Purpose, vision, mission leads individuals to success. Every philosopher as well as management guru says so, as do all text books or motivational literature.
Companies with such clear missions grow better and remain sustainable, because everyone in the company knows what they are expected to do and in what direction they are headed. And that is why, every company is asked to develop a vision, a mission statement, and then some mottos, and from there the goals are derived, from which come targets.
It’s the targets that drive a company or organisation forward and teaches everyone within the organisation of the role that he/she is supposed to play in the comprehensive success of the team. So, if that same concept is extended to the scale of a nation, then it goes without saying that countries too, need to have national missions and a purpose for their existence.
They simply cannot just be a group of people occupying a certain geographical space and surviving on an ad hoc basis, scrambling along the path of faith, washed along with the current that takes them in its flow. Even nations need to have a purpose for its being, and that purpose should be embedded into the souls of almost all of its citizens.
Only then will a nation reach a position of respect among other nations. In fact it would be ideal if the mission of the nation can be articulated and stated like it is done for proper organisations. But, even if it is not declared openly, it ought to be mentioned in various ways in all public activities, reinforcing certain traits and beliefs in the people of the country in such a way that everyone belonging to the nation gradually begins to work in a way that conforms to that greater goal. It is only then one would find a whole country begin to operate in a synchronised way, with a cohesion and harmony which it would not be able to have without this sense of direction.
A nation cannot just be, because they are, but has to have a destination to which it has to get to.
Many would argue that a country with so many people doing all kinds of different things having different goals and ambitions cannot have a common principle, or be reconciled into believing in one fundamental core vision as being the prime underlying goal beneath all of one’s personal goals. But I would point out several trailblazing examples to illustrate my point.
In these countries that I highlight below, a mission statement may not be found written in their constitution as such, but the actions of all the people, or national decision makers and leaders in every sphere, show a pattern which leads one to derive what the goal or mission is or could be of that country. And the mission is a spirit which is expressed in its songs, literature, poetry, entertainment and in the speeches given by its greatest leaders. And it is riding on the shoulders of that spirit that the nation gallops ahead.
Let us take the example of the US. Their mission, it appears, is to be the most powerful country and dominate in every field possible. In fact, many of its presidents have been heard calling themselves the “greatest nation of the world” and they continuously reinforce certain key values and ideals that they stand for.
And interestingly you would see that indeed everyone works with that greater goal wedged deeply into the subconscious layers of their minds. And it is because of that that indeed they have been successful in fulfilling the stated mission to a great extent. Take the instance of their economy: even after years of recessions and problems, the US continues to be the biggest economy of the world, the biggest consumer in the world.
It is because they expend that a big part of the rest of the world can survive. They are also the biggest donors in the world, contributing the highest amount of funds for growth and infrastructure development of the other countries. They are still considered the most developed nation. They are leaders in athletics with the highest medals in all the Olympics combined.
America dominates the entire global entertainment industry with their movies and music, clearly being appreciated by more people across the world than all other entertainment from other parts of the world combined.
Their entertainers continue to be the paragons that the whole world looks up to. They lead the world in the sector of higher education and research with hundreds of its universities occupying the leading positions among the top thousand universities across the world in terms of research as well as quality of education.
America leads the world in the realm of civil engineering and architecture, having been the pioneers of making modern skyscrapers and still having the highest number of towers in the world and most of the world’s mega structures of present times. America remains the greatest when it comes to science and technology, having been the place where the greatest inventions of the last 150 years have all taken place.
From electricity and light bulbs, to telephones, radios, televisions, cameras, movie cameras, cars, planes, mobile phones, computers, and all the major advancements even in medical science, have all taken place in America, making them the greatest indeed. The world stands where it does today because of achievements by Americans. And verily America dominates the world with its military force, nuclear technology, space technologies and in tons of other fields.
