“States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions.”
-- Noam Chomsky
The modern era puts a tremendous premium on being clever, but not enough emphasis on being honest. The expression “honesty is the best policy” sounds tired and trite but nevertheless packs considerable wisdom. Sometimes an over-clever and scheming person ends up looking silly. Driven by quick profits, a shopkeeper who cheats and a restaurant which sells sub-standard food often encounter customers who vote with their feet. The same applies for a store which sells shoddy products or a company which provides poor services.
Nearly 500 years ago, in his book, The Prince, Machiavelli observed: “One cannot by fair dealing, and without injury to others, satisfy the nobles, but you can satisfy the people, for their object is more righteous than that of the nobles.”
The Soviet despot Stalin once dismissed the Pope by sneering, “How many battalions does he have?” But the 2000-year-old Papacy at the Vatican still endures but not Stalin nor the USSR. It is a misperception to visualize power exclusively in terms of military, technological, and economic power. History suggests otherwise.
There is truth in the old saying: “If wealth is lost, nothing is lost; if health is lost, something is lost; if honor is lost, everything is lost.” Today, Russia wields power infinitely superior to that of the Chechens, so does India in Kashmir and Israel in Palestine. Iraq is yet another obvious example. But thus far, none of the powerful states is prevailing. Why? It is difficult when legitimacy itself is questioned, challenged and not accepted.
Real power flows from being righteous, and holding power without being righteous makes power into a very temporary exercise. A telling example is what happened to the UN, particularly under the watch of Mr. Kofi Annan. When the United Nations was seen as peace-making body, it commanded respect and its blue-helmeted troops were welcomed. But not any more. Today, it is widely seen as a tool of big powers. Unsurprisingly, then, its headquarters at Baghdad became the target of a suicide attack.
The people of the subcontinent have long forgotten their rulers but remain wedded to the legacy of the dervish. People continue to flock to the shrines of the great saints like Khawaja Moeen-ud-Din Chishti of Ajmer, Nizam-ud-Din Auliya of Delhi, Data Gunj Bakhsh of Lahore, Baba Farid of Pakpattan, and Bulleh Shah of Kasur. It reconfirms that the real source of power is moral authority and not political authority.
What is morally unsound is politically unsustainable.
