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

The Responsibilities of the “People”

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The Responsibilities  of the “People”

Man is called a social animal for he cannot live his life alone; rather he lives in a society with the gathering of some other humans. As he is not perfect, he needs the people to be around him to give him love, affection, honor, value and support him for everything he does. This is why he relies on others to fulfill his needs and, therefore, he forms a society for living properly. The formation of a society is the basic unit of team work where every individual is supposed to be dependent on one another and highly influenced by every single act of each other.

People living in one society may differ in individual qualities but they are quite similar in social qualities since they belong to the same circumstances. Their personal problems may be different from each other but their social problems are same to a certain extent. That is why an individual effort or struggle might be relatively easier to do and in the same way it is easier to pursue one’s thoughts and reach to the destination but it is not that easy when one society as a whole comes out on its way to its destiny. All the individuals are responsible for the development of the society equally though removing all the personal differences and gathering at a single ground is quite hard and almost impossible as everyone tries to be heard more than any other person and wants his ideas to be followed which, no doubt, brings hurdles in the way to prosperity. To escape these hurdles we require a system that could be acceptable for all members and Wherein all the members have are fully aware of their roles and status and they have the full understanding of the responsibilities that they have to perform; not a society, wherein, all the problems are related to the leaders and the leaders are held responsible for all the issues and deficiencies. 

It is really weird to find people blaming only the leaders for all the disorder and problems in the society. Before blaming the leaders for all the misdeeds it is important to consider some of very important questions – Have we ever bothered to see around ourselves and know the problems deeply? Have we every tied to bring about developments in the society? Have we ever been quite responsible to play our roles? Have we every thought to keep the social matters above all other concerns? Have we ever considered over working for the society selflessly? Have we ever looked over our duties towards the society beyond our rights? Have we ever recognized our own tendency and things we can do for betterment? And have we ever learnt to have a critical view over our actions as and ask ourselves about the mistakes that we commit without much consideration? Or we have only found the easiest way to put the entire burden over leaders’ shoulders? It is important to note that all the leaders whom we hold responsible for having done nothing and for all harms to the society, belong to the same surroundings we have and they have become leaders because we have made them so. Without the will and cooperation of the people, leaders would never become leaders. It is also imperative to consider that when we ourselves escape our duties, why shouldn’t the leaders do the same, as they are human beings as well? When we have never considered the evil to be eliminated from the roots and deconstruct the old useless system; how can we think to build anything new? How come we expect the leaders to be different from us when they are the products of the same corrupt society? I am afraid we don’t have the complete privilege to criticize them when we have never seen into our own collars. It is necessary to understand that the leaders may be able to give just a guideline to follow and ultimately it is the people themselves who have bring about changes.

Renowned scholars and thinkers in human history have utilized most of their energy in discussing how the leaders should be, but it is now time when human beings need to discuss that how the subjects should be as the human society is becoming more and more democratic and the in democratic setup the role of the subjects become more important than that of leaders as democracy is the government of the people. The will of the subjects basically get transformed into elections that choose the leaders to govern the country. Most of the institutions in democratic setup are people centered, not autocratic where the leaders alone take decisions; therefore, it is important in such setup that how the subjects are, and what sort of role they play. If the subjects are aware, active and cooperative, a democratic setup is bound to be successful.

Our society can never go forth if we rely only on some representatives to do it. Unless we, all the common members of the society, try to support them, we will not face success in life. Let us leave blaming the leaders only because they are not wrong alone; we are their partners of equal shares of evils and let us promise to use up our energy and strength all together for a common cause and purpose and a broader perspective of mass well-being. Let us substitute the old ideas with the new ones in order to go with the pace of developed and civilized world. Let us not only talk about our rights but speak up for our duties as well to have a better society. Let us all be active to play our role to fill the gap between leaders and the common people. Let us think beyond our personal interests to coup with the changing mood of the entire world.

Dilawar Sherzai is the permanent writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at email.urya@gmail.com

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