There is a
saying in my country: “You get money while you are in your twenties, but will
start to acquire wisdom in your forties.” It is a saying which denotes the
energy and most often the naivety of the youth, and the lifelong knowledge one
garners as one gets older- through the topsy-turvy path of life.
These
knowledge and experience of the elders are of precious value for a nation. They
can be shared with the young generation, can be used to govern a nation provided
that they have the will to evolve, compromise and trust. But when they are
stuck with the past, or are afraid of change and believe that they have the
absolute and the ultimate answer for every problem, then they will be a
dragging force, a metal ball chained around the neck of the nation.
These Old
Men at helm, unable to recognize a power-shared serves the nation better than a
power-accumulated-in-a-single-hand, must remember that power is a relay and not a marathon-that
the youth is visionary but also revolutionary and explosive. They cannot be
muzzled indefinitely; they need their voice to be heard, their question to be
addressed and to be included in the decision making process.
The young should
be trusted, be taken responsible and be respected for their opinion. They should
be encouraged to decide their own fate, to bring innovative and radical policy
on the table.
Those with power
should acknowledge that the best solution for a problem is obtained through
argument and compromise, that without mutual concession one cannot bridge differences.
They must also learn that brainwashing and
blocking the youth from thinking independently results in a broken political and
power machine incapable of providing any ad hoc or/and permanent solution for
the challenges the society faces.
In the end-
if these Old Men remain at the helm due to their thirst of power-not because
they have purpose to accomplish, then they are like a lay man who loves the
violin but cannot draw out any harmony out of it. Eventually either the
audience will leave the hall turn by turn and he will remain alone, or he will
be forced out of the stage.
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