I was fortunate to meet various people (from different backgrounds and political parties) in the last two months. From these meetings I could see two basic distinctions among the new generation Nepalis: The foxes and hedgehogs. As the Greek poet Archilochus once said “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” Hedgehogs have one central idea and see the world exclusively through that prism of idea whereas the foxes are usually skeptical of one big theory and, therefore, do not articulate one big slogan. So one of my pastimes this summer was to figure out hedgehog or fox hiding inside a Nepali.
The hedgehog Nepalis that I met mostly believe in and demand for new leadership in all areas in the country. On the political font, these are the leaders who are talking big about building ‘New Nepal,’ even though they have no planning whatsoever to achieve the newness in the old Nepal. They seem to be clinging to their central idea by repeatedly asking for a new prime minister who would glorify their primary rhetoric.
Then there are the foreign returned hedgehogs who believe in youth development and leadership as ultimate idea that will drive Nepal’s economy in the future (which I believe is not completely untrue). I applaud their initiative, but a part of me cannot help but wonder what their slogan would have been, had they easily secured high-pay jobs in the recession struck economies around the world. Would they still be discussing the importance of socially responsible entrepreneurship? And would they still be willing to take a chance to venture outside of Kathmandu, which many do not seem to be doing even now?
Some fox Nepalis that I met, on the other hand, seem to have noticed that the country’s real world complications require a much more cautious approach that is sensitive to the current context. They too want new leadership and ideas, but they also realize how important the role of the government is in developing Nepal. When talking about various East Asian success stories (like Taiwan or South Korea), I found the fox Nepalis reiterating the importance of the government in building private enterprise supporting institutions which would check various processes like nepotism, red-tapism and, thus, would allow a greater possibility to develop Nepal.
These folks do not have a primary slogan or rhetoric to repeat every few days but they have the ingenuity to see the broader picture to come up with some great ideas for the country.
In the Nepali context, we will need youth leadership, new business initiatives, concerned citizens and many more pre-requisites, but we will also need a strong, stable government with real interest in development.
As my visit nears an end, my experiences these past two months have seriously got me to rethink my ideas for Nepal’s development. As any other concerned citizen, I find myself envisioning New Nepal with young, fresh leadership. However, the fox inside of me, reminds me that there is no one perfect recipe for a nation’s development. Even our immediate neighbors India and China have been pursuing very separate policies (be it economic or political) to achieve significant growth rates and development. So yes, in the Nepali context, we will need youth leadership, new business initiatives, concerned citizens and many more pre-requisites, but we will also need a strong, stable government with real interest in development.
Yes, we suffer from multiple shortcomings as a nation but not all of them need to be addressed right now. The main idea should be to identify the most binding constraint that is creating a bottleneck for the country’s development. Therefore, we need to address the current political deadlock before venturing out to solve other problems. Nepal government does not need to do a whole lot to unleash our growth potential (at least for sometime), as long as it is willing to remove the main binding political constraint by assuring Nepalis in general that that no matter who gets to live in Baluwatar, we can expect a pragmatic government that is willing to energize the private and other necessary sectors by implementing various measures and tools that will complement the context and our goals. Till then let’s not get too carried away by all the rhetoric for a New Nepal.
pragya.lohani@gmail.com
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