Sir,
This refers to Narayan Prasad Mishra’s piece “My bitter experience of Malpot Office” appeared in the People’s Review on 29 April:
Your poignant tale is another example of societal flaws in Nepali life, where corruption remains rife in bureaucracies that should serve the people.
That last phrase was a slogan of PM Deng in China.
I remember when shopping there with my Chinese interpreter when I had a Fulbright in Wuhan in 1984-85. In front of a banner that read “Serve the People” in a large departmental store stood 5 young clerks, chatting amongst themselves. They had not waited on me for my purchase, so my interpreter lit into them, pointing to the banner to teach them a lesson.
Also when I was leaving Kathmandu in May of 1973 with Michele, I needed an international money order for $10 as a reservation deposit for our hotel in Hong Kong. Went to the only bank in Kathmandu that could handle my issue. At the door, a young boy, not an employee, offered to help me. Maybe an ‘unofficial Lekhandas (?), who proceeded for 1 hour to lead me and my money order application as it travelled to 17 (?) different desks where it was placed at the bottom of the pile. Our pleas from over the counter caused the last clerk to affix the clearing stamp. In my country then, it would have taken one bank teller 3 minutes to type out the money order and take my $10. Process completed.
I used to use this example in China about the inefficiency of their bureaucracies. You have become what we used to call here ‘a muckraker’, a journalist who digs deep into such problems. It is too bad that you are not hired to head an office to help eliminate, or make more efficient, government processes.
What you are trying to do is important if only for the exposure of such problems.
Bob Palmer
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