The ministers are there and we all know they are jokers, or at least a majority of them. They are there having "pleased" their masters. To make matters worse we live in a system where one complete illiterate or idiot can become a prime-minister but fortunately it takes huge amount of knowledge, education and professionalism to become a secretary, let alone a Chief Secretary. Correct me if I am wrong but it must be because you possess many of these attributes Dr Baburam Bhattarai made you the Chief bypassing host of seniors.
We are told one reason Bhattarai chose you was because you are a man of impeccable honesty, hardly travel abroad while rest of the secretaries are barely home, and are pretty 'geeky' kind of person. In the midst of all these attributes, it's becoming rather embarrassing for us to be unable to see you beyond anything more than Bagmati cleaner. I am dead sure there must be a couple of ministries directly associated with rivers and water management who could have done that. Still, as any good leader would, you led from the front but perhaps only when it came to Bagmati.
The examples of host of things you left unaddressed will surely make a disappointing reading. Not so long ago, the entire country was held hostage by few businessmen who managed to 'inject' thousands of unwarranted LPG cylinders under perfectly normal conditions. The supply always exceeded demand, so we were told. Instead of solving the problem by getting to the bottom of it, you rather ended making a joke of it. One of the lasting images of 2071 BS will definitely be the line where thousands of ordinary mortals stood carrying empty cylinders hoping they would get one. Not that you failed but failed miserably. Wonder if you could spare two hours of every week to clean the sewage of Bagmati, what stopped you from travelling around town to figure out what on earth was happening.
The other fact that continues to boggle me is what is it about you that you cannot stop the open loot; the open export of citizens in dirt cheap prices only to return in caskets. I know enough has been said and written about foreign employment and our economy thriving on remittance. How come never an attempt was made to ensure that things get systematic.
It's not about leaving home for couple of hours on a Saturday to clean some river but sweat out blood in a desert land without knowing when they will be able to return back home. The icing on the cake perhaps came some weeks ago when one of the Kuwaiti dignitaries landed in Nepal and said in no uncertain terms that it's illegal to take a single Riyal from foreign workers. How foolish can you be when you attend an IT event and say that Nepal has a huge potential and every IT related task is outsourced to foreign companies?
I can still understand the fact that things might be difficult for Chief Secretaries given the kind of political chaos the country is in. Nonetheless, the question then that begs for an answer is what good is your impeccable character if your only concern is just to ensure you retain that image of yours. I am sure you are aware of the popular saying that suggests one can please one sometime but cannot please all, all the time. I am sure that rings a bell.
Now I hear that you are on the brink of completing your tenure and I cannot understand how you would want to be remembered. We talked about LPG but over the course of time, even though your fuel is rationed by government fund, you must be aware of how the fuel price has taken a dip. We are no stranger to phenomenon that once prices of petroleum products shoot, so do the fares of public vehicles. How come nothing of anything happens when the movement is on the other side? You blame it on syndicate? Blaming is our job; taking care of the blame is yours.
One cannot ignore the sheer coincidence of the fact that the fag end of your career working for the prime-minister who in some ways seems to be no different than you. More than anything the thing that comes first is impeccable characters that you both carry. Secondly, it's you two who ought to be running the country. Unfortunately, you seem to be no different than him. At times it's hard to figure out whether you are the one running the country and state machinery or is it the other way round?
The entire definition of leadership runs on the principle that leader is the one who gets things done. By doing Bagmati, you just did that. But that was easy to execute since you did not have to take on anyone. In fact, it gave many individuals and organizations their own 'Selfie' moments. What you failed to do was perhaps just do that and nothing more. Every time a peon is found taking a bribe of some couple of thousand rupees, I wonder whether you took that as a slap on your face. Perhaps you did. For every government worker found taking bribe, Lokman prevailed and whether you like it or not, you failed. By definition you were the leader of all the government employees, a legitimate one.
I sincerely hope that couple of months down the line you do not come up with a memoir saying what all you wanted to do but could not. Leaders live through unpopular decisions being fully aware of the fact that one day their decision will yield the kind of result when everyone will be singing praises. Lee Kuan Yew even dared to stop people from chewing gums. A good leader is remembered (or forgotten) by the kind of decisions you take. My fear is you may not be even remembered for Bagmati for we all know we do not have lasting memory.
Talking about Bagmati, I asked a friend of mine as to what's his best guess as to how long this movement will last. "Forever", in came the instant answer; for he believes so far the system is that of garbage out, garbage in. I went to bed on the last day of 2071 BS packing all the plastic bags believing there would be no more of them in Kathmandu. I just did some grocery and all the vegetables were nicely tucked in the same plastic bags in the same manner. Honestly, there's no doubt that plastics are environmental hazard but is it plastic alone or our inability to manage waste that needs immediate addressing?
How I wish you were a sportsman. They all want to retire on a high.
hiteshkarki@gmail.com
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