Guided missiles and misguided men

By DR GOPAL KRISHNA SIWAKOTI

Can we imagine a peace paradise where the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid and the calf and the young lion embrace each other? And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together and the child put his hand inside the crocodile’s mouth!! Impossible. Today peace is turn into periods of cheating between periods of fighting. War is growing as an industry. Out of 36 wars fought in 1998, two were international and the rest were internal armed conflicts. We are fighting the wrong wars in the wrong places in the wrong time and with the wrong enemy. Today he who murders one becomes a villain, but massacring millions makes one a hero. Crazy warlords are continuing a series of wars on some false pretext if a previous war is lost. The media is largely glorifying war. Cheap landmines are taking an innocent life every 20 minutes. Planting a peace pole on top of Mt Everest and counting beads for peace in a monastery do not bring genuine peace. Peace activism and peace building measures are vital in the search for just peace, freedom, rights and liberty. Arms alone are not enough to keep the peace-it must be kept by men. The whole conception of war is changed. Now it does not matter if one country is more powerful than another in the use of the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb. No one is more powerful in ruin than the other. That is what is meant when saying that the point of saturation has been reached. To hit the nail on the head, there can be no victory. It may perhaps rightly be said that owing to this very terrible danger, people refrain from going to war.

While the causes and conduct of armed conflict have changed over the last century, the propensity to use violence to resolve disputes has, if anything, increased. Demystification of the root causes of war, degrading human values, attitudes, patterns of behaviour and structures that permeate our society, is essential to establish a culture of peace and non-violence. While the end of cold war has reduced the likelihood of a global nuclear holocaust, not enough progress has been made towards disarmament and peace as hoped for by the people of the world. Governments have failed to seize the historic moment to move rapidly toward reducing and eliminating nuclear weapons. Too little has been done to stem the tide of civil wars and conflict that have turned Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and scores of other countries into killing fields. With $800 billion going into global military expenditure, peace-keeping and post-reconstruction programs remain underfunded. The flow of human rights violation and killings continues.

Peace in the 21st century demands a shift in investment from military to civilian programs that safeguard human security. Disarmament will entail making drastic cuts in weapons, forces and military budgets. Demilitarization will require transforming the military economy to a peace economy by allocating resources for programs that ensure the well being of the world’s citizens- that provide for the basic human rights of food, shelter, education, work, health, security and peace. It will require global adherence to the United Nations Charter and to the development of non-military security structures.

As we begin this new century, the first steps toward eliminating war and militarism as the organizing principle of human society can be seen in the practice of the New Diplomacy. The leadership and cooperation of civil society organisations and good governments resulted successfully in the international treaties to ban land mines and to establish criminal court. Using this model, new initiatives and campaigns to stop the weapons trade, to reduce military budgets and to abolish nuclear weapons are gaining momentum and support. Civil society is showing the moral imagination and courage to create a culture of peace across the globe. As a first step toward disarmament and demilitarization, the Hague Appeal for Peace has endorsed the Women’s Peace Petition, which calls for a 5 percent reduction a year in military spending for five years and the reallocation of the substantial resources saved toward human security-educational, health care, environmental, food, housing and employment programs. Nuclear weapons still threaten the survival of all human kind. In order to comply with their obligations under Article VI of the Non-proliferation Treaty, all states should negotiate and conduct a Nuclear Weapons Convention within five years. Failure to comply would result in states being brought before the International Court of Justice. The Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice in July 1996 explained that the obligation points to negotiations aimed at reaching total nuclear disarmament.

The New Agenda Coalition’s resolution, adopted by the First Committee of the United Nations, calls on the nuclear weapons states to commit themselves to undertaking the immediate practical steps and negotiations required for complying with legal obligations under Article VI of the Non-proliferation Treaty. Steps toward nuclear disarmament include: ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; adherence to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; de-alerting; no-first use; the de-nuclearisation of regional arrangements; extension of nuclear free zones; and a ban on fissile materials and subcritical tests. In the interest of transparency and accountability, stocks and warheads withdrawn under arms control agreements should come under international control. Small arms, light weapons and landmines pose the biggest threat to human security; their use results in the majority of civilian deaths. The Hague Appeal for Peace has endorsed the campaign of the International Action Network on Small Arms. All states should negotiate and implement a comprehensive global code of conduct for all exports of all types of conventional weapons, including light weapons, small arms and guns. Perpetrators of violence should be held legally accountable as well as local justice systems that guarantee individual rights. International institutions prosecuting these criminals should be supported and their rulings internationally enforced.

