens' charter for according minimum dignity to all our people, irrespective of their financial status or family origin. Unless such democratisation and true emancipation occurs, all other concerns of the civil society would have a hollow ring to it.
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