If political stability and personal integrity of people in power have ever remained illusive in most of the countries of South Asia, incumbent Nepalese Premier Sushil Koirala stands apart as a soothing exception. A bachelor aged 75, his down-to-earth attitude towards life has made him endeared with the common Nepalese people. In his latest act of honesty, the prime minister has returned his unused US$ 650 to the government exchequer on return from a trip to Myanamar. Premier Koirala was given an amount of money as his expenses prior to his visit to Myanmar where he attended a regional conference recently. He could very well keep the money but he knew better that he had no right to the money saved during his official visit.
At a time when amassing wealth during holding high offices by people in politics and bureaucracy has become the order of the day in almost all countries of Asia and elsewhere, Sushil Koirala makes a strong statement that it is possible to brave the tide if one is determined to do so. As a member of the Koirala clan and a cousin of other famous Koiralas such as former premiers Matrika Prasad Koirala, Girija Prasad Koirala and Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, he certainly carries a legacy both to his advantage and disadvantage. The advantage concerns his political lineage but the disadvantage is to break with their image which certainly is neither marked by austerity nor the kind of simplicity espoused by him.
That he had lived in a rented small house before taking the PM office and still owns no property -moveable or immoveable except two cell phones, has to a large extent helped him come out of his illustrious cousins' shadows. This latest demonstration of his honesty will only earn him an esteem few of his predecessors in Nepal and counterparts in other parts of the world command now. Only Uruguay's President Jose Alberto Mujica Cordano can be compared with him. Dubbed 'world's poorest president', Mujica lives in his wife's farm house where both husband and wife, also a senator, work together and donate most of his salary to charity.
People in the highest offices like Mujica and Koirala are not only notable exceptions to the lavish life their counterparts around the world become accustomed to but also their preference for a clean life gives a shame to those who use their offices as a means to accumulating unearned money. The world could have been a better place if only the powerful and the privileged led by example like these two men -one in Nepal and another in Uruguay. Democracy in its true sense of the term ought to have established such values and ideals. In fact presidents and prime ministers are the caretakers of state property and fund received through various channels. Instead, a devilish culture has developed where the powerful and power brokers share booty according to the pecking order. Common people are deprived of what they rightly deserve.
To overcome the malaise, even the system of democratic dispensation needs an overhauling. An individual like Koirala or Mujica can lead from the front but their impact will not make much of an inroad in the unresponsive system. Yet their presence in world politics exposes the deep malaise modern politics is suffering from. They may not cure the system but at least pose a question directly to the conscience of the rest who misuse public money in their personal interest.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
