HUMAN BEINGS NORMALLY EVADE SELF-ACCOUNTABILITY – ALTAF HUSSAIN
Thoughtful Address of Mr. Altaf Hussain to the workers of
MQM Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Gulistan-e-Johar Sectors

London – 9^th November 2006

Consider a society, organisation or a department which has become defective or spoiled and the people within it become victim of this defect. If these people are to analyse why the defects occurred and who is responsible for it is human psychology that they will exclude themselves from the analysis.  This means that the person analysing the reasons for the defects will not look upon his or her own faults, keep himself out of the analysis and point the finger of blame towards others. They assume that they have to analyse others only and not themselves.  For example, if members of a department of an organisation which has become defective are requested to find out who has committed mistakes and why - then usually they will keep themselves away from the analysis and hold others responsible. This is because one assumes that one is not at fault and it is in fact others who are at fault. If all the members demonstrate the same attitude then it means that they are declaring everyone wrong and himself right.

The question now arises that if everyone is correct then where does the defect originate from and who is responsible? The truth of the matter is that human nature makes one to keep away from self accountability, i.e. to consider oneself immune from self accountability. It is very convenient to hold the accountability of others – but very difficult to hold oneself-accountable, analyse ones own mistakes and to carry out necessary corrections. This is a root cause of permeating faults in the society, organisation or a department.  If every person of the society, organisation or department undergoes self-accountability, recognise and accepts their mistakes and sincerely make efforts for corrections then the wrongs and defects can be eliminated.

Every society, organisation, department, office, factory or an educational institution runs on a system of checks and balances; i.e. are the employees or students arriving on time? Are they doing their work at the designated time? Even though if this system has failed somewhere the nature has built-in every human being a check and balance system which keeps one informed of his wrongs. This natural system is commonly known as “conscience”.

For example if one cheats in their examinations or buy fake educational certificates or degrees and goes on to acquire a good job – then on the one hand he will not have the knowledge and information associated with that certificate or degree and on the other hand his conscience will continue to remind him of the wrong he has done. One can satisfy others with lies and fake documents but one will always realises within his conscience that he is lying and his degree is a fake. Ones conscience will continue to remind one of this whether they pay an attention to this or not.

This means that even if the check and balance system of a society, organisation or a department fails there still exists the conscience of every human being which continues to remind them if they have done wrong. This is the tool one uses to perform self-accountability and use this as a mirror to view where he or she has gone wrong, thus at least correcting individually and keeping oneself safe from defects.

Every political leader has made money in the corrupt Pakistani political culture and this has now become a norm. Altaf Hussain started a Movement from within this political culture, which has gained successive electoral victories, joined the coalition governments, appointed ministers and advisers, members to national and provincial assemblies and the local bodies leadership remained with the Muttahida Quami Movement. However, despite being in the corrupt political culture Altaf Hussain neither made any money for himself nor acquired a single plot of land for himself or any of his family members. Even small political leaders became wealthy and built palaces but despite being the founder and leader of the third largest political party of the country Altaf Hussain to date has the old 120 square yards family house in Azizabad, Karachi. Despite coming from the same corrupt society and corrupt political culture and with all the opportunities Altaf Hussain never thought that everyone else is making money then why should he stay behind – and that he too should make some money for himself and his family. Such a thought never even crossed Altaf Hussain’s mind and he never went against the voice of his conscience. Therefore, if Altaf Hussain can keep himself away from corruption then why not those who claim to love him and the followers of his ideology can follow in his footsteps and keep themselves away from corruption and wrongdoings.

It is easy to make tall verbal claims but it is very difficult to implement them practically. It is like someone without studying medicine or engineering claims to be a doctor or an engineer. Such fake doctors can be seen in villages that treat patients and cause serious damage. Similarly, if someone claims that he has offered huge services to the Movement and no one now recognises his work such claims are unfounded as practical work is visible and seen by all. Good work with commitment and sincerity cannot remain hidden for long – it comes into open sooner or later. There are examples of several people before us who did not get any recognition for work in their lifetime but became famous after death. Everyone has to taste death; however history only remembers those who performed good deeds. Individuals die but their good deeds continue to live.

In the light of above every member of the Movement must perform self accountability and analyse if they have performed their duties honestly or not? And are they ideologically working for the Movement? Because for all your good work the Movement will always remember you and you will live in the minds of everyone forever. Every member of the Movement must do self-analysis of what he or she has done before criticising or commenting on others. They must ask their conscience what were their sentiments, thoughts, aims and objects when they joined the Movement – do they have the same today or if these have altered? They must make a graph of their work to analyse whether they have remained steadfast on the Movement’s guidelines and principles or not? Are they performing their duties for the collective cause with honesty and sincerity or have become opportunist and victim of the nuisance of “grouping”? The act of “grouping” is like poison for ideological Movements as it spreads confusion and anxiety and it is the negation of the leadership, Movement and the guiding principles. Movements are run for shared causes whereas groupings negate collectivism.  Just as termites make the timber of a house and doors so hollow that although from outside one can see the frame but as soon has pressure is applied, the doors fall down. Similarly, the act of grouping in an ideological Movement eats the ideological thinking and aspirations of the workers and they become hollow from inside – they do appear to be workers from outside but as soon as testing time comes then such workers who are victims of grouping fall like the termite affected hollow door and change their loyalties to the oppressive and powerful forces of evil. If this act of grouping is not allowed to flourish and ideological thinking and aspirations are strong then such workers can easily face any testing time. It is the duty of every member of the Movement to self-analyse their role, character and practice in the light of their conscience. Ask for the forgiveness of Allah Almighty for their wrongs and correct themselves because by sincerely and honestly accepting ones mistakes and wrongs in front of Allah Almighty, not only one will lighten the load of their conscience but also their soul will be purified as when one takes a bath with soap and washes all the dirt away from ones body.