The perfect driver*Mohd Fahad Ifaz
Choose wisely. Select those who are humble and are willing to change, as everyone needs to
*Who should you trust behind the wheel?**Photo- BigstockSo, your family inherited a truck 43 years back. The truck is painted with the mantra “Shomogro Bangladesh 70ton.”
You hire a driver to run the truck. He drives reasonably well at times, but starts stealing money. When you give him money to refuel, he puts in less petrol or CNG and pockets the rest.
When you send the truck for servicing, he asks the service centre to inflate the bills and takes a cut.
When you send him somewhere with the truck all by himself, he picks up unknown passengers or goods from the streets for money.
The worst of it all, he runs down other cars and pedestrians on the road then flees the scene, blaming it on other drivers.
The rule of your house is that the driver gets access to some money kept in the truck dashboard. This is for accidental breakdowns, payoff for police "fines", or for updating relevant papers for the truck. Hence, he can take out whatever money he wants and claim he needs it for the truck.
Soon, the stealing becomes excessive. Not a day goes by without you hearing what the driver has stolen money.
Sick of all this, you get a new driver. Over time, the second driver starts stealing too! It is so easy to steal after all. Also, the reason the new driver was hired was not because of his honesty, but because of he comes from your family village and has some education.
Anyway, the robberies continue. The “accidents” continue.*
As the suffering owners, you switch between the two drivers, but the stealing doesn’t stop. Soon, a third driver emerges and applies for a job. Since you have lost faith in the first two drivers, you think you can keep faith in this new “young and educated” one.
He is extremely honest and passionate, even though he has no experience. Delighted, you hire him to drive your truck.
This new driver doesn’t steal money. However, he breaks the tail-lights while reversing the truck on his first day. The next day, he crashes the truck at a signal. The third day, he forgets to refuel, and you are stranded on the road.
The fourth day, he stands in the middle of the road in Shahbagh and screams at every other truck owner, calling them thieves for not hiring him.The fifth day, he wants all drivers to come on the road and not follow the red lights. When you confront the new driver about his unruly behaviour and incompetence at the wheel, he screams at you instead. How dare you question an honest driver? It only means you are supporting robbers, and you are conspiring against other honest drivers like him.
Awestruck, you become quiet. Next, he wants to change everything, and control every truck. You are not sure, and you wonder what to do. Disgusted, he quits.
So you are in a dilemma since the earlier drivers cheated you and the new driver is not competent, but already arrogant. He assumes a sense of virtuous entitlement, with the right to slander, attack, and judge anyone who*criticises*him.
All this can change.
The third driver can learn how to drive. Similarly, the first two drivers can learn to stop stealing and killing people on the roads. Whether the honest have to be made competent, or the competent have to turn honest, all this will require a certain amount of modesty, sadly missing on all sides.
In such a scenario, what should the Bangladeshi voter do? Of course, there is no one answer. None of the alternatives are perfect yet. Please don’t let them feel that they are. If you choose the third kind, you may have a little less corruption (it cannot all go away so fast) but you risk having bizarre policies, failed experiments, and more stunts than action. Above all, you risk a further slowdown in economic growth, which the country cannot afford at this point in time.
If you choose the existing alternatives you may have some more stability, with a likely return to growth and more jobs. But corruption may not be as much of a priority as you would have liked it to be.
Choose wisely. Select those who are humble and are willing to change, as everyone needs to. It will take a few iterations before we get leadership that is both honest and competent and are the “perfect drivers.” Let us hope it happens sooner rather than later.
*- See more at:
http://www.dhakatribune.com/op-ed/20....19CI9TkF.dpuf