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THE COMMON PEOPLE

Marzia Rahman
Once upon a time there was a green, fertile land ruled by a Queen who loved nothing more than dressing herself up and collecting gold. Though the common people were poor and the Queen was a bit greedy, still they were happy.
All was going well until one day a learned group of people visited the Queen in her court. They told the Queen that they would introduce a new rule which would turn their land into a rich one. In this new system the land would be run for the people, by the people and of the people The common people were astonished. They had never heard of such a system. The Queen didn't agree at first but when the group promised to give her a room full of new clothes and a garden full of gold, she happily relented.
The learned group started ruling the land from the court and the first thing they did was to banish the common people.
The common people asked: "Isn’t this new system answerable to us?"
The learned group told them to go away and leave them in peace so that they could establish the new system 'of the people, by the people and for the people.’
One year passed. Nothing much had changed except the poor became
poorer and the rich became richer. The common people went to see the Queen and told her their woes. She too felt disillusioned by the new system. So the Queen now asked the learned group to leave. But the learned group refused to yield as they had become infected with the madness of power.
The Queen said: "Leave at once or 1
will destroy you."
The learned group challenged her. "Let’s see who destroys whom!"
The common people begged. "Do what you will but spare us."
No one listened to them. The people of the learned group began to kill the common people, destroy their harvest, bum their houses. Soon the green, fertile land turned into a wasteland "where the centre could not hold.. .where mere anarchy was loosed upon the world". The common people went to and fro between the Queen and the learned group but both parties refuse to listen to their plight.
Why should they? The common people were illiterate. What would they understand?
While the land burned, Queen counted her gold and made plans to secure her kingdom. The learned group planted devices to destroy everything in order to snatch power. The common people screamed in utter anguish: "How much more must we lose before we get back our right to live?"
Then one day the common people decide to stand up, to shout, to demand their right to live. They began to march to the court holding an enormous green canvas centred with a red circle; the word 'Peace' inscribed on it.