Put The House In Order

Ritu Raj Subedi

The continued disruption of the legislative-parliament has further complicated the ongoing political deadlock that emerged following the failure of the coalition government to conduct the constituent assembly (CA) polls as per the interim statute. The current interim parliament is an outcome of the popular April movement, which set the loktantrik process in motion. The House of Representatives, restored after the movement, made some landmark announcements, including the curtailing of the King's sweeping powers and establishing full-fledged democracy in the country. Although the present parliament contains most of old faces from the major political parties, it has, for the first time, been represented by a considerable number of Maoist lawmakers. All of them have not been there through a fresh mandate of the people, but they have a vital role in taking the nation towards sustainable peace by instructing the government, and formulating laws and regulations in line with the spirit of loktantra.

Protracted impasse

However, the importance of the parliament has been overlooked by none other than the lawmakers of the ruling parties. It has been in a limbo for more than a month. In the beginning when the Maoists were not inducted in the government, they halted the regular proceeding of the parliament, demanding the formation of a new government that included them. After a brief interval, they continued to create pandemonium in the House following the Gaur carnage and deferral of the CA polls. Then after, the Madhesi lawmakers from all the political parties represented in the parliament joined the fray to press the government into fulfilling their demands. More recently, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party has also joined the agitation in the House only to protract the impasse. One of the interesting features of the protest scenario is that all the Madhesi MPs are up in arms to meet their demands, giving birth to factionalism in the parliament on communal lines. They have threatened to defy the whips of their respective parties if they are told not to raise their demands in the House. Their postures have raised some questions: Why do these MPs fail to channelise their demands through their parties? Why are the major political parties represented in the House mere spectators to this scenario?

By continuously disrupting the parliamentary session, the Madhesi MPs have challenged the leadership of their respective parties in sorting out the problem. While they are unilaterally calling on the parliament to heed to their demands, reports of instigation of communal feelings in the Terai are trickling in. People hailing from the hills have been constantly under threat and intimidation there. Some armed outfits operating in the Terai belt are targeting the Pahade communities. The government employees of hill origin live in fear as Madhesi militant groups are out to displace them from the administration and other government bodies. This tension has been further intensified after a minister representing the Terai sparked a controversy by saying that the region should be led by Madhesi leaders, not by people of hill origin. Is it just a coincidence or is there a link between the House obstructions and the rising tension in the Terai? The century-old social and cultural harmony existing among the various castes and communities have been alarmingly disturbed, thanks to the Maoists who launched political slogans on racial, communal and geographical lines during their people's war some 11 years ago. They floated ideas of the right to self-determination for the Madhesi, ethnic and indigenous people to muster support for their insurgency. They succeeded in their mission, but it has left behind a dangerous legacy as reflected in the Terai movement and in the activities of the Terai outfits.

These activities have threatened the territorial integrity of Nepal created by Prithvi Narayan Shah who unified small principalities into a single state nation 237 years ago. The popular movement last year did not envisage a divided nation. It had a mandate for building a new Nepal wherein all the Nepalese irrespective of class, colour and caste would realise their aspirations. The April movement aimed at establishing a democratic state that cannot be achieved when the nation is torn, and social harmony is ruffled. In response to the Terai uprising, the government approved the federal structure of governance and agreed on restructuring the state, whose modalities will be fixed by the CA polls. The parliament should work to stop the disturbing activities in the Terai. The parliament is a place where the nation's burning problems are solved. By holding it hostage, the situation will only worsen. The House deadlock will definitely disrupt the process of the CA polls as some major laws are yet to be enacted. The CA polls offer an opportunity for all, including the Madhesi people, to have their demands fulfilled. This fact should be realised by the agitating MPs.

Sensible way

Speaker Subash Chandra Nemwang launched a series of consultations with different political parties to end the impasse but was unsuccessful. Frustrated with the continued obstruction in the House, Prime Minister Koirala even went to the extent of saying that the government might be forced to take harsh measures if the lawmakers failed to cooperate with the government for the smooth running of the parliament. People do not want any autocratic government. They want the eight-party leaders to find a sensible way to solve the impasse in the House and avert the looming danger that has surfaced in the Terai.

