Friday, November 1, 2013
Let us hope
The following opinion piece was published in Republica on October 29, 2013 under the title "Let us Hope".
Our political leaders who fought the Panchayat regime were labeled ‘freedom fighters’ when we re-gained democracy in 1990. In people’s eyes, they epitomized the democratic fight and ideals.
Now, on hindsight, we know our post-Panchayat governments were filled with faux-revolutionaries and inept and shady leaders. There were examples of freedom fighters who, when denied a ministership by their respective parties, ran as independents.
Things have not changed much. Many politicians who were not nominated by their respective parties for the upcoming election have quit their parties, and many have pressed forward as independent candidates. While some of them are genuine victims of intra-party power-play, most were determined to be undeserving by their parties.
Finally, we now have a list of candidates from all contesting political parties for the upcoming election. Because elections in Nepal are rare, every election receives warm welcome from the public. And the same is true of the upcoming election.
However, our political parties have disappointed the general population even before a single vote is cast. First, selection of candidates has shown, again, that Nepali politics and political process still remains hostage to a few powerful players.
Second, many leaders who won handsomely in the previous election have ditched their previous constituencies, and are running from new constituencies. There can only be one reason for this. These leaders fear retribution from their constituents for unfulfilled promises and undelivered results from their last campaign.
Third, political parties and top leaderships have also disappointed in terms of fielding women, indigenous and dalit candidates. Despite strong rhetoric on this front, actual action has been found lacking. Their failure in fielding diversity of candidates has once again shown that elitism and chauvinism reign high within Nepali political parties. All talks of modernizing and liberalizing have proven hollow.
The current Nepali political leadership does not reflect the character of a cosmopolitan and diverse nation whose median age is 21. The only character that our political leadership has retained is that of an old, grey-haired, upper-caste male at the helm.
The saga of political characterless-ness is nothing new in Nepal, and has a history of repeating itself. We saw our share of freedom fighters during the democratic movements of 1950 and 1990. We had high hopes from these individuals.
They had excellent character, and a hunger to liberate the country from the Rana regime and the Panchayat system respectively. We hoped that once we established democracy and installed these individuals in our government, they would raise our fortunes. However, that has not been the case. Once handed the power to rule, our freedom fighters turned politicians lost their way and sold their souls.
Abraham Lincoln, the American president, once opined that if you want to test a man’s character, all you have to do is give him power, and then sit back and watch. Nowhere has President Lincoln’s words rung truer than in Nepal. The true test of our current batch of political leaders’ character came after they were handed power in the post-Panchayat era. Most of them turned out to be crooks and liars.
The current batch of politicians running for election is no different, with thugs, dons and party-affiliated criminals getting tickets. Oscar Levant’s assessment of politicians holds true for our current batch of nominated political leaderships: underneath their flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.
Lack of character has flowed from politics to bureaucracy to the larger society. Our public officials solicit bribes in broad daylight. Bureaucrats working in the airport rob our brothers and sisters coming back from overseas employment. Even law enforcement is corrupt. Add to this the problem of rampant nepotism and cronyism in both public and private sectors, and we have no decent hope of achieving an honest hardworking society anytime soon. Impunity reigns everywhere.
Our political parties and actors, for years, have been feeding us the hope of bringing about a ‘revolution’. Now that another election is at our doorstep, they’re busy serving us another round of cool-aid. The manifestos that are being made public by the political parties promise us 10,000 megawatts of hydropower in the next few years.
They mention Singapore and Nepal in same breath when asked about economic aspirations. How can they deliver us a new revolution while clutching to beliefs, ideologies and philosophies that are decades old and reactionary in nature?
And, why is it that we’re always searching for a new revolution? We’re done with revolutions. We now need a renaissance. However, our renaissance seems possible only if it has a phoenix-like characteristic—an ability to rise out of the ashes of corruption, nepotism, and cronyism. Let us hope.
Let us hope
Our political leaders who fought the Panchayat regime were labeled ‘freedom fighters’ when we re-gained democracy in 1990. In people’s eyes, they epitomized the democratic fight and ideals.
Now, on hindsight, we know our post-Panchayat governments were filled with faux-revolutionaries and inept and shady leaders. There were examples of freedom fighters who, when denied a ministership by their respective parties, ran as independents.
