Academics 

The Privilege of Education: Transcending the Self in the Service of the Society

The Honorable Al-Haj Sufi Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, the Vice Chancellor, the members of the Faculty, the distinguished guests, and my fellow students and scholars.

It is a unique privilege to be here with you tonight. Exactly forty years ago I sat where you sit together, bright eyed and eager, excited and worried, torn between hopes and fears, and listened to the Vice Chancellor who welcomed us into the portal of learning as we embarked in our pursuit of knowledge and scholarship. Those years that I spent in the University will always stand out as the most formative experience of your life. It helped improve my mind, to discover my interests and passions, and above all to find own identity and to become the person I am today.

I never thought that four decades later I would have the privilege of standing in front of another generation of scholars to salute them as they set forth in their voyage of discovery and into the world of ideas and learning. I stand before you with some trepidation. I feel honored and humbled in equal measuresto stand before you to deliver the lecture today. I also feel completely lost as I am acutely aware that I have no particular qualifications for this task; and I certainly lack the distinction and erudition of the many eminent people who are gathered here on this occasion. Notwithstanding my deep inadequacies, I am utterly grateful to the founder of the University and the Vice Chancellor for conferring this honor on me. I am deeply beholden to them both.

I asked the Vice Chancellor what I should talk about. With his tact, courtesy and gentle firmness he steered me away from subjects on which I might have spoken with some authority, and instead asked me to share experience as a lifelong student. I find myself extremely ill equipped to do this. However, I thought I shall share with you the joys of education, the need for engaging in civic life, the importance of moral reasoning and ethics in personal life, and why those who have more privileges not only have greater responsibilities but also a duty to make a difference in the lives of those around them. If I there were a theme for tonight’s talk, I would have called it the ‘blessings of educations’ – and to paraphrase Shakespeare slightly out of context, education is blessed twice, those that receive and those that give.
As I began to think about my talk this evening it quickly dawned on me that it is not what education does for us personally but what we do with our education for others - the family, the community, the village, the country and the humanity at large. Indeed as the custodian and trustee of this universe our responsibilities are limitless and education empowers us to do our bit.

While waiting for my connection at Dubai airport I searched my mind for a person who might best exemplify these qualities and characteristics. At first I thought I would pull a page from the lives of our Prophet, the Caliphs and the Imams; then I thought I should talk to you about the sacrifices of some of the great South Asians like Lord Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Bose or Bangabandhu; or our Nobel laureates, Amartya Sen and Muhammad Yunus. But then it dawned on me that there is one nearer at hand. He sits in our own midst tonight. He was received the blessings of education and has become easily one of the most successful men in this country; and has used his wealth, success and status to spread the benefit of education to others. He is an exemplar of what I have to say tonight and he is certainly a role model for all of us. I will have more to say about him in a moment. But first, ladies and gentlemen, I would like ask you to rise to honor and salute this noble soul, the founder of this University.

And as you celebrate your arrival at the University you might also reflect on your good luck and the opportunities that are being conferred on you. The sheer fact that you are here sitting here in this new University indicates that you have already won the lottery of life. From now on you will be, if you use your time here well, become a member of a most select group of global elite. Only a tiny number – fewer than two percent of people around the world — get his far. You should proud of your success but at the same time be mindful of what the universe and nature is bestowing on you. And in the midst of the celebration, I hope you will also take a moment to reflect on the fact that with privilege come obligations.

It might be worth reminding ourselves today what Socrates (469 – 399 BCE) had said nearly twenty five hundred years ago: that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’. Your education will give you the opportunity to lead a life of reflection and self-examination; the space to discover yourself and to ask yourself who you are and what is important to you; hopefully, it will enable you to find your passions and to discover what gives you a purpose in life; and most importantly it will, I hope, liberate you from the existence of a robot whose mind parrots inherited wisdom and prejudices.