Source: The Rising Nepal, May 19, 2007

Emerging Role Of Human Resource Management

Dr. Shyam Bahadur Katuwal

Human resource management (HRM) has been given importance in the academic and professional fields because of the role it plays in enhancing organisational performance. Presently, organisations are successful on account of competent human resource. Thus, human resource management is a requirement in facing competition successfully rather than fulfilling the legal and mandatory requirements. The role of HRM in Anglo-American organisations is said to be action-oriented, individual-oriented and future-oriented. However, in the case of Nepal, although the scenario of human resource management has been gradually shifting from record keeping of employees and providing piecemeal solutions to HR-related problems, it has not improved to the extent desired. Hence, Nepalese organisations are unable to face HR-related challenges, achieve business strategies and make them competitive and advantageous.

HRM in NepalDeveloping and utilising human competencies for organisational effectiveness in Nepal has received low priority from people involved in managing HR. HR managers are happy performing routine work concerning personnel administration, record keeping, welfare, discipline, labour relations and other operational issues rather than developing and utilising human resources and integrating HRM activities as a part and parcel of the business strategy. Managing human resources, therefore, is preoccupied with the traditional functions of personnel administration. Even after the changes in the socio-eco-political and technological environment in the country, Nepalese organisations face problems of low productivity, poor motivation, morale and satisfaction, adverse labour-management relations and so on. Such problems are more serious in public enterprises because of the unstable political environment, short-term political vision and excessive political interference in the day-to-day affairs of the enterprises. As per the Public Accounting Report 1997, the government blames the top executives of public enterprise for only unpardonable inefficiencies of the public enterprises. Except in some forward-looking organisations, linkage of HRM, including human resource development (HRD), with organisational performance and corporate strategy is still neglected.

Factors for the slow pace of development of HRM in Nepal are centralised organisations, lack of trust between labour and management, frequent changes of executives especially in government organisations and public enterprises, over and understaffing due to lack of appropriate human resource planning, feeling of seniority complex and lack of budget for HRD. The other emerging problem for the underdevelopment of HRM in some organisations is the protective market. The organisations operating in a protective market environment do not feel any responsibility of developing the necessary human resources for competitive advantages. Although it is mandatory to hire a labour welfare officer, many large organisations prefer to appoint a personnel manager/officer to look into the recruitment of personnel, including managerial ones. Thus, innovative human resource practices that emphasise a people-oriented, participatory, progressive and committed approach to HRM is out of bounds for most of the Nepalese organisations.The growing internationalisation of business has its impact on HRM functions. In the contemporary business environment, Nepalese organisations are in a constant state of competition. As the intensity of competition increases, the need for organisations to continuously improve their performance is a compulsion for their survival. The significance of traditional sources of competition like natural resources, technology and economies of scale is decreasing because these resources are easy to imitate. Since HR is an intangible, irreplaceable and inimitable asset of an organisation, the importance of HR in global competition began attracting the attention of Nepalese organisations since the 1990s with the liberalisation of the economy.

Direct investment by multinational corporations for global competition has forced organisations to find effective means of developing and utilising quality manpower. This, being so, the effective management of human capital, not physical capital, may be the ultimate determinant of organisational performance. Competition from multinational and domestic companies has compelled many enterprises to resort to downsizing, acquisitions, mergers or divestitures. The reorganisation will have an impact on the employees. They experience anxiety and uncertainty about their job in the new organisation. Thus, retention of quality employees is another concern of present organisations.The growth of powerful trade unions after the advent of democracy in 1990, introduction of protective labour laws, and increasing value of professionalism in the field of HRM, increasing size of organisations and introduction of new technology have further given impetus to changing the traditional role of human resource management in Nepal.An important key to the success in the gobalisation of business is the management of HR. With the changing character of competition, changed expectation of the employees, interest of the weaker section of the society, demographic changes in the workforce (increasing number of working women, young employees and dual-career couples with increasing awareness and education among workers and decline of blue-collar employees), the role of HRM has been changing.

The role of human resource managers, as a line function, is to coordinate HRM policies, programmes, procedures and activities with the business strategies for the attainment of corporate goals. Consequently, in order to cope with changes in the business environment, innovative HRM practices like Internet recruitment, use of psychological and behavioural tests for selection of employees, participatory goal setting, team appraisal and 360-degree appraisal are required in the different organisations.Participatory career plans, job rotation, need based training, attitude and communication training, challenging job assignment, team rewards, performance linked bonus, family directed rewards, greater transparency, outplacement service, exit interview and retirement counseling make HRM proactive to the global changes. Evidences indicate that HR practices influence employee attitudes, behaviour, perceptions, organisational climate and other human resource performance measures, which in turn lead to human resource performance and thereby organisational effectiveness.

