Why “not” Nepal?

Last edited: Jan 22, 2010

Here is my call for an energized youth movement to revolutionize Nepal through “common sense”.

“The Common Sense Movement”

Nepali Youth leaders with charisma, passion, leadership and entrepreneurial in spirit, come together to set up a new youth movement. Youth leaders from all walks of life, from existing political parties to passionate individuals, doctors, engineers, scientists, radicals, social entrepreneurs, economists and ………………….. rush to join this new movement based on the simple philosophy of “common sense“.

We are tired of the antics in Nepal’s leadership (all of them). In the past fifty years, all we ever wanted was a leadership to lead the youthful nation with a “common sense”. We have stopped finding this in the current leadership or even the older generation as a whole. Therefore we, the youths will be the new “common sense” leaders. We are the “present”, not the future.

(I define youth by age primarily, but also add to this, ‘youthful’ passion and this ‘youthful’ capacity to mold one self and not to remain attached to ideologies or concepts but morph along as the situation demands – by relying on ‘common sense’)

This team would be able to set a new path and direction for the whole country through a series of policies based on “common sense”. Grand principles, philosophies and ideologies of the past (i.e. communism, capitalism, socialism, non-aligned, aligned etc) are incomplete illusions which needs to be dismantled to address the unique and constantly changing scenarios of Nepal with its hundreds of tribes, thousands of problems, millions of independent spirited youths and tens of millions of impatient individuals for a better life.

(More than 60% of Nepalis are under 25, -data yet to be verified)

I say, how best to achieve this other than through a leadership that works passionately with “common sense”, with youthful motivation and high degree of emotional intelligence. The “common sense” movement of Nepal will make sure that youths are the primary stakeholders in this country and the primary gateway to the Nepal’s peace and sustainability. Enough of the old concepts where the elder leadership calculated their contribution by the days they spent in prison or in protest (reaction based). Our responsibility begins, not ends, when we gain power (pro-active).  We guarantee our fundamental rights to all people within our borders, not just our citizens. We believe, universal brotherhood (sisterhood) is the goal for every Nepali in the near future.

Here are the basic rights we believe in:

Prosperity: is a basic human requirement that helps fulfill a lot of other human rights. A prosperous woman is a woman with dignity and she has resources to keep her family out of poverty. A prosperous woman demands and gets her rights without being forced to scheming, abusing or trampling on another person’s rights. A prosperous woman has the resources to educate her family to have a better chance of becoming moral beings. And our movement will get her this way of life for her. We encourage prosperity for all, by mobilizing social entrepreneurs on the forefront of this fight.

Equality: “We celebrate equality with diversity. Any old concepts, Federalism or new ones, should be based on this common sense. “It is my right to live free, hunger free and without fear in Nepal.“  Disruptive tactics to peaceful negotiations for one’s rights is a violation of one’s rights to prosperity and equality . This is as serious as the denial of work to a one based on her social or political affiliations.

Our governance model: Our governance model will be to make communities prosperous by the method of “local self-sustainability and self-reliance” through mutual global engagement and global trade to achieve this. This movement believes the central government’s primary role is only to be a vanguard of maintaining workable peace, integrity, law and dignity in the country. It will leave the nation building process to special teams of passionate young team of individuals, “social entrepreneurs and technocrats” who work directly with local communities towards creating a prosperous Nepal. It will be the guardian of Nepali people so that law order, peace and tranquility are balanced while we are on the nation building process. We will leave the long nation building process to “social entrepreneurs” while making sure it remains only as an watchdog so that given preferred access and special powers to the “social entrepreneurs” are not abused. A government is a facilitator when it comes to handling the local economy and a negotiator while dealing with the international economy. We do not believe in government becoming itself an obese, manipulative powerful business. So it will remain steadfast in fulfilling these rights before concentrating on other human rights. For example, the Government serves as a bulwark against the perceived inequalities, hunger and danger to one’s health and lack of basic education. We believe that simply depending on the central government for your basic rights is evil and backwards. This kind of reliance makes a government the ruler of Nepalis rather than a guardian. Our strategy is to make each village and town has its primary goal to be self sustainable and able to rule itself wisely by connecting openly with nationally and internationally. A model of “self (but linked) governance” at micro level is a social experiment we will push for and crave for. We don’t want you to rely on us. We want you to rely on you and your capacity to sustain by engaging with other groups locally or globally. We will be your aid in your quest for self reliance, not your master.

Diversity within unity: We celebrate diversity is a gift, we want to use it wisely, but diversity at the cost of disunity is a dead end in evolution of human race. We will stop this at any cost. Diversity with united responsibility is our motto. As long as it does not trample on our other basic human rights to food, education and love, we will celebrate diversity. “Until most Nepalis have a sound education and are covered by a local community based initiatives on key issues such as universal health policies, the central government will take an active role in creating a temporary health and education system with partnership with local bodies and social entrepreneurs but after this has been reasonably achieved, this too will be handed over solely, as soon as it can, to the realms of local social entrepreneurs who run the local governments. In the end, the central government will remain a lean, flexible watchdog which maintains the rule of law, integrity, and dignity in Nepal.

Our Accountability: Our leadership is directly accountable to our practical goals and the amount of rewards or punishments a leader gets is directly proportional to the higher degree of responsibilities we take. A culture of accountability will erase the culture of impunity. This movement understands the transparent and globalised world we live in. We are basing every part of decision making with the youths in focus right down to the high school. We insist on open sourcing our government. We insist on open sourcing our ideals, our goals and our strategies so that you can advice us while we fine tune our universal localized system. We hold ourselves not just to the people within our borders but to the humanity, the eco-systems and the earth that we are part of.

Our Foreign policy: Nepal’s relationship to the rest of the world is based on equality and sisterly love.  At present and in the near future, we will follow policies of deep respect to our two powerful neighbors and we will tie our economies closely, openly and ’strongly’ with both our neighbors to ride along with them. This will be the basis on all near term economic agreements. This ensures political games remain secondary to the economic brotherhood that we will cultivate. We will pursue for single currency with our two neighbors for our own prosperity. Healthy and mutually beneficial economies with our neighbors will deter any haphazard political games to be played. Nepal is a “neutral” on all affairs associated with China and India in the near term. Its relationship with China and India supersedes relationships with the rest of the world until all Nepalis are prosperous and educated to a level consistent with the developed nations of the world. We expect let our foreign policy evolve with time, or even mutate.

Individual Uniqueness:

An individual decides the moral, ethical, religious rule inside you and your home. Similarly, a family decides the same within their home. The government and the society have no right over your private morals, thinking and ideologies and we will not dictate our community ideals upon your “private” self. Powerful expression of one’s uniqueness helps us in evolving to protectors of this world. Uniqueness is to be cherished, not muffled. We believe humans will have to evolve to be caretakers of this world they inherited, and safe-guard the environment they are part of.

Evolution: As times change, and with it, we shall evolve. We believe in the evolution of our basic principles of “common sense”. As times change, we will evolve and even mutate. If we stick to principles which have stopped making sense with the changing scenarios, we become obsolete. The world is changing fast. Look where we have reached in 100 years, from primitive non flying humans to evolved man who can communicate thousand of miles away instantly. We will evolve to absorb any principles that work towards this open ended goal.

In Summary:

The leaders will work to make their own jobs obsolete. The more you self-sustain, the more they will disappear from your sight. This will be enshrined as one of the founding principles of our ideologies.

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Hope you enjoyed reading. I welcome your comments below!
Warmth,
Ujw

(This document welcomes any addition to improve it, challenge it or trash it
Last edited: Jan 22, 2010