NATIONAL11 [ (Spotlight Weelky)]

A NEW MILLENNIUM
Will It Bring Any Succor For The Poor?

By MADHAV KUMAR RIMAL

A thousand years — a millennium — is dead. A new millennium is born. What is in store in the coming thousand years, perhaps, no body can say for sure. But what the dead millennium has given us, we all know. A thousand years is a long time. It has to be a time for miseries and a time for happiness; a time to hate and a time to be proud of; a time we would like to forget and a time we would cherish for ever.

It is not possible to record all the important events of the last millennium in this small article. We would suffice by saying it was an age of wars and conquests; religious bigotry and racial hatreds; colonization and exploitation. It was also an age of voyages and discoveries, an age of industrial revolution that changed the face of the world; a time that invented electricity and wireless; motor vehicles and airplanes; telephones and TVs; Fax, E-mails and mobiles that have totally narrowed down space and time. It was a millennium that produced men like Tulsidas and Nanak; Martin Luther and Thomas Moore; Ram Krishna and Vivekanand; Tolstoy, Gandhi and Mandela. Men like Shakespeare, Michael Angelo, Shahjehan; thinkers like Rousseau, Voltaire, Darwin, Marx and Engels; scientists like Newton, Einstein and Bose; artists and musicians like, Da Vinci, Angelo, Rembrandt, Raphael, Van Goh, Bach, Beethoven, Motzart, Tansen, Chopin. It was a millennium that saw statesmen like Akbar, Cromwell, Frederick the Great and Lincoln who initiated the proces of democratization and preserved the dignity of man. This was an era when man made unimaginable progress in science and technology generating a hope that the day would surely come when the philosophy of "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" would be realized. The millennium also witnessed man making and using weapons of mass destruction, weapons that can annihilate the world. At the same time we saw man walking on the moon. In a nutshell, humanity can be proud of all the achievements in the last millennium, even though it has still failed to get over the baser element of greed.

We, in Nepal, do not have much to boast about the second millennium. If the Malla kings gave us some architectural masterpieces, Prithvi Narayan Shah unified the several fiefdoms into one compact country, modern Nepal. Modern Nepal also gave us the Ranas who exploited the country for over a century and made corruption and sycophancy so deep-rooted that even after five decades of their downfall the country is still grappling with the vices. Like the proverbial silver lining in the dark cloud, we also can be proud of a few names like Bhanubhakta, Laxmi Prasad and Tanka Prasad. But, on the whole, we have to accept with all humiliation that all the regimes that ruled this country have failed to serve her. The rulers and their sycophants did not fail to enrich themselves but that they totally ignored their poor countrymen needs no concrete proofs. Even the last ten years of democratic rule have not been able to bring any relief to the hapless millions. Multi-party democracy has turned a few hundred paupers into multi-mithonaires, the unscrupulous politicians into thugs and mafias and the rootless business community into self aggrandizing exploiters with no love for the foster nation. There is no rule of law. People have no faith in the impartiality and justice of the judiciary. There is absolutely no discipline in any government agency. You practically cannot get anything done without bribes. Corruption has become a way of life. Even the Prime Minister advises the subordinate officials to take bribes. Men of integrity are getting so frustrated that they want to emigrate to other countries. The country had opted for democracy but what it got is mobocracy and thugocracy. If this situation is permitted to continue, the country would surely get embroiled in a civil war. The early symptoms are already visible in the Maoist activities. Except the followers of the party in power no body in the country is happy. And even in the ruling party there is a big tug o' war for power. No body thinks about the country and the poor. Every body thinks about himself and wants to become rich overnight. In such a bleak situation we have entered the new millennium.

It may not possible to forecast correctly what might happen in the next thousand years. Where the great Nostradamus failed how can we venture to tread? It may not be very difficult, though, to visualize what will happen in the next few decades, at least in our own country. If the governance of the country continues to be in the hands of corrupt, immoral and unpatriotic men, there will be no respite for the millions of unfortunates; alleviation of poverty will remain an utopian dream and the country would ultimately be embroiled in a civil war with disastrous consequences for life and property. The people will not take exploitation by the political leaders lying down all the time. Even our intelligentsia that is so callous, selfish and partisan at the moment will have to wake up and rise against the corrupt leadership. It is they who have to provide new and honest leadership to the country. We, on our part, have, time and again, exhorted our intellectual community to educate our illiterate mass about the unscrupulous and unpatriotic behavior of our political leaders. But, to our utter dismay our call has, so far, fallen on deaf years. But surely a time will come when they will have to realize their failure to heed to our exhortation and take the cudgel in their hands.

