Like classism, casteism, 'ageism' has become a political cult today, today's youth seem to have more ambition and ego than knowledge and ability, ageism in politics is a co-product of this.
The catchy sounding 'youth leadership' is a very trendy word in today's politics. Nowadays we hear in the market of politics, 'Leadership should be done by the youth, all the bad things are due to the old people, youth come save the country' etc. etc. It is also true as it sounds. Youth must come to the leadership of politics.
Youth should also lead the country. And there is no doubt that the old leaders have spoiled the country. But as much as 'youth leadership' or 'youth leader' sounds pleasant in Mohamaya's literal words, it does not look like that at all. This article is written to dispel the myth that most of the youth, who are ignorant of how the foundation of current politics was laid yesterday, want 'youth leadership'.
The famous Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde said about age in a sarcastic sense: "The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, and the young know everything." Since the context is young, let's leave Wilde's old and middle-aged. If Wilde's satire that 'youth knows everything' is taken in a mixed sense, the reality of Nepali politics hidden within 'youth leadership' is well exposed. If the youth come into politics, will there be a positive change in Nepali politics? Or is it because of the lack of youth in politics that the country has become like this? Is the ignorance, immaturity and lack of decision-making ability of the young leaders of the present time, who are old now, more responsible? Why is the tendency to evaluate the current political situation based only on the technical aspects of age more than political wisdom, experience and knowledge, absolutely effective among the general youth?
Tracy Gendron, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in the US and executive director of the Virginia Center on Aging, says, "Every comment based on age in light of the broad definition is stereotypical discrimination, whether they are younger or older than us." Similarly, ageism, coupled with many other aspects of discrimination, creates a cyclical effect of harm. In her book 'Ageism Unmasked', Tracy argues that the over-discussion of the negative aspects of ageing, rather than its positive aspects, only focuses on one aspect of the subject. In his opinion, 'aging is not only a decline in ability, but also an increase in it.' Let's turn to ourselves and make a general observation.
General overview
There is no truth in the statement that Nepal's political parties and government were always led by old men. For example: Matrikaprasad Koirala was 41 years old when he became the Prime Minister. BP Koirala was 36 and 45 years old respectively when he became the powerful Home Minister and Prime Minister for the first time. Mahendra, the influential king after Prithvi Narayan Shah, also became king within 35 years. Surya Bahadur Thapa was only 35 years old during the monarchy. Krishnaprasad Bhattarai was also 35 years old when he was elected the Speaker of the first Parliament. currently
Sher Bahadur Deuba, the leader of Nepali Congress, has been the Home Minister for 44 years and the Prime Minister for 49 years. Even looking at the leadership of the party, CP Mainali was only 27 years old when he was the general secretary of Male, while Madan Bhandari was just 40 years old when he led the UML. The current leader of the Maoist Center, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, was only 35 years old when he led the then CPN Mashal. There are many more such examples.
Whether it is the youth of that time who are mentioned above or not, or the youth who talk about absolute youth leadership today, their feelings were and remain pure in the beginning. To serve the public through politics, to provide services through government positions and to find solutions according to the wishes of the citizens is the desire and desire of every youth in the beginning. But the subject of state, society and political management is multifaceted and complex. Conflict and unity also coexist between different dimensions of state, society and politics. Such conflicts and aspects of unity require careful study, observation and experience to maintain a balance of duties and rights. Age, energy and honesty alone are not enough for young leaders. Adequate knowledge and experience are required. There is also a saying, "Knowing by reading or reading".
Actually, the main problem of Nepal since 2007 is that young leaders with knowledge and experience are coming to power, but due to lack of knowledge and experience, they are taking immature decisions. Looking at the old leaders who are now at the center of Nepali politics, the need for young leaders cannot be considered as an absolute solution. Because most of the mature leaders of today killed the leadership in their respective parties at a young age. But today's youth is not trying to understand the immature leadership and decisions they made in their youth after looking at the corrupt politics. The youth of today will not be able to find the right path in politics just by showing the problem of age in the current failure of the old leaders. Because if we ignore the multifaceted aspects of politics and focus only on age, then the youth will still be confused as fog crows.
