Our leaders are not abnormally greedy. A more compelling case can be made for their bravery and passion to change the society we live in. If we study the lives of many of our politicians, we can find that they have taken enormous risks—including that of their lives. Baburam Bhattarai and Hisila Yami could have easily chosen the path of engineering like so many others to make a decent living but they opted to live in the jungle risking their lives. It would be hard to make a case that this couple decided to forgo their opportunity of decent living hoping to become much wealthier one day. The case of Bhattarai and Yami is only the tip of what could be an iceberg. Every village and town has a story of someone passionate working hard for the betterment of their locality. As a well-wisher of our society, we need to learn to publicly salute such behavior.
Baburam Bhattarai and Hisila Yami could have easily chosen the path of engineering like so many others to make a decent living but they opted to live in the jungle risking their lives.
To downplay the risks our political leaders have taken in their lives, and caricature them as greedy folks trying to take away the little wealth and power Nepali citizens enjoy, is disingenuous of the non-political members of our society. Politics is a tough profession—and politics in Nepal is even tougher. It would be a welcome change to take a moment to empathize with the difficulty that our leaders face rather than repeatedly blame them for inefficient governance.
Continually blaming our leaders for their selfish nature conceals the deeper problems with politics in our country. We need to ask ourselves why leaders with good intentions have trouble working on behalf of the public. Is there some problem with politics as a profession in our country? What can we change to make it better? This is where we need to focus.
There are many aspects of politics in our country where there is less incentive to serve the people. Take for example, the job of the prime minister (PM)—the chief executive of the country. Currently, becoming a PM is more about the ability to build coalition and please important members of one party, than the ability to identify, understand, process and make decisions on the most pressing problems of our society. Once in power, there is really no need to answer directly to the public. What is in need, though, is that he spend considerable time pleasing his partners and influential party members so that he can keep his job.
To expect efficient governance, transparency and smart policymaking from a chief executive of the country who does not benefit much by serving the public better, and benefits more by horse-trading, is unreasonable. As we draft the new constitution, we need to keep this in mind so that we don’t end up with a situation where the ability to trade parliamentarians is rewarded more than the ability to deliver better services and justice to Nepali citizens. We need to think of ways that give incentives to the chief executive to work on behalf of the public. Direct appointment of the PM with job security until the next election may not be a bad idea.
We also need to learn to be patient. Nepali leaders and Nepali citizens are just learning the art of democracy, and like any other craft, it is going to take a while for us to master it. In the meantime, to accelerate the process we need to encourage the culture of democracy in every aspect of our lives. After all, democracy can be thought of as another mechanism to resolve conflicting interests—a mechanism where you debate on conflicting opinions, vote, and respect the majority’s vote, and move on to another problem.
There are good reasons to believe that democracy is at work and our leaders are learning the techniques necessary to succeed in a democracy. A year ago, it seemed like the UML had strong reservations regarding federalism along ethnic/linguistic lines. Yet, recently they proposed a map that is essentially along ethnic lines. That is democracy at work. Personally, most UML leaders may not like the federal map they have proposed but professionally they better like it. Let us hope that politicians become more professional and less personal in the days to come. Let us stop blaming them, give them a pat on the back for what they done for us, and wish them luck.
(Writer is an Assistant Professor of Economics and Finance at Texas A&M International University in Texas, US.)
680anand@gmail.com
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