Achham incident : Another debacle

By PRITAM S RANA

The recent attack by the Maoist rebels in Achham on army, police and civil administration has demonstrated that despite the emergency in effect, the rebels have not yet lost the initiative. It also proves our Prime Minister wrong when he exclaimed that the rebels have been defeated after the imposition of the emergency. The incident also demonstrates the weakness of the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) and the largely ineffective police (vis a vis the Maoist insurgency).

The government’s main fighting arm in countering the armed rebellion is the RNA. During the emergency, the RNA deployed itself to the remote corners of the country, especially the affected areas and arrested thousands of people suspected of rebel ties. It also neutralized by fire those unwilling to surrender. However, the Achham incident has shown that these efforts were simply not sufficient. The rebels simply appear to have relocated to areas where the security presence was the minimum, trained in those areas and struck out somewhere. It is sad that only incidents of this magnitude attracts the attention of the government and causes it to take some meaningful steps.

Whether anyone likes it or not there is a war going on in this country. Who is winning is pretty hard to tell. After the declaration of the emergency, many were convinced it was the government, which was winning. But sadly the present Achham incident has proven that it is too premature to expect government victory. To combat the rebellion, the government should change its political and military tactics. There should be greater measures for security. The security forces have to be further furnished with modern equipments. The mental status of officials and leaders of the security apparatus should be changed.

In the Achham incident, an entire platoon (a unit of up to 40 soldiers) of RNA was wiped out. Hundreds, possibly a thousand or more rebels, did it. Here the culprit was lack of modern automatic weapons. An RNA platoon has only three automatic weapons while a US Army squad (7 soldiers) has seven automatic weapons. This shows that the smaller US unit has greater firepower than a much larger Nepali unit. If all the soldiers in the RNA platoon at Achham had automatic weapons, they would have been able to put out a massive volume of fire at the enemy forcing them to scatter or retreat. The standard RNA rifle is semi-automatic and fires in a slower rate. The Maoists used automatic weapons stolen from their past raid on the Dang barrack.

It has been demonstrated time and again that the Maoists rely on human wave tactics to overwhelm police and Army. The only answer to counter this threat is to rely on a massive firepower. The RNA and the police both have to procure automatic rifles as their individual weapons. The police will have to give up their vintage 0.303 rifles for more modern weapons. The Army must also procure belt fed light machine guns and distribute it to sections, subunits of the platoon. It should do away with its magazine fed light machine gun for they are slow and need frequent changing of magazine.

The RNA should also procure night vision goggles to detect and fight with the rebels at night. The news that some newer Army Mi-17 helicopters having night vision system is promising, but units in the field, the infantry also need night vision goggles. In counter-insurgency operations heavier weapons like the mortar should be given to frontline units rather than held centrally by the battalions. If RNA troops in Achham had mortars, by their fires, they could have well dispersed the rebels at a distance making it much easier to defend.

Nepal is a mountainous and hilly country. Much of the rebel activities are also in such remote and inaccessible terrain. So the primary means of movement is by foot. The RNA and police units have to move on foot to maintain their presence on the ground. But moving on foot is terribly slow process. The alternative expensive means of transport is helicopters. Helicopters due to their vertical take off capability can reach all types of terrain. Helicopter does not even need to land or touch the ground to embark or disembark personnel or other loads. It can simply hover above ground and do the job. The current inventory of helicopters is insufficient. The government should procure a large number of helicopters. It is well known that it is difficult for the government to purchase high cost helicopters. But it should look for other ways. Some time ago US Secretary of State Colin Powell was in Nepal. Nepal should ask for security assistance from US at a time when the US administration is up against fighting terrorism globally. The US provides military aid to many countries in the world.

The helicopter would be highly useful in the current counter-insurgency. Troops can be ferried rapidly from one point to another. Isolated outposts like Achham garrison could receive ammunition, food and other supplies via helicopter. A helicopter can also carry rockets, machine guns and cannon capable of supporting ground troops. Injured troops can also be rapidly evacuated to hospitals and other health facilities. Helicopters can be put to other uses as well: carrying out rescue operations in the aftermath of floods and famines.

The loss of RNA and police lives has also made it imperative that government boost the fighting capability of the security forces. A serious evaluation of the past strategy is to be undertaken. New tactics ought to be considered. If possible the RNA and the police should launch offensives against suspected territories where rebels have sanctuaries and training facilities. It should also invite experts from overseas in form of military advisers from countries like the US who have history of counter-insurgency warfare. In case of the US, it has Special Forces, who are elite troops capable of fighting in difficult terrain against all sorts of opposition. The US Special Forces include the Green Berets, Rangers and Delta Force who have latest experience in Afghanistan. The government through proper US government channels should invite these troops. They could train the RNA and the police and hone them up to the standard to effectively counter the Maoist rebels. Since the Maoists have now been declared terrorists, there should be a common ground between the US and His Majesty’s Government in the global war against terrorism. The war between the Maoists and the government is likely to continue. By burning the district headquarters of Achham, the Maoists have proven themselves to be terrorists and not any political group. Therefore it is imperative for the government to curb the continuing activity of the Maoist by employing new ways and with international assistance.

On development

By AYUSHMA PANDEY

Ioften wonder about the course of development our country is taking. Ever since the establishment of the multi-party democratic system, our nation is experiencing internal fighting within a party or power struggles among various political parties, with leaders trying out their own ways to develop the nation. But I wonder how the leaders perceive development. This subsequently leads me to think how I look at development myself. What actually is development? The more I try to find an answer to the question the more elusive the word becomes to me.

