Show some respect

The autocratic Arab world has been hit by a democratic wave that has swept away the dictators who have been ruling with iron fist for decades. It is heartening to see the people power prevail over these despots but the merciless manner in which Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is dealing with the protestors sends shivers down one’s spine. The events unfolding in Libya is a matter of concern for every self-respecting human being across the globe but we Nepalis also have additional interest in the plight of the oil-rich state as approximately 1,300 of our countrymen are still being stranded there— mostly in and around the capital city of Tripoli.



Thankfully 562 Nepalis stranded in the eastern port city of Darnah have made it to the neighboring Egypt on Thursday but the Nepali government’s handling of their rescue has once again showed its lack of respect for the citizenry. The poor Nepali workers, hired by the South Korean A-One Construction Company to construct the Darnah Housing Project were held within their construction site by anti-government protestors around a month ago. They had to spend a couple of sleepless nights in a school near a mosque after their camps were burnt. Many of them had caught cold having been forced to sleep on cemented floors of a large banquet venue with little clothes, while one who had an appendicitis surgery a couple of weeks ago had fallen sick. The workers, most of whom had gone there taking loans at a very high interest rate mortgaging their land and property, for once forgot everything about their loans and hardship they had to face once they were back home in Nepal with the sole wish of escaping Libya alive.



The Nepali Embassy in neighboring Egypt seemed busy in trying to rescue those in Darnah and the others in Tripoli and the vicinity but with little progress. Then the South Korean company told the Nepali embassy in Cairo that the company was bringing the Nepali workers to the Egyptian border town of Sallum, around 250 km from Darnah. The Koreans asked the Nepali embassy officials to be present there to facilitate visa arrangements for the entry of workers into Egypt while also promising that they would accompany the workers to Cairo and arrange for the workers to return to Nepal. The workers reached the Egyptian border in trucks at around 11 pm local time and must have heaved a huge sigh of relief at being finally out of Libya and danger. But once at the boarder, the Koreans abandoned the workers, probably free of guilt in the knowledge that the Nepali government will take care of its citizens, then onwards.



First Secretary at the embassy in Cairo Tirtha Aryal reached Sallum at 7 am on Thursday and completed the paper works early as the newly liberated Egyptians even waived the visa fees for the workers. The embassy officials had gone there thinking that the workers would be taken to Cairo in the same trucks as promised by the Koreans. Any well functioning state would have been happy that the Koreans at least helped its citizens to leave Libya but Nepali officials did not know what hit them.



For ferrying the workers back to Cairo would cost a ‘whopping’ 25,000 Egyptian pounds (around Rs 300,000 or US$ 4,500). The Nepali embassy SOSed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) back in Kathmandu asking whether it could afford such a huge sum in ferrying the workers to Cairo. An emergency meeting of the rescue cell at the MoFA then authorized Ambassador Shyam Lal Tabadar to make the expenditure. The ambassador then relayed the message to Aryal in Sallum who started to make arrangements for vehicles around seven hours after obtaining visa clearance in the morning. They finally left Sallum for Alexandria over 20 hours after entering Egypt.



British Prime Minister David Cameron apologized Thursday to his citizens who were stranded overnight in Tripoli airport after a chartered flight that was to reach there by Wednesday night broke down on the tarmac at the Gatwick Airport in London in the afternoon. Cameron then reportedly took personal charge of efforts to set up convoys, protected by the military, to evacuate around 150 more British citizens stranded in camps in the Libyan desert. But there has been no official apology from Nepali government for the delay of around 12 hours for the amount of Rs 300,000. Chances are Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal, who has not been able to complete the cabinet even after three weeks of being sworn in, is not even involved in the process to rescue the workers stranded in Libya, busy as he is in trying to extend the lifespan of his infant premiership.



Ambassador Tabadar was crying foul over the Korean betrayal blissfully forgetting that the Koreans are not more responsible than the Nepali government for the plight of Nepali citizens. They were simply doing business there hiring workers from Nepal, Bangladesh, India and other countries and can always shy away from the responsibility, especially at a stage when they were facing a prospect of suffering losses of millions of dollars due to the Libyan unrest. The Nepali government should in fact have been thankful that the Koreans brought the workers to the border and promptly started procedures to fly them back home. But an ambassador apparently doesn’t have authority to spend Rs 300,000 to rescue the citizens in distress and have to take permission from the MoFA.




The embassy in Thailand had doled out millions for the indulgence of the then Deputy Prime Minister Sujata Koirala while accompanying her ailing father Girija Prasad Koirala to Singapore in Nov 2009. She had stayed at one of the most expensive hotels in Singapore and hired a limousine for her transportation from the state coffers while accompanying a critically ill father in capacity of a worried daughter and in Cairo the embassy couldn’t use its discretion for an amount of Rs 300,000.



The fact that even the greatest revolutionary leader of Nepal had spent half of that amount on his bed after becoming the prime minister puts things into perspective.

It’s not the lack of money at the hands of the embassy but its lack of respect for the citizens that caused the unnecessary delay. The common citizens receive no respect from the leaders and bureaucrats in the country where a Chief District Officer (CDO) is slapped by a state minister for not providing a luxurious vehicle during a visit to the district. These workers may be nobodies in the eyes of the leaders and bureaucrats but they and hundreds of thousands of their ilk form the core of the system that has been keeping the economy running amidst all chaos that Nepal is in, through the billions sent back home in remittance.



These 562 workers may have reached Egypt but there are still around 1,300 Nepalis stuck in Tripoli, Benghazi and a few other Libyan cities. They hope that the Nepali Embassy in Egypt will rescue them and send them back to Nepal but to be honest, the embassy can’t even take them out of Libya. Even the 562 may have still been marooned but for the Koreans’ generosity and sense of responsibility.



It is high time the government turned serious about rescuing these stranded poor Nepalis. A country that can afford to spend billions every year for the Constituent Assembly, that has done nothing other than electing a new prime minister in the nine months of its one-year extension, must surely be able to spend for the rescue of these stranded workers.



Even if the taxpayers’ money is meant exclusively for the benefit of the political leaders, these workers deserve to be rescued with money from the government controlled Foreign Employment Welfare Fund which has collected well over Rs 750 million by extracting donations of Rs 1,000 from each of the workers going abroad.



premdhakal@gmail.com

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