Fahima Ali
The month of March stands out in our nation’s calendar. It is in this month that we stood up against oppression and shouted a resounding, “NO! No more!” It fills our hearts with pride every year – but not much of that pride actually remains throughout the year when faced with the reality of everyday life in our beloved Bangladesh. Recent events however show that change is in the air.
I generally go on my daily tour of the BBC and Al Jazeera websites (CNN is not part of my staple diet – it has more ‘sensational’ journalism than an average celebrity magazine!) with a certain degree of trepidation in my mind. I expect to see the world in utter disarray and chaos, and am sure that any news relating to Bangladesh will not be good news. Hence, it was a pleasant surprise when I came across “Bangladeshi cabbie in New York returns cash left in taxi” in BBC’s Most Read news section.
The report said, “A Bangladeshi taxi driver in New York City has gone out of his way to track down the person who left thousands of dollars in cash in the back of his cab. Mukul Asadujjaman, a medical student, drove nearly 80km to an address he found with the money. He left his phone number when he found no-one at home. Mr Asadujjaman was offered a reward, but he turned it down saying that as a devout Muslim he could not accept it. ‘I’m needy, but I’m not greedy,’ he said. ‘It’s better to be honest.’”
And imagine my surprise when I discovered, “Mr Asadujjaman is not the first honest Bangladeshi-American cabbie to hit the headlines for noble behaviour. In 2007, driver Osman Chowdhury returned a lost bag containing diamond rings worth $500,000 to the rightful owner.”
Despite continuous bombardment from everywhere, here were perfectly legit Bangladeshis showing Bangladeshis aren’t perhaps the most corrupt people on the planet, just a handful are, maybe.
So why do we as a nation so easily accept that Bangladesh is corrupt? That it is a land where anything and everything can go wrong? That it is a nation that has very little to be proud of in recent times?
Think about it – you’ve done it too. Haven’t you ever said, “Arrey Bangali toh!” after witnessing some inappropriate behaviour? Lending credibility to a wrong deed by falsely tagging it to a nationality?
Once, my brother’s luggage got lost at the airport. When he returned to retrieve them, he found there were other passengers queuing for the same reason and one visibly irate lady complaining to the baggage handler about the sorry state of affairs. The handler gave the age old response, “Oh this is Bangladesh, you should expect this!” Instead of pacifying the lady, this irritated her enough to respond, “What you’ve done is no fault of Bangladesh, it’s your fault.” Exactly! If our streets are dirty, it’s not because “Oh, Bangladesh always has dirty roads”, it’s because you and I didn’t keep it clean!
Mukul Asadujjaman and Osman Chowdhury seem to have broken out of the vicious cycle of corrupting Bangladesh and then blaming Bangladesh for corruption. Question is – how? Let me tell you a story that might guide you to the answer.
A man receives a $1000 surprise bonus from his boss. He is returning home, incredibly happy, dreaming of what vacation he’s going to take and what he’ll buy his kids, when suddenly – there’s a knock on his car window. A tired old lady stands there, carrying a small child, “This child is very ill. Without an expensive treatment, he might die, please help me. Please.” The man looks at the old lady, look at the child and looks at his bonus. On one hand, he has a pleasant vacation with his family, he richly deserves the vacation, and on the other hand, there’s the baby’s life. After thinking it over, he hands over his $1000 to the old woman.
He returns home and shares the news with his family. Imagine their disbelief. “You did what? Are you crazy?” they scream. As they sit down to dinner in front of the TV, the anger and the disbelief of his family keeps pouring out. When, quite suddenly, the man sees the old lady in the news. The newscaster says, “The police caught a fraud today. She is an old lady who went around carrying a small child, claiming he was ill.” His family rounds on him – absolutely livid. “Do you see that? You wasted all the money on a fraud! How do you feel now?”
He replies with a smile, “This is the best news I’ve heard the entire day – The baby’s not dying.”
What did the man have that we don’t have? He had Focus. Just like Mukul Asadujjaman and Osman Chowdhury, he had his focus on the right and the most important thing. They did the right thing, because the goal is to do the right thing, no matter what.
I know all of you are agreeing with me up to now – you are nodding along and saying, “Yes, we ought to do the right thing, no matter what”. I’m not saying anything new here. But then, why don’t we do the right thing? Why do we still go on being Bangladeshis who backbite, who cheat, who bribe and who lie?
I believe the answer lies in our lack of self esteem as Bangladeshis and also as Muslims. If we do not believe WE are worth something, our ACTIONS also will not seem to be worth anything. And if our actions aren’t really worth anything, then it really doesn’t matter WHAT our actions are, does it?
Let me illustrate. I was taking an Islam Class and I read out an extract from a speech about the Islamic civilisation, “There was once a civilisation that was the greatest in the world. It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean and from northern climes to tropics and deserts. Within its dominion lived hundreds of millions of people, of different creeds and ethnic origins. And this civilisation was driven, more than anything, by invention.”
