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When a student passes a certain exam (with or without flying colors), that’s something worth celebrating. That means her/his hard work paid off despite all oddities like a perennial struggle to pay soaring tuition fees, having to juggle between studies and work (in case of plus-two and higher studies) or having to wait perennially for the family to send some money and political disturbances that affect the academic calendar more often than not.

Frankly speaking, a government, especially in countries reeling under the collective impact of poor governance, corruption, the rule by law, ever-rising inflation, political instability, soaring tuition fees and the like has precious little to do with individual success. On the contrary, the government acts as an overpowering force pushing the student from the classroom into dirty, difficult and dangerous job destinations abroad with the intent of feasting on hard-earned remittance. 

When a student fails, our society looks down upon the individual holding the latter solely responsible for the failure. Overnight, the person becomes ‘unsociable’ of sorts in circles of kith and kin.
For our society, this failure is a personal problem or a family problem at most. But the setback gives the society some stuff to gossip about. Perhaps the student spent too much time on social media at the ‘expense’ of studies. It is possible that family members did not ‘keep a tab’ on the individual. Or perhaps the person is not that ‘bright’, after all. 

From individual failure, let’s jump into collective failure. 

The results of this year’s grade 12 exams were not a departure from the past. No Krambhangata took place. Out of 448,837 examinees, 51.91 percent passed whereas the rest could not make it, per the National Examination Board.

To borrow from NEB’s Sarkari Bhasa (governmentese), about a quarter—109,527—out of 448,837 examinees got ‘non-graded’ (NG) in English this year. This means they technically failed the exam with a score below 35 percent. 

For a country used to below-par performance on the part of all three organs of the state, this is nothing unusual, or is it? Unusual or not, let’s ponder over the recent below-par performance. 

Our emphasis on English is extraordinary. The whole nation seems to be learning English with a missionary zeal—at home, in schools, colleges, learning centers, in the company of friends and families and several other public fora. 

Apart from private and boarding schools mushrooming across the country, many community and government-run schools have switched to English as ‘the’ medium of instruction from the nursery level itself. So much so that many of the private schools do not even allow their students to communicate in non-English languages within their precincts. Perhaps the only language not taught in English in the classroom these days is Nepali. 

For an increasing number of Nepalis, English—broken or otherwise—is the preferred medium of communication. A good command of the international language is indeed a plus-point. 

Against this backdrop, Grade 12 results on the English front have come as a rude shock despite our Himalayan emphasis on the language, not to mention the pass rate of roughly 50 percent. Of course, a poor result won’t trigger the Education Minister’s resignation. Such things happen seven seas across, not here.  

But to take it solely as the failure of concerned students and/or their families will be far-fetched. 

It is the collective failure of our education system consisting of the government, teachers, students, parents and the society at large. This failure should be an eye-opener for all stakeholders. 

What elements are lacking in our teaching-learning activities—from the preschool to the university level—that lead to about 50 percent of the examinees failing the exams? How much time are English and other subject teachers spending in the classroom? Which teaching methods are they employing? What are the policy gaps at play and how to bridge them?

The government in general and the Education Ministry in particular should formulate—and, not to forget, implement—policies by discussing the matter with subject experts, curriculum developers, parents and teachers.  

Like many other words, ‘Parliament’ has more than one meaning. An assembly of a species of nocturnal birds of prey is one of them.  

‘Democracy’ has several strains the world over. But in a real democracy that does not run as per the whims and fancies of a ‘benevolent dictator’, two or one too many such figures, Parliament refers to one of the three organs of the state consisting of elected representatives, whose main task is to make laws. It is but natural for birds of a feather to flock together even at midnight and those populating our Parliament—one of the state organs—show such traits once in a while, not necessarily for the country and the people. Whether such an act is permissible or not, let the ‘Nepali lok’ decide. 

But no dictionary, legal or otherwise, has referred to words like ‘bedlam’, ‘chaos’, ‘anarchy’, ‘setting’  as synonyms of ‘Parliament’. 

In a democracy, the opposition bench has an important role in the Parliament. A strong opposition can do so much to make the government accountable, given that even in democracies that are not under tinpot dictators the executive shows tyrannical tendencies because of its right to exercise legitimate authority or violence over a given territory. 

The Parliament should belong to the opposition in the larger interest of the country and democracy. 

This does not mean, though, that the opposition should not play by the rules. In its conduct within the Parliament and outside, the opposition, as a vanguard of the democratic system, should also uphold the letter and spirit of the Constitution. Its failure to do so will give the government a carte blanche to trample on the principles of separation of powers as well as checks and balances, and turn democracy into ‘demoncracy’. 

For about a fortnight, the main opposition has effectively stalled the Parliament demanding the formation of a high-level parliamentary committee to investigate as to how a 100-kg gold consignment passed through a high-security Tribhuvan International Airport. It has demanded that the Home Minister and the Finance Minister also be brought under the purview of the investigation, reasoning that the Central Investigation Bureau under Nepal Police may not have the wherewithal to grill the sitting ministers. Opposition parties like the Rastriya Swatantra Party and Rastriya Prajatantra Party have also stood in favor of a high-level probe committee. Have they thought about the possible impact of their stance on the morale of the law enforcement? 

