Political Ideology, Reality and Science In Nepal - Ketan Dulal
In politics I rather like being an observer. I had never wanted to take part in it. According to me, politicians play with power and ideologies. I hate both- power and ideologies. But I have some place for ideologies in my mind because I love being idealistic. And I think most people love ideologies too. But I can forcefully say that ideologies do not work in the real world. Ideologies are based on illusions and prejudice rather than truth and justice. But you find ideologies working everywhere in Nepal. Whether it’s speech of a religious leader or a speech of political leaders, you find ideologies, like a ghost in the brain roaming inside us, never escaping from us and snatching that precious thing called as freedom. When you write something being idealistic you are trying to pour that “ghost” to other people. And that creates an authoritarian world. May be that’s the reason why the great German writer Gunter Grass is against any kind of ideologies.
But can politics work without ideologies. I am not a politician to answer that question adequately. My main point is that ideology is far from reality. It is not truth. Science is the truth. And if some realistic systems, for instance political systems, does not care about truth (or I could say science) it will befall. That same thing happened to communist ideologies in China and Russia. Both are examples of states where ideologies could not handle reality. Russia is already a capitalist country and China seems to be. Dreams for utopia are suitable for poets and not for hardliners.
Then, other very important questions can be put on- Why am I trying to talk about science here? What kind of place science has in all these chaos? Personally, if current Nepal could be placed in a stage of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, I would place all those people who talk about politics as Montague and Capulet, and me and science as the two lovers- Romeo and Juliet ; “In bed asleep, while they do dream things true”. But yet, no mind can escape politics. We are locked up with politics, as Aristotle said long time ego- man is by nature a political animal. No matter how hard we try to escape, politics will be running after us. But again, some of us dream of stars. There is no other ways of dreaming of stars than by answering our inner curiosities. The people with those quests are called scientist. Some scientist dreams of very small things like atoms and genes. Some very large things like Milky Way and Human Brain. And of course, their dream contradicts with the dream of other dreamers. Then they have to test their intuition with what they call as “experiments”- a testing of scientific truth. In other words experiments are the basis of science. So, science is the only thing that can arrive at so called “absolute truth” (a vague word used by fundamental philosophers). But bear in mind no scientist know the truth absolutely. They have hunches and those hunches form the basis of how science works. Scientist discusses over those hunches, test it against predictions of others mainly through experiments and establish what is known as scientific truth. Prejudices are not the piecemeal of science.
I am not writing this article because I think people should not talk about politics. And I am also not writing because I think political parties should escape ideologies. I am writing because I think current thinking of Nepalese people (as I judged by talking with friends and reading newspapers) is missing something vital. My main point is that always talking about ideologies will not work if you are really thinking about developing the country. Such human ethical digressions like racism, authoritarianism, discrimination because of class may continue even after people revolutionize against it. In other words no revolution is absolutely successfully. It may be successful partially but never absolutely. For developing the country in the modern world we need a different kind of revolution. It is scientific revolution. This revolution cannot be achieved by going to the street and shouting- ‘Hail Loktantra( democracy)’ . It is usually achieved by those people who already know and understand the value of science. Those people can make others alert to scientific realism. As, Lord Krishna enlighten Arjuna during the Mahabharata war, we need those people to bring light to the people ignorant to science.
Richard Dawkins, the great biologist, asks us the question, - “There is an appetite for wonder, isn’t true science well qualified to feed it?” It is high time for Nepalese people to ponder upon that question. Science not only answers our curiosities but also helps in the development of the country. We live in a world mostly engrossed by religious mythologies and political realities. And we all think it is the right thing. But believe me, it is not. Intellectuals of other parts of the world are talking about- “The Third Culture”, a culture where every intellectuals are discussing reality through science. But we have not been able to achieve that culture. Intellectuals in Nepal are still in a cage. I have never read anything that makes people escape from the cruel reality that we all are facing. People are still expecting something from politicians. And, if this trend continues we may live in the same illusions that we have been living for decades. Nothing will happen even if we create thousands of revolutions. In short, discuss science- you will do something for the country. Discuss other intellectual endeavors, you will do nothing. Science is the only thing that humanity has found worth living for. And only science can bring light to the world of darkness. |
Favoritism, Corruption, Nepotism
Dear all,
In the earlier issues of the Nepal Officers yahoo group, a lot of serious questions have been raised about the working style and efficiency of Nepalese embassies all over the world.
In our opinion not all the officials of Nepal are indulged in favoritism, corruption and nepotism. But now it is obvious that Nepalese citizens have slowly began to realize the Nepalese political landscape. Their demand for a need of complete reform in the working style and efficiencies in the majority of administrative/government offices in Nepal is
justifiable. Peace loving Nepalese has now very well realized that a mere change in political faces is not what we need at present. But most importantly it should be the elevation in the personal attributes and qualities that a politician should possess. At present we are in need of politicians who are able to give a definite vision and guidelines in the reconstruction of new Nepal. The constituent assembly election is in itself a noteworthy task but is not a sufficient criterion for a real socio-economic development of our nation.
Despite of behaving like a humble civil servant, many of the political leaders and governmental officials of Nepal behave in a very rude manner that is beyond a tolerance range for a common citizen. The feeling that revolves around these officials can be rightly described by a single phrase: " The superiority complex". They have a feeling that they are rulers and they are doing mercy over the common people. In order to create a new Nepal, we need a complete improvement in the functioning mechanism of the country which is still under the control of few corrupted bureaucrats. These corrupted bureaucrats should be forced to realize that they are the civil servant and not the autocratic ruler of Nepalese people.
Basic professional ethics and norms should be followed by the government officials. They should be finally held accountable and responsible towards the Nepalese citizens.
Corruption, bureaucracy and autocracy are the malign seeds that decay our motherland. It is the common responsibility of all the Nepalese to contribute for the betterment of Nepal. We wish to a see new developed Nepal that is peaceful, free of corruption and free of beurocrats.
Thank you
Bikram D. Pant1, Laxmi K. Parajuli2
1. President, Nepalese Students' Society, Germany; PhD fellow ,
Max-Planck Institute; Protocol-Secretary, NRN Germany
2. Executive secretary, Nepalese Students' Society, Germany |
