US Elections and the Global Order
By
Ziaur Rahman, CEO, IITM
luckytoaccess@gmail.com
Published in the Independent, Dhaka ( Last Friday)
I was reading an article in publicdiplomacy.foreignpolicyblogs.com
on Senator Obama and Senator Hillary and their dash to the White
house with occasional mud-slinging at each other. I am not from the
US but I am following the campaign trail with interest as it affects
all of us on planet earth. How? Because we are now live in a uni-
polar world; the US makes the rules, whether people like it or not.
Without going into that debate, the younger generation is perhaps
betting on change, be it Obama or Hillary in the US. Being from the
younger general, I am sharing a vision for the future and hope these
candidates can trickle some of the ideas into their own-selves and
their organizational persona/culture. I have presented the
following issues by reviewing the US and the Western dominance;
however, each country and its citizens can promote their own vision
by aligning with or taking stock from the following points.
1. Politics of the old has to be buried. We want honesty to gallop
in with style.
2. Poverty has to be addressed by checking greed's ugly,
extortionist and hegemonic control over economy. I am not suggesting
of doing away with capitalism. I am suggesting responsible
capitalism. Let us put the value of life, education and ethics first
and then plan the pieces of the puzzle. Some permutation and
combination will show us the right levers to push forth for a better
and more productive growth of humanity.
3. Science education and education on liberty, rationality and logic
have to be streamlined and strengthened. The US education has to be
responsible and inclusive of diversity (same goes with other
countries that have diversity in population). It is no longer apt to
learn about the glories of the white race; time has come to re-
design the knowledge capture and dissemination process. Education
has to be gender and ethnicity neutral with special provision for
religious groups and segments. I must emphasize that religion should
not be part of statecraft but a domain of the private space. Why?
Reasons are aplenty. Any sensible person can do a small homework and
see chaos, depravation and fighting stemming from religious fervors
and sentiments (I am in no way saying that freedom to practice
religion has to be controlled or stopped). Everyone thinks that
they are the chosen people and work accordingly. Knowingly or
unknowingly, this creates the first rift in human habitation and
interaction. Therefore, religion with all its splendor, glory and
magnificence has to be practiced within one's personal domain. It is
a sensitive area and, therefore, we have to address the issue with
respect.
4. Knowledge frontiers have to be re-designed and its boundaries
reset. The institutions of higher learning, especially the seats of
knowledge creation both in the scientific and societal dimensions
are clustered in the West. I believe it is in the best interest of
planet earth not to continue in that direction. Peace and prosperity
cannot be ordained through such an un-equal system of knowledge
innovation, sharing and flow. The issue of `haves and have-nots' can
never be addressed this way. Fundamental shift in thinking and out-
side the box perspectives have to be injected. Education has to be
pro-poor and driven by practical ground reality.
5. The UN headquarters are almost in the Western countries. This is
a ludicrous proposition to my mind. I can simply say that if 6 or 7
of these large entities are moved to Africa, Asia and Central
America with fair representation from these countries then the
development paradigm would have bagn to be addressed partly. We, the
smaller countries, would not be in need of million dollars
consultants all the time to share their wisdom because the problem
would have begun to rectify with this time bound but audacious
shift. I am absolutely for this change and let us no more waste on
useless research to explore the cost benefits of such a move. It may
be an unpopular decision and, therefore, researching by the same
folks - the Westerners - will be faulty and biased, so we should not
walk in that direction. A bold decision has to be taken and the
process of advocacy at the citizen's and global specter has to be
initiated.
6. The financial, corporate and media capitals of the world are
again in the Western enclaves. These have to be re-positioned
globally with the thrust of relocation to the poorer segments of the
world. The UN may begin a global campaign for this monumental
shift. The West and East talk about inclusion without identifying
the real reasons why inclusion is not happening. I attempt at
connecting you to the roots; therefore, let us move in designing the
new future state of the world. It is possible and what we need is
global awareness, acceptance and political will. Most importantly,
we need to understand that a flawed system will eventually correct,
so why continue to walk against the stream? You can never bring
peace and prosperity and neither can you legislate these notions
sitting on a pile of misconstrued concepts.
The US socio-politico legislation in Iraq is a brilliant case of
failure at addressing point six mentioned above. Lee Hamilton
recently spoke of a concerted effort at creating a rational policy
framework by US for Iraq and spoke of finding unifying leadership
while voicing skepticism in the present leadership in Iraq being
sectarian. Indeed, Iraq's leadership had been sectarian and, if I
may say, righting a situation with a policy that had been flawed at
conception makes the task all the more difficult. I am referring to
the US intervention in Iraq on the pretext of exposing the WMD
(which to date could not be found). Diplomacy for a protracted
period could have helped to situate Iraq and planet earth in a
congenial atmosphere. Millions of lives and billions of dollars
could have been ploughed into nurture and education; the present day
global chaos, economic disfunctionality, runaway price spiral on
gasoline and on essential goods and sporadic terrorists' attacked
could have been surely averted. These realities are to be addressed
and war and media hype have to be shunned. Once again the magic hat
of responsibility becomes the crucial instrument for the world that
we live in. The leaders of the world, especially the US, need to
begin a dialog for the common welfare of all and only then progress
and peace will reign supreme.
Lastly, socially responsible citizens of Bangladesh and the universe
should commit to advocating a peaceful world thorough respecting the
institution of dialog for harmonious and equitable living in all
matters and understand at heart that unless we vision and work
toward such a destination pandemonium may
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