By Rabindra Mishra
Dear NRNs,
At the outset, this writer wishes to make it clear that this letter is a sincere salutation to those of you who have not only talked about Nepal but have made concrete contributions to this country in various ways. However, this letter could make for uncomfortable reading to the majority of you who come, who talk, who return and do nothing but just talk and find excuses to talk more. There is no point cursing Nepali politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen and civil society members when you, with all your expertise, skills and resources, have failed to fulfil your social and patriotic responsibilities.
The Fourth Non-Resident Nepali (NRN) Global Conference is starting tomorrow with huge fanfare. Like in past conferences, there will be an ostentatious inauguration, spirited speeches, erudite paper presentations, heated discussions and profound declarations about how NRNs can contribute to the development of Nepal and how the Nepal government should recognise and encourage the contributions of NRNs towards their motherland. After extensive publicity, several flashy interviews, and the grand conclusion of the conference, you will all disperse and return ‘home’. Before the next global conference takes place in 2011, many of you will engage and participate in several regional NRN conferences in Europe and Asia. Again, you will demonstrate your organisational and leadership skills and possibly impress lots of local NRNs by your seemingly persuasive speeches. You will express serious concern about the deteriorating political, economic and social conditions in Nepal. Some of you will express more concern about the country on various internet-based discussion forums. And, some of you will also go to the extent of submitting memorandums to the Prime Minister and senior politicians urging them to act on various issues. In essence, you will waste your energy and time in activities which are not going to change anything but give you some name and fame because of your engagement in intellectual discourses and managing to convey your concerns to the concerned authorities, who receive several similar petitions all the time but hardly do anything about it.
A word of thanks is in order to Dr Upendra Mahato, who has worked tirelessly for nearly a decade to establish and spread the NRN movement throughout the world. He has led by example and has not just talked but made things happen. Like him, there are a few other prominent NRNs who command the moral high ground to talk about ideals and actions. They have personally and collectively contributed to several good causes in Nepal. Many of you, who talk and do nothing, think they did it because they have the resources. You may not be as resourceful, but you can always do things in whatever small way that you can as hundreds of ordinary NRNs living in different countries do. You can learn from those inspirational ordinary NRNs. The irony is, many of you are seeking a high profile in terms of leading the organisation and talking about NRN’s aims and expectations but are absolutely reluctant in setting examples yourself. This country badly needs examples, not talkers. If only you had the honesty, sense of social responsibility and the commitment, you could have played a hugely catalytic role. You have the knowledge, the exposure and the understanding, but, unfortunately, you lack the wisdom. Hence, you want to take more and give less, you enjoy talking rather than acting and you enjoy blaming rather than reflecting.
Nepal does not need doses of lectures from NRNs. It needs more schools and libraries, health posts and medicines, which many of you can provide at a personal level. Nepal does not need NRNs who bask in the glory of their successes in businesses and other sectors but do nothing for the schools and villages where they spent their childhood. A very simplistic but realistic argument is: if a successful Nepali has benefited the Australians, the Americans or the British through his talent and hard work, let the respective nationals be proud of him. Why should 27 million Nepalis bother about such a person who has been utterly useless for poor communities that he has left behind?
Many successful NRNs are also very passionate about political and human rights issues, which usually provide them a high profile in media and society. We already have more than enough able indigenous activists to talk about those issues. If you still want to talk about it, please complement it with meaningful action. Only the combination of actions and words can bring about changes. Words alone are extremely hollow. For people of your knowledge and exposure, it would just be farcical to continuously talk about politics and human rights but do nothing to mitigate the socio-economic maladies in whatever small way that you can.
Similarly, the issue of dual citizenship, registration of NRN Association in Nepal and the creation of a 100 Million Dollar Nepal Investment Fund have figured high on your objectives. Many of you argue that when those three objectives are met, you can make a significant contribution to Nepal. Those demands are perfectly reasonable for the kind of movement the NRN is. However, it looks very pretentious when you make those demands an excuse for your inaction. It is always nice to talk about big investments and big changes but in poor Nepali villages, small gestures make a huge difference. For example, you claim that there are 2.5 million NRNs spread outside of South Asia. It is possible that out of 2.5 million, 1.5 million NRNs can hardly do anything as they come from an extremely poor background and are virtually illiterate. This writer has been arguing for long that out of the remaining one million NRNs, even if half of them sponsor a child, every year half a million Nepali children will get better education and health facilities. Anyone willing to do so, will not need a dual citizenship, registration of the NRN Association in Nepal or a 100 Million Dollar Investment Fund. You also don’t need any go-between to sponsor a child in a community that you belong to and visit it from to time.
You have fancied talking big all these years. If you go through NRN Association’s website, you will see it for yourself how you have mostly wasted your time in holding meetings, conferences, interaction programmes, issuing statements and declarations. If you go through the declarations of the past three NRN Global conferences, you will see for yourself how most of the declaration-objectives have been virtually forgotten by now. Just calculate the money that you have individually and institutionally spent in global, regional and national activities over the years. If you had limited such events to the absolutely necessary ones, probably you could have built several small schools in Nepali hills and plains. That would have given you greater moral strength and credibility. You have succeeded in institutionalising and expanding the association but have miserably failed in actually helping your motherland, which was and is your core objective. On the fourth conference starting tomorrow, it would be hugely beneficial if you did serious soul searching about your achievements and aspirations, which need a clear focus and commitment to make things happen. Just showing off your strength every two years, presenting the works of a handful of committed NRNs as an example of what NRNs can do in Nepal, boasting about token gestures and the remittances, which is a compulsion rather than a conscious contribution, is neither good for you nor for Nepal. Hope this letter will be taken in a positive vein.
Wishing you a meaningful and productive conference.
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