Things have not changed much. Many politicians who were not nominated by their respective parties for the upcoming election have quit their parties, and many have pressed forward as independent candidates. While some of them are genuine victims of intra-party power-play, most were determined to be undeserving by their parties.
Finally, we now have a list of candidates from all contesting political parties for the upcoming election. Because elections in Nepal are rare, every election receives warm welcome from the public. And the same is true of the upcoming election.
However, our political parties have disappointed the general population even before a single vote is cast. First, selection of candidates has shown, again, that Nepali politics and political process still remains hostage to a few powerful players.
Second, many leaders who won handsomely in the previous election have ditched their previous constituencies, and are running from new constituencies. There can only be one reason for this. These leaders fear retribution from their constituents for unfulfilled promises and undelivered results from their last campaign.
Third, political parties and top leaderships have also disappointed in terms of fielding women, indigenous and dalit candidates. Despite strong rhetoric on this front, actual action has been found lacking. Their failure in fielding diversity of candidates has once again shown that elitism and chauvinism reign high within Nepali political parties. All talks of modernizing and liberalizing have proven hollow.
The current Nepali political leadership does not reflect the character of a cosmopolitan and diverse nation whose median age is 21. The only character that our political leadership has retained is that of an old, grey-haired, upper-caste male at the helm.
The saga of political characterless-ness is nothing new in Nepal, and has a history of repeating itself. We saw our share of freedom fighters during the democratic movements of 1950 and 1990. We had high hopes from these individuals.
They had excellent character, and a hunger to liberate the country from the Rana regime and the Panchayat system respectively. We hoped that once we established democracy and installed these individuals in our government, they would raise our fortunes. However, that has not been the case. Once handed the power to rule, our freedom fighters turned politicians lost their way and sold their souls.
Abraham Lincoln, the American president, once opined that if you want to test a man’s character, all you have to do is give him power, and then sit back and watch. Nowhere has President Lincoln’s words rung truer than in Nepal. The true test of our current batch of political leaders’ character came after they were handed power in the post-Panchayat era. Most of them turned out to be crooks and liars.
The current batch of politicians running for election is no different, with thugs, dons and party-affiliated criminals getting tickets. Oscar Levant’s assessment of politicians holds true for our current batch of nominated political leaderships: underneath their flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.
Lack of character has flowed from politics to bureaucracy to the larger society. Our public officials solicit bribes in broad daylight. Bureaucrats working in the airport rob our brothers and sisters coming back from overseas employment. Even law enforcement is corrupt. Add to this the problem of rampant nepotism and cronyism in both public and private sectors, and we have no decent hope of achieving an honest hardworking society anytime soon. Impunity reigns everywhere.
Our political parties and actors, for years, have been feeding us the hope of bringing about a ‘revolution’. Now that another election is at our doorstep, they’re busy serving us another round of cool-aid. The manifestos that are being made public by the political parties promise us 10,000 megawatts of hydropower in the next few years.
They mention Singapore and Nepal in same breath when asked about economic aspirations. How can they deliver us a new revolution while clutching to beliefs, ideologies and philosophies that are decades old and reactionary in nature?
And, why is it that we’re always searching for a new revolution? We’re done with revolutions. We now need a renaissance. However, our renaissance seems possible only if it has a phoenix-like characteristic—an ability to rise out of the ashes of corruption, nepotism, and cronyism. Let us hope.
Labels: democracy, election, freedom fighters
Monday, January 21, 2013
Today’s Nepal and its missing morality
Political leaders who led and participated in the democratic movement
of 2046 BS are still referred to as “freedom fighters” in our daily parlance. There
was one who had been jailed by the Panchayat government. His best friend, a
fellow freedom fighter, would frequently visit his family during that period like
any good friend would. When the one in jail went home after being released, his
wife ran away with the best friend. The two best friends went on to become
ministers in the post-Panchayat pro-democratic government at the same time. In
any function one attended, the other would be absent in order to avoid any
confrontation. This continued until one died recently.
In another incident, another freedom fighter was caught jumping out of
a prostitute’s window not very long ago. There were a few who, when denied a
ministership by their respective political parties, ran as independents and
lost. These incidents and examples illustrate a lack of ethics, character and
morality in our political leadership. This lack of ethics, character and
morality then seeped into our bureaucracy and the larger civil society.
