Personnel Management In Private Airlines
An Overview

By Bimal Kumar Subedi

NEPAL being a mountainous country with tough topography and having eighteen out of seventy five districts without any other mode of transport except air service or foot trails, has immense importance of domestic air transport for the development of the country and to facilitate its people. However, the history of Nepali private airlines serving domestic sectors is not very long. It animated itself after the proclamation of liberal sky policy of His Majesty's Government of Nepal in 1992 and paved its way for the entry of three private airlines (among which two have already ceased their operation).

Obstacles

At present, sixteen airlines are providing their regular services with few more in the line of operating. Since their emergence, the private airline companies are progressing by leaps and bounds. But at the same time, they are not free from obstacles. They always have to work hard to weather the storm even for their mere survival. Closing of an older one and establishment of a new one is happening. Whatever might be the factors behind their instability, their financial market position or clashes among the partners or some other factors, one thing is very distinct that the personnel system management in the private airlines is not to that extent where it should be. Consequently it is causing unstable airline business. And also because of the reluctance of the Civil Aviation Authority in that matter, the aviation security of the private airlines has been pushed towards a threatening situation.

Private airlines job however looks to be very fascinating and splendid in the surface level. But inside the curtain of glamour, the reality is different. Almost all private airlines have acquired their aircraft on lease and their operational and maintenance personnel are taken from RNAC or from CAAN at a higher remuneration rate and still many are from different sources. Manpower planning is lacking. The airline owners are not willing to invest in the infrastructure building and manpower development as they are looking more into short-terms benefits.

The private airlines' employees however are enjoying a good remuneration in comparison to the civil service, but they are actually breathing in an uncertain atmosphere. It is only a fair weather job for them as that in the nick of time, anyone of them could be dismissed from their job with a lame excuse. They are not supported with any legal right to claim to be put back into their job. The dirty little secret is that all private airlines are not in a position to hold their staff perennially. Actually, some are being like the moon of the wane and they are gradually withering themselves to be finished even within a foreseeable future.

In a democratic country like Nepal, forming trade-unions or establishing some sort of institutions based upon the employees' unity and welfare is a normal thing. It is not banned even by the law of the land. Employees can ask their master's or companies for the betterment, security and prosperity of their respective jobs. In a wide sense it is neither too. Because you can only hit to the proper point effectively if the tools are sharp. Certainly, any union of such would be tools for strengthening inspiration of employees are directing organised efforts towards the betterment of civil aviation. If not or without a collective view as lacking of deliberate plan and progress, the congregation of ramming people with solitary identities, would not serve better. Who is working there and why? Is the person satisfied and qualified enough to hold their respective posts? Is one's presence in a certain position necessary? And, is one able to bear the responsibilities as per the prescribed standard? Or is there any actual position and prescribed responsibilities for that position at all? There are the most significant accusations for an authority to launch effective personnel system within its control.

But in practice, if one tries to deal with these accusations, obviously one would be baffled. The reluctance of the concerned companies towards permitting to form such unions, the low interest of CAAN towards interfering with the personnel management of private airlines and the unwillingness of the concerned employees to raise questions against their uncertain future are some facts causing the answers hard. It is sad to see the private airlines staffs blindly attached to their so called glowing jobs and facilities. If they remain unconcerned about their own future, later, they should not blame anybody but themselves.

Thus, we see that a well organised, defined, standardised and controlled manpower system of private airlines is a most necessary tool for achieving a secured and standard civil aviation in the domestic sector. In the absence of which is caused not only the instability of airline business but consequently will soon affect the aviation security system directly as well. Thus, the personnel system of private airlines should not only be of the concern for the respective companies but more imediately, it is also the concern for the Civil Aviation Authority.

The personnel management, of any private company is a matter of internal affair of the concerned company. Nevertheless if it is a potent danger for the whole system in someway or another, the authority should not be indifferent with the matter. Being reluctant and aloof to the private airlines personnel management would not favour our tourism industry and aviation security in the long run. Of course it is true that the direct interference in the private company's inner matters as personnel system may prove to be a wild goose chase for the authority but it is also true that the authority should not show its white feathers for interfering into the matters of wide concern for the people and the nation. So, at least the authority should establish a common ground or base for all to run their personnel system within a certain and fixed common frame and the system should feel itself as a sustainable body, and the personnel operations should run under a certain automatic mechanism perennially. Criteria

For this, the authority should established certain criteria on personnel recruitment, working hours and facilities, job serurities, job-position and its responsibility, personnel's qualification and working abilities, retirement and after-facilities etc Blocking highly commercialised tendencies of private airlines staff authority should try to generalise them into a common national form and widen them by linking in the chain of national prosperity as a tool of effective facilites provider, and also as a responsible builders of the nation and let not them isolate into the narrow frame of certain company with limited interest.

