Exit dead horse, enter dark horse

Horse-trading has always been a profitable business. What to do with the dead horse, as even dead horses have market value? Dark horses are generally intelligent, alert, appear unseen, act unheard and disappear quietly. Once trapped, dark horses have proved to be able to contribute substantially.
Yes, I have drawn this analogy to suggest that those who feel they cannot walk in step with the requirements of the times should abdicate to help pave the way for those well geared for designing a strategy for assuring us a life of dignity, and for protecting our liberty and property (not meaning only wealth).
Dead horses are not always old people, but generally the ones who are of no use anymore because of the cultural gap in the new civilisation, which is in the offing. The new civilisation requires promptness, propriety, piety, and a perpetual eagerness to make things happen, by acting together towards a designated destination that eliminates disequilibrium, discrimination and distorted human bondage.
The subject being vast and wide I will concentrate on the role that the dead horses played to nearly deface our nation, and what the dark horses can do to create a Bangladesh devoid of exploitative discrimination, and to give reason for hope amid the climate of despair that had besieged our nation.
The nation had been taken hostage by a syndicate of people who busied themselves in perpetuating their hold on the reins of authority, either by power brokerage or by resorting to conspiracy. Most of those people are now projecting a "holier than thou" image. Their exploitation of the simple people had made our social system dysfunctional, and they had let their personal interests prevail over national social, political and economic development.
We are witness to the gradual decaying of moral values that bonded us as a community with cohesion and cooperation. We also have seen how our economy was pushed to a downhill slide. Kissinger branded our nation as a "bottomless basket" case, and TIB dishonoured us by placing us in the top slot as a corrupt nation. How can we, as a people who fought to liberate our country, digest such demeaning comments?
In my assessment, a gulf of difference remains between our expectations before liberation and three decades after liberation. Our assets are yet to be tapped wholly, but liabilities are soaring unabated. Our assets are our language, resilience, innocence, and liberal religious stance, while our liabilities are deprivation, discrimination, petty selfishness of the leadership, cancerous corruption, feudalistic approach of "haves," and institutionalised disregard to the ethos and pathos of the downtrodden of our society.
Recently, a bus owner beat his driver for not parking the bus on the right spot while a police constable stood by, and the passersby were also not moved at the preposterous behaviour of the rich bus owner.
I do not intend to mention how the incident was brought under control, but I must record my disgust at all of us who feel no shame for the indignity caused to a fellow human being. Our response to this kind of petty incident reveals our "psyche," which we perceived in our political leadership (as our political leadership combine in themselves political, economic and social leadership).
Those leaders who came from humble backgrounds felt that that unless they amassed wealth it would be difficult for them to compete with those who came from a feudal background, and quickly got down to grabbing power by hook or by crook. So, growth of leadership with commitment to community welfare was blunted at the nascent stage of our national life.
Let me tell our younger politicians that a perceptive mind is not as sound as conceptual intelligence. Recently, we have witnessed how these self-elevated politicians fell like a house of cards. Therefore, I strongly recommend the exit of those politicians who I term as dead horses as they no longer have any moral high ground to tread on. They live in a milieu, which is foul, shoddy and mean.
It will be unfair to brand all politicians as dead horses, but it will not be unintelligent to make a deduction that most of them are as such. Therefore, it is the time to resurrect and reconstruct our political culture, behaviour and psyche. Now is the time for the dark horses who have been sitting in the wings to emerge.
Those who feel that they have character, commitment, conviction and courage to chase the challenges like protecting human dignity by utilising the power of the people, can remain focused about what is happening in their backyard, and believe that "Aristotle is dear but the people are dearer," are the ones who should replace the political castaways of today.
I have abundant conviction that we have scores of people around us who can stand up to these challenges at this critical juncture of our nation. We are aware that we have many people who are providing leadership, preferring anonymity and obscurity, to guide us to a destiny, which will do our predecessors and our progeny proud.
While we can patiently wait to see the growth of our nation's image, we must not lose sight of the feeble attempts that may be made by the perpetrators of evil doings to return to the political mainstream by doling out booty that they had gathered during their misrule.
We must bring order from the myriad of disorder. Newly surfaced leaders should take leave of their soft sensitivities and utilise the currency of power to defeat the opponents of growth. Leaders should also try to win a better deal for our people with wit and erudition, and subdue the will of the dead horses to even trot on our soil.
The author is a former senior military officer.