Political perfidy

In making absurd and atrocious remarks about the Palace for allegedly backing the Maoist insurgency, former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has exposed his true colours and utter frustration over his own failure to restore law and order in the country. When in power as
the head of a popularly mandated government, he never dared level such charges. Now out of direct power, he is just cooling his heels. There is general consensus that the monarchy has unfailingly maintained its constitutional status, and has thus earned popularity and trust of an unprecedented kind. In throwing barbs at the monarchy, without substantiating his allegations with facts and figures, Koirala is using abusive language a responsible and democratic leader should know better than to use.

The septuagenarian NC bigwig has also not spared India for its alleged role in fuelling the Maoist insurgency. What our former Prime Minister seems to have forgotten is that several NC members, including himself and his late brother BP Koirala, had lived in exile or self-exile before and after the advent of multiparty democracy. In those days, India was safe haven for numerous freedom fighters- be they against Rana Oligarchy or the autocratic Panchayat regime. Perhaps, the NC feels so indebted to India for providing refuge to Nepali freedom fighters that time and again it displays excessive partiality, and makes compromises on natural resources to oblige the southern neighbour. So much so, it has earned a pro-India tag. Now, the leader is lambasting the Indian government for sheltering the Maoists. It is a known fact that the insurgents hold mass meetings in India, not to mention clandestine ones. But why didn’t Koirala utter a word against the Indian government when the Maoist insurgency flared during his own regime. More so, after the Dunai and Naumoole bloodbath. By all accounts, Koirala appears to belong to that lot which does nothing and neither allow others, distinctly more competent and rational, to proceed. On the eve of the much-hyped massive Maoist gathering in the heart of the capital, and fears of looming violence, he is only feeding the rumour mills, which have been going full swing the last couple of weeks. Koirala is not a lone figure in using denigrating language against the monarchy. The leader of the main opposition party Madhav Kumar Nepal too lashed out against the Palace, holding it responsible for adding fuel to the Maoist firestorm.

Had the statement come from other leaders, it would not have made much difference. But it is hard to believe the top leaders of the country’s two biggest political parties could be cooking up such nonsensical statements. This all is tantamount to political perfidy and sheer desperation to seek power at the expense of a revered institution like the monarchy. Such derogatory and weightless words can invite trouble from unknown quarters, and erase all possibility of resolving the crisis through talks. If they cannot resolve the crisis, they had better leave their posts and hand over responsibility to those who can deliver, instead of passing the buck from one corner to another. And the conflict over mobilising the army needs to be settled by the government itself. For, in a democratic political system, the army is directly under government control. And the onus obviously lies with the NC and UML. They have the popular mandate, and if they settle their differences and work earnestly, they can steer the country to where the people desire.

Struggle for democracy

By Ratna Bahadur Gurung

For the past several months, I have been trying to understand what prompted Girija Prasad Koirala to blame the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) when he failed to maintain law and order. Did Koirala think our Army was defunct and had no confidence in it? However, a war of internal or external aggression could break out at anytime. The RNA’s paramount mission is to fight and win war: so, the army is about winning, what they call, the cutting edge. The core values of democracy are human rights, freedom of speech, right to information and national conscience. They determine right from wrong and also teach us to survive and prosper.

For last 11 years, we have been tinkering with our hard earned democracy. It is because we have failed to understand the spirit of democracy. People thought that after democracy, everyone would flourish. There were high hopes and expectations of all round development. Unfortunately, it sad to say that we are even worse off than before. Cultural, economic, social and political degradation have touched bottom. Poverty has increased and the difference between the rich and the poor is wider. Moreover, a democratic system cannot be defined as to what and how it should be as it constantly evolves, develops and progresses. It is a continual, changing process. Democracy must develop as the people develop. It is thus contrary to any form of despotism. History shows that a long period of self-training and self-discipline is needed in order to be a good citizen. The underlying fact of democracy is that leaders do not forget the pledges they make to their people. Leaders and followers working and growing together is the ethos of democracy.

What is really happening in this country is that most political leaders try to bend and change the existing system to suit or serve their own party interests. Winning an election means being chosen to bear the public trust and responsibilities, not coming in for a windfall profit. People have to fight against the whims of all dirty politicians who are trying to make the system and even the Constitution suit their own ball game. The democratic system demands accountability, transparency and a national conscience of justice and reasons. No nation can develop a national conscience unless all within it take full part in the governance with absolute freedom of speech. Until this comes about, there will be no national forum where people can speak their mind. If we are not smart enough, both right and wrong will be forced upon us; there will be secret opinions and policies among the politicians.

