Spotlight

“We voted the corrupt in, now it's our responsibility to vote them out!”

Samia Nowreen

ELECTION is just a breath away it seems. With all the door-to-door campaigning it is all too easy to forget what the real issues are and how an open-minded person can sort through them.

Like many of you I also want to better understand the circumstances that led to the now-famous 1/11 and form my own opinion from among the clutter that are around me. Despite everything negative that is around, I feel optimistic that young voters have the unprecedented opportunity and they will make a difference with their voting rights in this election.

As is common among city-dwelling youth, I must admit that I was also one of the people who are usually nonchalant about politics in general and politicians in particular. But one interesting roundtable discussion organized by FutureLeaders in partnership with Star Campus held on 29th November in Dhaka changed that attitude in me. With the theme “Political Leadership in Post 1/11 Bangladesh: What do the Youth Expect?” it was a very different kind of event which was attended mostly by youthstudents from public and private universities, young executives, entrepreneurs and others. At the start, the event saw a keynote paper being presented by Barrister Harun-ur-Rashid, former Bangladesh ambassador to the UN, who is also one of the leading columnists of The Daily Star. In the paper which set the stage for ensuing discussions he was quick to point out the following: “A leader is one who may symbolize and express what is best in his/her people. A nation rises or falls because of good or poor political leadership. Poor leadership and underdevelopment are the two sides of the same coin.”

Having been exposed to educational, living and working opportunities in North America for nearly 8 years prior to returning to Bangladesh, I can't help but expect a lot from our political leadership, political parties and most importantly general citizens. Which is why I was attracted to the event and it was a genuine pleasure to listen to young minds sharing insights in an open and thoughtful atmosphere.

In the discussions, the very first expectation from the politicians had to do with how they presented themselves in their arguments. Typical politicians almost always talk in vague language, without reference to specific statistics or examples. Thus it is very difficult for a common citizen to distinguish the facts from the mere opinions. The second expectation which got my undivided attention was voiced by an undergraduate student from IBA, Dhaka University and his point was crystal clear to us all when he quipped, “Why do we blame the corrupt and the incompetent lawmakers? Have we not elected them ourselves? By now we should be ashamed of our actions, for having voted them time and again to power.”

Then, as the discussion got momentum, the most important statistic popped out. It was observed by one of the discussants that above 30 percent (32% to be precise) of the voters will be voting for the first time and another 25% young people for the second time. Together, this constitutes a formidable force and these young people can make a big difference by casting their vote for the candidates who are educated, honest and true patriots. However, what to do if there isn't a single candidate who is honest and is credible? Thanks to Election Commission's introduction of “No” vote option, now we can choose to cast this negative option and thus exercise our freedom to reject the unacceptable candidates.

Among many other points, I was particularly drawn toward an issue in the roundtable that basically hit the nail in the head; and it said that we sometimes complain about the dearth of qualified candidates and end up electing the known criminals or the corrupt. Perhaps we have become so much conditioned by the “either or” culture that we can't even choose the fresh blood, the new alternative. It seems that we only give lip service to our expectations on new leadership but end up voting from our own prejudiced background. In many parts of the world, existence of two major parties is not uncommon and India, Japan are cases in point, among many others. But we wish the party leadership had been fair in selecting the right candidates by endorsing, for instance, candidates who have earned grassroots support through improving the quality of the life of common people in the locality and who are honest people. But it is sad to see that nominations are motivated by payment of money to the party fund and thus keeping the honest and appropriate away from this “vote banijya” that is so much of an open secret today.

I still remember what one of my professors said many years back when I was an undergraduate student in Bangladesh: that it's the critical mental faculty that is the most important part of our human existence. Truth be told, we as a nation lost our ability to think independently and to judge from neutral perspectives. Our family, our culture and later our dysfunctional education system taught us to become gullible. I was told a thousand times that if someone is senior, then s/he must be right! It was not until much later that I could draw on the 'not necessarily' pattern of thinking so important in our lives.

Now what price are we paying for not being able to exercise our independent mind? Look at the taken-for granted scenario: we have lost our interest in the quality of candidates; political parties have successfully 'brain washed' us to go for their symbols instead of the persons behind the symbols. How long can we afford to do this?

I think that the masterstroke of the roundtable came about when IBA Professor Syed Munir Khasru shared his brainchild--the voter awareness campaign that had just begun to air on TV channels. I was particularly impressed with two of the many clips that we had the chance of having sneak previews in that morning. One such campaign portrayed a young man who apparently grew up in an affluent family but learned to hate his political hopeful father who personified hypocrisy and requests the onlookers not to vote his father! A powerful message indeed and frankly speaking I could drop half a dozen such names who live in posh areas of Dhaka city and run to villages when the election time comes.

The other voter awareness campaign clip had to do with depicting an elderly sick parent who whispers something like this to the audience while his son is busy shaking hands with potential supporters: “Here is my son who didn't even bother to see his sick father in years but today the smell of election brought him here. I urge you not to vote for my son!”

We all know that people by nature resist change but what surprises me is that how rigid we have become to the idea of change even if that is good for the economy and good for the country. Mahatma Gandhi is credited with the quote “Be the change you want to see in the world” and my message to the fellow youth is simply this: bring in change by rejecting the corrupt or the unqualified candidates and this you can do in mostly two ways, either by voting the appropriate candidate (mind you, I didn't say anything about the symbol behind them) or by exercising this election's no vote option. Now you know where my optimism comes from.