But now we need a collective consciousness, not a single hero. Those who make small but honest efforts from their own place are the seeds of a new political culture.
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I wanted to remember the Nepal before 23 Bhadra. Cities rife with political corruption, cities full of educated unemployed people, crowds of expatriates at international airports, barren fields, and families separated for labor - this was it.
Those who fought against feudalism became feudalists themselves after coming to power. They neither solved the problems of metered rates, nor of cooperative victims, nor of microfinance victims. They neither caught Nirmala Panta's killer, nor did they give justice to Nirmala Kurmi. If we do not redefine political culture, the next generation will also interpret the situation in Nepal in the same way.
Our political culture is amazing. On the one hand, we scold all employees as bribers in family discussions, on the other hand, we are amazed that our own 'brother-in-law' built a house in two years on government salary alone. We digest the fact that political parties are breaking up and coming together again and again, but we ask different groups of Gen-G, 'Why not one?' We criticize leaders in tea shops for not doing their jobs, but we call the leaders to cut the ribbon at a normal office event and make them spend four hours. This is the product of political culture, this outgoing regime and those indolent governments.
Therefore, political culture is not only the behavior shown by the leadership, but also the cumulative result of the silence and support of the citizens. We can reverse this culture. We can turn silence into a question. Instead of consensus, we can show critical awareness and concern and offer support only if necessary. Change does not start with the regime, but with culture, and culture starts with our behavior.
There is rampant policy corruption here. The files are being shuffled in the authority. With the Lalita Niwas case, the Widebody scandal, the Terramax, the Patanjali land case, the excise sticker printing case, the fake Bhutanese refugee case, the Giribandhu T-Estate scandal, the visit visa case, the corruption at Pokhara International Airport, the cooperative fraud case, you may remember the name of only one character as a synonym.
In Nepal, if you do good, you get credit, if you do bad, you get blame. But not just one person has a hand in all those cases, there are many hands involved. Perhaps we are obsessed with the number 'one'. The addiction to ‘one’ is also part of this culture, due to which we are always in search of a hero, a god and a leader. But now we need not a single hero, but a collective consciousness. Those who make small but honest efforts from their own place are the seeds of a new political culture.
Perhaps, the demand for ‘unity’ is born from this ‘one’. Now we are demanding that Gen-G ‘you should be one’. But when has cooperation between those who do not share the same ideology been sustainable? The debate that should be focused on ideology has become centered on the same character even today. The character is still sought in the question, not the idea. But whether we have failed to understand or have not been able to explain, the essence of democracy lies in different opinions. Democracy is not the rule of one, but of the people, a system that thrives in an environment of different ideologies. Therefore, the search for one here should not be a search for one, but a search for dialogue between ideologies. Perhaps it is also our culture that we cannot accept having different opinions as natural. Why do we find it difficult with different opinions? Is it because we are not used to having a polite and logical political debate? Or is it because we don't see such examples?
By the time a person reaches office, his desire to build the country dies. I have only heard that all these characters were popular at one time. But the question that comes to mind is, when the leader went astray, why didn't his workers protest at the same time? Haven't we come to hold the leader accountable? Or don't we know how to find good leaders? Even when shooting and brutally killing 19 young people, why did we only put a character who expressed self-centered, arrogant and arrogant nature in the place where he should work?
However, political culture is not limited to how the leadership behaves or what decisions they make. Culture is also formed by our reaction to politics, policies and the actions of the characters connected to it. Neither does our education teach us to question, nor does it teach us a critical mind.
Leaders have even escaped by blaming the system itself. The party organization is his, the cadres are his, the position is his, but the blame is on the system. The people have easily digested the tendency to blame the system for their inaction and escape. Will the answer to ‘they didn’t let us work’ one day become ‘the courtyard is crooked, the one who doesn’t know how to dance’? Perhaps we have not even been able to ask this question.
This kind of political culture still thrives in our silence. Our lack of reaction to every appointment of nepotism and favoritism has created the current situation. We have probably not been able to understand the decisions made based on incomprehensible processes many times. The challenge and opportunity now is this – the demand for transparency, accountability, and the creation of a policy-based culture. If we do not start reforming now, the next generation will also be writing complaints like us.
It is easy to change characters here, but it is difficult to change the system. That is why we look for new faces every five years, but we return to the old habits. Corruption has flourished and flourished at the foundation of our political culture. Our form of governance has changed, characters have changed, offices have been added – but the political culture has not changed. However, this is not impossible. The signs of a system change begin in the consciousness of citizens. When the public questions a leader by looking at their actions rather than their speeches, choosing competence over their relationships, and prioritizing questions over silence, then the rewriting of political culture begins.