Skilled labourIn the changed economic structure and patterns of competition, managers including HR professionals are required to facilitate the process of organisational development in place of controlling people through traditional personnel management. They must work to develop specialised skilled labour, manage a flexible work environment, create organisational constellations and strike strategic alliances for regular exchanges of manpower and information among the constellations. Competitive pressure, changing social values and need of employees have encouraged organisations to bring innovative HRM. Except in some big private organisations, joint venture banks, multinational companies and INGOs, the role of HRM is not considered yet to be of strategic importance to attain organisational goals in Nepal. Yet, it is expected to play a strategic role in making Nepalese organisations competitive in the years to come.

Source: The Rising Nepal, May 19, 2007

Zone Of Peace

PRIME Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has called upon the teachers to have faith in democratic practice and sit for dialogue to resolve the problems in the academic sector. Receiving a memorandum from the agitating teachers of private and boarding schools in Kathmandu Thursday, Prime Minister Koirala said that problems can be solved through dialogue in a democracy and called upon the teachers and others to follow democratic and civic practices. The remarks and request of the Prime Minster carry special significance at a time when the private and boarding schools have been closed due to the agitation of the teachers. The teachers in the private and boarding schools have launched the agitation demanding salary and other facilities at par with the teachers in the government schools. In response to the demand of the teachers and staff, owners of the private boarding schools had also threatened to shut down the schools as some of the private schools were not able to meet all the demands put forth by the teachers and other staff. As the owners and the teachers locked horn on some issues, the schools were closed from Thursday, which has made the future of the hundreds of thousands students uncertain. The owners and management also need to give serious attention to the just demands of the teachers in private schools.

However, teachers also need to demonstrate civic sense and behavour. Activities like pressure tactics, protests and school closure do not suit teachers. Moreover, no one has the right to play with the future of students. Teachers should be more responsible and sensitive towards the future of students. So they need to return to work and simultaneously initiate dialogue for resolving their problems. This is the right approach. Similarly, the government also needs to intervene and solve the problem as early as possible. Although the private sector has played a very important role in the development of education in Nepal, there are complaints about the exploitation of teachers in some schools. The government has failed to properly monitor the private schools and make sure that schools provided reasonable salary and facilities to the teachers and other staff. Most of the private schools charge exorbitant fees to students but provide little facilities to the teachers and students. So the government needs to intervene here. It is urgent that all the sectors, as observed by Prime Minister Koirala, demonstrated a civic culture and behavour in order to solve the problems in the academic sector and ensure peace in the schools.

Source: The Rising Nepal, May 19, 2007

IT For Development

Information technology (IT) is the most important gift of science of the 20th century to humankind. This technology has brought in unprecedented comforts to the people by changing the world into a global village. Anyone with access to IT facilities can know what is happening in any part of the world within a few minutes no matter where he or she is living. You can listen to the sounds and watch images of any incident in front of a screen in your room. And if you happen to miss any of the programmes, you can watch them by just logging onto the Internet at any time. Indeed, Internet services have added further comfort to the people in the recent decades - you can send and receive messages from anyone from any part of the globe within seconds. Nepalese, too, have taken tremendous advantage from the boom in the IT sector. However, these facilities are confined mostly in the urban areas, and the people living in the villages are yet to take much benefit from it. Though we also made a tremendous progress in the field of information and communications, especially after the political change of 1990, they are still not enough, considering the population deprived of telephone and Internet facilities.

Before the change of 1990, many of the district headquarters even lacked telephone services. Today almost all the district headquarters and small bazaars have telephone services, although in some districts the services were disrupted when the insurgents damaged the communications towers during the decade-long violence. Today many people living in the district headquarters and nearby villages use mobile phones. In a least developed country like Nepal where more than 80 per cent people still lack access to electricity, expanding Internet services in the villages is not feasible. However, the villages could be connected through telephone services. The government has shown its seriousness in this regard. In a message delivered on the occasion of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day Thursday, Minister for Information and Communications Krishna Bahadur Mahara hinted that the government was preparing to extend telecommunication services to the villages within the next fiscal year. Certainly, the development of the IT sector is a must for the overall development of a nation, and the government has been giving top priority to its development. However, efforts of the government alone will not be sufficient in the proper development of the sector unless the people as well as other concerned stakeholders support the government in its endevour. Hope World IT Day will inspire all to work for the development and expansion of IT services in the villages.

