Thrones lack Ergonomical and Moral Specifications
By Rashid Samnakay, New Age Islam
December 01, 2013
Thrones can neither ergonomically nor can they be designed to moral specifications as they have no basis in humanity for a person to exercise monarchical power over other people, with or without their consent.
The present day long dark winters faced by of the potentates in the third world show that being crowned on gilded thrones by the countryman or on the strength of the foreign powers do not ensure permanency of tenure.
Siting on these thrones, the potentates assume that they can never be dislodged from these seats as they are guarded by the most powerful masters. They are then astonished to find that they are dispensable and that the very forces that installed them can dislodge them in the most humiliating manner.
It is forgotten that these powerful masters could not save four of their own head of states while in office from assassinations by their own people!
From the mid twentieth century, this has been a common fate of most of the political leaders and emperors in the third world. Emperor Bokasa for example of Central African Empire (1976–79), of one of the poorest countries; with his gilded throne, designed and made by his French masters, and those others similarly in the third world, soon found out that such gilded thrones; including the ancient peacock throne do not save them from the inevitable fate.
The masters have their own agenda and national interests, and exercise their strength at will to fulfill it. Their administrative motto is for all to see -- “we do it because we can” and also “because it is worth it”, right or wrong but often wrong, totally devoid of any conscience and moral pangs.
Unfortunately it is a feature that seems to continue till today with the accompanying tyranny, loss of untold lives of innocent as well as the guilty, displacement of millions and devastation of their entire country—flattened to the ground—is the prize their poor citizens and country pay for the process of the so called revolution to unseat the puppets.
What then is the justification in morality and ethics to bring about these bloody revolutions, if at all they can be called so?
Is not the leaders’ duty to ensure security, peace and stability so that the countrymen develop and progress by evolution in a progressive nation?
What then is the obligations and responsibility of a Leader if not to save every innocent life of his/her citizens’ and to protect every brick and defend every square centimeter of the country?
How do they justify and how is it that they deem it worth the sacrifices made by their fellow citizens to keep them in power, or for that matter to unseat them?
Does the support for the leader, of the many and opposition of the few, or vice versa, justify such devastation and destruction of a whole nation?
Conversely what are the duties and obligations of the citizens, and when is it ‘just’ to dislodge the incumbent leader? Under what circumstances is that action valid or invalid?
What are the duties of the third parties, the masters, who for their own gains manipulate and ‘hire’ the unsophisticated citizens, to achieve ‘regime change’ when their protégé on the throne runs out of usefulness to them?
What happened to the lofty ideology of these third party masters, the king-makers? “…Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes…” says one nation’s lofty document; a nation prominently involved in this game of regime-changes, often citing justice for the people!
Long ago a political philosopher had concluded that -‘The highest reach of injustice is to be deemed just when you are not.’
Notwithstanding other political, economic, religious and even factional issues in this context, these questions must be asked of the individual leaders, wanting to remain in power at the expense of unimaginable price paid by their country, both materially and in terms of lives lost!
Who carries the burden of guilt?
Ideally, a morally upright leader will choose to abdicate his/her position on the very first sign of bloodshed for or against them.
But it is only applicable to those people who are not infected by the incurable virus of greed and passion for grandeur — VIPs virus infected people.
Although, these important people always ‘affirm’ their obligations ritually and religiously, with raised hand or hand on heart, with the other on a holy scripture.
But those endowed with higher ideals of leadership and values consider them as the measure of quality of character of a true leader and statesmanship.
It is obvious that such leaders have been few and far in between, in human history!
Syria and its current leadership come to fore as a case in point in recent days.
The issue here is not to annunciate the science of politics or the right or wrong of the political struggle for power or the national and global interest for which the devastations are taking place. Although politics is touted as science, one wonders as to how such an inconsistent and whimsical stringy discipline can be termed as science!
The issue here is the exercise of power for the good of the country in moral and ethical terms by all concerned.
In terms of the referred country, what was once a beautiful country, full of history, religiously mixed, culturally diverse and reasonably educated is today devoid of its intellectual class and in a pile of rubble and dirt.. that will take generations to reconstruct!
Millions of its displaced people have crossed the boarders to neighbouring countries; adding untold burden on them and their meagre resources.
How long this madness on all sides of the divide will last? What benefits accrue to the destroyed nation except for the leader if he/she survives, and at what cost?
Either way, win or lose, what is the inheritance left to the nation’s future generation? That is if anything is left at all for them to inherit.
The Damocles sword that hangs by the slenderest of thread over the throne of every potentate also cuts through the entire fabric of a nation when it falls, and the recovery takes decades.
Is it necessary to depend on other sources to inform the nation of such things?
“Syrian War 'Damaging A Generation of Children', United Nations Warns”
But then someone must gain from all this wanton destruction. But who is it?
Only the nation with wisdom can contemplate for itself and then perhaps be able to answer!
But there is one sure answer to it, and that is, NOT the Syrians! They have lost everything!
Many other unfortunate countries in that region and elsewhere have fallen in this category because of the potentates’ insistence on gluing themselves to the thrones.
Let alone not learning from history of even the immediate past; nations and their leaders that turn blind eyes to such current events just across the borders; on the strength and arrogance, or dependence on foreign masters to keep them glued to their thrones, are burying their heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich, which then finds that the eggs that it was supposed to be incubating and guarding have been devoured by other animals!
As the technical definition of ergonomist and ergonomics says - Practitioners of ergonomics, ergonomists, contribute to the planning, design and evaluation of tasks … in order to make them compatible with the needs, abilities and limitations of people.
A leader in a position to rule must have the wisdom, and particularly the acumen to choose the right ergonomists, advisors devoid of self-interests and grinding their own axes. He/she must be in tune with the aspirations of their people. This must be the primary concern of a Statesman or Stateswoman and not their self-interest and lust for grandeur.
Their inner voice must recognise that their throne has become obsolete and they themselves have passed the use by date.
Just one life lost is one too many to preserve obsolescence, to preserve a ‘dynasty’ or ‘handover’ to another equally despised leader. It is like celebrating “the honour among thieves”.
Such handover always invites the jeer of the world:- Zaagon' Kay Tasarruf May Hai Aqaabon' Kaa Nasheman
ز۱غوں کے تصرف ميں ہے عقابوں کا نشيمن
The crows have acquired the use of eagles’ aerie!
The nation is always thankful to such Statesmen who leave not such lamentable legacies behind.
Nelson Mandela’s nation today is thankful to him for just that reason. He vacated his seat as the Statesman. That is why his nation and the world too say “We Love and Thank You, Madiba”.
There have been very few and far in between leaders of his kind in the world!
A regular contributor to New Age Islam, Rashid Samnakay is a (Retd.) Engineer
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-west/thrones-lack-ergonomical-moral-specifications/d/34669