Depoliticization Won't Solve Our Problems

I am not trying to lecture the government -who am I to do that? The people running the government are far more knowledgeable than I am.

I am simply writing about things that, in my view, we ordinary citizens should consider.

Abolishing labor unions! Evicting landless squatters! Banning student organizations! Warnings and threats from both the government and the Nepal Army to be careful when sharing opinions on social media!

It seems there is some "method" to this "madness."

A mediocre middle-class narrative has been strongly established that "Nepal’s industrial sector has failed to be profitable or robust because of workers going on strike." This needs to be looked at from the opposite perspective as well. Industries have failed to thrive also because of the exploitation of workers! Had industries provided Nepali workers with fair wages and social security, the living standards of workers would be much better than they are now.

The same applies to civil servants. 

Current efforts to ban politics in civil service need deeper reflections. It is wrong for employees to align with political parties and bring partisan politics into their organizations. However, every citizens, including employees, should have the right to associate themselves with a political party or ideology.

The partisan politics happening within employee unions will not end by depoliticizing them. Doing so might make the problem even more intractable.

It isn't just employees, workers, squatters, and students -Nepali society at large is stuck in a swamp of anarchy, for which those who have run the government for the last 30 years are responsible. Those in the private sector, academic professions, artists, journalists and athletes have also failed to follow legal and social decencies.

The highest level of anarchy was, and still is, within the political parties. Even the RSP (Rashtriya Swatantra Party) is not free from this anarchy. This has become clear from the recent activities of some of RSP’s new members of parliament.

Solving a problem deeply rooted in the broader society is not possible by targeting only specific groups or classes. The goal of good governance is noble, but good governance cannot be achieved through depoliticization. To do so is merely to lay the foundation for authoritarian rule.

The state must rise above "popular" and "populist" narratives. The state might fail to think this way, but the citizens must never stop "thinking."

This is the translated  (by AI) version of my tweet, @sanpokh