Not Mind Locked

By Madan Lamsal

Former President of FNCCI Binod Chaudhary once asked me, "can you show me a single sector in which FNCCI has developed over the last six years?" By that he obviously was trying to say that whatever progress he had achieved as FNCCI President six years ago were still unsurpassed. At that time I could not answer him. But now things have changed and I have some answers. For example, FNCCI has added one more floor to its building. If you really go searching for them you can find them provided you are positive in your search. The plan for a garden on the open space in front of FNCCI building is still being vigorously planned – i.e. it is not abandoned.

Today, FNCCI has become so professional that it has started applying different methods to enhance its efficiency. For example, recently it has applied new HRD policy, under which it has promoted people from within the organization following an ultra-modern management technique which can be called the change-the-label method. It also has advertised seeking MBAs and so on to show that FNCCI is a really professional organization. They know that they don’t need them, and that is why there is no single MBA in FNCCI so far. But a modern organisation must have some of them though only for demonstration. After all, what these so called MBAs do? If they could change the organization, there are so many of them with Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), (though their certificates are from TU) and everybody is still complaining that NRB is not changing at all. Nepal Bank and Rastriya Banijya Bank have still more of them, and some of them even hold the degrees from foreign universities. Has it made any difference there? So why bother about their effectiveness when you need them just as showpieces.

The decision of internal promotion is perhaps the wisest one that FNCCI has ever made, for it is the least expensive method. Now you can expect the unexpected from this apex body of business organizations. Time and again, FNCCI has been showing its maturity. It is always active introducing novel methods for the development of private sector in line with political parties. Sometimes it is in the news for its election spree, sometimes for organizing peace rally or for its of mediation offer in the peace-talks with Maoists. Recently, it organized different Melas to oppose the Bill for new Income Tax Act, (like they had done with VAT in the past ) to just tell that the language used in the bill is difficult to grasp.

And they are perfectly right. How can anyone keep hiring lawyers for such trivial things as the language of the law? The language of the law should be as simple as that of a primary school textbook. We don’t care about other countries, for English is not our mother language. Down with the low originally drafted in English! Simplicity is the legal virtue.

When, all these are being done by our present leaders of FNCCI, can Chaudhary still say that FNCCI is in the same place where it was six years ago? Had we an access to the sea, FNCCI would have proved no less competent than English or American chambers. As the immediate past president of FNCCI used to repeat in every seminar, "we are land-locked, but not mind locked".