Ethics Lession from Politicos - Dipeesh
This article was published in The Kathmandu Post, dated June3, 1998 under the Post Platform. The Kathmandu Post is an English Daily published from Kathmandu, Nepal. - Dipeesh
A thief trespassed into a building and cleared up all the costly goods from the house. When the owner came to know about theft, he shouted, “thief !, thief !, thief !”.
By that time, the thief had come out to the street. Pedestrians had heard the house owner shouting for help. So, being sympathetic towards the house owner, they wanted to help him. The thief, now on the street with a well loaded rucksack, pretended to help the house owner like others and ran towards the house shouting “thief !, thief !, thief ! please hold him.” The pedestrians looked far and wide but saw no one running whom they could suspect as thief. They were astonished.
Corruption, smuggling, bribery, commission and the like have become very common topics discussed almost every minute of the day, these days. But whenever it is discussed, everyone speaks against them like the thief who shouts ‘thief’. Corruption should be controlled; smuggling should be wiped out from the country; bla, bla, bla; though these mischievous works have been taking place since the last few years.
The mischief makers are reportedly well protected by almost all political leaders, sansads, ex-ministers, ministers and the like. Because, they protect the second group (the leaders…) whenever they need a good amount of money to contest elections, to build a house worth tens of millions of rupees, or possess the latest model Japanese Land Cruiser, i.e. Prado or Pajero. Consequently, the collection of revenues at the International Airport has been reduced by more than 50 percent. Smugglers have been active at the cost of government revenue and he Nepalese economy.
For the last few weeks, leaders and ministers are being heard speaking about controlling those mischievous deeds. The previous Prime Minister and leader of RPP Surya Bahadur Thapa was heard saying that increasing corruption has poisoned the fair political sky in the Kingdom. UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal suggested the other day that activists of UML should work to help eliminate corruption in the country. GP Koirala, the sitting Prime Minister has also been heard speaking boldly from the very beginning of his second time as Premier that he would work hard to eliminate corruption and smuggling in the country.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Finance, Tax Department is televising a notice daily to motivate people to voluntarily declare the value of their land and building and clear tax. But the surprising thing is that if leaders themselves ignore the notice who else can we expect to follow it.
A press clipping published in The Kathmandu Post, May 29 stated that ex-Prime Minister and President of CPN-UML Manmohan Adhikari has yet to ceclare the value of his land and building and clear tax although he has been delivered 12 inquiry letters from the tax office. Similarly, the sitting Prime Minister, GP Koirala has not yet declared the value of his land and building and cleared tax since the last 15 years although he has been delivered 17 letters of inquiry from the Tax Office.
On top of that, Parliamentarians has a long time back passed a resolution about declaring the value of the land and building and other properties belonging to any minister or PM within 35 days of becoming a minister or PM. But alas! the commoner has hardly heard anything about it since then. Are these not good enough lessons on ethics and moral values communicated by our political leaders to us. Are these leaders also not like the thief who shouts “thief?”
A thief trespassed into a building and cleared up all the costly goods from the house. When the owner came to know about theft, he shouted, “thief !, thief !, thief !”.
By that time, the thief had come out to the street. Pedestrians had heard the house owner shouting for help. So, being sympathetic towards the house owner, they wanted to help him. The thief, now on the street with a well loaded rucksack, pretended to help the house owner like others and ran towards the house shouting “thief !, thief !, thief ! please hold him.” The pedestrians looked far and wide but saw no one running whom they could suspect as thief. They were astonished.
Corruption, smuggling, bribery, commission and the like have become very common topics discussed almost every minute of the day, these days. But whenever it is discussed, everyone speaks against them like the thief who shouts ‘thief’. Corruption should be controlled; smuggling should be wiped out from the country; bla, bla, bla; though these mischievous works have been taking place since the last few years.
The mischief makers are reportedly well protected by almost all political leaders, sansads, ex-ministers, ministers and the like. Because, they protect the second group (the leaders…) whenever they need a good amount of money to contest elections, to build a house worth tens of millions of rupees, or possess the latest model Japanese Land Cruiser, i.e. Prado or Pajero. Consequently, the collection of revenues at the International Airport has been reduced by more than 50 percent. Smugglers have been active at the cost of government revenue and he Nepalese economy.
For the last few weeks, leaders and ministers are being heard speaking about controlling those mischievous deeds. The previous Prime Minister and leader of RPP Surya Bahadur Thapa was heard saying that increasing corruption has poisoned the fair political sky in the Kingdom. UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal suggested the other day that activists of UML should work to help eliminate corruption in the country. GP Koirala, the sitting Prime Minister has also been heard speaking boldly from the very beginning of his second time as Premier that he would work hard to eliminate corruption and smuggling in the country.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Finance, Tax Department is televising a notice daily to motivate people to voluntarily declare the value of their land and building and clear tax. But the surprising thing is that if leaders themselves ignore the notice who else can we expect to follow it.
A press clipping published in The Kathmandu Post, May 29 stated that ex-Prime Minister and President of CPN-UML Manmohan Adhikari has yet to ceclare the value of his land and building and clear tax although he has been delivered 12 inquiry letters from the tax office. Similarly, the sitting Prime Minister, GP Koirala has not yet declared the value of his land and building and cleared tax since the last 15 years although he has been delivered 17 letters of inquiry from the Tax Office.
On top of that, Parliamentarians has a long time back passed a resolution about declaring the value of the land and building and other properties belonging to any minister or PM within 35 days of becoming a minister or PM. But alas! the commoner has hardly heard anything about it since then. Are these not good enough lessons on ethics and moral values communicated by our political leaders to us. Are these leaders also not like the thief who shouts “thief?”
posted by Dipeesh's blog at
3:32 PM
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