I know a few civil servants who are the best fathers, husbands, sons
and uncles for their children, wives, parents and nieces. One of them was an
officer who extracted money from Sita Rai in the now-infamous airport
immigration extortion and rape case. That civil servant is still in hiding. What
makes these best fathers, husbands, sons and uncles leave the confines of their
own homes and turn into the sleaziest of civil servants and the vilest of human
beings? I believe that this is replication, in civil service, of our Hindu
tradition of sweeping and mopping our own homes clean every morning while
throwing our filth and garbage right outside our boundary walls with complete
disregard of how our actions affect others in the society.
How else can we, otherwise, explain our public officials in immigration
and customs stealing two lakh rupees from a bruised and battered female worker
returning from Saudi Arabia? On top of the extortion, the female worker is,
then, handed over to a police officer who proceeds to rape her multiple times.
What kind of safety and security should our mothers, sisters, aunts, nieces and
grandmothers expect in this country where a police officer—entrusted with the
duty to protect and serve—systematically and methodically rapes them?
Our police and army perform excellently while earning dollar salaries
as UN peacekeeping forces in Africa. Why can’t these same police and army
personnel show same kind of dedication and duty while serving in Nepal? Why
can’t they fulfill their duties of “serve and protect” without unzipping their
pants to rape a Maina Sunuwar or a Sita Rai? In addition to committing gender
based violence crimes by themselves, our security forces are responsible in
aiding and abetting such crimes, too. Human rights organizations have reported
that—in most of Terai region—police officers have been mediating cases of
gender based violence instead of registering the cases and bringing the
perpetrators to justice. Police officers have been found conducting negotiations
between victim’s family, perpetrators and local political actors.
Amidst all these, our national government remains not only a meek
observer but actually contributes to the impunity. Murderers of journalist
Dekendra Thapa have taken responsibility for their crime and have asked to be
punished to the maximum extent allowable by the law. So, why is then the prime
minister of the country asking the investigation officers to drop the case
against the murderers who have confessed to their crimes and seek punishment?
The government has filed very few charges against the rapists, and has
doled out even fewer punishments. Instead, immediately after a rape case
becomes public news, the government announces monetary compensations to
victims. Why is the government paying compensation to rape victims? A monetary
compensation is not the first thing that victims of rape have in their minds
when they ask their government to hear their case. The perpetrator of rape
should be brought to justice and punished according to the law. In the event
that the law decides to award compensation, it should come from perpetrators,
not from the tax revenue that the government collects from hardworking everyday
Nepali like me.
Abraham Lincoln once said that if you want to test a man’s character,
you should give him power. Government bureaucrats who stole from, and then
handed Sita Rai over to the police officer, lost their character when in a
position of power. The police officer, who then raped Sita Rai, did the same.
The army officers who raped and killed Maina Sunuwar did the same. Our public
officials seem to be unable to keep their characters intact when in a position
of power. They seem to be the worst of human beings when in duty and in a
position of power.
Violence against Nepali women will continue because of impunity. None
or very little consequences for committing crimes fail to deter the criminals
from further committing similar crimes. If our government truly feels guilty
for the frequency in which Nepali women seem to be raped, announcing an
immediate monetary compensation is not the way to show that remorse. It should
draft better laws and stronger punishments to prevent such incidents from
occurring in the future. However, that has not been the case.
Further rapes and other forms of violence against Nepali women have
been reported even after public outrage against recent rape cases. A woman in
Banke and one in Bara were burnt alive by family members. A housemaid in
Kathmandu has been found dead under mysterious circumstances. A woman was raped
in one of the tea estates in Ilam. It seems the Nepali polity, bureaucracy and
society has collectively decided to go down the moral drain at the same time.
All because there is impunity to any and all crimes in today’s Nepal. Friedrich
Nietzsche, the philosopher, once said that fear is the mother of all morality.
Until and unless our polity, bureaucracy and society fear the consequence of
their heinous actions, they will stay amoral.
(c) Mukesh Khanal
Labels: bureaucracy, dekendra thapa, democracy, GBV, maina sunuwar, maoists, morality, nepal, nepal army, police, sita rai, violence
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