By Narayan Prasad Mishra
Good education, a high degree, hard work, and interest alone do not lead to a successful life. No doubt we have to have all these things for success. However, we must have an opportunity to use our talents and labor. In ordinary language, we call it employment.
Ours is a developing country. We need to place foundations in developing many areas in the country. We also need to devote time to developing those areas where we have already placed the foundations. Undoubtedly we need skilled as well as manual laborers for these things.
Because of the unstable political system, always self-centered government, political parties, and leaders, our country has not been able to escape from mismanagement, malpractices, corruption, and irregularities for the last 30 years. As a result, we have not been able to establish factories and industries that we need for our needs and employment opportunities. Because of that, we have a tremendous unemployment problem in the country, and the people who want to use their skills and labor cannot find a job and need to stay hungry without earning. This is our reality.
Besides, we have unlimited nepotism and favoritism that is hard to tolerate. Without having contact and blessings from power holders in political circles, no hard worker or intelligent person gets a job – high or low, skilled or unskilled in the country. If they do, they can hardly get a promotion or progress without the influential person’s support and blessings. The political leaders and their followers keep an eye on it as the flying eagles always keep their eyes on the dead animals seen in the riverside or jungle. The general people are helpless and bound to see equal rights and opportunities only in the constitution and documents.
In this context, we remember the retirement conspiracy formulated and implemented by Girija Prasad Koirala, then Nepali Congress Prime Minister, who gave retirement to thousands of government and semi-government employees to benefit their party followers in 1992. I remember his vice-chancellor Kedar Bhakta Mathema who implemented that conspiracy in Tribhuvan University and gave retirement to 22 high officials of the first class and special class (Prathama Shreni and Bishista Shreni). As a result, my beloved wife, late Shanti Mishra, and I, who were for that University with heart and soul, brain and skill, had to quit the job. I have preserved the following certificates given by Kedar Bhakta Mathema to us after giving retirement and always see in them the dirtiest and ugliest picture of politics introduced in the holy educational institutions in the country. The certificate says that your valuable contribution to the university’s development is highly appreciated, and the university will always remember your valuable service. Even the naive and most simple-minded can easily understand – that is a big mockery and also a clear picture of hypocrisy.
The atmosphere is still the same. That depicts the terrible situation of the country and also the cause of brain drain. The dictionary defines brain drain as the emigration of highly trained or qualified people from a particular country to some other country.
Due to all the factors mentioned above, we have a vast number of brain drain and human resources recruitment to other countries. Most of them left the country with heavy hearts out of compulsion. It is not that they did not love the country and wanted to live in a foreign land separating from their loved ones. I do not know the exact statistics of Nepali people living abroad, but we know millions are working for other countries due to the absence of jobs in their motherland. People think about twenty percent of our people are living and working abroad. Most of them are in Arab countries. They are the country’s most needed workforce, highly educated, skilled, and manual laborers. We know that only people with education, skills, talents, hard-working attitude and courage can go abroad to work, just as only birds with feathers can fly in the sky, not animals with four legs. They certainly can and would work for their own country if the opportunities are available here.
Our so-called leaders, who know only to talk about democracy, republic, socialism, communism, etc., have no plan and vision to create employment and have no thoughts of developing the country. They push the people to go out of the country, and then they themselves blame and level the charge against these people saying that they have forgotten the love of their motherland, living or working for other countries. I remember the ex-minister of general administration Lal Babu Pandit, who seemed to be a good person, spoke against permanent residence or any other residence card holders harshly and even brought out a rule to stop their pension allowance if someone is a pensioner as if the pensioner left the motherland not loving it. He forgot his love and kindness toward the people going abroad, about their compulsion and situation. He kept an ugly picture of a person going abroad in his mind that they were the people who did not love the country and went to work in a foreign land for luxury despite seeing substantial remittances sent by these people for the love of their family and relatives and also doing varieties of good work which established a good name and fame of the motherland in foreign countries.
Many countries, such as our neighbor India take pride in their people working in other countries with good names and fame so long as the Indians keep their motherland in their hearts. India takes pride in seeing that Indian culture is extended through them worldwide. My beloved wife Shanti Mishra and I never aspired to work in a foreign country, even when we got an opportunity. We did not think to leave the country when we were given unbearable pain of injustice by our corrupt power holders. But I honestly think even if we worked or settled in a foreign country, how could someone level a charge against us that we did not love the country when the irresponsible government snatched our job, which we were doing with dedication and devotion? I know many people like us went to work in a foreign land as they were pushed to do so by our dirty political system of nepotism and favoritism.
So we know brain drain and working for other countries is not a choice but a compulsion. Even a dog loves his small box where he has been living and prefers it to a new big room. One should understand that it is the same for our people living abroad. They love their country though they are living in a foreign land. They miss their loved ones, their culture, food, weather, and surroundings which are their life. They would prefer to return and live here if a better situation was created.
We should create an atmosphere of job opportunities and employment, equality, and justice, not only talking about politics, republic, democracy, and communism that do produce nothing. We must create an atmosphere to get an advantage from our people’s brains and labor, stopping the brain drain and recruiting a workforce with good plans and programs. We have not only brain drain but also brain waste in the absence of good governance. The government should be able to use a suitable man for the right place by creating a system of talent search, staying away from dirty politics of nepotism and favoritism. We must learn to leave the culture to prefer Chakary (sycophancy) and Afno Manchhe (henchmen, accomplices) to brains and talent. Only then we can take our country to progress and development. We will never reach our goal if our political parties and leaders always fight for positions and power like the street dogs fight to grab the bones from other dogs’ mouths, as they have been doing for the last 30 years. I pray and hope they will work like ants with unity, cooperation, and understanding, leaving the nature of street dogs fighting among themselves for the people’s welfare and the country’s development.
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