COMMENT

Don’t be like Nero

"As Rome was burning, Nero was fiddling”. It was quite difficult to understand the real meaning of this proverb when one was young, though a person could understand it in a figurative manner even then. Perhaps it is age, or maybe more experience that unravel the mysteries of such messages of time. For us now, going by the way the leaders of the ruling Nepali Congress are harping on different issues when the country is going through a harrowing period, one can just compare the situation here, to that crisis in Rome many hundred years ago. For example, though it has been made public that former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has finally received the full authority of the government to hold talks with the Maoists, the public shouting match Deuba and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had before this, was childish and ridiculous. If there was a communication gap or even a misunderstanding between the two leaders, they should have sorted it out amongst themselves, not make it look like a mud-slinging match. Even till Sunday, Minister for Communication Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta, considered close to Prime Minister Koirala, had made a scathing attack on Deuba regarding who was to blame for the delay in beginning talks.

Whenever there is a national crisis, political leaders talk of consensus. But when even leaders of the ruling party cannot forge unity amongst themselves, that also on such a vital issue like resolving the Maoist problem, what “consensus” can be expected from the diverse opposition political parties in the Parliament and outside? But to come back to the ruling Nepali Congress, it seems the party cannot remain united, specially when it heads the government. Right from the time when it came to power in early 1991, the party has seen internal conflict. In the years since then, the image the NC has been able to portray is that it is divided into two factions. Even the present squabble, can be called the manifestation of the rivalry between the two sides in the party, namely one led by Koirala and the other by Deuba, who acts as a front for Bhattarai. With the party’s important general convention slated for early November, the struggle between the leaders seem more intense and the divide also seems to be  widening.  If the Nepali Congress leaders cannot work together even at this crucial phase, then not only the party, but the whole nation could burn like Rome, and that would be dangerous.

Whither civic sense?

That we Nepalis severely lack civic sense is apparent in the way we live, behave and the way we are. Spitting globules of your lung excrement on the streets, pouring out liquid garbage down on the street may be acts of lesser educated fellow beings; but even the literate and/or the well-offs do not think twice about hogging the road, committing traffic blunders, smoking anywhere as if it were a birthright and so on.

Also, anyhow  making a dash to reach your destination as soon as you can seems to be the motto of all big or small vehicles, with any number of wheels on the road. Go back home and there you see piles of mixed garbage in a corner. Just getting rid of the garbage to a container outside seems to be the end of the responsibility of the people living in the house. If people just made that little extra effort in taking care of perishable rubbish themselves, the burden of garbage may come down to a great extent.

Now, the latest trend catching up fast in this cramped city is spitting streaks of Pan anywhere that you can aim at. Pushing and poking in the streets to get ahead of the crowd, stubbing out cigarette butts is but a few from the long list of offences that an average Nepali regularly commits. Another distasteful example of our poor civic sense is the state of our toilets. The less said on the matter the better.

It is surely not the lack of resources here again. We need no donors to teach us how to keep ourselves clean, behave with respect for ourselves and others and with concern for the environment. Civic sense begins with small steps and at home first.

Democracy or kleptocracy

By K.C. Bhatt

In the new world order of today, communism is said to have been conclusively defeated by capitalism. If capitalism is the utopia of the human consciousness, as promoted by its solicitors, sadly, it obviously is not just and equitable.

Indeed, it is a common refrain, either in the USA or in Uganda, that the gap between the rich and poor is steadily widening, notwithstanding the hype of the success of globalisation or the market economy. Sociologists may argue that the existing system of the world is creating ghettoes of the human groups, masquerading as interest groups — mainly due to the socio-economic inequality among the people and countries.

Arguably in such a scenario, the clash of parochial interests could be too much engrossing for these ‘interest groups’ and the larger objective of achieving excellence in human endeavors may get lost.

Take for instance the richest man on earth, computer geek Bill Gates, who became a victim of his own success and tried to eliminate the possibility of any competition to him in his enterprise, by using the enormous power of money that he had accumulated. Had he been successful, he could have ensured that no one would ever surpass his achievement in the world of computers. Indeed, such an eventuality might have been unfortunate for the human civilization.

In the existing world order, governments are proving ineffective in providing equal opportunities to all and instead are becoming mere tools in the invisible hand of capitalists, to serve and further the parochial interests of the latter. So, the long-term sustainability of the human civilization on the edifice of capitalism may appear doubtful to many.

Particularly in the newer democracies, where it might be quite late for the weaker section of the society, before a more educated and benevolent middle class comes into existence to use its franchise in the larger interest of the majority. Power of money and muscle plays a big role and often has a foreign origin and therefore the veracity of the electoral process itself is doubtful.

Not surprisingly, in such countries, despite the years and decades of democracy, the day to day lives of the majority does not improve, though the charade in the name of democracy is kept alive by the newer power elite.

Where the system remains so unreformed and defunct, it will be a grave mistake for a government to wash its hands of its social responsibility; because, it will only facilitate an open loot of the public resources by the unscrupulous capitalists.

Hence, one of the main perils of the newer democracies is the influence of black money on its electoral process, that is flooded into the process by the capitalists with the connivance of the power hungry politicians. If it left unchecked, such tendencies may reduce democracy to kleptocracy of a tiny minority of venal politicians and avaricious capitalists.