It is because the leaders of this nation and the education system have constantly been ingraining into their basic DNA that the nation is the greatest in the world and that they all have to live up to high expectations that the nation has from them. This message provides the fuel to propel themselves onwards to greater achievements.
They also express their mission to include upholding democracy and freedom across the world and. Even if there may be other intentions, it is the public enforcement of these ideals that have led so many hundreds of thousands of Americans, since World War I, enthusiastically towards possible death. They believe they are doing so for upholding certain principles that represent the soul of their existence, even if it be not directly for their own country.
If we examine India, their mission would seem to be: “To rapidly rise and to stand at par with the best in the world in every aspect, and to become a race of people who cannot be ever underestimated by anyone in the world in any sector and in fact be admired as a post-modern nation thriving on the foundations of an ancient culture and civilisation.” And this is the spirit they are showing in every quarter: in economy, industrialisation, military, sports, media, and in the global workforce of United Nations, World Bank, in international universities as teachers etc.
Indians never think of themselves as being inferior to any other nation in the world. They have a blazing temperament that they can also do whatever it is that anyone else from any other part of the world can. And that is why we see so many Indians reaching international fame and glory throughout the world.
We see so many Indians leading global corporate bodies in various capacities, Indian experts in fields of science, Indian entrepreneurs being among the wealthiest people in the world. Indians do not just struggle for individual success, but they derive thrills from breaking global records, and so they strive harder to aggrandise the name of their nation. In doing so, they elevate their own individual positions much beyond their originally estimated capacity. India can even boast of being a military giant empowered with nuclear capabilities as well.
And it is becoming a major contender in all forms of sports too. Thus, India is quickly advancing on the path of becoming a major superpower riding on the indomitable spirits of its citizens and its people living around the world. They glorify their traditions and religion, but neither let that nor their historic fight against colonial occupation ever get in the way of embracing the best of the west and utilise it for their own augmentation.
Britain had always intended to spread modern civilisation across the world and to educate the world. And indeed they successfully did so, beyond just ruling almost half of the land mass of Earth. Indeed, all the forms of parliament across the world were largely derived from the British example, and then customised and modified.
They are the ones who developed the first structured legal system as well as the fundamentals of a graded education system. They developed the bureaucracies, the formal civil service and basically laid the example to the world on how to govern a modern nation. And even today they are leading education in the world as there are more people taking O and A level exams and IELTS than almost all other kinds of exams combined. Sophistication, social etiquette were norms exemplified by the British.
The French always claimed to be symbols of art, romance, fashion and culture; that is manifested in everybody’s life and activities and they take this to be their identity. The UAE wants to be the perfect amalgamation of the East and the West and a place to find the superlative of everything. And so they are making the world’s tallest buildings, biggest and most luxurious hotels, the biggest malls, cities on reclaimed islands. They are showing the world what a nomadic people from the desert can do on the power of their ideas, by engaging global experts of every kind. Germans are a testimony of resilience and supreme quality, while China aims to give the world an affordable alternative of everything it wants.
Basically, all great nations of the world have an explicit or implicit purpose. And having that purpose from its foundation years is what helped to make them great. And that brings me to wonder, what is the purpose or mission or vision of Bangladesh?
Not only is nothing properly stated, but it’s hard to derive any, even from a study of the activities of the people. From the way things are, it may appear to many that the purpose is: to stand out in all forms of corruption, nepotism, political dysfunction, and to outdo everyone in heinous and barbaric crimes. Or it could be: to continue to divide the nation and polarise it based on political disputes of the past, and make it a nursery for the rearing of criminals and terrorists.
Or, is it to continue adding more people to the world, and pushing the country further down the drain of environmental problems, and remaining a nation in need of constant aid and donations? To remain a country where contentment is derived at mediocrity and further development is considered a luxury? Or is it to be a nation where the wealthy are allowed to exploit the underprivileged or where the underprivileged stand as a barrier for industrialised growth? A country where the left keeps fighting the right and the so-called upholders of religion fighting the so-called harbingers of progress are leading to the sealing of the fate of hundreds of millions of unfortunate minions?
