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Motivating our nation

Z. A. Khan
WHENEVER we try to identify the reasons for our nation not performing to its potential, most of us point at the lack of motivation, How can India, with over 1 billion people and nearly 30 different languages, forge unity despite having diverse creeds, cultures and religions? The answer is that the nation has been motivated over the years by dedicated leadership.
Motivation cannot be imposed by sheer "power of leadership." it has to be inculcated. It is a self-propelling force within an individual, which keeps prompting him about what he should set himself to achieve. It also aims at mobilising the self in the pursuit of a goal. Motivation is a "function of needs, goals, perception, attitude and behaviour." • A need is a condition of lacking something that a person needs for physical and emotional satisfaction:
• A goal is something that will reduce or neutralise a need;
• Behaviour is the action taken to satisfy needs, and is directed towards attainment of the goal. This can be explained in the following way:
Motivation cycle = Needs - Goals -Behaviour.
The basic need for all human beings is the overcoming of thirst, hunger, desire and other physical needs. The second category of needs includes acceptance,
self-esteem, achievement etc. Clearly, these needs are more important to a human being than the physioal needs. There are a few more needs according to A.H. Maslow. They are:
• Security needs, which relate to protection from gross forms of violence, diseases, war, famine and poverty;
• Social needs, which deal with love, affection, warmth and sense of belonging;
• Self-esteem needs, which encompass self-respect, social approval of a job done well, and need for respect from others;
• Self-actualisation, which is generated from the development of individual potentialities so that one gets to know what he can do and then readies himself to do it.
Since independence, our leaders have not adequately focused on the real needs of the people. They depended on oratory to carry the people with them. Soon, they were confronted with volleys of questions that they could not answer convincingly. So they lost their social and emotional esteem but continued to cling on to power; formal and informal, to get obedience. This provoked people to question the integrity of the leadership that had stripped them of their self-pride and lacked the moral high ground to motivate the nation.
Being on a high moral ground is essential for motivating people. Motivation cannot be forced rather it is
inculcated. So, unless the leader has integrity, it may be an uphill task for him to carry the people with him. Who can forget about "Mutiny on the Bounty," that took place due to the fault of the leader (Capt Bligh) who was indifferent to the needs of the sailors? History Is replete with examples of people seeking to be bailed out from irresponsible and unfriendly leadership.
Whenever our nation was confronted with turmoil, we felt rudderless and apprehended that we might be led to the point of no return. Everyone in such a situation had one question for their leaders, how can the citizens be motivated towards the objective of saving the nation from the brink of a disaster? At such a juncture, true leaders should convince the people that:
• The leadership is well meaning and is geared to peoples' welfare;
• Those that betrayed the people will be thrown into the waste-bin of our history;
• Efforts will be underway to right the wrong that led to the prevailing situation.
There were occasions in our nation's brief history when our leadership made lofty promises, raising our hopes and aspirations, but defaulted on them. Not many leaders could assure the nation that they were ready to go all the way for peoples' welfare. Our once bitten twice-shy nation now finds it hard to repose its faith on our leadership.
South Korea, till the early 1960s, was on an inglorious slide due to leadership that had immersed itself in selfaggrandisement. The Korean people became indifferent towards the nation's development because of their sagging morale, the prime mover of motivation. The leadership that replaced the failed leaders launched a movement to inculcate "spiritual and moral upliftment,"
which they called called Simul Undung.
The new leadership set examples of commitment, honesty, objectivity, endurance, tolerance and respect for the norms, values and tradition of the nation. Today, democracy and development are taking roots there, and the nation has
been well motivated and is set to go to greater heights.
Although neither our democracy nor our development is in such a disarray as was in Korea in the early sixties, one can see a gradual distortion of our moral fabric that may cause motivational
despair. Our leadership should take discernable steps to arrest the trend. The task may seem monumental but it is not enormously difficult.
We should immediately engage ourselves to reform our culture to focus on people's welfare and to value leadership that is keen to rewind the thread of our moral fabric that is showing syndromes of continuous decay because of the loss of esteem in the leadership that has not been seen to be adequately concerned about the needs of the people.
The leaders in our country during the past decades had made lofty promises, but were found wanting in carrying them out. Our nation suffered immensely because the leadership largely failed to set an attainable objective of all-round development. While our structural skyline is growing apace, our social esteem is yet to match the same in time and space. This is an unpardonable failure of our leadership.
What we need today is to seek self-actualisation at all levels of our national life. Our priority, in my consideration, should be to implore upon all truly responsible citizens to engage themselves in motivating all of us to disassociate from the ills of ignorance and to commit ourselves head and heart to build a nation that we can be proud of.
The people should involve themselves in spiritual exercise alongside practical measures to strengthen their motivation. This, in the long run, will help us adopt a behavioural pattern that is cohesive and appropriate for development of spiritual motivation leading to utmost commitment to the cause of our nation, which surely should make our country an example of democracy and development.
ZA Khan is a former Director General of Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic studies.