Not long ago, a picture struck me. The picture was of JP Gupta—his neck covered in garlands and his forehead daubed with vermilion. Supporters were welcoming the former minister who had spent slightly more than a year in Dillibazar prison for graft. When I saw that picture, I could not stop from pitying our society, because to me that picture elucidated every reason we are in a chaos—economically and politically.
There are a couple things that are unfortunate about that picture: An incumbent minister was jailed for corruption. He served just one year of prison for amassing millions from state coffers. When he stepped out of jail, he did not feel morally obliged to step down from politics. And most unfortunate of all, he still has a cohort of believers around him who would accept him as their leader. [break]
That scene, however, has further implications. It portrays the bitterest truth of all— that we, citizens, are responsible for our slide as much as politicians are. We always grumble– “nothing is working in this country”— and we don’t mind pointing our fingers at Singhadarbar and Baluwatar. But we forget to reflect on ourselves and scrutinize whether we are acting responsibly, and whether we are greasing the wheels of transgression ourselves.
REPUBLICA
Corruption tops everyone’s charts as the reason behind our economic downturn. If we know that corruption is the root of failing politics, why do we still support leaders that we know are corrupt? Why do they get warm welcomes when they pay a visit to our addresses? We are to be blamed more than Mr. Gupta or any other corrupt politician, because we are the one who still accept them as our saviors. Politicians aside, why do we pay bribes at government offices? “They will delay our work if we don’t.” Very true, but do we have the guts to say “I’ll much rather suffer for an hour than pay the bribe for a fast way out?” If we don’t, then as citizens, we are failing in our responsibility of freeing this nation from the mesh of corruption.
Strike is another irresponsible and reprehensible phenomenon in recent years. The rationale behind strikes goes like this—“It is not a matter of choice. The government does not pay attention to our demands unless we call a banda.” But I find this rationale troubling, because when we block the street, people running the government don’t pay the price. It is stranded travelers who have nothing to do with the issue that bear the brunt of it.
Government officers travel on escorted vehicles, so they face little problem most of the time. But sometimes, if top government officials are found in vulnerable positions, we vandalize their vehicles or burn them down to ashes, but we forget that the vehicle are bought with taxpayers’ money. We burn down millions of our own money. Isn’t it our responsibility to think of other people’s rights when we are fighting for our own? The officials who ride to work have paid their taxes; they have every right to ride their vehicles on it. We are not to dictate when they get to ride it. And what about the taxi driver who has no other way to buy that day’s meal for his family? We are not to dictate when his kids get to eat dinner.
We complain about our unemployment. Sure, our government needs to do a lot to solve unemployment. But aren’t we contributing to our unemployment by calling strikes to shut down businesses? By doing so we are scaring new investors, and even existing businesses are having problems with their balance sheets. If we do not harness new investments, and prevent existing businesses from making profit, how can we expect our unemployment rate to go down?
At this point, some of us might be tempted to blame ‘tauke’ politicians for all politically sponsored bandas that paralyze our everyday life. But they don’t carry sticks around with them, they don’t stone vehicles, and they don’t pull down the shutters. It is citizens like you and I, who are doing all this. We might belong to different political ideologies, but we are all being used by politicians. Sure, it is wrong of them to use us in their dirty ploys, but isn’t it also our fault that we allow ourselves to be used? We always have the choice to reject the things that we think would harm the country. We always have the choice to refuse to execute their ploys. We always have the choice to unite to foil their endeavors. Let’s not fool ourselves; we are the ones making bad choices.
The bad choices we make go beyond politics. Now it is encrypted in our social fabric. Even when we act imprudently and irresponsibly, we somehow manage to lie to ourselves and point fingers at politicians and the government. A simple example is the pollution in the capital city. How many of us have looked for a garbage can nearby to throw a candy wrap in? In the two and half years of living in the capital, I never did, and I barely came across anyone who did. I deeply regret that, and I believe I am responsible as much as anybody else for polluting the city. It is neither the government nor politicians who are throwing garbage at riversides. It is us, citizens, who throw the garbage and then complain about deteriorating Bagmati and Bishnumati every morning at coffee shops. Isn’t it our responsibility to seek alternative garbage management techniques (minimizing waste, reusing, composting) on our own when the metropolitan city does not collect garbage for several days?
If it is rule of law that we want, are we following the laws ourselves? We might say in our defense that since everyone is breaking the law, one person obeying the law would not make a difference. Or we might say something like “if I don’t pay taxes, my couple thousands will not be missed among billions.” This is where we fail. Unless every single one of us fulfills our responsibility, this nation will not walk the path to prosperity. If we want our nation to move forward, we must help it move forward.
The picture of JP Gupta was just an example of how we citizens are responsible for buttressing inequity. We cherish the release of a corrupt top-tier politician, when we should condemn corruption at every level in unequivocal terms. We block the streets when we should be building them. We shut down businesses when we should open them. We look for excuses to evade taxes when we should be encouraging others to pay it. To me that picture was depressing, and equally depressing, if not more, was the realization that our society is yet to understand that ‘right comes with responsibility’. In our case, even that would not suffice, our mantra must be ‘right follows responsibility’ if we are to pave our way to good fortune at all levels.
The author has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Brigham Young University
ganes.bhattarai@gmail.com
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