For Eritreans, Nation Is Supreme

By Andrew England

THE Rev. Emanuel Mesgun has to be careful when he delivers his sermons. Unlike most clergymen, the Eritrean priest can't tell his congregation that God is supreme.

Second Place

So intense is the feeling of nationalism in Eritrea, the Almighty takes second place behind the state, which was formed after a bloody 30-year war to break away from Ethiopia.

This sense of nationhood - a rarity in much of Africa - transcends all else and helps nullify any religious tensions or divisions among the country's nine tribes.

"In most places, it's God, family and then the state, but I cannot even preach that because nobody will accept it. It's the same among the educated and the uneducated - Eritrea, then religion, then family," Emanuel said in his simple Roman Catholic chapel in Massawa, a port on the Red Sea.

Eritrea is one of Africa's smallest nations, with a population of 3.5 million people evenly split between Muslim and Christian, most of whom are Eritrean Orthodox. It is also the continent's youngest state, gaining independence only in 1993.

Over the last seven years, the country of spectacular mountains separated by semiarid plains where temperatures regularly soar above 40 C (100 F), has worked to develop on its own, free from outside influences or pressures.

Until very recently, international aid workers weren't really welcome in Eritrea, one of the world's poorest countries - a stark contrast to many African nations that have become dependent on foreign help.

The U.N. observers who deployed on Sept. 13 to monitor the contested border with Ethiopia are the first international force allowed on Eritrean soil.

And despite the precarious state of the economy, Eritrea does not belong to the International Monetary Fund because it doesn't want to be bound by the conditions that the international agency puts on loans.

"It's very unusual for Africa," said Emmanuel Ablo, a Ghanian who is the World Bank's representative in Eritrea. "They have been cut off from the world for so long they have developed a habit of self-reliance. The rest of Africa has been very donor-dependent. Here they just get on with it."

Much of the national spirit can be attributed to the war for independence, when all energy went into fighting for the "national cause."

"I cannot really say what it means to be Eritrean, but one thing I can say is we have a unity because of the war," said Emanuel, the priest. "It's first the nation, then other things."

Some 100,000 Eritrean rebels, supported by a civilian network, fought a much larger and better equipped Ethiopian army between 1961 and 1991. The war ended when Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam was defeated by Ethiopian rebels fighting alongside the Eritreans.

During much of the struggle, the Eritrean insurgents were forced to live in underground bunkers dug deep into the sides of rugged mountains. Muslims and Christians, men and women, intellectuals and peasants fought, lived and died side by side, forging national unity and its accompanying heroic aura.

"If we did have any differences, we would not have fought together for 30 years. We are running one way; we are one group," said Mohammed Omer, a Muslim and the chief administrator of the northern town of Nakfa, who was a rebel fighter for 18 years.

That wasn't the case early in the war. In the early 1970s, the Eritrean Liberation Front split into factions as a result of political and religious differences.

The breakaway Eritrean People's Liberation Front, led by Isaias Afewerki, who has been president since independence, felt the ELF was too Muslim-oriented.

"Isaias believed you had to have this as a people's war. If you were going to be successful, you needed national unity. The ELF did not have that," said Richard Reid, an Irish professor of history at Asmara University. "There are even (unconfirmed) stories that Christian soldiers were wiped out (by the ELF) because they were seen as a threat."

By emphasizing the "national" aspect of the independence struggle, Isaias, a Protestant, succeeded in relegating religion to the sidelines of Eritrean life, said Emanuel.

"As in all of East Africa, religion is part of our culture ... but the situation has changed," he said. "Guerillas fighting (for the EPLF) were atheist. Now that they have come back into society, they have brought that attitude with them. It's a state without religion, not for or against."

Without doubt, the strongest underlying influence in Eritrea remains war, even after the June 18 signing of an accord to stop hostilities in a 2-year border conflict with Ethiopia.

Murals depicting heavily armed, triumphant rebels adorn buildings in most towns, and the countryside is littered with destroyed Ethiopian trucks, tanks and armored personnel carriers whose skeletons sit as grim reminders of the struggle.

The EPLF retains a monopoly on power, and former guerrillas control all government agencies. The ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice - the only legal political party - grew out of the EPLF movement and exercises strict control over all aspects of life.