Steps toward stopping the flow of weapons include: controlling legal transfers between states; safeguarding the availability, use and storage of small arms within states; preventing and combating illicit transfers; preventing weapons transfers to human rights violators; increasing transparency and accountability; reducing demand by reversing the culture of violence; reforming public security institutions; fostering norms of non-possession; promoting more effective and sustainable demobilization and reintegration of former combatants. It is desirable to call on all countries to ratify the BWC and the CWC as part of a global effort to abolish all weapons of mass destruction. Commitments to ban chemical and biological weapons must be reinforced by commitments by all countries to ban and abolish all nuclear weapons. All countries are expected to strengthen BWC and CWC by adopting strong national legislation that implements these conventions without qualification and by participating in the current efforts to enhance compliance with BWC.

Parties to CWC should not dilute provisions for inspection and verification through domestic legislation or executive actions. Efforts to strengthen BWC and CWC must ensure that all parties that are in compliance receive equal treatment with respect to trade in the agents and equipment covered by these treaties. In particular, the Australia Group, which coordinates the export controls of 30 mainly industrialized countries in private, with no international accountability for its decisions, must be replaced by international controls managed within the framework of the relevant conventions.

The Parties to the Biological Convention must exhaust all efforts to strengthen article X, encouraging the exchange of information and materials for peaceful purposes. In particular, industrialized countries should enable developing countries to build capacity in the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of all diseases by providing technical information and needed resources. Similarly, research organizations, professional societies, and individual scientists are urged to reinforce the prohibitions of BWC and CWC by pledging not to engage knowingly in research and teaching that furthers the development and use of chemical and biological warfare agents. And finally all countries must reinforce commitments to BWC and CWC by prohibiting the development of novel biological and chemical agents that do not have a peaceful purpose as their unambiguous justification, even if these activities are promoted for defensive purposes.

(The author is Executive Director of INHURED International and Advisory Board Member of The Hague Appeal for Peace)

US visa blues

By SUBINDRA BOGATI

Year 2001 was a year which  I may not forget easily. Reading the name of US Embassy in papers or seeing it’s building on television, I recollect the most embarrassing moment I ever faced in my life. I try a lot to shun that moment from coming into my mind but my efforts go in vain. So, guys, today I would like to share that bitter experience of mine with you and hope that if you have any plan to visit the US for pleasure or something else, keep my experience in your mind prior to proceeding a visa application.

It was nearly a year before I applied for visitor visa to meet my newly married sister-in-laws in the US. As my brothers and sister-in-laws and cousins had package programmes to roam at some of the best places in the US, unfortunately I couldn’t be included in that programme since a white man working in US Embassy as a consular thought that I wouldn’t come back to Nepal, if I was allowed a visa to his country.

In the day of interview, I stood in line helplessly outside the Embassy gate. An hour of standing nearby a busy road made me feel really furious. The way we (applicants) were forced to line up by the Embassy of the most powerful country of this cosmos was not justifiable from any point of view because we were there paying the amount as labelled by them for rendering service to us.

After an hour I heaved a sigh of relief because I got a chance to enter the gate. There too were people waiting to get their turns to be interviewed. Seats kept in the interview section were also not sufficient. So there too, I stood some minutes. Finally my turn to be interviewed came and a white man with white beard who was going through my application form asked me the first question, "How many brothers do you have who reside in the US?" I said that I have two brothers residing there permanently since 1990.

In visa application form, I had revealed that my two brothers are the US citizens. Having been the employee of the media INGO with excellent salary and post, I didn’t see anything wrong to fill the form honestly.

But the white man considering that revelation as the loophole started writing something on my visa application form and said that "Mr Bogati, I am sorry because I don’t think you will come back." I looked at his face grimly and thought that it would be futile to request him to give a glance at my documents before reaching in any conclusion. So I said nothing and came out from that section with my passport which was being stamped as application received. I felt so embarrassed that I walked bowing my head. He used his prerogative fully not to issue me a visa without going through documents which I took to support my intention, which I prepared for that moment of interview.

The question that is haunting my mind is that why that fellow rejected me visa outright without seeing at my documents. Do my brothers and family members living there mean that I am also to settle down there permanently?

Had my intention been to overstay in the US, I would certainly have prepared fake papers to make sure that my application would not be rejected. How could I act as such a naive guy, had my intention been to settle down in his country?

Later, my friend laughed at my failure because my (over) confidence deterred me from preparing the fake documents and filling the form according to his idea. I felt so hurt that I am determined not to try to obtain US entrance visa unless white men realize that all people don’t enter the US with an intent to obtain green cards to be deemed or treated as second class citizens.

