REDRESS AND REFORM ESSENTIAL FOR PROGRESS
STUDY CIRCLE ADDRESS FOR
"NEW KARACHI, NORTH KARACHI & SURJANI TOWN SECTORS & WORKERS"

November 16, 2006.

It is a strange natural phenomenon of the psychology of man that he does not call his attention to pay heed to his own shortcomings and his disagreeable and inadequate habits. The question arises how can man become aware or capable of detecting his own drawbacks or how can he be made aware of the abovementioned imperfections? If we picture a man roaming stark naked on the streets or defecating publicly we undoubtedly will declare him to be an animal or an insane person but if a person eats food publicly on the street we will not consider him insane. The truth is that both eating and defecating are but natural needs of man. Man must eat to stay alive and he must defecate himself to stay healthy and fit. Even though both are natural necessities but man shies away from defecating publicly lest he is declared an animal or an insane but does not shy away from eating publicly on a street or by the roadside. This understanding of what is an acceptable or unacceptable behaviour publicly is because of our cultural and civic sense. The developed cultural civic sense creates the awareness of the permissible & non-permissible acts in public. The attainment of the cultural civic sense is the result of thousands of years of evolution. When we peep into the history of the Stone Age we see that eating, defecating and all natural desires were practiced publicly without an iota of the sense of shame. Slowly but gradually as the intellectual development took place and progressed, the process of understanding enhanced and man started to distinguish between what was beneficial and what was harmful for him and his existence. The enhancement in the understanding made man realize that excreta / faeces when exposed and littered was extremely harmful to man as it stank and polluted the atmosphere and was the source of infections and a breeding ground for insects. It is clear observation that if faeces are not properly cleansed from the body it leaves the whole body reeking. It was the process of intellectual understanding that step-by-step man adopted ways to rid himself of what was harmful and disagreeable for him and the society. He understood that defecating is a private act and as such privacy was required, then he started covering the excreta with soil rather than leaving it exposed because it created pollution; further development made man cover his body to protect himself from dirt, pollution and harsh weather conditions. The civilizations, which had made progress in the civic areas and had achieved intellectual and ethical superiority soon started educating and enlightening the less civilized communities and societies of what was beneficial for their existence and what was harmful and injurious. Initially educating the less fortunate was met with resistance and adoptions of new ways of life were not easily adopted or accepted as people had practiced old ways for centuries and modern ways were hard to sink in and be understood. Soon the less civilized societies realized that those who had changed their old behavioural patterns and were practicing civilized ways in the areas of code of dressing and living were definitely enjoying healthier life and cleaner, unpolluted environment. This realization slowly but surely helped bring about the change and civilizations transformed to more advanced ways which guided them on to the road to progress with improvement in their hygiene, thus changing them hygienically and culturally into civilized societies and nations. In spite of the progress made in culturally civilized societies and nations there still are areas which are far flung where civilized ways of life do not exist and people still do not wear clothes or are half-clad because they are unaware or poorly informed about the changes that have taken place in modern cultures.

An individual never draws his attention to his own behaviour and when he is unable to zero in on his own flaws and when his inadequacies are pin pointed by others he gets upset, irritated, looses his temper and accuses the other person of being critical of him for no rhyme or reason and starts reasoning to defend his faulty and inappropriate behaviour. This defensive behaviour in no way aides or benefits the flawed individual and neither does it help him to rectify and mend his ways to achieve what he lacks so that he can make headway to uplift himself. It is has been commonly viewed that certain people have extremely poor ethical sense even in our civilized modern society; they are publicly seen either picking their nose, spitting everywhere and smokers blowing smoke in the faces of people who happen to be near them. Certain individuals are in the habit of conversing in loud discordant tones, which gives the impression that there is an altercation.