Positive

Emanuel finds this positive. "I feel very secure with this kind of government to prevent tensions between Muslim and Christians, because they have a long history of solving problems between the two," he said.                   AP

Melamchi Project And The Public

By Balaram Chaulagain

SERIES of workshops seminars, interaction programmes and meetings have been conducted to materialise the long awaited Melamchi Drinking Water Project (MDWP). All fearibility studies done so far have proved that water from Melamchi river in Sindhupalchowk district is a breakthrough to end the problem of drinking water in Kathmandu Valley. The project is expected to supply 170 million litres of potable water daily to the Valley upon the first phase of its completion. Furthermore, 510 million litres of water can be obtained daily from other two neighbouring rivers named Larke and Yangri. At a time when the parched residents of Kathmandu Valley are hopefully awaiting for Melamchi’s water to quench their thirst the concerning authority, particularly Melamchi Water Supply Development Board (MWSDB), has failed to gear up the project as envisaged. The fate of the US$ 400 million MDWP has been solely depending upon the hand of the executive director of the board. It is so because that all executive power pertaining to project launching has been vested to MWSDB. Till date, billion of rupees and other resources have been spent in the name of the project from the very inception period of Melamchi's master plan in 1988.

In the context of Nepal, if we have to mitigate the long term need of drinking water of the Kathmandu Valley, there is no other alternative except the much-hyped Melamchi Project. Otherwise it would be better to shift the capital where abundant drinking water is available. But it is an irony to note that no such rays of reliable hope so far have been noticed. A mega-project like the Melamchi Water Supply Project for meeting the drinking water needs of the highly populated and thirsty resident of the Kathmandu Valley, is indeed a challenging one. A strong commitment and understanding among all the stakeholders, particularly government and donor groups, therefore, are very crucial. Melamchi being a gigantic water project needs huge amount of investment and other inputs. As such, the project should be completed as soon as possible, otherwise the project expenditure may shoot high, consequently the thirst of the people residing across the length and breadth   of Kathmandu Valley will never be quenched. The proliferation of the people residing across the length and breadthof Kathmandu Valley will never be quenched. The proliferation of day to day price hike seen in the project execution is a matter of serious concern. According to the MWSP’s executive irector, still there is a short of US$ 17 million to launch the drinking water project including construction of 25 megawatt hydro-power plant at Sundarijal. The construction of hydro-power plant along with drinking water supply would be likely “to kill two birds with one stone.” This attempt is highly laudable. But it is an irony to note that due to donors’ pressure, the government has excluded the hydro power plant. Why should we hesitate to implement the hydro power plant? It there lacks fund to expedite both projects simultaneously, we must seek participation of the beneficiaries (consumers). It must be admitted that the people of the Kathmandu Valley are not currently getting enough water and electricity to meet their demand. In the same way, here are a lot of factories, big hotels, carpet washing and dying centres that are facing the problem of water and electricity shortage. In this respect, such consumers may be levied in advance prior to completion of the project. The amount thus collected may be spent to launch the project ahead. This assumption would be a sustainable breakthrough to meet the gap of fund deficit currently faced by the government. In absence of such step Melamchi may well go Arun’s way. Besides, the other drawback seen in the project execution is the failure to choose a short cut, pragmatic and cheap access road to the project site. Till data, the government and other line agencies are turning a deaf ear in this respect. Now, it seems that the cost of the scheme surely goes up as estimated. It could be so because the road from Kathmandu to project site through Araniko High Way via Lamidanda of Kavrepalanchowk district exceed the project cost. Instead, the access road to project site from Sankhu Bazaar of Kathmandu to the final destination via Bhotechaur of Sindhupalchowk district would certainly lessen the lengthy route. If the road from Sankhu to Melamchi through Bhotechaur is built, its distance will be just 45 kilometres or less whereas the proposed route is over 150 km. The motorable road from Sankhu through Bhutechaur has already been constructed with the assistance of the World Food Programme.

Lastly, it goes without saying that valley water crisis should be avoided as soon as possible. In the same way, we should also consider the agony faced by the rural populace of the project area. As the people residing in the capital city of Nepal are forced to rely on water resources available there, in the some way the people residing in project area are also living below abject poverty line. Therefore, they should be compensated accordingly as they are loosing their natural resources for ever. If we are to materialise the project as soon as possible, we need to face this fact squarely. Since the water of Melamchi river is indispensable for resolving the drinking water problem in the capital city, the people of Sindhupalanchowk too should get adequate benefits. Let us hope in the days to come the shortcoming of the project will be eliminated and the pace of development would go as soon as possible.