From now on you will stand apart from the rest of the world. You will have the capacity to shape your lives the way you want because you will have the unique benefit of receiving liberal education. You will have bestowed on you the greatest gift that any one can seek – a disciplined and an inquiring mind that you can put to use in any field of human endeavor that you may choose. A disciplined mind can distill information, formulate questions, sift through evidence, marshal arguments, separate the trees from the woods, organize the facts cogently, explain a phenomenon, and draw conclusions based on the evidence. It is the most valuable skill that you will ever acquire; and if you continue to nurture it well, it will remain a life long asset. Liberal education not only trains and disciplines the mind; it inculcates in you the power of rational reasoning, prepares you to become useful citizens of democratic societies and gives you the analytical tools needed for the pursuit of a profession.

Liberal education is not about imparting vocational training – it would futile to do so. If statistics are to be believed, all those of you sitting here in this room and those of you who will graduate in next few years will on average change professions 3.7 times; and none of you will know today what different professions you will try in your lifetime. The great advantage of your education is that it has given you the most portable skill and a capacity for life long learning. It is a skill that you will carry with you in what ever you choose to do; it will give you an ability to think rationally and draw evidence based conclusions. You will be equipped with the tool to seek the truth that will free you from ignorance, superstitions, prejudices, narrow mindedness and bigotry.

Information technology, radio and television have shrunk the world and it is no longer possible in our minds to differentiate between homes and abroad. Your education will prepare you to cope with the complexities of a global community. As the citizen of tomorrow you will have to traverse many different worlds and operate at many different levels. You must at the same time be comfortable and be at home with diverse cultures; and must be able to understand problems from a global perspective. We live not only in a global economy and society, but a very complex, interconnected and interdependent world. The problems that confront us – public health issues like HIV AIDS or bird flu, the spread of nuclear weapons, environmental degradation and global warming, deforestation, the scarcity of water and energy, genocide and forced migration of people, terrorism and weapons trade; trafficking in women and children – are issues that transcend national boundaries; and as such, transnational issues are not capable of national resolution.

Nor is any country an island in itself – all countries, big and small, has to cope with the realities of a global economy and society. Bangladesh is a part of the global community and it cannot shirk away from problems in far away regions even if our own direct interest may or may not be directly at stake. In the world of business and trade it is no longer possible to distinguish the origins or nationality of a product that we use every day – the cloth for the shirt manufactured in Bangladesh is imported from Singapore, the cotton for the yarn comes from Egypt, the buttons from Thailand and it is actually sold and worn by consumers around the world under the brand name of Harrods in London’s Knightsbridge or the Saks in New York’s Fifth Avenue. Home and abroad are no longer separate categories. Bangladesh is interconnected to the rest of the world through myriad relationships. In a global world you will compete not only with those in Bangladesh but with the best and the brightest around the world. In a world which is fast becoming without borders and frontiers, where the distinction between domestic and international is fast becoming obsolete, you will have to prepare yourself as a global citizen. In a knowledge-based economy there will be no room for mediocrity. Your four years at the University are precious; and what you do with your time here will decide where you end. Your destiny is in your hands.

Globalization poses a challenge not only for you as students but also for the teachers of the University. The University must adapt its curriculum to train its students to be global citizens who will need to be much more acculturated with the larger environment in which they will live and work. It will mean building on the strong foundations and traditions of the University to make it truly international while firmly preserving its liberal arts traditions. It also means the curriculum must be capable of addressing the big global challenges of the 21st century. Addressing these challenges successfully will require a move away from old style pedagogy. In the past we have experimented within the confines of disciplinary, inter-disciplinary, multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary approaches. In the twenty first century no single discipline is adequate; and we have to move to a post-disciplinary approach and focus on the big questions and issues of the new century. In other words, the students will seek to study and understand a problem simultaneously from both diverse perspectives and derive insights from several academic disciplines. The University will need to ensure that the courses and concentrations are designed around problems and issues, rather than disciplines. Questions like environmental degradation or global warming, making democracy work in plural societies, or poverty or social justice are not confined to any one country, nor are they problems only for developing societies. Students will have to learn and understand these large issues of the 21st century in a comparative framework and see if some of the solutions found elsewhere have any resonance with their own experience and problems at home.

