The present government has been in office for only over two months. So it might be too early to judge  its performance, but as the saying goes: morning shows the day. Prime Minister Oli was an untested leader for the head of the government and many people had expectation that he will be different from other leaders who have had the opportunity to lead the country. But his time in office so far has not been encouraging.

The gap

The Nepali people do not expect the government to solve the multidimensional problems facing the country all at one go. That would be both unrealistic and impractical. But they do expect the government to be clear about its priorities, be ready to encourage and support values that promote good governance and avoid mismanagement and misallocation of state resources. Past governments in Nepal have made too many promises to the Nepali people only to disappoint them when it came to the implementation. They were unable to rise above personal or party interests.

Are leaders in our country relatively more selfish and self-centered in contrast to other nations and, therefore, less inclined to build institutions that are oriented towards working for the upliftment and prosperity of the people? Nepali political leaders ranging from conservatives to radicals and revolutionaries, including the Maoists, preach about the well being of the people in one voice, but work only for their own self-interests—wealth and power—when they have the opportunity to lead the government. Is it because we lack people of talent and vision? Perhaps, but that cannot be the answer as the availability of talented and trained manpower is not the main constraint in the country. Even Nepalis living abroad are eager to return back and work for the country if the opportunity arises. Many people claim that as compared to some other countries in our own region, developing Nepal is a piece of cake. But that is hardly a satisfactory answer because the cake is getting stale and brittle every day. We are simply not facing the brutal fact that we as a nation are becoming more and more a ‘basket case’ and that the poverty of the people is becoming a handy instrument for enlarging our begging bowl rather than a reason for change and progress with determination and self-confidence.

The tasks ahead of the country involves getting extraordinary things done from very ordinary people who have so far only shown the capacity to loot the state rather than work to serve the people. On the other hand, we cannot import leaders from outside just the way we buy goods and services from other countries. This strategy would indeed be the beginning of the end of the Nepali state even though some efforts in that direction albeit indirectly and through proxy methods may be in progress.

Courage to speak the truth

Perhaps a better method to handle the question that I have posed above would be for all of us, especially those who are in position of power to ask a simple question: what is it that we should not be doing instead of the normal rhetoric of what needs to be done?

We are all hung on positive ideas that management gurus and self development experts extol as the way to progress. There is much merit in this logic but defining a course of action in terms of what is not to be done can also be useful in analysing a problem. When a new government is formed it would perhaps be useful for the leader to describe in detail what he will not be doing or saying instead of what he intends to achieve. Nepali people have heard many bold and positive promises in the past only to realise that it all amounted to nothing but a set of lies to hoodwink the people. Given this experience, would it not be better if the government declared that its first and foremost commitment is not to say anything that it cannot or does not intend to fulfill. Applying  this logic on the load shedding problem the government could declare that it cannot decrease the load shedding hours for more that a given figure next year. This approach would be far superior that announcing dishonestly that there would be no load shedding by next year as declared by Prime Minister Oli. Even the officials at the Nepal Electricity Authority laugh derisively at this   categorical announcement as nothing but a cheap publicity stunt that is going to be exposed pretty soon. If the prime minister is honest, my suggestion would be for him to admit his mistake and tell the people that load shedding will not be over by next year. On the other hand if he is convinced that he is right, we have the all the rights to know the basis of his conclusion because there are enough people in the country to discern facts from fiction.

The willingness and the political courage to tell the people what will not be possible are as important as declaring what is feasible. It is a great mistake to confuse what is desirable with what is possible in action. Failure to see the distinction between the two often results in making grandiose promises that fall flat in the face of reality just like Oli’s announcement about load shedding. Similarly we all know that the prime minister is justifiably proud about many forward looking provisions and the overall theme of the constitution. However he has mindlessly increased the number of ministries against the spirit of the constitution to cater to the whims of the ‘fringe parties’. It may be the result of his own political compulsion and he may have his own justification, but he should now stop telling the people that he is serious about good governance in Nepal. There is now the distinct possibility that he will even be breaking the record of his ‘illustrious’ predecessors in misgovernance and mismanagement of the nation.

Lohani is a senior leader of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party