Train Local Leaders

Newspapers, television channels and online news portals have been covering various activities of local level leaders. People have hoped that the newly-elected representatives would initiate new works to make the voters happy. It is expected that 753 local level chiefs, deputy chiefs and thousands of other representatives will prove their mettle.  

John Milton says: ‘Childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day.’ This adage applies to the newly elected Mayor of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Balendra Shah, who has swung onto action to meet electoral promises immediately after being elected to the coveted post. He made every effort to find a solution to the garbage problem plaguing the Kathmandu’s residents for years. 

Mayor of the Dharan Sub-Metropolitan City Harka Sampang Rai is also hitting news headlines because of his naïve statements. It, however, does not mean that other leaders are completely passive and incompetence. They must have been busy learning the rules and regulations of the local levels and formulating policies, programmes and strategies for an overall development of their respective villages and cities. 

They may be facing theoretical, legal, and other practical problems while discharging their duties. This could be a reason why they are shying away from announcing their plans as stated in their poll manifestoes. To make local leaders capable of performing their duties with confidence, they should be given certain types of training. They have to deal with hurdles in decision-making, resource management, sub-judiciary, and technological matters. 

They can learn much from workshops, leadership development, and refreshment training programmes on how to manage resources. Majority of the leaders elected belong to old generations, so they may not be savvy with the modern technology as message forwarding, videoconferencing, and online forums which have become a source of primary information today. So, the leaders must be made perfect on these fields, too. 

They should be careful enough in avoiding the use of racist language and maintaining their own dignity. They should also be made aware on implication of cultural and regional bias and political terminologies. If a local leader speaks in the formal programme, ‘Nepal Adhirajya or Nepal Adhirajyama’, s/he faces humiliation because there is no more kingship in the country. We had abolished Shah Dynasty long ago and established federal republic with the sacrifice of thousands of martyrs. 

So, training helps build confidence in them. It also gives learning opportunities for them and addresses the core issues necessary to overcome problems. In the course of training, participants know their strength and weakness in performing the work. They will also gain knowhow about the quality work, standards, and problem solving techniques. 

Even during the Panchayat system, there was Panchayat Training Centre which used to train local as well as central level leaders on the motto of that party-less system. So, there must be one training centre to train federal leaders because an election is a contest among citizens to become an eligible leader. Training makes them qualified as a student becomes a perfect driver or pilot after receiving training. That is why leadership training, training on resource management, sub-judiciary training and training on technical knowhow are immensely essential for the new leaders before expecting desirable outcomes from them.