Let me start by thanking Kantipur Publications for giving me an opportunity to share my views on this year’s conclave themed “Beyond Expectations; Beyond Boundaries”.

The planned sessions for today and tomorrow are important from national, regional and international perspectives. Many of the issues that I am going to touch upon are related to several thematic discussions.

I stand here to share some of my experiences, especially in democratic governance and elections.

I would like to begin with a personal story. I was born and raised in a remote village in the Far East. We had to walk uphill for an hour to reach school. We used to carry, from home, a straw mattress to sit on and a wooden plank to write and study under the open sky. We used to write on the clay-coated wooden plank with twigs from nearby trees.

Now, my 5 year-old grandson, who lives thousands of kilometers away, demonstrates his assignments that he completed by giving verbal commands to the computer without using the keyboard. He even teaches me how to use the latest gadgets and sometimes pulls my leg for not knowing how to use them. This is just an example of the astonishing development and adoption of technology across the globe.

Mobile phones, Internet and social media have become so ubiquitous that it is beyond belief for someone like me who was born in a remote village after the Second World War.

The pace of advancement in technology has made the world smaller. It has practically dissolved borders between countries. The world today is connected in a true sense. Now many issues are not limited to one country or a region. The impact of an incident in one corner of the globe can be felt throughout the world in a moment.

Technology has made life comfortable and doing tasks easier. It has made goods and services easily available to a wider population, including those in poor and remote parts of the world. And those goods and services are relatively cheap, thus affordable to the masses.

However, misuse of technology poses serious risks and challenges to society. How can everyone take fair advantage of the opportunities provided by technology? How can we humanize technology? How to deal with the misuses of technology in criminal and terrorist activities, misinformation, cyber war and similar harmful activities? It has now become imperative for us to prepare ourselves for these challenges, both at national and international levels.

Furthermore, technological advances and globalization sometimes have unintended consequences. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has shown how vulnerable the world is; how a disease can spread from one corner of the world to the rest of the world; and how an incident or accident in one corner of the world can disrupt the entire global distribution system.

Within this global context, next, I would like to shift my talk closer to home. Our country Nepal has a unique identity in the world due to its geographic and climatic variations, abundant natural resources, rich biodiversity, ethnicity and culture. But unfortunately, we cannot say with any conviction that Nepal and Nepalis are prosperous and have a bright future ahead.

I’d like to present a few examples here.

1. Nepal has almost unlimited water resources, which can be used to meet different needs within and outside the country—in particular, drinking water, food security, and clean sustainable electricity. By harnessing our hydropower, we can not only fulfill our energy needs but we can also support the needs of other countries in the region. "But despite the abundance of water resources, while we are busy chanting pseudo-nationalistic slogans and are locked in indecision either due to political or personal interests, putting the nation at a loss.

2. As I mentioned earlier and which is a common knowledge to all Nepalis, our country is bestowed with rich biodiversity, spectacular scenic landscapes and ancient cultures. The country has huge potential in many dimensions of tourism—ranging from mountaineering, hiking, pilgrimage, research and medical-tourism. Have we successfully harnessed these possibilities to their fullest extent, in a sustainable manner?

3. We lie between two of the rapidly expanding major markets in the world – China and India. Until yesterday, we used to say that our country is an unfortunate yam stuck between two massive boulders, and considered it as our limitation. But now it is like a gold mine of possibilities. Strategic use of this geographic advantage has great potential for the development of Nepal, Nepalis and the whole region.

4. Currently 75 percent of our population is under 40 years of age. This is a good sign for the country’s healthy future. However, we all know that a large number of working-age youths aim to migrate to foreign countries for employment due to the lack of opportunities in the country. They migrate for employment of all kinds ranging from manual labor to high-tech and intellectual fields such as medical, engineering, and so on. Current estimates put youth migration at more than half million annually. They believe that due to prevailing governance, political and economic conditions, there is no future in this country and they are thus migrating en masse for their future. This is a sad example of brain and muscle drain.

These are just a few examples of the potentials as well as the current challenges of the country. Why could we not utilize our natural and manmade resources for the improvement of the lives of our population? Are our aspirations for a bright future too ambitious or unrealistic? I’m sure all agree that is not the case.

In the last three decades, the country has made a big leap in physical terms. There is no doubt about that. Per capita income has increased, the standard of living of common citizens has risen. Indexes related to education and health have been increasing at decent and encouraging rates.

However, despite all these potentials and achievements, the general feeling among the population is that of despair, frustration, lament of a bleak future for their children and overall anger towards the way the country is being governed.

In my humble opinion, it all boils down to the issue of good politics and good governance. Lack of those elements restrict the pathway to development. I’ll try to elaborate on these in a minute.

I firmly believe that a sound political system with long-term vision about the development of the country, and a solid framework of governance, rule of law and functioning institutions are the pre-requisites for multi-dimensional and inclusive development of a country. By multi-dimensional I mean sustainable development that balances economic, environmental, social and cultural aspects.

Shortly after the restoration of democracy in the late eighties, we were caught in a cycle of constant political instability. Parliament was dissolved many times in a short period of time. We experienced the decade-long armed conflict, the regressive authoritarian rule, then a decisive people’s movement of 2006 that led to the Republic.

We created a constitution written by the people for themselves. With the promise of not allowing the repetition of all the shortcomings experienced by the previous governments, we also made provisions in the constitution to prevent the recurrence of those instabilities.

