Selfish leaders, innocent people, and poor country
When we see the people among us and evaluate them based on their attitudes and motives, we find mainly two types of people in the world - the first type selfish and the second type benevolent. The first one lives only for themselves, their family, relatives, and friends and always tries to do things for themselves. They hardly think for others. They are not concerned for society, people, and the country though they show they are for all.
The second type is always for all, society, people, and the country. They like to live not only for themselves, their family, and relatives but also for others. They enjoy doing things for society, people, and the country. They are honest and sincere. Their life's motive is to serve. They are beyond the circle of family and friends in their hearts, not only in speaking but also in action.
When we see countries of the world and observe them correctly, we see those countries are developed, and the people have a good standard of living where they have the leaders of the second type. They have good governance, good management, and praiseworthy infrastructures. They have no complaints about quality education, health facilities, drinking water, or electricity.
The people also are educated and civic conscious and know where to stand for society and people when problems arise. The countries with only the leaders of the first category are backward and underdeveloped, and the people do not have a good standard of living. They have no infrastructures even needed for development. They have a problem with education, health, water, and electricity. They even have a problem with food and shelter. They also have no good governance and must suffer because of mismanagement and corruption. They see many problems but do not know where to stand to voice against them as they have no good education and are not civic conscious.
We know from the history of the world that backward and underdeveloped countries are always the excellent land for movements and revolutions. The underprivileged, economically poor, and unhappy society and people are like dry woods and bushes. One can light them up with fiery speeches and bring up a big revolution without much effort, like a spark causing a fire in the dry woods. In this context, I remember the book" Animal Farm" by George Orwell. I learned about this book from my granddaughter Asha Adhikari, 15, a voracious reader. Actually, she read this book to me. The book is one of her favourite books. This is a famous popular book in Europe and America, that has been translated into over 70 world languages, including Nepali, and is a fairy story. This is also a widely read book, read by millions worldwide. Cover of the book
According to it, a significant revolution was started in an Animal Farm in England owned by Mr and Mrs Jones after a long fiery speech about the mistreated animals of a White Boar named Old Major, the leader in the presence of pigs, cows, bulls, horses, donkeys, cats, dogs, sheep, goats, foxes, hens, ducks, birds, etc. After some time, the farm was taken over by these mistreated animals. A photo of a small part of the speech is given below. They targeted the revolution against Mr and Mrs Jones and all human beings and took power into their hands. But the pigs and dogs who came to power enjoyed everything under the leadership of Comrade Napoleon, the pig in the new Republic of Animal Farm. Other animals had less food, more hard work, and many life hardships. According to their established system," All animals are equal." But in practice, some animals are more equal than others. It means the pigs and dogs are superior. It is said that Animal Farm became one of the country’s most devastating literary acts of political destruction. I feel our maximum number of people should read this book and we should make our people read it.
A photo of a small part of the speech given by White Boar named Old Boar, the leader
Our country Nepal has always been a promising land for movements and revolutions because of our poverty and bad living conditions, and it is still the same. The general people are always here like mistreated animals by their human masters. Because of that, we have many movements. Our history witnesses that. When I observe our country and its leaders, I see that we always had and have the leaders of the first category, the selfish and dishonest, exploiters and cheaters.
As a result, our movements and revolutions have not been able to bring any significant change to the country's development and the people's welfare. The last revolution of 2006 is still fresh in our minds. It made Nepal a republic erasing the history of 240 years of monarchical Nepal. The leaders of the then political parties made more attractive and appealing speeches than the White Boar of "Animal Farm". People trusted them, and we brought a significant change. But the change came only for the leaders, not for the people and the country. The leaders, their relatives, close friends, and colleagues who did not even have bicycles and could not afford them now own luxury cars and bungalows. They are super-rich, and people think they are more prosperous than Ranas, the family members of Rana Autocracy.
On the other hand, the general people have a problem with food and shelter. That is exactly like in the Republic of the above-mentioned Animal Farm. Our leaders and their puppets have luxurious and prosperous life like the pigs and dogs of Animal Farm, whereas the people have less food with hard work like the other animals of Animal Farm.
When we see the people voicing against these wrongdoings and cheating and forming different groups and parties, we naturally see some hope of change in the country these days. But at the same time, when we see dozens of political parties and groups of similar thoughts and ideas forming various parties, groups - democratic parties, communist parties, pro-monarchy parties, and groups like many NGOs and INGOs of the same concern, I lose my hope of their success and change in the country. Once I learned that we had 200 NGOs and INGOs for the Bagamati River Clean Campain. But our Bagamati River is never clean. Those organizations are created generally not for cleaning but some position, prestige, salary, and source of income. Similarly, it seems the parties are created here. Let us take the example of the promonarchy party. There are many - Rashtriya Prajatantra Party, Nepalka Lagi Nepali Party, Rashtriya Shakti Party, Comprehensive Nationalist Force, etc. The case is the same with other democratic or communist parties. Just recently, a new party," Rashtriya Swatantra Party," was formed, led by Rabi Lamichhane. Maybe with the same trends, we will have more Swatantra (Independent) parties of a similar nature shortly. Because here, the people are for themselves than for the country and people. So a leader like Napoleon, the pig, always rules us. The party puppets and the leader’s henchmen always exploit us as the dogs enjoy under the leader Napoleon, the pig in Animal Farm.
In this context, I want the country's people to be aware of this and differentiate who is for the country or themselves. At the same time, I want them not to be attracted only to the speeches like that of the White Boar or Napoleon, the pig of "Animal Farm" and to think about whether the speeches and presentations are dependable, practicable, possible, and trustworthy. I want them to oppose or support the parties not only because of their manifestoes but their actions and performance when they were in or out of the government and be united for the people and country.