What is our national purpose?

If recent media reports are any indicator, it appears that incidents of gruesome crimes such as murder, rape, killings, and kidnappings have increased across our country. 

Events include dismembering bodies, cutting off wrists for trivial reasons, entering homes to slit throats and kill, gang-raping women while tying up their husbands, raping after spreading superglue on eyes and lips, breaking into houses to violate mothers and daughters, torturing victims after kidnapping for ransom and sending pictures of the torture to their families to demand ransom or create terror, attacks and counter-attacks, snatching, and extortion, all of which have instilled various fears among the people.

Reading about these incidents in the media could cause deep stress. These things happen in every country; what is so stressful about them?

These are stressful because they hurt our psyche, leading to a deeper frustration than falling into perpetual economic uncertainty. The media, social media, and society speak a lot about us—we are aimless and do not have a purpose for our lives, both individually and nationally.

Why am I a Bangladeshi? Because we fought for liberation? Because we have a map? After 1971, what was our national purpose? What are or are our national purposes today? To feed the people? Turn the country into a digital or smart nation?

You might ask—I started this piece with crimes and am now talking about national purpose. Let me tell you why purpose matters. A clear national purpose can unite us, making us focus on stability. A purpose may provide us with a framework for internal and external policies. A defined national purpose can enhance our international standing. 

Many countries have solid national purposes and economic objectives and are doing fine. Culture can also serve a national purpose: preserving and promoting our heritage and identity.

By and far, national purpose is a grand narrative that should unite us.

Do we have one? If we do, are we working on communicating it or them to the people so that they have purposes as Bangladeshis?

Bhutan's national purposes are gross national happiness and sustainable development. The country prioritises the well-being and happiness of its citizens over purely economic growth, and it has a unique approach to achieving that. Our closest neighbour, India, aims for unity in diversity, economic development, and democratic values. 

Far from home, the United States' national purposes are the pursuit of liberty, democracy, and the American Dream. After the Second World War, Japan aimed to achieve technological innovation and economic growth. One can see that China defines its national purpose as national rejuvenation and global influence. 

Germany perhaps wants European integration and sustainability. Israel's purposes are the security and preservation of Jewish identity. Our Asian neighbour Singapore wants economic success. Africa's Rwanda's purposes are unity, reconciliation and economic transformation.

The reason I mentioned crimes and hooliganism in the beginning is because humans commit meaningless crimes when they do not find a defined purpose that could lead to a meaningful life.

What is the meaning of life for a Bangladeshi? Poverty-free Bangladesh? Four or five meals a day? Digital Bangladesh? Smart Bangladesh? Then teach us smartness. We do not know how to be smart Bangladeshis with a defined objective. Let us select a collective goal that can lead us to a meaning.

We, so far, could not find a meaning.

Ekram Kabir is a storyteller and a communications professional.

Ekram Kabir is a storyteller and a communications professional. He is just an email away – ekabir@gmail.com.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.