In an age when science and technology are making revolutionary advancements overnight, Nepal is still lagging behind in the eighteenth century. There could be a handful of people who are abreast with the uptodate development. But when the overwhelming mass is almost illiterate and the governments are most insensitive, it is almost impossible even to imagine that the country can reap any advantage from these developments. All the affluent countries of the west and Japan in the East are spending big money to change the lives of the hundreds of millions of poor in the Third World. Still the donor countries are far behind the one percent of their GDP that they had agreed to subscribe. As a matter of fact most of the donor countries have been colonial powers and no amount howsoever big would be able to compensate the countries that they have exploited for hundreds of years. And one of the main reasons why the Third World is poor is because they stayed colonies for a long time. It would be nothing more than poetic justice, if the former colonial powers became more generous and came to the rescue of their former colonies, for giving a more decent life to the unfortunately people they exploited for centuries.

Nepal, indeed, never became a colony. But her geography, century old feudal administration and the five decades of corrupt politics all have contributed to stall her economic development. The Nepalese statesmen even failed to accept a generous offer the British colonial power had made to them at the time they were granting independence to South Asia which would have mitigated her physical vulnerability to a great extent. Be that as it may, the people of Nepal cannot afford to stay tolerant any more. They have to rise up and organize against political corruption. Even Nepal's friends who prefer to tie their aids to democracy have to change their attitude if they are really sincere to alleviate the miseries of the poor. As it is they are only helping the thugs and the political mafias. The starving people of Nepal want food first and then only democracy. The illiterate people of Nepal want education first and then only democracy. The dying people of Nepal want medicine first and then only democracy. The votaries of democracy want the illiterate, starving and dying men to have patience. They say, "Give some more time for democracy to take deeper roots." But, since they have not experienced the pangs of hunger and want of medical aid, they can afford to advise patience. But they must understand that there is no crime a hungryman would not commit. The poor of Nepal want cleaner, more honest and performing governments than aids, grants or loans. Nepal's friends and donors have to understand this well. They can no more be complacent. Their only way to help Nepal is to find ways and means in whatever way possible to check corruption and punish the guilty. Unless they gear up to eradicate corruption in the Third World, most of their donations would go to fill the filthy coffers of corrupt politicians and the poor will become poorer. And, since most of the politicians that grab power by hook or by crook also know all the tricks to buy over the judiciary, they never get punished. As such, there is no alternative but to establish an International Court to Investigate Corruption in the Developing Countries and punish the guilty. Unless the United Nations Organization takes up this suggestion seriously and starts working on it, the billions of deprived people will continue to suffer. If the United States of America considers itself a Champion for democracy and the downtrodden people of the world, if they are really concerned at the subhuman state of living conditions in the poor countries and they want to alleviate the miseries of the billions of unfortunate peoples, they have to act and act without delay. Advice of patience to starving or dying man would be nothing but hypocrisy. Give him food and medicine. And this can be possible only when corrupt politicians are brought to book. We do not know whether there will be settlements on the moon in the years to come or whether man will step on the Mars before the end of the twenty first century. But we do know the hundreds of millions of poor and destitutes will not get any succor from the anti-nationalist behavior of the unscrupulous politicians if the big powers decided to stay as mute spectators. As such, we would like to appeal to all the rich and powerful countries of the world to give this small gift to the poor on the occasion of the dawn of the new millennium — the International Court to Check Abuse of Authority and Corruption under the aegis of the United Nations Organization. If this is not done, no one needs be surprised if the haves and haves not in the poor countries get embroiled in violent confrontation in the coming years.

The rich and democratic countries of the world must not lose sight of the fact that democracy is not the end. It is only the means to achieve the end. And the end is a better and happier life for the poor. Consequently, all the obstacles in the path of achieving that objective must be ruthlessly removed. And the callous, unscrupulous and corrupt politicians are the worst obstacles in achieving a more decent life for the poor. As such, strong and effective measures must be taken to free the administration of such elements. Since delay would only aggravate the untold miseries, the sooner such measures are implemented, the better for the poor world. So that we may be able to say, Viva La New millennium.

Since no nation, rich, poor or developed or developing can have any objection to establishing supranational bodies to effectively deal with corruption, the United Nations Organization has to take up the issue most urgently if the deprived humanity is also to enjoy the fruits of life the small minority is enjoying. Without committed determination to check political corruption in the Third World, all the wishes of the developed world to alleviate poverty, disease and illiteracy from the world would be nothing but hypocrisy. May we, therefore, appeal to all the rich countries of the world to rise and take a pledge to eradicate corruption from the Third World so that the path might be cleared for the poors of the world to enjoy life which God has made so beautiful. The New Millennium may bring forth many more sophisticated gadgets to make life more comfortable and luxurious for the haves of the world. But the have nots of the world will be happy if the New millennium starts providing them with only the basic necessities. The billions of poor are looking up to the rich and powerful countries in the hope that they will not fail to come to their rescue.