SELF ACCOUNTABILITY & ADMISSION OF

GUILT / BLUNDERS / CULPABILITY

Thought provoking address by Mr. Altaf Hussain to the workers of

MQM Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Gulistan-e-Johar Sectors on 9^th November 2006

If (incase) a society, organization or department starts showing weaknesses or shortcomings the personnel associated with that particular society, organization or department become engrained with these very weaknesses and shortcomings. If an individual from the aforementioned organizations is asked to examine or scrutinize to find the reasons behind the shortcomings it is but human psychology that while scrutinizing or examining these he will disassociate his own person from the process. It simply means that the investigator who is scrutinizing gives a critical opinion of the weaknesses and shortcomings of others but has excluded himself from the process of finding to search for his own faults & weaknesses thus reporting back that so and so or (a certain individual) has  a certain fault and a yet another individual has some other fault. He thus holds others responsible for the faulty or weakening situation, he hypothesizes that the investigation or scrutiny is solely for others and he himself stands separated or excluded from the entire process.

For example a department or any organization starts malfunctioning members of the organization show signs of impertinence or (impropriety) or misbehavior and the members of this department are told to investigate to look for reasons and to find people responsible for the malfunctioning such that the members and individuals of this particular department investigate and as per routine the outcome will be that they will keep themselves out of the process of investigation and each member will point fingers at others to accuse them of wrong doings, blame the authorities, claim that certain members did not fulfill their responsibilities and thus it all resulted in the malfunctioning of the particular department. This clearly indicates that while investigating the individuals at no stage even cast a glance to evaluate their own weaknesses or misconduct and take it for granted that the individual’s own self is out of the orbit of evaluation because he perceives himself righteous and fault free. They perceive and believe that all malfunctioning is the cause of the misdeeds of others. If one and all the individuals of a department have a similar attitude of claiming themselves righteous and all others stand blameworthy then the situation boils down to the point whereby proclaiming that all members of the organization are actually collectively righteous, so now the question under consideration will be when all individuals in the organization are righteous then why is it malfunctioning?

Very true to human nature individuals exclude their own person from the process of self-accountability; that is at the time of accountability the individual imagines himself exempted from the process. People in general easily hold others responsible and criticize them, but to be critical of ones own self and to pin point ones own short comings and imperfections, to be able to comprehend them and to admit these facts is a rather uphill task. When seriously viewed then the conclusion is that any society, organization or department cannot be thoroughly cleansed and malfunctioning cannot be curtailed - hence no correction no improvement can take place.

If individuals in the society, organization or department stop being critical of others and stop holding others accountable and the process is reversed and they hold themselves accountable and critically view their own defects and shortcomings, not only to be able to understand and then admit their faults but also be able to make a sincere effort to rectify them. It is only then that the individuals who hold themselves accountable would automatically be in a position to cleanse and remove malfunctioning or corruption from organizations and be able to achieve the goal such that they will not feel the need to point fingers at others. For the functioning of any and every department, organization or society principles of check and balance are available whether it be a factory, educational organization or an office, provisions for check and balance are always available to keep vigilance. Are the employees and or students maintaining punctuality or not and are they attending to their duties and functioning within their prescribed ambits? Incase of disruption in the process of check and balance in any area or rank, irrespective, nature has provided man with a built-in system to check and balance his own activities and has been provided with the capability to apprehend where he has erred and faltered. This process of nature we term as ‘the conscience’; immaterial of man’s desire to acknowledge his errors, the voice of his conscience will notify him of his wrong doings.

To illustrate we can quote this example that you may pass an examination by cheating or by paying money and acquire a fake degree which may be a replica of a genuine one and on the basis of this degree you succeed in procuring a well paid job; the crux now will be that on the one hand the method applied to obtain the degree will keep you lacking and devoid in the knowledge and understanding which was required to be eligible for the degree and on the other hand your own conscience will keep on pricking or censuring you that you have most certainly made a gross mistake. You may be able to satisfy others by lying or being ingenious in having acquired a fake degree but your inner self is aware that you are a liar and a holder of fake documents; your conscience will constantly agitate you, the conscience will not with stand, whether you want to pay attention to its voice or not.

All this simply shows that even if the system of check and balance of any department or organization is malfunctioning then the reflection of the conscience or ones inner self is a device that automatically allows each individual to perceive and judge whether he is on the right path or not. Every human being possesses this device by which self-accountability is possible to help in the reflecting of ones self-conscience to see to search where all his errors lie, where all he has been erring or faltering. Only if each one of us reflects to delve deep in our own conscience then alone can we stand corrected and guard ourselves from erroneous and evil deeds.

