Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Talking of the National Unity

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Talking of the National Unity

A person got a contract in a city in north where he had to work with the persons of the same tribe. His contract was to construct a big building for government and it was a coincidence that all the workers, labors, suppliers, engineers, electricians and all others belonged to the same tribe. The man was really disturbed by the behavior of his subordinates. They arrived late to work, tried their best to work as less as possible, stole things from the depot and did other works that ended in the loss of the contractor. When he tried to handle one group, another group created any problem and this did not finish. In the end, he got so fed up with all these that he stopped the work and fired all the workers. Then he hired new workers and completed the work. He was so much distressed with this that he developed a perception that all the people who belonged to this tribe are corrupt and bad. Whenever he sat in a gathering, he started narrating his story and termed them to be corrupt and deceivers. Many a times, he almost fell into fight when a person told him that he also belonged to the same tribe and that he should not be called a thief or corrupt, otherwise, he would give him proper answer for this. But this only made the man a bit conscious in this regard but he was never able to change his old perception.

Then he got a similar contract in another city and this time, he faced another problem. There were some very strong warlords and criminals in the city who were influential and no one could stop them. He was repeatedly disturbed by these people and they time and again asked for money from him. Now, he did not understand what to do; either to pay and open a source of constant headache or start an enmity with these dangerous people. Then he went to the police station where he met a very nice officer. The police officer came and threatened the criminals after which they disappeared and the contractor was relieved. The bravery and friendly behavior of police officer inspired him a lot and soon they became friends. This friendship then grew to the family terms and their wives and children also liked each other a lot. Coincidentally, this police officer also belonged to the same tribe. This police officer was exact opposite of the people he had experienced before and it made him change his mind about the members of this tribe. Now, he doesn’t talk about the members of this tribe in general and says, ‘In every tribe and community, there would definitely be good and bad people. Based on a single bad experience, we should not declare all of them to be bad.’

A cousin of mine went to a city in south (the name I would not like to mention here) where he had a work of 3-4 days. When he got into a taxi, the taxi driver took him from a long route and charged him unfairly. Then he went to exchange some of his money and when he went to hotel room and counted the money, it came out to be less although he had thoroughly counted it in the shop. Then, a servant in hotel took his money for bringing something and he could not see him again. In short, in these three days, he was time and again cheated that he came to Kabul and said, ‘They are all cheaters. You cannot trust anyone there. This city is the city of thieves and fraudsters.’ Anyhow, one of his friends invited him to his marriage and it was in the same city. There he observed that the neighbors of his friend were so helpful that they worked day and night to arrange the ceremony successfully. He observed the true spirit of sincerity, cooperation and helping the neighbors and after this visit, he was able to change his mind about the people of the city and now he says that there may be good people everywhere, just we need to develop a quality in ourselves to discover them.

In the whole world and unfortunately in our society as well, there are such perceptions in which one bad experience has resulted in the development of the negative perception and ideas about the whole of the tribe or community. This is not limited to the tribes only, it may be about the people of the same profession (like doctors), same interests (like teachers) or cities or areas.

The biggest problem in this regard is to blame a whole of the community or group on the basis of a bad work of one of its members. This was the case before as well and this is the trend still present in our society. Whenever such thoughts prevail or increase, they result in the division of people, let the rumors or negative thoughts fly from a person to another and turn the people or groups against each other. In case of majority of ethnic clashes, be it in Afghanistan or in Africa or any other part of the world, the problem started with such small differences that later on lead to great conflicts and bloodshed.

We, Afghans, saw three decades of war that was based on ethnic divide and discrimination. People were first mentally divided on issues that were later on found to be very petty and these small differences grew with the passage of time and then a time came when these groups or tribes were not ready to tolerate the mere existence of each other.

This trend was prevalent until we shed enough blood of each other to understand that the only safe way is to live with mutual co-existence and then a democratic government was established. Now, it is a very pleasing to see that people relating to different tribes like Pashtoons, Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Turkmens and others live together. When they came close to each other, they found out that the differences were very less while common grounds to live and cooperate with each other were vast.

Last ten years of unity brought prosperity to everyone and it is good to see that all the different people are living together and getting benefitted from each other. Kabul, the central city of the country hosts people from different areas and languages who all live as Afghans. On the other hand, people live and confidently do business in different parts of the country like Heart, Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif, Jalalabad and other major business centers of the country where no one faces any difficulty or discrimination on the bases of language, ethnicity or background.

But it is unfortunate to see that some careless people again say such negative things about a group based on his bad experience from one of its members. It should not be forgotten that we cannot afford even a slight mistake in this regard and can fall victim to civil war and conflict.

In this regard, it is necessary that influential members of society like journalists, politicians, teachers, businessmen and others to be careful in not passing any such comment and also discourage those who try to raise an air of differences and disunity.

It is also necessary that every Afghan should be careful in not hurting someone’s feelings so that your victim should not talk against you or your group or community as a whole.

(Muhammad Rasool Shah works as Academic Coordinator at Barakat Int’l School, Kabul. He can be reached at muhammadrasoolshah@gmail.com)

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