I asked the class, “Who do you think gave the speech – a Muslim or a non-Muslim?” (Come, cover the answer up and ask yourself this question too!)
They replied, “A non-Muslim”.
I asked, “Why do you think so?”
They said, “Because if it had been a Muslim, you wouldn’t be reading it out here. Muslims would say good stuff about themselves anyway, but it counts when a non-Muslim says it.”
Conclusion: We tend to truly believe good things about ourselves when a non-Muslim says we are good. When a Muslim says we are good – we take it with a pinch of salt!
I then asked, “Well, where do you think this non-Muslim gave this speech? In a Muslim country or a non-Muslim country?” (What do you think, reader?)
They replied, “In a Muslim country, maybe Dubai. Possibly at some seminar on the meeting of the East and the West.”
I asked, “Why?”
They said, “Because why would a non-Muslim compliment us unless he wanted to say something that the Muslim audience probably wanted to hear?”
Conclusion: Non-Muslims wouldn’t want to compliment us voluntarily, unless they were forced to by the circumstances, because we do not deserve compliments!
The class was wrong! As a matter of fact, this speech was given by Carly Fiornia, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP) in Minnesota, USA. It was titled, “Technology, Business and Our Way of Life: What’s Next?”
But the response of the class, a group of intelligent, young, thinking Muslims, perfectly illustrates the level our self esteem is at. It has hit rock bottom and is burrowing deeper!
Have you ever asked yourself why, in the US civil war, the predominantly white army of the North fought against the white army of the South to abolish slavery? Why was the fight to free slaves not a fight between the black slaves and their white masters? Why did two groups of the white masters fight to free the black slaves? It’s like West Pakistanis fighting West Pakistanis to free East Pakistan. Ridiculous! But that’s what happened in the US!
Besides various political and economic reasons, one fact stands clear – the slaves had historically begun to believe that they couldn’t possibly be free. They had lost all their self esteem. How can you respect yourself when generation after generation you are not allowed to bathe regularly, you are forced to walk around publicly naked where anyone on the streets can stop you to inspect your teeth as if you are cattle? You start believing you are worth nothing – otherwise why would this be happening to you, and your father, and your grandfather!
Moreover, people similar to you also become worthless in your eyes. This destroys all notion of unity in a people. You don’t want to hang out with people like you anymore; you want to be with the ‘in’ crowd! Imagine your class – doesn’t every want to hang with the popular kid? Who wants to hang with the fat, smelly, chronic failure?
Perhaps not so surprisingly, that is where we stand now as well. We want to be with the ‘in’ crowd, our own kind is not ‘hip’ enough anymore! That is why instead of trying their luck here, perfectly qualified Bangladeshi students dream of settling abroad. And that is why when we see two similar products – one Bangladeshi, one not – we immediately believe the foreign product has a better quality.
But, are we worthless? What does our history say?
A Bir Protik recently told me a forgotten piece of history overlooked by the nation. He recounted the bravery of a teenage freedom fighter who bought time for his comrades to escape by throwing himself alone into battle. As the fatal bullets bit into him, his friends heard him shout, “Tora jaga, ami jaiga” (You go, I’m going).
During the height of the Islamic civilisation, in Damascus, there were institutions that gave away free milk and sugar to mothers and children. But there was an intriguing institution which just gave away free bowls. The reason was – mothers would send their children to the market with bowls. On their way, the children would accidently at times break the bowls. So these institutions would give away free bowls to the children so they wouldn’t be scolded by their mothers!
That’s our history – one of soaring courage and compassionate philanthropy. Unless we start believing in ourselves again, we can’t go back to it.
A Professor once did a social experiment in class. He held up a Tk 1000 note and asked his students, “If you give this to a shop, will they give you food worth 1000 takas?” The class chorused, “Yes”. He then crumpled up the Tk 1000 note and asked, “Now if you give this to a shop, will they still give you food worth 1000 takas?” The class again chorused, ‘Yes!”
The Professor said, “You have learnt a great lesson in value today. No matter how crumpled up and misshapen we become, our value remains the same.”
No matter how far we’ve strayed from courage and compassion, we are still worth a lot, just like that crumpled up Tk 1000 note.
However, having acquired this belief, if we still stay silent, if we do not stand up for the poor and oppressed, and stop lying, cheating and backbiting – then we are no better off than before. We could start small, for example, by regularly being the first one to say “Salam” to our maids. That’s a beginning.
“If what you believe in does not impact what you do, then what you believe in is unimportant.” Do your beliefs matter to you?
References: BBC official website, Be Proud by Yassir Fazaga and The Islamic Civilization by Dr Mustafa Siba’i