Wednesday, September 7, 2005

Good or bad, my beloved country!

Craving for money for some in the media and politics become so high that the men concerned might not even think what the hell they have been doing in order to amass wealth.

Politicians in South Asia practice politics in general and media in particular, sorry to say, in order to acquire wealth to the tune of what they consider would be adequate enough can go to any extent. The degree ends when the men concerned begin dancing to the music of their distant directors and in lieu they are flushed with enormous amount of money which is what the person concerned engaged in the two separate businesses would want ultimately. Very sad indeed.

However, this presumption does not apply on some who are more sacrosanct than what one would have imagined of. Some kind and out-and-out patriotic and nationalist souls could well be an exception to the rule which our country too possessed in abundance. Nevertheless, the fact is that the majority of the political creatures and the men involved in the media sector more often than not, for a variety of reasons, submit to the demands of their unknown friends and create havoc for their own country that has provided birth to them all.

Our attention today is on how foreign forces cultivate their stooges in neighboring countries in order to weaken and destabilize those who dare not to toe to their political lines or demands. A sizeable chunk of the Nepali press sector is believed to be playing in the hands of the foreign force(s) who for a variety of political reasons. But for what gains? What their foreign masters want to get from them in turn?

Well we are not talking here of far-flung friendly countries who have neither to encroach upon our lands nor they nurture such any designs. We are not talking of those who wish simply that a strong and vibrant Nepal with democratic system intact comes up in the comity of nations having its heads high. We are not talking of those nations who have been funding our developmental projects so that the poor and the marginalized section of the population ultimately benefited from their funding. These countries neither possess a design to penetrate into our politics openly as some have been doing of late, nor do they can afford to do so in a manner that some have been doing. The fact is that this set of countries only prefers a stabilized fully democratic Nepal wherein all the people, races, all the ethnic tribes and the likes enjoy the fruits of development in an equitable manner.

We are instead talking of some countries in our own neighborhood that would wish to weaken Nepal through the use of our own nationals. And who could be the best tool to accomplish such heinous crimes against one's own motherland other than the media? Not all are the rotten eggs. Not all are the rotten apples. Not all were a commodity to be thrown to the dustbin. In fact we have some in this profession who could well be taken in high admiration and who could be considered to be the doyen of Nepali media who have day- in- day- out been practicing a line that perfectly falls in the true domain of journalism. They are the ones who have suffered a lot in the past. They are the ones who have suffered but not yet yielded to any lucrative offers. We salute such high personalities and call upon others who have already or are in the process of being lured to such dangerous and anti-national offers.

If Nepal and its fledgling media has been the victim of such foreign neighboring designs for quite some time now, other countries in South Asia too have become the target of the same dangerous intents of some powers. But why? Who could else better answer this tough question than those who have made it a habit of poking their nose into the internal and very exclusive matters of the neighboring countries?

Now it is the turn of Bangladesh journalists who apparently have been yielding to the dictates of some foreign powers and have been willingly making comments that goes against their own country's national interests.

We appeal the B'deshi media men not to get lured by the lucrative offers coming as it does reportedly from neighboring countries. Writing against one's own country and penning stories undermining one's own national interests under some one's instigation will be closer to a suicide. Good or bad, my country. This should be the guiding principle of each and every SA journalists. We can sort out our differences if any in between ourselves, but why to encourage others to meddle in our affairs?

Good or bad Nepal is our motherland. Good or bad, Nepali leaders are our leaders. Time consuming it might be, we will ourselves settle our political differences. Let's not allow inimical forces to take benefits from our political differences. Good or bad, we all belong to the same soil. And the soil is never bad.