Your education is not only about training the mind and equipping you with skills to operate in a global society; but it is also an intellectual preparation and a means to foster social and civic commitments so as to enable you to participate effectively in public life and fulfill your role as a citizen. Governments remain central to our society as guarantors of social justice; and in democratic societies the governments are held accountable by citizen engagement in policy debates and choices. Our stakes in the government are high; and even democratic governments can degenerate into a cabal in the hands of those wielding power unless citizens play their role as the accountability holders.

Democracy was not given to the people by the rulers. People around the world have had to fight for it, and it is the result of a slow and patient struggle over centuries. In the case of Bangladesh, the struggle for democracy was particularly hard and achieved through a war of liberation. It is a legacy bequeathed to us by those who laid down their lives in the war of liberation and by others before them. We are the custodians of a sacred trust for our children and for the generations yet unborn. The answer to the question of ‘why we aspire for democratic government?’ is self-evident, and can be stated unequivocally: democracy is a core part of our societal vision and ethos. An efficient, effective and democratic government is the best guarantor of social justice and an orderly society. We know from experience that democratic governments are (or at least they should be) participatory, transparent and accountable, they respect plural and diverse perspectives, they promote gender and social equity, and they allow freedom of choice, expression and beliefs. There is no question that a democratic government that reflects the popular will is better equipped to ensure social justice, to create an even playing field that allows its citizens the freedom to realize their full potentials and creativity; and to deliver the services and opportunities that people need.

Each generation must not only safeguard democracy but it must also reinvent it to ensure its vitality and survival. As a privileged citizen you have a particular obligation to participate in civic life. The consequences of shirking your civic responsibilities are too horrendous to contemplate. It leaves open the field for criminals to enter politics and leads to the criminalization of politics; the influence of money and campaign finance becomes a determining factor for winning the elections; the power of the vote is negated by the influence of the interest groups; and not surprisingly the governments find it difficult to keep faith with the voters.

If today there is a crisis of democracy in Bangladesh the blame does not rest with the so-called illiterate masses. The people of Bangladesh have exercised their votes judiciously and have repeatedly demonstrated that there is no linkage between literacy and political maturity. The responsibility for the failure must lie squarely with those of us, you and me, who are privileged to lead the country. If we want the future to be different from the past, we cannot have more of the same. It is imperative that you, as the next generation of leaders, rise to the occasion, take up the gauntlet against injustices that result from mal-governance and reach out to your compatriots who suffer from a congruence of disabilities. The poor are not only poor but they are also hungry, emaciated, and in poor health; and they are also illiterate, unemployed, homeless, destitute, disempowered and without any entitlement. You cannot shirk away from your responsibilities towards them; and I would argue that Universities have an important role in preparing the students for engaging in democratic processes. Professor Derek Bok, the former president of Harvard, reminded the institutions of higher education of their responsibilities:
Colleges must prepare students to vote and participate in public life as wisely as possible by enhancing students’ analytical and problem solving abilities, developing their ethical awareness and powers of moral reasoning, and enhancing their tolerance and respect for other points of view.

The traditional liberal arts curriculum, through its emphasis on the disciplining of the mind and its emphasis on evidence based conclusions in important ways serves to prepare the students for citizenship. But it is not enough in itself. The students have to be trained and equipped for it. “Citizenship,” to quote Professor Bok again, “is not just another option for students to pursue or not to pursue as they choose.” The society has an interest in making sure that the students acquire a body of knowledge to become good citizens, and the Universities have a responsibility to impart that knowledge but also make it a compulsory part of the curriculum. Such a curriculum must consist of two distinct elements.