Helpless as I was, one day I decided to ask my friend what she thought development was. She took a moment and replied, " Well, I think maybe growth in the per capita income or the GDP of a country can make it developed. If we follow the ways of an advanced nation we will surely develop."

Agreed that a sound economy is the backbone of a country, but aren’t there other crucial fields like social or cultural that need to be explored and harnessed? To me my beloved friend’s remark seemed to resonate with perhaps the most popular and oldest of all development theories-modernisation theory (it is in fact so popular that almost everyone takes development as synonymous to modernisation). This school of thought underscores economic growth, the replacement of traditional values, and the institutionalisation of democratic procedures for the development of third world countries. Traditional values and lack of productive investment are the main culprits hindering development. Subscribers to this perspective suggest the growth of more industries, more contact with the so-called developed countries i.e. getting more aid in the form of foreign loans and grants, and assert that to develop one has to shun traditional values and adopt the ways of the so-called advanced nations.

Well as far as I am concerned I do not buy this concept. How right is it to put the blame for under-development on traditional values? Today, we talk of conserving our forests by setting up community forestry. But the fact is that the practice of community forestry dates back hundreds of years and existed as a part of our tradition. Similarly, take the example of the ‘ Saving and Credit’ schemes of today. The notion of such schemes existed (and still does) in our tradition in the form of certain social institutions like guthi and kipat.

All these make me ponder all the feel more about development and make me more confused. The entire problem, I believe, lies in the fact that development does not lend itself to a specific definition. In the light of the above arguments, I have come to the conclusion that the term is a highly subjective one. Everybody has his or her own version of how they perceive development. Just as I and my friend could not agree with each other because of our contradictory views, our leaders also cannot come to an agreement regarding development as they entertain different concepts. And that is exactly how, I believe, our country has become merely a testing ground for the leaders to experiment with different measures that best suit their concept of development. That is exactly how we, the people, have merely turned into guinea pigs upon whom the leaders test their pilot projects.

IT services and developing countries

By SURYA LAMA

Unavailability and increasing cost of white-collar workers have forced firms located in developed countries to outsource the services that can be performed by white-collar workers from cheaper locations. Thanks to improved telecommunications, steep decline in the prices of IT products, storage and transmission costs and rapid globalisation, developing countries have tremendous potential to benefit from such development if proper policies are put in place at various levels.

An estimate suggests that global information technology (IT) services will amount to $ 142 billion by 2008. Another study conducted by McKinsey & Co indicated that by 2010, white-collar services that can be performed offshore will amount to 180 billion dollar. Estimates suggest that by 2008, 1.1 million white-collar workers will be employed from India alone to  perform such services generating nearly $ 19 billion in annual revenues. 

The types of services that can be performed from remote locations include customer-interaction, finance and accounting, human-resource, data search integration and management, remote education, network consulting and management, engineering and design, translation, transcription and localisation, etc. For instance, as early as in 1999, America online employed 600 Filipinos to answer customer emails; GE Capital employed 800 Indians to process mortgages, review insurance claims and answer telephone queries and British Airways employed 750 Indians to handle back-office work. An important question for policy-makers in developing countries like Nepal is: what are the determinants of the proportion of global IT services a developing country is likely to receive? In other words, what factors determine the quality, cost and availability of skilled labour required to perform IT enabled services in remote locations?

A study conducted by Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, a Hong Kong-based organisation, two years ago compared thirteen Asian countries in terms of three dimensions: quality, cost and availability of skilled labour. India and the Philippines ranked at the top and Hong Kong and Indonesia at the bottom, according to the study. India, for instance, has 50 million English-speaking work force and a significant proportion of that is computer literate. Likewise, the Philippines also has a big supply of highly educated and motivated people. Other Asian economies cannot compete with India and the Philippines for various reasons. For example, Thailand lacks quality; Malaysia lacks quantity or availability, and Hong Kong and Singapore has costly manpower to hire.

What does it mean for developing countries like Nepal? Given its small size Nepal performs very poorly in terms of the "availability" dimension. There is likely to be only a limited supply of a particular type of white-collar service workers in Nepal. However, if it is able to provide high quality services at low cost, Nepal will be able to attract some proportion of global IT services.

According to a news report published in The Kathmandu Post a few months ago, a private company based in Nepal, with assistance from Employment Promotion Commission was planning to provide medical transcription training to 1,500 Nepalese youths, who were expected to earn about Rs 10,000 a month after the training. While such initiative is commendable, Nepal lacks comparative advantage in such services as medical transcription. First, English language proficiency of Nepalese youths may not be as good as that of the youths from other South Asian countries, such as India. Secondly, it may be very difficult for Nepalese firms to compete with Indian firms because of the extensive network created by more than 32,000 Indian doctors practising in the US. Moreover, medical transcription consists of a very small fraction of the global IT services. For instance, out of the estimated $ 180 billion of the global IT services that can be available by 2010, translation, transcription and localisation will amount to about $ 1 billion.

The long-term strategy for countries like Nepal will be to develop high quality manpower that can compete with other Asian nations. Special emphasis should be placed on English language at all levels of education. Secondly, Nepalese companies should diversify their IT services portfolio. They should target services that have higher potential, such as customer interaction services, finance and accounting services, data search integration, management and human resource services.