We were confident that with a constitution written by the people, for the people with sound democratic values in it, peace and political stability would prevail in the country, and we would embark on the journey of prosperity. We believed that we would not have to revert to the street agitations for another big political change, as we had witnessed almost every decade.

The question comes, where and how did we go wrong even after having a solid modern constitution and largely fair elections.

Democracy thrives on the efficiency, capacity, effectiveness, and credibility and competence of the main pillars of democracy including parliament, judiciary, constitutional bodies, political parties, civil society, and the media. Only through their strong role in positive and effective balance and control can democracy flourish. However, knowingly or unknowingly, we weakened and paralyzed these institutions.

Many countries around the world have shown that where there’s a strong system, institutions, process and method, and the people have faith in them, it can endure occasional shocks to their political systems.

One of the essential pillars of democracy is periodic and fair elections. Since the transformative change of the mid-eighties in the political landscape, we have successfully conducted several elections of different levels of government in this country. We should be proud about that democratic process as well as the practice of non-violent transfer of power. This is something that is not commonly seen in many countries with similar situations as ours. But election alone is not sufficient to guarantee democracy.

In the past three decades, extreme politicization and uncontrolled party interferences have been a great misfortune for this country.

We should determine the limits of party control over the state or the government. The de-facto supremacy of political parties was introduced as a tool for managing conflict. Continuity of this transitional problem-solving approach – a so-called “Sarwadaliye Sahamati”, or All Party Agreement Approach, as the governing model is weakening formal institutions. People's basic desires have been undermined by this culture of "Rule of Compromise" where the interests of two or more competing political parties come together, with little concern for the people's interests.

When the public trust the governance system, and those who run them, they feel assured of their future and that of their children. It is obvious why youths are leaving the country in droves.

In that respect, what should the country focus on to move forward? In my opinion, the following five elements should be our key priorities:

First, HOPE. It should be about how to regenerate hope and instill faith in the public that the country, system and leadership would address their problems.

Second, TRUST. Citizens’ trust in established institutions, systems and processes is another condition of democratic governance.

Third, DEMOCRATIC CULTURE. A culture of encouraging and constructive criticism, and being responsive to such criticisms with full sincerity. Intellectual discourses on systemic deformities and informing the public about their remedies will strengthen democracy.

Fourth, INTEGRITY. This is the core value of governance. It generates trust and hope in the citizens and lack of it creates corruption, despair and destruction of the country. Impunity has become the constant feature of our state. Lack of credibility is perhaps the key challenge we’re facing today. There is a huge gap between what we say and what we do. There is no consistency in our words and behaviors. Let us be consistent in our words and actions! Let us translate our commitments into actions.

Fifth, STRONG INSTITUTIONS: Let us focus our strength in building institutions that are vital for a functional democracy in true sense.

Recently, Boris Johnson stepped down as the UK prime minister because he was found crossing the limits set by his own administration to contain Covid-19. But in Nepal, those who organized large gatherings flouting Covid rules were instead feted. When are we going to raise these questions of accountability and morality?

Dozens of heads of state or government that I have worked with have disengaged themselves from politics once they were out of power. They say one shouldn’t interfere after one is out of power. In our case, we see the trend of ‘once a leader, always a leader’. I think this is another reason why our politics is going downhill.

Our experience shows that we have many politicians; but hardly any visionary leader who could rise above their personal or party interests. There’s a saying—a politician is only concerned about another election, a leader about the next generation.

It is also true that elections have faced serious credibility questions globally and we are not its exceptions.

As a student of elections, I have a few dreams which I think are very important and are not difficult to achieve if we are sincere. My dreams include – (1) Having a fixed election date ensured by law; (2) Party candidates are selected on primary basis; (3) Voters cast their votes with an informed choice without any type of intimidation or personal gains. No need for bullets to secure ballots; (4) election management is fully decentralized and less costly; and that (5) Voters should be allowed to vote from any corner of the world with appropriate technology.

I wish I could see them in my lifetime.

Despite the grim picture of the country I painted above, we see light at the end of the tunnel. A group of vibrant youths has jumped into the political process and public affairs to detoxify the systemic mess from within. Our democratic future depends on how we provide space for this group of young people in our political process.

As I said earlier, three-fourth of Nepal’s current population is under 40 years of age. In contrast, we observe that only a few from this generation are in the decision-making levels in political parties and government. Hopefully, those in power will pay urgent attention to not just incorporate the priorities of the younger generation but also to bring them in decision making positions as quickly as possible. They should have a decisive voice in their own destiny.

It is my firm belief that, to perform these tasks that make people experience rule of law, we don’t have to search for additional sources and resources; we don’t have to call upon any donors; the resources and capacity that we possess are sufficient. The only thing we need is the commitment of the leadership.

At this hour when we are close to the new round of elections, everybody should commit to participate in the elections by voting for qualified leaders—hopefully of the younger generation with conviction, those who promise not to waste the next five years the way we have been doing business in the past.

Let us make one target—that is to regenerate HOPE, HOPE and HOPE!

In this age of globalization and connectivity, we have reached a state of a world beyond borders. We have many resources and potentials to improve our country, its governance and the lives of current and future generations. With proper leadership, good governance and solemn commitment and true patriotism among political leaders, bureaucrats, intellectuals, media and the general public, we can achieve progress which may seem “Beyond Expectations”. Let us strive for that.

I wish the organizers success in addressing the issues on the table.

Thank you for your attention!