Source: The Rising Nepal, May 19, 2007

Global Warming And South Asia

Dr. Trilochan Upreti

GLOBAL warming refers to the increase in the average temperature of the earth and the oceans in recent times, and in the future. Gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride and hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) and water vapour are called green house gases, which are collected in the atmosphere like a blanket trapping the sun's heat that is radiated off the earth's surface. These gases have been contributing factors to global warming over the past 50 years, during which the average global temperature is said to have increased at the fastest rate recorded in history and is expected to keep increasing at a rate of up to 2 degrees Celsius in the next 50 years. This would eventually lead to a rise in the sea levels that will inundate the low lying coastal belts, even leading to many smaller islands being totally submerged. InundationThe Maldives will disappear along with many island nations; one third of Bangladesh will be under water and, likewise, low lying belts of many coastal states would also be inundated. Consequently, there would be other disastrous effects. For example, there would be frequent incidents of extreme weather conditions like floods, heat waves, droughts and hurricanes that would trigger natural calamities, making human life more difficult than ever.

There have been no dearth of scientists and politicians who maintained that global warming is part of a natural process that occurs due to non-human causes like solar activity, volcanic emissions and so on. However, after the landmark report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose drafting was marked by an angry row, the argument blaming nature for global warming has lost its trust and credibility, and the world community has unanimously blamed human intervention for the issues. This is an interesting shift in the mind-set of the global community concerning the issue.The IPCC has strongly suggested that countries ought to adopt strategies to mitigate global warming through measures such as energy conservation and shifting to renewable sources of energy to displace carbon fuels and, thus, reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. As a result of such concern, the Kyoto Protocol was drawn up. The protocol is an agreement made under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. By 2006, 169 countries, responsible for 61.6% of emissions, have ratified it except the USA and Australia.

The USA, which is the largest economy of the world and contributes 25% of the global emission, has not ratified the Convention arguing that allowing unfettered emission levels to countries like India and China is unacceptable and that the USA has adopted effective measures for combatting global warming issues on its own. Whereas the developing countries are directly blaming the developed countries for the global warming, they are also maintaining that they first need to develop their own economy, a process which would be hampered by compliance with the instrument at this juncture in time. Those responsible for the irreparable damage due to climate change and problems associated with it should reverse the impacts through their own effort. Thus, global warming has remained a threat to the existence of the earth and its inhabitants, including the flora and fauna.The IPCC report predicts that billions of people will face water scarcity and hundreds of millions will likely go hungry, mainly in the poorest regions least to blame for spewing the fossil fuel pollution that is driving up temperatures. Likewise, glacier meltdown and ice sheet erosion will accelerate, which would impact the sea levels, causing devastating impacts on the coastal states. Similarly, upto 30 per cent of the planet's plants and animal species will become extinct, if temperatures rise by 1.50C to 2.50C.

The poorest regions and continents will suffer the most - tropical countries, African continent and the SAARC region. That means the melting of glaciers and Himalaya in Nepal would adversely affect the entire SAARC region and its weather pattern, causing abnormal drought and floods, which will contribute to the scourge of famine upon one billion people. One third of Bangladesh and huge swathes of Indian coastal territory would be inundated, inviting extraordinary problems of human survival in the entire South Asian region. Numerous problems not yet identified would emerge, leaving no space for easy resolution. These nations are already witnessing huge problems for their economic development, and tackling the issues of poverty will have to confront additional formidable problems. Eventually, it would invite inconceivable conflicts amongst communities, states and nations making it extremely difficult to find a point of resolution.One must study its impact at the national level by recalling that many bridges and one hydropower plant were washed away when one glacial lake caused by a retreating Himalayan glacier in Solokhumbu district burst a few years ago.

What would be the effect when glacial retreat and melting of the Himalayan peaks occur at the same time? We have huge human settlements near the banks of rivers, and most of the fertile lands in the hills lie on the banks of rivers. When such catastrophes occur, it will wash away people and inundate and fill up adjoining agricultural lands with sand and boulders.No one can even predict the magnitude of its implication for India and Bangladesh, where huge devastations and disasters will wash away millions of people and waste millions hectares of agricultural land. Towns and cities will be transformed into graveyards. Clean hydropower should be developed and used by the needy countries by adopting an equitable sharing of the benefits of the immense water resources of the region. In this context, this time could be the best for resolving every outstanding issue on sharing and utilising the huge water resources in the SAARC region by addressing the past grievances and also accommodating the future needs of all nations on an equal and equitable basis. Blame gameRather than blaming each other, the developed and developing countries like China, India and Brazil should comply with the provision of the Kyoto protocol by involving themselves in the resolution of the problem and making space to exist for future generations. The developed nations should assist them wholeheartedly for obtaining this global objective.

Source: The Rising Nepal, May 17, 2007