Leaders in power have disregarded their responsibilities and forgotten their commitments towards their people. The people have become only a pawn in their high stakes political games. Now, there are not only leadership challenges but the time is not far when the intellectual nuances of the Nepalese people would be questioned. They say the Maoist revolutionary People’s War campaign is nothing, but an alarm call for all true nationalists to be vigilant enough to guard against forces inimical to democracy. If now we fumble through and cannot think and act, we will find ourselves once again behind the times.

We have read about and seen the consequences of internal war, especially civil war. In civil war brothers and sisters kill brothers and sisters. We already have enough bloodshed. Was this democracy so easy to restore? Why are we fighting against ourselves? Whom are we killing?
If this mayhem continues, we may throw away the last 50 years of sacrifice for democracy.

Nobody ever wants to mobilize the army. War never provides a cheap solution to the nation’s problems, no matter how isolated the problem or how powerful the nation. But if ever push comes to shove, then comes what may, the army should be used. However, it should be used judiciously and professionally without rancour. During operations, human rights issues should be given the highest priority. It should be remembered the army should never be a menace to the general public. Asuric means power without conscience. Dharma means power with conscience. In this internal war, the people, in Mao Tse-Tung’s own philosophy, are the pond and the Maoists are to blend into the pond as a fish in water.

The security forces of Italy convinced the people at the height of the Red Brigade movement in 1970 that the Red Brigade was hindering their progress. The people themselves then turned against the Red Brigade and resulted in the end of their movement. The people became informers. This made the Red Brigade’s life untenable and their very existence a point of contest. The irony is they became the proverbial fish out of water. After this it took the security forces only 3 to 4 months to wipe them out of Italy without the use of any bullets. They just happened to disappear and the majority was assimilated voluntarily.

In the RNA’s context, although the conduct of war is considered the exclusive province of the military war’s effects will touch the whole nation. War implies chaos. The conduct of war is simply a matter of balancing the ends, means and ways: National goals are the ends; national resources are the means; and the methods of applying the resources to achieve the goals are the ways. There are 5 universal questions which need to be answered before a country jumps into war: What is the situation? What is the object of war? How will the war be conducted? How will war be supported? And how will war be controlled? Bearing all these aspects in mind, the choice for the RNA is simply what kind of campaign to use against the present Maoist "encirclement and suppression" movements. The RNA campaign will prove the genius and show the lessons learned. Also it is the foresight and imagination of the leaders that keep the army ahead of the opposition. There should be a deterrent force to prevent war. Above all the army should prove itself to be the only fish amongst the Nepalese people’s pond.

How soon and how far they can win the hearts and minds of the people would make a world of difference. What mandate or modality the RNA should be given the words used at the Reporters’ Club lately, is irrelevant to the matter in hand. They should not be restricted to a time frame. It means they apply the best preventive or surgical methods available, which is to make us bleed less. How they would carry out the task in hand in the shortest possible time is their choice.

However, the incumbent government should always remember that their greatest asset is the people’s obedience. Also, they should not forget that people power is supreme. This was demonstrated in 1990 and is also being seen now in 3rd world politics.

That all the institutions of government are in the service of the people is a fact that nobody should deny. If there is no alternative to democracy, then we must all work hard to build and maintain the democratic system. Liberty is a privilege that must be deserved. Always remember nothing comes free in this world, unless we are for sale.

Fateful humiliation

By Sunil Poudyal

Wherever I worked in these many years, I found almost all my bosses less educated than myself. My bosses were either undergraduates or just matriculates. And whenever we discussed any new idea and shared opinion for the betterment of the organisation, our bosses always opposed me. Either they did not have calibre to understand or they were scared of being underestimated by their juniors. To defend their rigidities, they had no logic but to say: "You know, we have seen many more springs than you", as if that was the only universal truth left for them. Whenever we stuck to our stand, they exercised their power to make us silent. This has happened so many times in my life. In the course of my service, I once reached such a position that cost my self-confidence to take any decision. I even started to think that something lacked in me. What was that? My way of thinking might be defective. But as it is said "every dark cloud has silver lining around it". I found some silver linings. They appreciated my opinion and ideas. They gave chances to my suggestions to be tested so many times during my course of job and proved to be fruitful for the organization. Yet, the less educated seniors never recognized me. Whenever they got a chance, they did not spare me from their resentments.

