Plato, the proponent of the concept of state, is the right person to impart us the aim of politics. When he, in his magnum opus, ‘The Republic’, portrays his ideal state as one that ensures justice, harmony and the well-being of its citizens, we can extract that the aim of politics is to increase the wellbeing of people.
In fact, Plato’s concept of ideal state is still in line with contemporary ideas. A philosopher-king, in his ideal state theory, is one who must be an enlightened ruler with a deep understanding of the state affairs and the ability to discern absolute truth and justice.
In the modern times, however, one may express her caveats about the use of the words, ‘king’ and ‘ruler’. Whatever be the words, the inner meaning remains the same and what stands out from Plato’s concept of ideal state is, wellbeing of the people should be the ultimate goal of politics, but when politics is dominated by family dynasties or if the state suffers from crony capitalism, wellbeing of the people is seen to be diminishing.
The historical events that have given rise to this modern world are the Industrial Revolution, Magna Carta, Glorious Revolution of England, French Revolution, Bill of Rights enacted in the USA and Russian Revolution. The gist of all these events is the empowerment of people and in some cases transition from monarchy (centralized power to one family) to democracy (the government of the people, by the people, for the people). Why did this transition take place? The answer is to uphold people’s interest— to maximize people’s wellbeing. It means that when power is captured by one family, people’s wellbeing is never maximized. And that’s the reason why people revolted against monarchy so that opportunities that the state could provide, become open to all irrespective of caste and creed— so that people might enjoy the freedom of choice, freedom of enterprise, and thus maximize their wellbeing.
In the states where all these revolutions took place, people’s wellbeing increased significantly after the transitions. The reason behind it is explained in Amartya Sen’s capability approach to development, which says, the development of capacities of individuals is the key to the overall human development. ‘Enhancement of Capacities’ means utilizing the potentials that already exist in humans. If individuals’ capacities were enhanced, they would be able to do anything. With a view to enhancing individuals’ capacities, the state must play a very important role by making all the necessary arrangements such as alleviating poverty, schooling etc. But in the states where the power is concentrated to one family or where crony capitalism exists, individuals’ capacities cannot be enhanced, that is, human potentials remain unutilized.
A very important thing in this context is that human beings don’t enjoy receiving alms from others, be it, from individuals or from the state. They wish to stand on their own feet, exert their own effort, build their own enterprise and then earn their bread all by themselves. They don’t enjoy being the objects of pity from ‘Royal Families’. This important phenomenon of human nature calls for the necessity of ‘enhancement of capacities’ construed in Sen’s capability approach.
The existence of a family dynasty is dependent solely on a psychological ‘disease’ called ‘person worship’ or personality cult mostly visible in developing countries where uneducated people consider the family members or descendants of their ‘hero’ superior to themselves. Once the people start ‘worshipping’ a certain individual, they continue to ‘worship’ his or her descendants over generations.
The families of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and General Ziaur Rahman are two such dynasties in Bangladesh. As has already been mentioned that the level of wellbeing in a state contaminated by family dynasties is seen to be lower, but moral issues are even more crucial. That is to say that every individual, be it someone from a peasant family or someone from a rich family should be able to go to the top of the ladder in the state. Family dynasty is an absolute barrier in the path of every individual to such a rise. This means, the family dynasty creates a discriminatory, unfair and unjust society. Since the recent movement in Bangladesh which overthrew the Sheikh Hasina regime is called Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, we would expect our students with modern values of modern times to adopt the agenda of abolition of the family dynasty.
In India, Jawaharlal Nehru, due to his long tenure as the Congress Party president, became an object of personal adulation among the Indian populace. Mahatma Gandhi, the undisputed leader of India’s independence movement, benefitted even more from such personal veneration. Although Nehru never nominated his daughter Indira for leadership, she became the Congress chief and later the Prime Minister following Lal Bahadur Shastri. Most Congress Party supporters preferred a member of the Nehru family to lead them, even if that individual was less competent. For instance, when Indira took over as Prime Minister, there were leaders in Congress, such as Jagjivan Ram, who were far more qualified than Indira Gandhi.
After Indira Gandhi’s death, Congress had many talented leaders, including Pranab Mukherjee and Narasimha Rao, but it was Indira’s son, Rajiv Gandhi, who became the Congress president and then the country’s Prime Minister. Later, at one stage, the positions of party president and general secretary were held by the mother-son duo of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. This could be considered the epitome of dynastic politics, and any Congress member with modern values might feel ashamed of this.
The situation in Bangladesh is not as dire. Here, at least the position of general secretary in both major parties is “graciously” given to someone outside the “royal family.” However, we must break free from the grip of dynastic politics. Students with modern values and progressive mindsets can help us achieve this goal.
Anti-discrimination student movement is a blessing for Bangladesh, which has helped us with a tremendous transition. Now the students can help us with the formation of a new political party and free us from the burden of the family dynasty. Those who have already completed their studies, may be the members of this new political party and others may be waiting. They may also invite others to join their team who have passed the test of time in terms of knowledge, integrity and patriotism. If they really do try to do this, I would issue two warnings. First, I would ask them to consider Plato’s idea regarding the formation of a new political party and then build a new state. Plato advocated a meritocratic society in which individuals are assigned roles and responsibilities based on their own abilities rather than their inherited or acquired status. Education plays a leading role in shaping the citizens of an ideal state. The education system focused on rigorous, philosophical training, mathematics, ethics and physical fitness, aimed at nurturing the intellect and moral character of the people.
Secondly, I would insist that the principle of equality be the core spirit of the proposed political party. We must remember that human emancipation is not possible without social ownership of wealth, for which we must cultivate the spirit of collective life in the society. We must develop an education system that teaches the spirit of collective life.
Once there were revolutions to break the stronghold of monarchy in many countries. Today the modern world needs another revolution to demolish family dynasties. Let that revolution start from Bangladesh.
N N Tarun Chakravorty 