Great leaders and good policies are key to a nation's stability, peace and prosperity. South Korea was once as poor as Nepal but strong leadership transformed it into an economic powerhouse. In contrast, Nepal's leadership has held it back. Nations become poor under bad leaders and corrupt governments, as they fail to empower citizens and institutions. Countries like Botswana and the Indian state of Bihar that had honest, visionary leaders pursuing good policies achieved rapid economic growth and development. Nepal suffers from weak leaders more interested in personal gain than serving the people. Common citizens must now take the lead in advocating for their interests and supporting leaders who will move Nepal forward.

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GREAT LEADERS AND GOOD POLICIES
WAY TO STABILITY, PEACE AND PROSPERITY
Keshav Prasad Bhattarai
South Korea, smaller in size than Nepal, also poor and the most corrupt until 1960, now according to a
newly released report, is the sixth most powerful country in the world. Until, 1960 Korea that was not
different than us in overall economic growth level, has become a dream destination of Nepali youths now.
While Korean leadership raised their country to that height; our leadership has forced us to fall at our
present status.
Development is a common good and is achieved by the collective hard work of people. But they need
incentives, honor, trust, and encouragement from the state and its leadership. They also need guarantee
from the state that they can keep and use the money they earned with their hard work and thrift as they
like it. People are fortunate if they could trust their leadership. When their security is highly honored
with good governance, their productivity goes unbound, with competency that in turn will accumulate
prosperity for their country and its citizens.
Leaders with strong will and vision are themselves mighty institutions and together they build mightier
institutions of government and people. These powerful institutions offer people opportunities in achieving
their aims and creating new ideas for generating wealth and prosperity. And above all, if the leaders are
endowed with strong will and vision this gives legitimacy to the state and government.
Why are people poor?
Nations and peoples are poor not because of geography or lack of natural resources. They become poor
when they are cursed with bad leaders and bad governments. Poverty is not only a state when we have no
money; rather it is lack of human, social and institutional capacity to fight bad times and corrupt leaders.
Nations and people suffer more if the civil society organizations, professional bodies and trade unions
work as a proxy to those leaders and their parties and share their ill gotten power. That is the
predicament we are suffering now.
Difference between a political leader, gangster or a criminal is determined by their aim, discipline and
accountability or lack of it. We are missing these differences in our case. People could punish leaders by
votes and the state could do it by law, but we are failing together.
Therefore, for decades we as nation have not been able in leading and representing people’s strength,
enthusiasm, enterprise, courage and honor. Instead we are harping on their weakness, prejudices,
selfishness and corrupt practices. This has limited our collective strength and ability to earn a life of
dignity to us.
Enemy of the people, these days, do not lie in another country, but they are found among themselves and
among those voted to power. With the hands covered with dirt and mind flooded with the same, thinking
and plotting for amassing wealth by cheating people and nation.
Moreover, not nations it is people who compete in a modern economy with knowledge and its application in
their profession. This in process creates more knowledge and more wealth followed by promotion of

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human dignity, freedom, and respect to nature. But, our identity for decades, have been a nation infested
by terrible chain of corruption, poverty and instability. The experiences of our own and many other
countries have proven that the prices of these things are to be paid by generation to generation and this
in course of time is to be paid by the nearest neighbors and other countries.
Great Leaders and Good Policies: Botswana and Bihar
Sir Arthur Lewis, the father of development economist when was at Princeton University, was asked a
pertinent question by one of his promising student - ‘why do some developing countries grow faster than
others?’ Professor Lewis, a 1979 Noble Laureate responded that two things are mainly responsible for this.
The first is the great leadership, and the second- the good policies. When there are great leaders and good
policies rapid growth follows.
Botswana, a landlocked and mainly a desert country bordered to South Africa, Zimbabwe and
Namibia, had gained independence from Britain in 1966. According to Alan Beattie, Botswana then had only
12 kilometer of paved road, 22 university graduates and 100 secondary school graduates. A British
government report in 1960 had stated that the country had very dismal prospects. But fortunately,
Botswana had both great leader and good policies. Its first president Sir Seretse M. Khama and his team
not only gave the country good policies to translate peoples’ dream into reality, but also gave the country a
sound and stable government for one and half decade. After him, his vice president Quett M. Masire gave
Botswana another period of stability and honest government.
While most of the African countries were busy at fostering ethnic divisions, engineering mass
cleansing and engaged in looting the abundant gold, diamond and other precious natural wealth available and
fighting to amass it as much as they could, Botswana was writing greatest success story for Africa. Its
leaders were working honestly and skillfully for the best use of resources available in their country.
Projects suited best to their national priority were chosen. When an offer was made to the construction of
a street that would pass to the presidential residence, president Khama rejected it with a comment that
roads should be built in accordance with national priority. The rest is history. Botswana is now the most
developed country in the continent with highest per capita income.
Near our home, Bihar - an Indian state known earlier as a “development outcast” and a symbol
of poverty, corruption and crime, is now achieving a miracle GDP of 11.00%. The per capita income of Bihar
has doubled during the first tenure of Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister. Under the good policies initiated by
his government, Bihar has gained the identity of the brightest Indian state bringing great success story of
development only next to Gujrat. The message is clear - if leaders are honest, know how to discipline
themselves first and then to state officials, are committed to people and do know how to translate their
dreams with terrific administration and governance skills, then they can achieve any developmental goals in
no time.
Back to our country, undoubtedly, our weaknesses are our leaders. In most countries leaders are solution to
peoples’ problem but in our case they themselves are most serious problems of the nation. May be we also
are part of this.
Therefore, the only option available to us is - if leaders could not give solutions to us, then only we the
commoner must be at the driving seat. There is no reason that we cannot have Nepali Lee Kuan, Deng Xiao
Peng, Seretse Khama, Manamohan Singh or Nitish Kumar, to compensate all our missed opportunities, solve
all our problems, turn all our failures into successes. What we only should do is to be true to us and our
children and start raising voice for our best interest, support people who are right and speak loud against
those who are against us.
kpbnepal@gmail.com

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Published in
The Reporter weekly (16-22) May, 2011
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