Leadership talent is what Nepal needs: Experts

A brain storming but yet a healthy debate commenced today in Kathmandu among and between the noted academicians, intellectuals, political personalities and media men who expressed their respective views on the topic, “ New Dynamics of Conflict in Nepal: Challenges and Opportunities”.

The Nepali luminaries criss-crossed the prevailing political trends and advised the men handling the affairs of the State to provide adequate attention to the marginalised population or else the new political change might boomerang in some way or the other.

Some even told that the politics of the past were still put in practice by some political quarters and that such politics will only invite chaos and uncertainty which could provide space for the emergence of some other conflicts in the future.

Nevertheless, the intellectuals were of the opinion that with the new political change, if opportunities were abundant then the challenges were also equally Himalayan ones.

“Wisdom would demand that the available opportunities must be tapped for the development of the country and the politicians must take up the associated challenges with renewed vigour by adapting to the politics of consensus and unity”, they noted.

Setting the tone of the seminar of the CETS( Center for Economics and Technical Studies) , Dev Raj Dahal-the head of the Nepal Office of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, said in his welcome address that “ the diversity of approaches adopted by constitutional actors to many issues of public interest and concern has set a new dynamics of conflict in Nepal among the three set of political parties-the actors in government comprising of six ruling parties led by the Maoists, the opposition parties led by the Nepali Congress and a host of other parliamentary parties out side the government structure”.

Dahal says, “Deeply rooted internal factionalism within each party has made the government a survival oriented than being an innovative one so far as the public demands of common good and collective future are concerned”.

The FES chief further states that “All that Nepal needed at the moment was on how to promote mutual adjustment between transitional justice and peace and mediation of change in the distribution of values in the society”.

He laments by saying that “the agreements are not implemented in a state of nature when rights to liberty and property are often encroached, social mobility is restricted and self-preservation becomes the major stake”.

Former Foreign Minister of the erstwhile Panchayati era, Shailendra Kumar Upadhyaya said that “Every conflict had some reason underneath and the political wisdom demanded to go deep into finding the root causes for the conflict”.

He, however, expressed his displeasure over the manner the country’s politics was being taken up by the new managers of the State.

He says, “change has come indeed but not for the people…for some political creatures only”.

He, however, rejected the notion that federalism was bad for a small country like Nepal. Instead, the system of federal structure, says Upadhyaya, will enhance the aspect of nationalism wherein each and every people can claim that this is my land, my culture and my tradition.

“Federalism is needed to uplift the local culture which opens the gate of vast opportunities at the local level”, adds Upadhyaya.

Mr. Upadhyaya says that the new political change if has brought opportunities then it concurrently is attached with Himalayan challenges as well.

Delivering the key note address on the occasion was a Nepal born American citizen, Professor Bishnu Poudel who dwelt at length on how Barak Obama got elected as the new President of the United States of America.

“Leadership talent is what counted and Obama had this quality in abundance”, he said.

Obama, during his election campaign, added Poudel, assured the American population that he will act as an “agent of change” and a fully assured American citizen voted him to power.

In the context of Nepal, Prof. Poudel advised that change can be brought if one refrained from three Cs: condemnation, criticism and complaints.

Former Speaker of the Nepal Parliament Daman Nath Dhungana-the chief guest of the inaugural session of the CETS seminar-said that “politics of the bygone era is still prevalent in the country, however, what has changed is just the cover”.

“The same dismissed and rejected political traits could well be seen dominating the politics of the country even today”, Dhungana continued.

Dhungana lamented that the new political change ushered in the country has so far not reached to the common people back in the remote villages and the inaccessible mountains.

He, however, lauded Obama’s victory as the next US President and says, “Obama’s emergence in the US politics with a big bang was in itself a big change ever recorded in the history”.

According to Mr. Dhungana, “the state runs only when all the major actors agree to proceed together in the nation building task”.

Posted on : 2008-11-12 15:45:51

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