Sense and sensitivity

A minister smoking in a public place perhaps didn’t come as a surprise to us. This is something that almost all Bangladeshi smokers do very often, no matter how tough the existing anti-smoking law is in this country.

But what came as a surprise was that he was smoking on the stage, and in front of a large number school-children. That’s what raised quite a lot of hue and cry in the media. However, the good part was that he said sorry, and promised that such an action would never be repeated in the future.

We must thank our minister for realising that his action was insensitive towards society. But he isn’t the only one who showed an insensitive attitude. Day in and day out, almost all of us commit many types of insensitive and inappropriate deeds, which we almost never think twice about before doing them, that may harm the people around us, transmit a negative message in society, and obstruct the process of nation-building.

Take our actions on the roads, for example. It’s hard to recall a day when I myself didn’t violate at least one traffic law while driving a car, or riding a bike or motorbike, or riding on a rickshaw, or even walking on the pavement and crossing a road. The reason for which we break these laws without thinking about the negative impacts they might have on society at large is that no one ever taught us how to be sensible on the roads.

We never learnt the traffic norms in our schools, nor were any traffic department educational PR materials made available to us. We learnt by watching our elders.

We also learnt to be insensitive from our national leaders (business, political, social – all kinds) and people’s representatives. If our memory serves us right, we’ve watched our prime ministers’ and MPs’ convoys taking the wrong lane. You won’t miss a day when the traffic personnel, especially those who ride motorbikes, aren’t taking the wrong lane.

Their attitude says it is their birth right to violate the traffic order. And if someone is a government official with a flag fluttering on his or her car, their chauffer thinks it is his duty to violate traffic regulations, causing problems to others.

This is an interesting aspect in our character: We cause problems for others by our actions, knowingly and unknowingly. In contrast to this, in every enlightened society, every citizen tries to remain alert so that his or her actions do not cause any problems to the people around them. Being sensitive to others’ peace is the basic trait in those societies. Then they become habits.

We, on the contrary, seem to be perpetually oblivious about how our actions might destabilise others’ peace. Otherwise, why would we keep spitting while we walk on the pavements? Don’t we have the sense to think that that might fall on somebody who is passing by?

I’ve seen many public personalities spit on the floors, on the stairs. I’ve seen many educated persons approaching from all four sides of an intersection and create a point-of-no-return traffic jam.

The worst examples of our insensitivity are perhaps the remarks of the politicians about each other. Civility, respect, as well as forethought are quite hard-to-find elements in this country’s political arena. Our leaders demonstrate a constant insensitivity by pouring out personal attacks against each other.

It seems they use these personal hits as political tools to demonise each other in the eyes of the voters. However, it beats our wits as to how a flurry of slurry dictions could be of political use. Rather, these reveal their insensitive characters, which ultimately lead to self-demonisation.

The people, on the other hand, when they see their leaders using these dictions on a regular basis, think it is okay for them to use in their own lives also.

What the leaders do or practice has a ripple effect on the society. They trickle down and creep into everyone’s character. And that is how the whole nation becomes prone to being insensitive.

It is our hope that our leaders would rise up to the occasion and do something about the nation’s sense and sensitivity. It is they who would teach us manners, behaviour, and prudence.

We, the people, would love to follow them as our leaders, as our representatives. Leadership isn’t a trivial matter. It is a great responsibility which requires huge sense and sensitivity.