Every politician has amassed wealth in the corrupted political culture of Pakistan and this practice now happens to be engrained in the political culture of our country Altaf Hussain launched this ideological movement in this very politically corrupted culture; in this very culture it was the members of Altaf Hussain’s movement who got successfully elected innumerable times, joined in with heterogeneous governments and served as ministers, advisors and also got elected to the national and provincial assembly seats to the extent that the local bodies seats in Karachi and Hyderabad have been and still are with the MQM. I have not only survived in this corrupted political culture, Altaf Hussain has stood above this system, leave alone the amassing of wealth for himself or for any of his family members he has not even acquired a single plot or piece of land for himself or his relatives. Politicians who are virtual nonentities have built palaces for themselves; even though being the leader of the third largest political party Altaf Hussain’s only possession is a house on a 120-yard plot.                    

Altaf Hussain the leader of the third largest political party, to date owns, only a house on a 120-yard plot even though Altaf Hussain was part and parcel of the same culture, socialized in this society for political purposes to discuss political matters with the members who were associated with the culturally corrupted society but Altaf Hussain never ever let himself be carried away by the idea that if all politician are minting money why should I deprive myself of the opportunities which lie open before me. Altaf Hussain has never ever given any consideration to the acquiring of anything or of material gains for himself or his family members. Never ever, has he been offset or contradicted his self-conscience. If, Altaf Hussain having lived in this corrupted society can keep himself alienated from this corruption then those who make tall claims of sincerity & affection for Altaf Hussain and claim to be his true followers then they too should follow my example in the true spirit and keep themselves free of corruption and wrong doings irrespective of how erroneous or evil others around them may be.

To make tall verbal claims comes but easy, it is the practical implementation of their claims, which is the real difficult test. Tall verbal claims with no implementation are akin to a person claiming to be a highly qualified doctor or engineer without even having received any education in that discipline. Such self-proclaimed highly qualified doctors are nothing but quacks, who practice in our villages and try to treat patients, who end up aggravating the patients problems rather then ameliorating. There can be a self-proclaimed ‘highly qualified engineer’ without any formal qualifications, who embarks on the projects of constructing bridges and buildings without even having the knowledge of the material and its ratios to be used for these projects. Likewise an individual can make tall claims that he has served and worked very hard for the movement but all has gone unnoticed and in vain. Such claims are worthless because practical work when accomplished will speak louder than words. Anything well accomplished does surface. If work is well done with dedication and honesty, irrespective of the field, it will automatically come in the public eye. Many great accomplishments in this world went unnoticed in the lifetime of many a great people but only came to light to get recognized and made them famous after they had gone from this world. Eminent they stand for work well accomplished. Every living being has to taste death, man may die but his well-accomplished work lives on and he is remembered and recognized for his accomplishments, which go down in the annals of history.

In view of all that has been said it is desired that each member of the movement may now evaluate himself for his accomplishments. Have they fulfilled their responsibilities towards the movement honestly and have they been able to serve with the ideology of movement? It will only be because of your good deeds that your memories will stay alive and you will be mentioned in the history of this ideological movement. Foremost every individual member of the movement must critically analyze his own performance; hold himself accountable in the light of his own conscience, ponder on his emotions, reflect on his thoughts, his purpose, his loyalty to view if they are still the same or is there a change of heart, change in his emotions, his thoughts, his purpose and his loyalty? Each member needs to make a graph to view his own performance. Is he putting into practice the rules & regulations of the movement? Is he sincerely and honestly looking after the collective interests of the movement, or is there a selfish change of the heart or is he inflicted with the disease of groupings? In an ideological movement, the process of groupings works like poison and termite. This process gives way to agitation and anxiety it negates the entire purpose of leadership, the loyalty and the sincerity to the ideology of the movement, It flouts rules & regulations because movements are run keeping in view the interest of the masses whereas groupings divide the masses. These groupings are akin to doors of a house destroyed & hollowed by termite, apparently they look intact but the slightest nudge or jolt makes the hollowed doors fall apart in the same manner formation of groups in an ideological movement kills the very spirit of the ideology. Members fall apart and it hollows the entire vision and purpose of the ideology of the movement. In such cases, individuals may apparently be members but incase of slight adversity they are the ones who are unable to carry the burden and get razed to the ground just like a termite hollowed door. They are the ones who change loyalties and kneel before the brutal forces. When there is unity and the process of groupings is not present, the ideology will stand steadfast and the worst of adversity will be borne with grace for ‘united we stand divided we fall’. In the light of what has been said it now becomes the duty of each ideological companion to stand accountable to their own conscience selves to judge their own performance and see where they have erred. Companions should pray and ask for forgiveness from ‘ALLAH’ and rectify their errors because when one accepts ones wrong doings in all honesty it not only clears the conscience it restores spiritual health just as a good soapy bath cleanses the dirt from the body of man.