I have always given a top priority to self-education. But academic qualification is not less important. It is the bedrock of education. Over this, the structure of self-study is built. So, if the foundation is sound or strong, we can construct walls of self-study and as many floors as we can. Construction
of floors depends on the strength of foundation. So does the academic qualification for self-study. A man can bring only that much volume of water from the sea that his vessel accommodates. This is my belief.

The least educated bosses tormented me most of the time in service. Similarly, the incompetent ones have tormented the country since the restoration of multiparty system. Therefore, everything lacks in this country including the vision of development, commitment and honesty. Confidence in the present political establishment is eroding gradually. A highly educated person has been given the power to rule the country. Yet, people are skeptical. This seems to be the beauty of democracy, if not anything. But then again, people say whatever they see. What have they seen? They have observed political leaders negatively. They have failed to prove that they have a broad vision. But human beings, by nature, can forget and in some cases even forgive, if someone demonstrates his or her ability to correct the past mistakes.

IT - what needs to be done

By Anup Banskota

Adecade ago when Nepalese society was fumbling over ‘Cybertech’, one was almost considered a stupid for opting courses in IT instead of opting other popular engineering courses. The scenario at present is completely upside down. It’s the Internet that turned the world into a global village and thanks to the technology. Nepal is now not aloof of this techno gift. It is a whim now to jump on the bandwagon of computer realm. Lots of software related as well as academic institutes are in the way to bolster the use of opportunity. But then there are serious issues emerging subsequently due the lack of policy, infrastructure as well as misguidance from Nepalese Cyber pioneers.

Effort from the government to lift the standard of computer education proved to be inadequate as per the market demands. It may be either due to the lack of expertise in the row of decision-makers or they are simply not serious in the affair. Almost half a decade has been spoilt in the implementation of the proposal of a software park, however there is much consolation in the present budget that would create the infrastructure for solid ground of software development. It is more surprising that even the National Planning Commission (NPC) doesn’t bother to take this matter seriously. What we must learn from our neighbours is to divert our attention towards software exports because within a time frame of less than a decade, their main source of foreign currency has been turned out to be software export.

Obviously the Ministry of Science and Technology is supposed to take care of such matters but it is sad to say that this body is rarely active. The government neither projects itself to invite the foreign cyber trade leader, nor is it being able to stop the brain drain. Every year a large group of qualified techno-savvies are heading towards developed countries causing the loss of genuine cyber strength of the country. It’s not more than a schizophrenic euphoria of those who produce the logic of earning foreign currency by such means. Definitely this is not going to be a healthy exercise for the country.

Due to the negligence of the government, the computer institutes around are turning out to be engineering collages, most of which boast to provide more than 50 graduates per year. A serious thing about it is that no single body is paying attention towards the quality of infrastructure provided by such institutes.

Newly opened universities are competing among one another to affiliate street colleges. It is noteworthy that 5 or 6 engineering colleges hire almost the same faces. And worse still where academicians travel all the way to Pokhara and Biratnagar from Kathmandu to deliver a lecture of one hour! Who would not doubt the quality of such technical schools, then? The brochures of such institutes are occupied with an impressive number of expertise. The government is the only agent responsible for not creating a strong body monitor such malpractice. Passing the buck to the university is acting even more irresponsibility, but the universities are not clean either in monitoring the standard.

Present software development industries in Nepal are not keen towards Software Quality Assurance (SQA) and Software Quality Management (SQM). Everything is being done on adhoc basis. International software standards, such as ISO, SEI-CMM are not followed by any of them.

They are just lingering on build and fix approach, which nowhere helps them to enter into the international market. Then a question may arise: what actually are they doing? The answer is simple- some of them are working for in house software development and rest are in the patch works, database entry and medical transcription. They absolutely don’t provide an environment to inculcate the production of high quality of software experts. Moreover, due to business cartel professionals are being exploited for miserable salaries. In fact, those vaunted industries just need trainees to work and engineers are totally misused.

The market is heading towards a bad shape but just producing a crowd of pseudo-experts may lead to unemployment, frustrations and again brain drain. Some fundamental problems could be easily mitigated by:

1. Creating a body that should regularly visit the institutes and monitor whether the institutes meet the minimum required infrastructures.

2. Monitoring the academic environment (avoiding the non technical intruders).

3. Facilitating and encouraging the software developers to meet the international standards.

4. Creating an environment for the international brands to enter inside the Nepalese market for checking severe brain drain.

5. Speeding up the concept of software park as soon as possible.

Last but not least, millions of rupees are being invested on establishing Internet Service Providers (ISPs). It would be better to invest money on software development rather than joining the unhealthy competition for almost poor market.

(The author is an M Tech student of computer engineering at IIT, Chennai, India)