The role of creativity in administration

By DHARANI DHAR KHATIWADA

This issue of good governance, especially in the present context of efficient, prompt and effective delivery of government services, has become more important. During the last 12 years or so successive governments in power have dealt with this particular issue. Nevertheless, performance remains far from satisfactory. The present government is also laying emphasis on further reforms in the administrative sector. But the current approach of effecting some amendments in the Civil Service Act, some structural reforms in the organisational setting, will not be enough. Unless and until the human element (Civil Service Personnel) becomes the focus of attention, remedial measures will not yield the desired result. The first and foremost requirement is to create a better, healthy and conducive administrative ecology where the skill, genius, educational qualification and other assets of a majority of the employees can be utilised in order to make the said organisations more productive and people friendly.

It is evident that the success of the central and local governments is directly proportional to the capacity utilisation of employees at different levels. The holistic approach to capacity utilisation requires not only a very honest attempt from policymakers but also a determined political will and high degree of respect for the people who are at the receiving end. For this purpose, civil servants should be able to display a higher degree of honesty and respect for the growing aspirations of the people. This type of healthy and impartial work culture on the part of civil servants requires a democratic organisational ecology and through understanding of the strengths and weakness of the prevailing administrative system. However the administrative system anywhere is a sub-system of the total politico-social system.

Therefore, the major focus of reforms should be on the employees working in different state organisations. An honest endeavour in analysing the current behaviour of employees working within an organisation paves the way for right diagnosis of the problem. The right way of diagnosing the problem makes it easier for prescribing the correct medicine. So one should not fail in recognising the importance of the human element while talking about good governance or effective and efficient delivery of services. Keeping in mind the importance of skill, genius and professional qualification, I would like to stress the importance of innovation and creativity in the present state of our administrative work culture and behaviour.

Innovative ideas or creativity play a very vital role in the short-term, medium-term or long-term strategy of administrative reform. Our administrative system is performing below the level of expectation. The importance of innovation and creativity is to be discussed in the context of a non-performing administrative culture and excessive politicisation of our system. The urgent need of the day is rigorous and continuous attempt to diagnose the problem. However, a problem becomes serious if it is not diagnosed properly or if the solutions are recommended on an ad hoc basis.

A democratic administrative culture is based upon the theory that employees are capable of discharging their duties with initiative and changing themselves with the changed political context, provided the other variables of change are positive. Contrary to this, the authoritarian administrative system is based upon the control system and its style of supervision is rigid. There exists a relationship of master and servant in this system. The ability to adopt to a changing socio-political and economic situation on the part of civil servants encourages them to make intelligent, innovative and unbiased decisions. Against this background of two opposite schools of thought in administration, the highest level political authority and top level administrative should guide the organisation in order to make it action, goal and result-oriented. This requires acceptance of originality, creativity and innovation in administrative decision making.

Talent and creativity should be used properly and conscious effort should be made in harnessing the potentialities of employees. Creativity in administration arises largely from a fusion of ideas from several sources rather than from the inborn creativity of a few gifted administrators. Creativity is an attribute which exists in all employees to some degree. The supervisor should stimulate this potential within his organisation. The top brass in administration should know that although everyone possesses some creative potential, certain people have inherent abilities that make them more successful in developing the best alternatives.

But such employees are often dissatisfied with the status quo and seek more autonomy and dynamism in performing their duties. These traits seem to contradict our traditional work culture. Our present model of administrative decision making is unwilling to make rapid changes in intellectual orientation; rather, there is a tendency of clinging firmly to what one knows is right. So, it is better to investigate whether the present organisational ecology is conducive to bringing out the employees’ creativity or not. The controlled system of administration gives minimal chance for the use of creativity. Attitudinal change is more important than extrinsic factors. Respect for creativity is respect for merit. The skill of our supervisors depends upon their ability to conceive and adapt new methods and systems to make the present administrative system more efficient, effective and accountable to the people. The basic objective of the use of creativity is to make the system more competitively excellent, productive and goal oriented. Developing mutual trust through effective communication, adoption of a participative style of decision making, less management control, greater autonomy and responsibility for employees are some of the steps in fostering creativity.

Equally important is the honest attempt in eliminating favouritism and nepotism in placement, promotion and other activities. A strong administrative will for slaying the dragon of corruption is most important. In short, the major compelling factors in seeking out creativity are unsatisfactory performance of development administration and revenue administration, deteriorating internal security and growing resentment of the people. The external factor in seeking out creativity is concern among our donor agencies. Our project administration is working below the level of expectation.

Lastly, creativity or the pioneering spirit will always hunt for a better atmosphere. In order to spark the creative juices of employees, the top-level administrator must be frank enough in constructing new administrative paradigms. At this juncture of administrative reforms, the quest for creativity and the respect for creative talent should be the major agenda of discussion. This field of administrative reform should win support from top executives, the Ministry of General Administration and the Public Service Commission, academics and from those who hold the purse strings if a highly motivated atmosphere is to develop in our civil service. The continuity of this type of democratic practice is one of the important elements of good governance.

(The author is Director General of Department of Information)