In a society where illiteracy, corruption, lack of social manners and other dangerous habits have risen to an alarming level, even a small problem can result in hazardous consequences and same was observed a couple of weeks ago when a television channel and a newspaper were banned for creating frustration and harming national solidarity by broadcasting programs and publishing writings on ethnic differences. But the story is not so fresh as well. It all started almost a year ago when the computerized national identity cards (tazkirah) were being discussed in the Wolesi Jirga (lower house) of the parliament. Some of the groups were willing to include the ethnicities in these cards while others were not in favor of this.
Without considering the good and bad points of this issue, the discussions and speeches in the house brought to surface the dangerous ethnic rift that was lying dormant in our national lines. It was needed that our wise and respectable members of parliament could have talked to strengthen the national unity and avoid their best to wisely ignore such sensitive issues but in order to win the praise and support of their respective ethnic groups, they talked in favor of their own groups and against others and in this way, this honorable platform became a battle ground for dirty politics. Fiery speeches were delivered, papers were thrown on each other and even the non-parliamentary or abusive language was used that never suited the respect and honor of the parliament and the parliamentarians.
The problem got worse when the same war of ethnic superiority was discussed on a number of social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter and others and in this way, this dirty poison made its way into the minds of our youth as well. It was very sad to see that more and more contributions were made to increase this rift and very less people talked in the favor of country which badly needs national unity in this crucial stage of national crisis and democratic recovery.
Anyhow, the problem got cold with the passage of time until the same dirty issue was disturbed again and its filth and smell once again filled the air with disgust and hatred.
In one of the fiery war of comments on Facebook, I liked the views of a person. He had written that, ‘It is really stupid if I claim to be better than others. In the same way, I can never claim that my culture and language is superior to that of others. If I am doing this stupid act, it simply means that there is something missing in my personality and of course in my culture and norms that did not prevent me from doing this stupid act.’
The level of harm of any such act varies from society to society, depending on the mental maturity and educational level of its members. In societies where people are mostly literate, are mature and are well-trained regarding social interactions, such a problem is nullified by talking against it but in a society like ours; where there are so many problems, the problem increases like the blowing wind increases the intensity of fire. In order to understand how the ethnic differences are misused in our society, let’s have the following example and you might have also heard about numerous similar examples in our society;
A person was working at a post with a very attractive package and privileges. He was talented, well-qualified and liked his work too much and was considered one of the best employees of the organization. His boss, who was a German, was also impressed of him and liked him too much. But his immediate supervisor and colleagues disliked him because they all belonged to another ethnic group. On the face, they treated him properly but they always looked for his faults to belittle him in the eyes of his boss. They secretly kept complaining him to the boss. In the beginning, he was not ready to believe them but the increased complaints slowly and gradually made him believe in their words and the story ended with the dismissal of this young man from his post.
This is one of the hundreds of sad stories when ethnic differences are used to bring about any personal interest or gain. It doesn't mean that we don’t want national solidarity but the problem starts when this solidarity comes in clash with our personal benefits and we find no other way except to prefer the later on national solidarity and unity among different ethnic groups.
Same formula may have been used by the parliamentarians, so-called scholars who talked on television and wrote in the newspaper. It is also feared that there may be strong foreign hands behind these acts so as to divert the attention of public from more important issues. It is also a fact that these foreign powers will easily rule us when they divide us into many groups and ethnicity has been found to be the most effective in this regard.
The worst thing in our society is the deep-rooted belief of ethnic differences or ethnic superiority. When a group of people of the same ethnic group sit together, they would all talk against a certain group and exaggerate in order to praise the culture, language, history, past rulers and other elements of its own group. There is a long list of both positive and negative traits being discussed in such gatherings; positive about your own group and negative about others. In the list of positive traits, some of the most common are; our forefathers ruled this country for centuries, our language is rich and historic, our culture is more civilized and modern, our people are rich and active in trade and business, our colors are more fair and figures are attractive, our people are brave and courageous, our people are hardworking and many more.
On the other hand, negative traits are always discovered in the members of other groups and they are also not less than the positive; they are all stupid, they are all tricky and cheaters, their forefathers were slaves and trash-collectors, they carry the germs of terrorism in their blood, they are barbarous, they smell a bit, they drink tea with grapes (hahaha) or they drink cold whey in the winter (much comical), they are ugly and stupid-looking, they never had any great rulers, their language is very immature, they were the camel-riders and many more.
In this regard, the best thing that I noticed was the behavior of one of my colleagues, Mr. Rashidi, who stopped a person from talking against a certain group when he wanted to ridicule their language and cultural traits. He says, ‘If you don’t give respect, you would never get respect. If you criticize others, you would definitely be criticized and there is not present any ending to this cross-firing.’
In the end, few simple things must be understood in this regard. The glorious history of your forefathers would do no good to you and you will earn respect and gain importance according to your present day skills and qualities. If your culture or language is good, you don’t get the right to criticize and belittle the culture and language of others. If your stupidity and personal immaturity makes you to praise yourself, others would also praise themselves and this will result in the war of words and maybe of bullets in the long run. And according to our Holy Prophet (PBUH), the best among you are those from whose hands and tongue, others are safe.