Rulers, Leaders and Statesmen

Yuba Nath Lamsal

It is said that good leaders are born out of crisis. In the normal circumstances, everything goes smoothly, which does not require any special quality of a person as a leader. But the quality of leadership is tested only at the time of political crisis. One who can steer the country out of the quagmire of crisis taking the people along is a genuine leader who may ultimately turn out to be a statesman.

There are various kinds of people in the political helms. The first category of the people includes the people that work at the local and grassroots level. They are community mobilizers and organizers.  They work in the community and groups, for whom politics is something that is to be obeyed. They receive orders and instructions from above and their duty is just to implement it, whatever their implication and ramifications are. They are concerned more with their own local group from which they obtain legitimacy. They have little concern over what goes on in the national political scenario, although the event and developments in the national politics definitely have impact on local politics.

The real politicking takes police only at the national and provincial level on partisan basis. Politics is a vocation that is related to the people. The word politics derives from the Greek word politicos, which refers to affairs directly related to the citizenry. In other words, politics is an art or science of running the government for the better good of the people. Politics is the science of running the government and those who are in the helms of political affairs are called politicians.

In the national political scene, there are mainly three types of people. Some tend to be political bosses, who act more like chieftains of their groups and clique. The first types of people are not at all concerned with the country and the people at large. They are not even concerned with the party or parties. What concerns them is their personal gain and loss and familial benefit and the interest of their own group and cliques. Although they may claim to be leader or politicians, they are neither leaders nor politicians. They are just political slogan mongers and taken up the political vocation just to get favor from the political big shots and also to influence the bureaucratic mechanism and business circle for their benefits. They have loyalty to none except money and run businesses under political protection. This is the level from which politics is criminalized and crimes politicized.

The other type of group comprises of people who claim to be leaders. The leaders slightly rise above the first category of people who have taken up politics as a vocation for money and muscle power. The leaders are concerned with their parties and often act in accordance with the partisan interest more than the interests of the country and the people. The other breeds of people, which are rare not only in Nepal but also across the globe, are the statesmen. These types of people or the statesmen often rise above the parties and personal and partisan interest. Their paramount interest is the country and the people. Statesmen always remain committed to the overall interest of the country. In the crowd of the leaders, these people are markedly different and so are their approaches and style. The statesmen alone can command the respect and support of the people and can mobilize the people for the right cause of the nation. There is always dearth of statesmen in the world. A statesman is born once in an era. There are some distinguished statesmen in the world. Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln are among some of the finest and best remembered statesmen who are highly regarded and revered for their outstanding contribution in the realm of politics.

But in the case of Nepal, everything is messy. Politics is more chaotic and nasty in our country. It is political parties, their activists and politicians who are the best loathed people in Nepal possibly in the world as well, despite politics being in the center stage and the politics dominating everything. It is necessary to clean up politics in order to set other things and sectors on the right path. If politics gets muddy, all other sectors would be definitely contaminated which would ultimately corrode the entire society and kills human creation, innovation and imagination.  Unfortunately, Nepal’s political sector is so tainted that politicians are poorly rated in the eyes of the people. It is not that all politicians are corrupt, incompetent and inept. There are good politicians and leaders as well in Nepal but their good reputation and good intentions are being eclipsed in the crowd of corrupt, crooked and con politicians.

We saw some good and finest politicians whose sincerity and political acumen has been highly rated and revered both in Nepal and abroad. We are proud of having great political personalities like BP Koirala and Puspa Lal Shrestha, who had vision for the country and propounded a new kind of philosophy to suit in the peculiar conditions of Nepal. Although these two great political personality championed two rival political philosophies, their goal was identical that is to emancipate the country from political oppression and lift the people from economic, social and cultural domination and exploitation. Puspa Lal Shrestha was never tested practical political intricacies and it is not yet known what his performance would be in real politicking. But he was a thinker, philosopher and ideologue who have been a source of inspiration for all leftists and communist activists, supporters and sympathizers. Similarly, BP Koirala was a visionary leader who is also revered in Nepal and also abroad, although he proved himself to be unsuccessful in practical politics. Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Ganeshman Singh, Manmohan Adhikari and Madan Bhanadari were other leaders who have left their indelible marks in Nepal’s political arena. These leaders have more virtues than vices. Ganeshman Singh was the commander of the 1990 political movement and he was perhaps the first politician of Nepal whose leadership was accepted by communists as well. Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, too, had a unique quality of leadership which smoothly and successfully led the country during the transition. Madan Bhandari is best remembered for his patriotic stance. But they, too, hardly rose above the status of leaders. Thus, Nepal has so far not been able to produce any political statesman. The only person who had the capability of becoming a statesman was BP Koirala but he, too, failed to attain that repute because of some of the inherent weaknesses in his political orientation and thinking. But he is above all leaders of Nepal.

Nepal is in the political crisis at present. In terms of nature, the present crisis is a unique one. But political crisis is not unique in itself. Nepal is in perpetual political crisis right from the beginning when Nepal was created as a country. But it is yet to fully emerge as a nation state, which is in the making. The perpetual political crisis of Nepal is attributed to the narrow and patriarchal attitude and mentality of the leaders and political players. The leaders have failed to rise above the partisan interests, which is the basic quality of leaders. Only statesman rises above personal and partisan interests. But we have only rulers but, unfortunately, not statesman. This is the fundamental reason why Nepal is perpetual crisis.

In the absence of statesman, political parties are visionless and directionless. Since our leaders tend to be rulers, power is their paramount concern. As a result, our politics is devoid of ideology, principles, values and political ethic. The parties have abandoned their original ideology but focused more on power and position. This is the fundamental flaw and problem in our politics at present.