On its part, the government has asked that the CIB be given about a month for a credible probe into the case. With both the right and the left flank toughening their respective stances, the House has become a battleground of sorts and the Speaker has not been able to make peace. 

RSP and RPP have made one more point worth pondering over. They have accused the top brass of the three major parties of opting for a ‘setting’, a comfortable arrangement for opening and shutting the House at will.  

It is clear that the powerful troika cannot hold the sovereign body hostage forever. While a free and fair probe into the quintal-heavy gold cargo is important, the Parliament has a number of other important issues to deal with. Throughout the country, rain-induced disasters have wreaked havoc while troubles are brewing in the neighborhood and beyond. They all will have a huge bearing on an ill-governed and instability-plagued country. 

Both the government and the opposition must give up their my way or highway attitude. The Speaker should have read the riot act in time. Still, who else can act as a peacemaker and end this standoff if not him? 

Major political parties have led a number of movements for the establishment and re-establishment of democracy in a space of eight decades. Successive generations of Nepalis have taken part in these movements, offering blood, sweat, toil and tears in their perennial struggle for cherished ideals like democracy, human dignity, the rule of law and good governance. 

Despite waves of change, popular aspirations have remained unrealized, by and large, with the leaders behind these waves of change themselves grossly misusing the organs of the state to fulfill their vested interests. 

Every now and then, the top brass of the big parties remind the public of their struggle against tyranny, including years spent behind bars and torture meted out against them, forgetting completely that one cannot live on their past laurels forever.
But the people often find in the statements and acts of their erstwhile heroes tell-tale signs of dictators donning the garb of democracy. 

Their deepening impression is that the more things change, the more they remain the same—in Nepal. 

Democracy is a culture and a way of life. Who knows this better than the leaders at the forefront of democratic movements?  

But then how many of our ‘champions of democracy’ have been living by their ideals after their victory against tyranny? Select figures of the big parties, for example, have been holding leadership positions for decades on end instead of making way for transfer of power by grooming their successors. Granted that transfer of power to the younger generation was easier said than done during the decade-long insurgency and the royal rule with democratic processes largely on hold. 

But even in the post-conflict scenario, practices aimed at promoting democracy within the respective parties continue to be a rarity.    

Such is the situation that the parties do not even bother to hold their central committee meetings, leave alone general conventions and policy conventions. That’s why, a party holding a meeting becomes big news and so does another party planning its jamboree, in a democracy! 

Having helmed party leadership positions for decades and discharged their duties as the chief executive of the country, it’s time our seasoned politicians did some serious soul-searching and started adopting democracy as a way of life. 

Freeing themselves from the coteries of their kith and kin can help boost internal democracy and so can regular party meetings. 

It’s time for our leaders to practice what they preach, if they really want to protect democracy from the specter of autocracy.  

What does a quintal of gold making it through an international airport indicate? 

A security breach of titanic proportions. 

On July 19, the illegal gold concealed inside brake shoes ‘imported’ from Hong Kong in the name of Ready Traders passed through the Tribhuvan International Airport customs as security arrangements failed.  

But a team from the Revenue Investigation Department managed to intercept and seize the consignment from Sinamangal, a stone’s throw from the TIA. 

An ongoing investigation into this audacious breach has thus far brought 16 suspects under its dragnet. Public perception is that those arrested are but some small fries and that the big fish are beyond the reach of the long arm of the law.

The citizenry has reasons to be skeptical vis-à-vis the illegal gold probe, given that investigations into previous cases of gold smuggling, the Bhutanese refugee scam and the Lalita Niwas land-grab have failed to make progress beyond a point.

Frustrated with endemic corruption, political instability and the lack of rule of law as well as good governance, the citizenry has already started speculating reasons behind this inertia at a time when a deeper feeling that the high and the mighty can get away with anything is taking root in the country.

Like previous mind-boggling TIA breaches, the quintal-heavy breach has given rise to more questions than answers.

How did the cargo evade air-tight security at Hong Kong? What exactly went wrong with the screening system at the TIA that day, and how? How many times has the system gone ‘haywire’ in recent days? What amount of such illegal cargo has already made it through?   

Is the notorious ‘setting’—a prevalent collusion between the elements of bureaucracy, politics and powerful business interests—also behind this breach?

Was a falling out within the setting behind the confiscation of the cargo?

What was the end destination of the illegal cargo?

The nature of the entire operation indicates that it’s a transnational crime as the flight carrying the cargo had originated in Hong Kong. Apparently, a country that barely requires 40 kg of gold daily does not need a quintal of gold.

While the public can only speculate, the government has the wherewithal to get to the root of the case and book the guilty by working closely with transnational and international law enforcement agencies, if need be.

What directions this and other cases take will depend on one thing: The political will on the part of the government.

If the government is really serious about restoring faith in the current political system, it should be able to unravel the quintal-heavy case and other high-profile cases, come hell or high water, given that the cost of its failure will be too high for the country and the people.