If we compare the past and present of the communists who only raise the issue of classism in Nepali politics and the past and present of the ethnic parties who only raise the issue of casteism, then it will be even worse than that of those who only make age a political issue. Because classism, casteism and ageism are issues of isolation and conflict. Unity, coordination and balance require a perspective that can look at the subject from above a single point of view. There is a lot of truth in the accusations of the youth that the old leaders have become useless, people are angry with them and they have done a lot of corruption. But it is equally true that the current second and third generation young leaders within their party have failed to displace the old leadership by proving themselves to be excellent. That's why 'ageism' like classism and casteism has been transformed into a political sect today.
Empirical test
In Nepali politics, there is an environment where some empirical aspects become more effective when talking about age. On the one hand, there is dissatisfaction among the youth as they do not get opportunities anywhere. On the other hand, mature leaders who do not have the required skills are discredited. In this political environment, ``now youth'' is
A wave of 'ageist' covers and campaigns began. As soon as such a wave created a small bubble, the intellectual and media world of the society also gave the benefit of the doubt without any test. On the other hand, in some local, state and federal elections, some young people achieved unexpected electoral success. This is a positive thing, but the intelligence and performance of the youth who achieved electoral success has been ignored.
Is there a position that the new youth can rely on as an alternative to the old parties and leaders? Can we believe in the ability of the youth called Udayaman for the political, economic and social transformation expected by the country today? How much truth is there in the claim that the chariot of politics is driven only by the temporary rush of cheap popularity? The time has come to question the ageism of youth politics from the serofero of Adi Sawal. Because for political, economic and social transformation, just having faith, feeling and age is not enough. It requires more knowledge, skills and competence. But to comment without bias, today's youth seem to have more ambition and ego than knowledge and ability, with few exceptions. Ageism in politics is a co-product of this.
The sources of knowledge, ability and competence are education and experience. Education in the country is poor. And, it is only useful for obtaining formal education certificate and passing civil service examination by scrutinizing. Rather than producing intelligent and efficient citizens, it basically produces bureaucrats. Therefore, the depth of knowledge of the intellectual community in the society is also pale. When the intelligence of the society as a whole weakens, it is natural that education also weakens. The experience and knowledge gained by citizens with poor education is also poor. Therefore, the young leaders of the old parties with poor education became old with political and political experience, but in terms of knowledge, they were like old children. After the lack of basic knowledge, there was no idea, roadmap and plan for the transformation of the country. Instead, due to the enjoyment of power and power, it gradually led to deviance and corruption. This does not mean that the leaders of the old parties did not have ideas, ideals and feelings in their youth. On the contrary, today's youth have only more marketing skills that can quench the discontent and anger of the common citizens. No lasting results can be expected from a young leader produced by political 'marketing'.
Just as the purpose of university is to combine imagination and experience, in politics too, the creativity of the younger generation must be combined with the rich experience of the older generation. The basic problem of politics today is the lack of experience among the imaginative and the lack of imagination among the experienced. Unless it is brought into balance, the result will not be different even if the youth comes into politics. Today, the tendency of most of the young people who want to enter politics is to not learn from the veterans, to enjoy their own little cult and to act like they are going it all on their own. Bigbigiy of those who climb on the head of the crowd does not solve the problem.
and, finally,
In China, Chou En Lai traveled to Europe in his youth to get an education, thereby transforming the achievements of the Chinese political revolution into an economic revolution. Singaporean Lee Kuan Yew entered politics at a young age but studied at the world famous Cambridge University in England. Therefore, the interdependence and balance of education and experience is an inevitable and essential condition for different results. Every human being is born into a child, a youth and an adult. Naturally, people are more proactive, risk-taking and decision-making at a young age than in children and adults. However, it does not qualitatively change the results. Today, the country is not looking for small political reform and technical alternative politics in every field. Instead, a campaign of social renaissance has been sought.
