On friday......we (mokshya and I) were discussing a topic about “grooming leaders”.. I argued that if system is corrupt, every thing associated with that system will be corrupt. Thus we need to clean the system so that we can groom a new face to a good leader in a better system. Mokshya’s counter, “bad leaders create a bad system……….. One dead fish can ruin the entire pond……………same with netas…one bad neta that is all we need to destroy any clean system.”

Mokshya has a logic, I have to agree…no denial. But she never understood my concept of grooming leaders. Put any new face (cleanest of person) under the supervision of our great leader G.P Koirala…………. everybody knows the result ……… if he can’t be as evil as Mr. koirala he will have no future in Nepali congress. Bas system can groom only a bad leader.

This morning I checked the news from Nepal and found out that our king has finally decided to reinstitute the dissolved parliament…….. he is going to bring back same old school type leader to get failed one more time………. I doubt if Girija even has a vision of GDP, economical growth..and bla ..bla…………….why doubt I am 100 % sure he doesn’t……..not only him, 99 % of the Nepali leaders do not a vision. I will not blame them for this coz they were groomed in a system where only 3rd division student gets involved in politics……..a system where politics is believed to be a business………….a person with no skill what so ever in academics are joining politics………….a person with no prior knowledge of defense has been a made a defense minister………and when asked what has been his credibility ………. Answer will be “he has joined politics since 20...” ……..should that count as his credibility to be a defense minister……. That not their fault ……..truth is nobody better is available…………… take an example of tri-chandra college …….. some guy name Kishor Rathod was a FSU president….. his credibility “ gunda”…just wait few years………. He will be made a home minister of Nepal. Definitely not his fault………coz his leaders are pushing him rather than sweeping him out………..

After seeing people like rathod, rup nayaran….yogeshor bhattarai………. Hari acharya………..I am not too optimistic with new faces in politics……….

Let me go back to my topic…..GROOMING LEADERS

To be a police inspector, section-officer……..minimum education required in bachelor…….then how come there is not minimum education requirement for national leaders. Make it minimum of masters……….. and has to be a good student……… with some vision………..

When I was preparing for an entrance exam for Medical in TU maharajgunj……… 3000 people were fighting for 20 seats……….standard is very high for medical students….coz they are going to be a doctor ………..they are supposed to save people’s life………. Hmmmm……….interesting ……..only right person can be a doctor……..coz we are risking people life…………….come on with politics we are risking people’s future….why is it so easy to be a neta………….seriously , netas should have a good academic standing………and there should be more criteria, but can’t compromise with education ………I have already started sound unrealistic…………..because I know no policy maker likes my idea…….it will like “ afnai khutta ma bancharo hannu”………. But I wish we had a system of GROOMING LEADERS

I think Zalim Singh is short sighted in his analysis. The education requirement for qualifying to a particular position will motivate people and improve literacy rate in the long run. If we use the argument that we only have 35% literacy rate as an excuse for making current policies then we will never move forward as a nation. Stop making excuses for lack of education and let set up a system that rewards education. Yes…Nepal is poor and people have to decide between eating food or going to school in many cases but one by one systems will adapt and things will improve. The system will not change instantly and in fact it may take 10-20-30-40-50 years but if we do not have a long vision we will still be where we are right now.

junkwar puts forward a valid argument, but i think he is too long sighted in his analysis. "The education requirement for qualifying to a particular position will motivate people and improve literacy rate in the long run." true.

but if we held an election today asking for a minimum of a master level education, how many people do you think will be eligible for office. even if we ask for a BA minimum, i can wager that the number of people will be a LOT less. so if there is no COMPETITION for positions the same group of people. there will be a LOT less people, and we will be systematically removing a lot of people less educated who would have done a better job.

i can't think of any country that has a requirement of a minimum of a Bachelor's or master's degree to run for office.

in 20-30-40-50 years, people will be a lot more educated all right. it's just time that we need. time to undo the damage of centuries years of suppression. but enforcing an education restriction now will do more damage now by limiting the # of candidates.

a caveat: if there is an APPOINTMENT system liek in the US, where the elected prez appoints the secretaries, and there is self selection for the LIMITED number of HIGLY important portfolios, like ministry of education, finance, etc. then it's all good. but of course, if there is an appointment system, this disucssion is moot, cos we're talking about election to offices.

^ that sounded like a john kerry argument. valid, but boring.

"The education requirement for qualifying to a particular position will motivate people and improve literacy rate in the long run."

come to think of it i dont completely agree with that remark. the public office is not the sexiest thing. i dont know of any ambitious young nepali who wants to grow up to run for public office, which is why quite a few elected officials are law school dropouts and failures (not everyone, but quite a few). if it were a high demand job, yes, we would see an improvement as people would be incentivized to study hard. but its not. it's a job that no-one wants. the brightest kid in the village who goes on to get a MA does not want to stay back and represent his municipality. it's the less ambitious kid who gets an SLC pass, and is stickign around the village cos he can't compete in the big cities.

in order for your plan to work, you need to bring glamor to public office. so the kid who would have gone on to study medicine instead chooses to become an elected representative of his district instead. i don't see that happening anytime soon. after all, the life of a doctor or an engineer or a successful businessman sounds a lot more appealing to a young ambitious kid than that of a paper-pusher in a bureaucracy. and politics is associated with dirt, not glamor. in short, adding the education restriction would just limit the supply of already few qualified individuals.