In the first place, every student graduating must have a basic knowledge about the history of Bangladesh, the core values and principles that inspired the liberation war, the vision that informed the constitution – commitment to democracy, social justice, secular and plural society and gender equality, minority rights, affirmative action and the importance of creating an even playing field so as to allow for equal opportunities. They must be equipped with an understanding of the institutions of government, rule of law, freedom of expression, and the importance and necessity of civil authority over the military. The training must inculcate in the students democratic mores and values; an ability to appreciate and empathize with differing perspectives; and an understanding of the strength and vulnerabilities of democracy. The students must also be made familiar with political philosophy, basic economics and an understanding of the shared culture, heritage and history of the region of South Asia; and in a global world, some knowledge of the working of the international system and the issues confronting peace and security are also essential.

Second, I want to make a plea for all students to be introduced to moral reasoning and ethics as a compulsory part of their curriculum. The importance of integrity in personal and professional life can scarcely be exaggerated. Corruption, whether in the public or private sector, has become a scourge in our time. It is the single biggest factor hindering the efforts to eliminate poverty in the developing world. It is not only morally reprehensible and socially corrosive but also hinders development and perpetuates poverty. Typically, countries with high levels of corruption are perpetually poor. It is a blot on humanity that corruption causes 40 percent of the population in Asia and Africa to live below the poverty line. These people do not get enough to eat to preserve their body weight, are physically stunted before they reach adulthood, and are unable to lead healthy and productive lives. Today nearly one billion are illiterate and with no real hope of escaping their state of ignorance. These abominable figures of disadvantage and deprivation become even more grotesque when we, in the same breath, claim that our world today is richer than at any time in history. The reasons for these problems are complex but not unrelated to the level of corruption. Those of you who are about to enter the real world will have to confront this scourge, and you will need to be prepared for it.

Education is ultimately about character building, but it is not, as is widely perceived, about what a student can or cannot do in the college, it is not about the discipline regime, nor just about the adherence to the honor code. It is much more than the rules and regulations of the institution; and the solution to it is more than just exposing a student to teachers with a zeal for intellectual integrity and a devotion to the truth. These are certainly important and we cannot but agree with the Socratic dictum that ‘the knowledge of the good will lead to the commitment of the good’.

But the world we live in is complex and we face multiple ethical issues – we may be confronted with questions of personal integrity, professional obligations and societal demands and expectations – often not capable of simple resolution. No matter what the ethical dilemmas are, they are seldom black and white. The choices we confront daily are not starkly between good and bad; and the ethical and moral quagmire is not so obviously visible that it can be effortlessly side stepped. If it were so, I believe there would be no problem. There is good in all of us – I have never, in all my life, ever known in one who is any different – and confronted with a clear choice of good and evil, we would all be able to make the correct choices. But real life is complex, the moral dilemmas are always lurking in grey areas, and we walk into them incrementally and are not fully aware of the moral and ethical consequences until we are consumed by them; and once on the slippery slope we lie, cheat and commit perjury to hide our failings and save our families and friends from embarrassments and deepen our guilt. I believe a compulsory course on ethical dilemmas and moral reasoning would help the students to understand better the ethical issues and instill in them a sense of proper discrimination of values. They can then make informed choices, take corrective action early on and avoid spiraling out of control into a moral quandary.

Our students agonize between what is good and bad; they are trying to fight temptation, do the right thing, live by their conscience and to comprehend the perennial issues of suffering, injustice and sufferings. They are struggling to find their own moral compass and work out their moral dilemmas. The least we can do is to give them a helping hand. A course on Ethics and Moral Reasoning would give the students the foundation and the intellectual arguments for being ethical, to understand the harmful consequences on others of their own selfish and unethical actions; and to understand what it would mean for them and their families to live in a society if every one behaved in an unethical way. You are young, you are idealistic, you want to be good; but the Universities also need to help you. A course on ethics and moral reasoning would give the students an opportunity to discuss in the safe and nonjudgmental environment of a class room their personal, family and professional dilemmas that would enhance their ability to think analytically about these real life issues. Moreover, a familiarity with the great moral philosophers from different traditions and cultures will enable the students to reflect on their own ethical and moral dilemmas through informed and different intellectual prisms. It will give them the vocabulary and arguments to make their case in public, help them to find alternative solutions, and in making choices they will understand the consequences of their actions on the larger society. There is no guarantee that by learning about moral reasoning and ethical dilemmas the students will become more moral and ethical. But I believe we must at least give it a try.