Usually individuals are oblivious of their compulsive habits and as such, they do not pay attention to their own chronic behaviour so that they can take corrective measures. They are not wary of their shortcomings, disagreeable and inadequate flawed ways till someone else makes them aware. If instead of paying attention to what the well-wisher is referring to, the individual responds by criticizing their well-wisher and misbehaving with him then we can never correct ourselves. To be able to achieve a respectable status in society one should be broadminded and have the courage to accept critical evaluation in a positive manner, pay attention to the critical assessment and reflect on how to improve. Where there is courage and capacity to take remedial measures there is room for correction and progress. To have the capacity to correct ones mistakes and overcome the weaknesses is not only necessary but of paramount importance for progress. Only those nations make headway and uplift themselves who accept their mistakes, shortcomings and weaknesses and take practical measures to overcome them. The same formula is applicable for ideological movements.

Every companion of the Movement must have the capacity and patience to listen to the criticism of their weaknesses, imperfections and bad habits. It is obligatory on each companion of this movement to identify the imperfections and weaknesses of one another, and bring these to the notice of the doer but with utmost politeness and maintaining the decorum. Great insight is to understand certain facts that when you are identifying the mistakes of others and preaching them about discipline and ideology but you yourself are neither observing the discipline nor making any effort to understand the ideology. And when your shortcomings are pinpointed then instead of paying attention you retaliate then there is no measure you can take to transform and improve your own self. Therefore, to be ideological and to be able to strengthen the movement each companion has an obligation to have the courage and capacity to accept the critical evaluation of his shortcomings and weaknesses. In the light of all that has been pinpointed he must evaluate himself and take positive steps in the right direction to amend and improve. If the companions of the ideological movement preach to others to comply by rules and regulations and they themselves defy these and instead of devoting their time to perform their duties and accomplish the tasks on hand for the movement they waste it in futile activities they soon prove to be non-ideological and off track members. The journey on the road to understanding the ideology gets deflected and diverted and such members become liabilities rather than assets to the Movement. This diversion from the ideological path to the non-ideological route is just like reverting to the Stone Age where they were devoid of all sense of rules and regulations, cultural values and the sense to pan the good from the bad.

Just as man slowly, steadily but surely made progress in his ways of life and attained cultural values by discarding what was harmful for him. In the same way if you want to be received as a member of a civilized and cultured society then you must have the capacity to rectify your shortcomings and weaknesses. You must in all sincerity acknowledge your flaws and make every possible effort to polish and promote yourselves and rid yourselves of all that is improper and unacceptable. Once the process of reform takes place it will lend lustre to your personalities and will work just like a good detergent cleanses the grime from the clothes and gives sheen and gloss. When you represent and stand for an ideological movement, like ours and follow the teachings of the ideology, abide by the rules and regulations – the outcome is that instead of disturbance and agitation, unity and harmony prevail, for united we stand and divided we fall. Divisions and disunity debilitate nations and cause feebleness and infirmity. When we stand, as united people of a nation we draw our strength from one another and people of such nations are not only strong and courageous as a nation but individually too they are powerful and dynamic and have the ability to heroically face testing times and adversity. Agitation leads to destruction and unity leads the way to success and victory.

To retain your standing and affiliation with the movement each member is required to bear in mind the pledges made to the movement especially to reform all inaccuracies and malfunctions, to polish and improve your personalities, your manner of communication, habits regarding cleanliness, hygiene, to exercise cultured social behaviour such that you can capture the hearts of others with your good mannerism, proper decorum and sound personality. Hearts cannot be won through harsh, unyielding behaviour; such behaviour is akin to a man defecating publicly. We must learn to demonstrate honourable behaviour and fine character and strive to improve the environment in which we live. Environment too can only be made favourable and healthy when it is cleansed of garbage and refuse. The same principal applies to human beings who should cleanse their minds of all negative and reprehensible activities. If our activities and conduct is not in conformity with pleasing social cultural values then we will be regarded and placed on the level of people from the Stone Age. The onus of managing our lives in a befitting acceptable manner lies within us or would we want to be judged otherwise?