It’s been a rough year. The only progress on the political front in recent years, like always, has been the same old reactionary public mood over the events. Nothing has changed. People are tired of following the outdated rhetoric underlined by their respective leaders. War has become boring, or at least so to say. And the most dangerous time for a nation is when, war, becomes, boring.
But a lot has changed on the other side. Things aren’t the same they used to be. The state has been reading, learning and understanding the movement and people’s behaviour over the years. It has learned to replace and fill in the political narrative wherever it could. It has learned new ways to engage with the movement. You know it’s time to worry when the enemy starts understanding you.
So where does all this stand now and what is the plan.
The main problem has always been absence of a well thought out plan to move forward. Expectations, assumptions and decisions over expected assumptions has been the modus operandi of the political masses. Differences were turned into distances over simple issues. Everything has been mixed up from the start.
It’s probably the first time that the leaders in the diaspora have showed interest to see each other and discuss the plan. The political crowd seems somewhat excited and nervous at the same time. So what could be the outcome of this gathering of stakeholders in Geneva. Will it be a social media fashioned meeting or a serious get together over the aged matters and challenges the confused nation has been facing. Could things actually work out. And most importantly, what could go wrong.
In the real world, the importance of any event is judged on the potential of destruction it could carry if things go wrong. The idea of sitting together and brainstorming the issues has already sorted the problem of communication. But this communication would mean nothing if it does not maintain a long term survival strategy. This time if the leaders fail their people, it would be a serious disappointment. And the only ones to be blamed for the mess will be the incompetent leaders themselves.
First of all, the leaders need to show up with open minds and positive vibes. There’s been a lot of easily sorted yet left alone negativity circling the atmosphere lately and it needs to stop. The leaders need to understand the sensitivity of people’s sentiments and attachment with the cause and the effect that these decisions have on their lives. The leaders simply need to act like leaders.
A good strategy to start with in this assembly would be to discuss agreements rather than grumbling differences. Almost everyone interested, knows the differences already and understands how insignificant they are in today’s situation. The agreements, on the other hand, are remarkable if agreed upon. There has not been a unified face of the movement that officially agreed upon a declaration of independence. The leaders need to do exactly that.
Secondly, the issue of human rights. The leaders need to agree on the urgent need of investing resources in highlighting human rights abuses back home. And no, it does not mean to invest in protests and campaigns alone but in working groups and teams that could collect data of the large scale state abuses that the people face in daily life. Imagine if all the groups worked on collecting evidences of abuses in different areas, how powerful a case would that be to the world bodies.
Thirdly, the social media. Believe it or not, a large portion of whatever is happening in the social media has got to do with the leaders’ behaviour towards solving problems. The leaders need to collectively discourage the leg-pulling trend among their followers by leading with example. To date, the social media has not solved but worsened the simplest of all the issues. There is no need for staffers to interpret statements and space confusion, the leaders need to speak for themselves and it is time to work now.
Critical thinking is the key towards the progress of any nation. It is time to critically think about progress.
The author tweets at @muridbaloc