The answers to ethical issues and moral dilemma are not always clear cut and very often there is no one solution. Nor can they be proven one way or another in the courts of law. Yet they are deeply embedded in our value systems and shape our outlook and behavior. Much of moral reasoning is derived from our values system. These values are learnt from our families, our social and cultural norms, and some times they are reinforced by our religious traditions. As Bangali we share certain basic moral values: we respect our elders, we have duties to our children and to those who are unable to take care of themselves, we try not to lie or hurt others, we believe in civility and in respecting diversity. It is these values that inform our analysis and self questioning and help us to reach conclusions.

In the final analysis the actual choices the students will make in real life will be predicated on many factors but what remains undeniable is that they will know within themselves whether their action was ethically and morally correct or reprehensible. All my life I have reminded myself of the advice my father gave to me when aged 12, I left home for the boarding school: “You will be far away from your mother and me; and you will find yourself in situations where you will have to make your own choices often between good and bad. In making those choices remember not to choose anything that you will embarrass you if your mother were to hear of it.” Both my parents have now been dead for nearly four decades, but those words are with me. I am of course not able to judge the morality of my own conduct - I have no doubt done many things I should not have done - but those words have remained with me and have been my moral lodestone. In my mind I often dialogue with my late parents when ever I am confronted with a moral dilemma; and when I feel uncomfortable in my imaginary conversation with my parents, I know at once that I am in danger of slipping into an ethical morass. The purpose of this not to tell you of my story but to say that if you have to justify your action in front of the people that you respect most – family, friends, colleagues and community – you are likely to weigh the consequences of your action. It is our duty to equip the students with training in moral reasoning and ethical dilemmas and the rest is up to them. Once you have been equipped with ethical reasoning, you will know every morning, when you look at your face in the mirror, if you are doing the right thing. And if after that you chose to ignore your moral conscience then the choice is yours.

I have said enough about personal ethics and moral action but before I conclude let me say one more thing. Ethics, as Mahatma Gandhi had said, gives you the capacity for empathy, a feeling and concern about the needs of the others. I do not need to remind you that the education that you are receiving comes with certain responsibilities and obligations. You are uniquely privileged. When you graduate your education will set you apart from the rest of humanity; you will become a part of the world’s tiny and the most privileged elite. It will also give you the capacity to do much good. I hope you understand that not only your family and teachers but also the society has made an enormous investment in your education; and it has placed certain legitimate demands on you. At the larger level you have the responsibility to protect and remain true to the core values of our society – social justice, freedom of expression, tolerance, diversity, and the plural democratic process and institutions.

I hope you will remember that to those to whom so much is given, from them much is also expected. Your education will give you what a large part of the humanity can but dream of; and that is reward enough. Your education will endow you with the capacity to make a difference in the lives of others. Your education is a triumph of optimism over cynicism; it is a call to transcend the self in which your satisfaction will come not from self gratification but from serving others; your privilege is a call to duty; and public service will be your greatest reward. As you consider the privileges and responsibilities, I hope that you will place a strong emphasis on fulfilling those responsibilities through service. Power, wealth, position, fame and glamour are not, and cannot be, the end in themselves. They are a means to an end. The end is the service to others, especially those less fortunate than us. The ultimate fulfillment comes is realized when we transcend the self in service of the society.

