Country, before Self!
The Country always comes first.
I have been to places you may never see, I have dealt with kinds
you wish never existed and I have done deeds you won’t even prefer to know. You
cannot imagine all this sitting in your comfortable homes and busy in your
comfortable dreams. I have seen my country rise against all odds and against
its troubled past. I have seen sacrifice of family and friends and after a
million similar deeds, our country emerged as we see it.
After all these years I have only realised one thing, that
country comes first. If only you can instill this sense in each and every citizen,
no one can stop your country.
I am sure you have heard my name but just as a custom, let
me tell you. I am Mao Zedong, the Chairman of Communist Party and the father of
Great People’s Republic of China. I am the same Mao whose pictures you have
seen in text books, I am the same person whom people revere and fear in equal
terms. Love me or hate me but I am what I am.
China was not always great. It had seen corrupt kings who
were weaklings and governments that never existed. That was before I reined in.
Do you know once upon a time, we did not
have even enough to eat? You heard it right; the great People’s Republic of
China had not even enough to feed its citizens and people died on streets. It
was fifth decade of last century and enemies of the state ruled the roost.
Farmers toiled in the fields selflessly, soldiers struggled hard to safeguard
the country and millions slept hungry.
Today you may laugh at it but do you know who kept the
country hungry? That little nasty beast bird, sparrow.
2
You just have to believe that country comes first. Keep
that faith and never rest till you have attained your aim.
If you ask what can
be done from those experts having long beards and wrinkled face, they will take
hours and hours to tell you it is complicated (their eyes look silly behind
those thick eyeglasses). They are the reason why problems persist. They will
never tell you what you should do and it is your own judgement, your own ability
to decide which you can do to take the country through.
One day in the afternoon after my siesta, I sat up with an
old farmer’s manual. It was full of those truisms and one of that was warning
farmers from smart sparrow. The answer was in front of me. Productivity of
farms was never the problem, it was that nasty sparrow. It ate a huge chunk of
food grains and all our renowned experts, our worthy leaders of past age could
never see it.
I have always been meticulous. A leader just cannot do the things;
a leader should also be in control. I called my entire cabinet and made them
wait for an hour. I called party men and press and then did I tell them, and along
with them told the entire nation too, give me your fifty days and world is
yours.
I gave them a decisive plan, area by area, field by field
and I asked them to give up sleep for some days; the only thing they had to
ensure was there was no sparrow left. They were trained to beat drums, they
were trained to shoot and the only thing they had to do was to do this
relentlessly for fifty days.
You can never imagine the power of ordinary citizens. You
ask them once to sacrifice their hours for the country and they will sacrifice everything.
3
The country always comes first and I made them believe it.
There were millions of people on this job and soon we just had
carcasses of those beasts. It was almost magical to hear the drumming of those
drums, the energised rural populace and the celebration when the last beast is
killed.
And then there were those who come like bees following
honey. Slowly they start whispering this is bound to fail. They also write on
the neighborhood walls and then publish it in obscure newspapers and books. It
is not that I cannot swallow dissent but the only thing I cannot bear is
dampening the spirits of those set out to change the nation. If you cannot aid
in nation building, at least do not laugh at others who do it.
These people will talk of ecology, they will blabber natural
balance and myriad other intellectual things but ask them about the toil and
hard work of the farmers and they will turn clueless. How can they be so far
from reality?
What if yields in one area were less and some people died. People
die all the time. Which great thing ever came without any suffering? Our
soldiers have been dying all along the borders. Did these intelligent people
ever shed a tear in their memory?
They say sparrows eat insects and these pests have
increased a million times. Yes, this may be partially true but in the long run,
imagine what would be our productivity. Can this huge campaign which has taken
shape of a revolution not give desired results?
Our experts went directly to the people and exposed their lies.
Farmers were happy and full of enthusiasm. We were responsive to the changing
situation and daily instructions were issued how this plan should progress. 92%
of our citizens were all for this campaign. They were willing to suffer not for
50 but for 5000 days. Today was the time they could do something for the
country.
4
The country always comes first.
It has been four years since we started the glorious
campaign and today our entire country believes in this concept. The enemies of
the state do not know where to hide their face. They will whisper to anyone who
would lend them ears that forty five million died due to this but no one
believes.
Killing of bedbugs was an important step for building the
overall hygiene and the better health indicators that we see today are only
because of the great campaign. Once the ordinary citizens realise their power,
no power in the world can stop them. When we went against bedbugs, many said
were foolish to have this exercise. A huge smear campaign was started that we
actually intended to kill sparrows.
And how does it matter anyways? Nation building is a task
that these people will never understand. Did anyone ever include these humble
peasants and common citizens in nation building? Did they ever complain they
were suffering? What is anyways in their life than pain and suffering? Most of
the questions in this world are moral not economic. The main objective was to involve
these men in nation building. You have to make the populace believe in their
leader. Only when we all march together towards a common goal, we can achieve for
what we had set in.
We have to fight our common enemy and identify those who
say we cannot do it. They should believe that peasants, soldiers and any other
countrymen are together and united.
You again ask me what we gained out of all this. Everybody learnt
that country comes first, always before anything and no sacrifice is big enough
for our beloved country.
PS: The only inspiration for this story was the Four Pests
Campaign undertaken in China in the years 1958-1962. All other insinuations are
purely imaginary J