Candidly speaking, we as a nation do not appear to have any purpose. Some people mistakenly would say that the stated objective of the war of independence “to create a democratic nation on the ideals of secularism” is our purpose. But it is not. That is simply a definition of who we are, an adjective. It does not give any indication for the future of what we must do, to add value by our presence in this world. And that is the tragedy for we are a nation with numerous potentials.
The biggest retarding force to our growth has been the attitude of “this is quite an achievement considering that it is Bangladesh or by a Bangladeshi or by Bangladeshi standards!” For decades, this attitude has limited our own aspirations to achieve, because we were made to feel inferior, compared to other races and nations, and led to believe that even a moderate accomplishment is sufficient, because we are an inferior race or underprivileged.
The time has finally come to shed away such notions of our own limited potentials. Time has come to recognise that even genetically, we have a mix of Aryan blood lines from parts of Europe, genes from the Middle East, hereditary links to the tough and strong Dravidians so we ought to have all the ingredients that is needed for success, for those who attribute worldly success predominantly to genetics.
We have had flourishing semi-urban civilisations from a few hundred years BC, in contrary to the notions of many dating our earliest civilisations to 5th and 6th centuries AD. Recent archaeological discoveries of coins, and better carbon dating of ruins and artifacts have proven so. And there are allusions to our country and its ancient cities in texts found in ancient China and Rome as well.
In fact there are evidences found of special legions of warriors being taken to join Greek and Roman armies from the Gangetic plains. So, for those who feel that to stand high today we need an ancient foundation, well, we have that too. We have a population almost 45% the size of America, for those who feel that power comes in numbers. We have thousands of our youth who are beginning to see the light of economic prosperity in different countries of the world through their determination and hard work.
We have thousands of Bangladeshi students outperforming people of other countries in educational institutions across the world, and we have almost 20 million of our people spread across the globe, intermingling and learning and transmitting the knowledge as well as sending remittance back to the land. And we are a nation that has continued to grow despite continuous political instability and frequent turmoil; a country where all the indicators of living conditions have continued to improve, even though we have never till now been blessed with proper national leadership for a continuous spell of time.
So, I feel that as a nation with all of these potentials which can be used to spur our people into motivated action, the reason why we have not been able to tap these potentials to the optimum is because we lacked a national purpose and because we also never had the leaders who could crystallise the haphazard dreams of millions into a set purpose.
So in a fragile attempt to try and fill out that gap, or to at least inspire people capable of doing so to do so, I would attempt to suggest that we should have for ourselves the following or a combination of the following mission statements:
“To be a country where each unit of its vast population is an asset for the world in terms of education, economic productivity, entrepreneurial zeal, passion for humanitarian work and environmental conservation and an embodiment of good ethics, morals, religious moderation and interracial harmony” a statement that would instigate everyone to feel that they have the responsibility of not just adding value to the country, but to the world; a statement that would make them feel that they hold a position of importance to fellow humans of other nations and thus behave accordingly.
Or, we could say that “we want to be nation of united young people working with zeal, accepting only positive guidance from the senior citizens, working to make Bangladesh a country of which every one of its citizens feel proud to belong to, and a country that can be an example for all on how a small least-developed country can rise to be a nation that all other nations take pride in associating with.”
This would be a mission statement that could truly galvanise the nation, and the youth, to ascend and finally take the reins and assert that the time has come to awaken from this comatose state induced upon us by inept and direction-less leadership.
So let us all join in making a mission statement for the country one that can be ingrained into the DNA of every citizen and into the core of every ones heart so that every action is aimed at that ultimate design, and the droplets of everyone’s individual efforts will, God willing, combine to make an ocean of effort, that will push us up as a nation through a massive upheaval like a tidal surge of change. I represent millions of silent citizens all awaiting just such a day.