We live in South Asia where there is much to be proud of.and we are justifiably proud of our many accomplishments. We are the leaders in the field of information technology; we have launched satellites in the space; we have developed nuclear technology capable of annihilate the world and have created some world class academic institutions; we have health care and life style for some of us that is the envy of the West. But we also have the dubious distinction of having half of the world’s illiterates and destitute living amongst us; half a billion of our fellow beings live below the poverty line; where 2 out of 5 people go to bed hungry; where malnutrition stunts growth of our children before they become adults; and where an unacceptably large number of our people cannot hope for safe drinking water or clean sanitation. The elite and the people may live in the same country but they traverse different universe. No matter how successful we may become individually, the shame of poverty and deprivation hangs like the albatross around our neck. We cannot shirk away from it. We have to take responsibility for that. It is not the job of the others and it is here that we all have to take responsibility personally and invidually.

The difference that an individual can make brings me back to Sufi Mizanur Rahman. It is an inspirational story. His has been a life of service to the community, the public and the country. He walks the talk and is the exemplar of all the virtues that I have been extolling. He was not born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth but rather in a modest home. Through sheer hard work and perseverance he has the led the life of a Bangladeshi dream. He graduated in commerce from the Dhaka University and over forty years he has built a vast conglomerate of businesses and industries with an annual turnover of over 20 billion taka. In the West such a person would be described as a self made man; but Sufi Mizan is much too modest to claim that; and in a characteristically self-deprecating manner he attributes his success to ‘divine blessings’ and ‘a miracle’.

His worldly outlook has been shaped by his Sufi upbringing. He grew up in a home, where spirituality, devotion to the Creator and the love of humanity was a part of his growing up; and these values have continued to inspire and guide every step in his life. While deeply religious and spiritual in his personal life, he remains focused on the service of humanity and manifests itself in personal piety, service to the community and philanthropy for promoting all that is good and noble. Sufi Mizan is, by any reckoning, easily one of the most successful persons in Bangladesh. But success did not diminish his integrity, his civic sense, his fellow feelings or a concern for the society that nurtured him. To him wealth is a means to an end. He earns so that he can serve. Indeed his philanthropy represents the best in the Islamic tradition - wealth is held in trust, and as the custodian of that wealth he lavishly supports many noble and worthy causes. His hospitals succor the sick and the disable; his orphanages have taken in children who would otherwise have been homeless and uncared for; his Eye Infirmary is engaged in bringing back sights to those who might have otherwise never seen the day light; he has built schools, madrasahs, colleges and universities; he has brought quality education so that the country can find its rightful place in a knowledge based economy. Wealth has not dented his faith and outlook. He leads a simple and unostentatious life; he prefers to fast rather than feast; and in outwardly there is little to distinguish him from the person who lives next door. He walks the talk, holds himself to high standards and is a living proof that honesty is the best policy. In a society where tax evasion is the norm his companies have paid more than 4 billion taka in taxes last year; and inspired by his belief that ‘the best people make the best organization’ he has promoted meritocracy in his companies and has hired people irrespective of their background or nationality. Sufi Mizanur Rahman is the truly a role model for all of us in this room. He leads and inspires through his life and work. As students of this University you are fortunate to have in him a mentor, friend and a role model.

No matter what your destination may be – be it public service or business, diplomacy or the nonprofit, education or management, medicine or engineering, banking or manufacturing, the media or the films – your destiny should be serve the others in what ever way you can. Some are intimidated by darkness but others choose to light a candle; some will despair because the problems are so overwhelming but others will bring succor and become a beacon of hope; and some will cynically accept that injustice, poverty and violence are a part of the society but others will decide to take a stand and fight oppression in any way they can. No matter what you choose, you will have to take sides. There is no neutral ground between good and bad. In the struggle against injustice, oppression, poverty, intolerance and ignorance no one can remain neutral. You will be responsible for the choices you make. Once you have been educated you will know that nothing is too small, nor anything too large. What matters is whether you are doing what you can to help those less advantaged than you, to make the world a better place than the one in which you were born into. This is what will give your life meaning and will bring lasting satisfaction in everything you do. If you decide to answer the call of duty you will have paid your debt to the society.

Take care. Be well. And may God guide your path.