Learn from the writings on the walls

Opinion

By Dr R Neerunjun Gopee

It is said that the example always comes from the top – implied is of course the good example, so that others may emulate it to improve themselves and the community at large, which eventually benefits the whole country.

By the top is meant those at the head of a country or institution, where the paramount characteristics expected of the incumbent are integrity and probity, and demonstrable, genuine commitment to the national interest. These in turn generate the trust that reinforces the people’s confidence in their national leadership and their country’s institutions. This trust sustains their hope that they will be treated fairly and equitably, and that they will suffer no injustice. The resultant of all this are citizens who are equally proud of their country, and who abide by the rule of law, behaving in such a way as not to cause harm to themselves and to others. In other words, strive to live in peace, which allows the country to develop and progress.

“At the beginning of this week, I couldn’t help but feel sadness and sympathy for the young English lady who was lamenting in a YouTube presentation that she had lost all trust in the four entities that she thought could bring about justice in her country: the police, the judiciary, the government and the media. In as many words, she said that the UK was in civil war, referring to the widespread riots that had erupted all over the country, including both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. She commented on the two-tier policing with respect to immigrant rioters and indigenous protesters, the forced and failed government policies, the selective reporting by the media, the failures of the judiciary…”

If this may sound somewhat like moralizing, and I concede that to some extent it does, I make no apologies for the same. For the simple reason that for those of us who are at an age where we have ‘been there, seen it, done it’ – call us senior citizens, seenagers, or whatever ‘cos labels no longer matter to us – the one thing we can do at this stage is to caution and advise those who have their whole future yet to be lived. We have already toiled and given our best years to family and society, are nearing the twilight of our lives but possess enough lucidity as yet to share what life has taught us, so that the younger ones may hopefully draw some lessons that will help them lead a better life.

At the beginning of this week, I couldn’t help but feel sadness and sympathy for the young English lady who was lamenting in a YouTube presentation that she had lost all trust in the four entities that she thought could bring about justice in her country: the police, the judiciary, the government and the media. In as many words, she said that the UK was in civil war, referring to the widespread riots that had erupted all over the country, including both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. She commented on the two-tier policing with respect to immigrant rioters and indigenous protesters, the forced and failed government policies, the selective reporting by the media, the failures of the judiciary.  

To me, like many others who have grown up believing implicitly in the British sense of fairness and justice, this was no less than an indictment, especially coming as it was from an indigenous citizen who was experiencing at firsthand the violence and chaos that were racking the country. She, like many others, could no longer recognize her country, where multiculturalism was clearly a failed experiment initiated by previous regimes, to be replaced by equally pernicious appeasement politics and political correctness, and followed by identity politics: vote bank politics to gain power. And then fail to deliver on pledges, besides misusing the power for personal advantages.

Unfortunately, it is a pattern that has been seen in several other countries across the world. A few years ago, the Black Lives Matter movement that gripped the USA was iterated in Europe and Australasia. After the Hamas October 7 massacre in Israel, there have been the pro-Palestine woke protests on university campuses in the US and Canada, and in Europe as well, with spread to Britain where weekend marches in central London have been going on for several months. Leading the citizens whose lives get disrupted – since the authorities will not act – to start querying, and who could blame them, what the hell do we have to do with BLM and Palestine? Equally almost routine now are rioting in European cities, knife and machete attacks against civilians including children, no-go zones where all kinds of shady happenings take place.

The latest country to succumb to such mayhem is Bangladesh: on Monday last its Prime Minster Sheik Hasina and her sister were given just 45 minutes to pack up and rush to a helicopter that took them to India. Her life was threatened by rioters that were poised to invade her residence – which they did shortly after she left, ransacking, vandalizing, stealing, taking and exhibiting selfies and videos. Reporters promptly pointed out that this is exactly what had previously happened in the residences of Pakistani party leader Imran Khan, and of Sri Lankan President Rajapakasa who too was forced to flee the country.

And yet, Sheik Hasina had ruled the country for 15 years, turned it around economically, controlled terrorism, initiated several developmental projects, ensured overall progress. There may have been some downsides, politically speaking – commentators invoke an autocratic streak, suppression of dissent, arbitrary jailing of opponents.  But the long and the short is that the initial student protests over a quota issue were soon hijacked by what is deemed a remotely-planned and controlled movement that soon involved hundreds of thousands of motley crowds from all over the country. An analyst pointed out that this kind of mobilization cannot happen spontaneously: it requires sustained prior planning, an element of radicalism, and must be well-funded, something which is beyond student capacity.

The commonalities that that we are witnessing are pretty obvious: tensions, deep divides, polarizations, dirty politics and politicking, suppression and repression, instability, violence and social disorder, destruction of public property, and in Bangladesh as usual violence against minorities with attacks on Hindu temples and Hindus, looting of property when they had nothing to do with what sparked the initial student protest as has been pointed out.

These events should be an eye-opener to our own leaders, why to everybody, as to how a country can reverse years of hard work and prosperity, spiral into chaos within a matter of days when antagonisms and divisions are allowed to prevail over a spirit of dialogue and understanding keeping the national weal in mind. We have a duty of care to future generations – will they or will they not be able to trust the judiciary, the police, the government, the media? And for good measure, each other as law-abiding citizens?

Surely that is the kind of legacy they should expect, and get, from those entrusted to guide them towards a sustainable future? Will the latter fulfil that supreme responsibility which they have chosen to assume?

RN Gopee

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 9 August 2024