Heal The Aching Motherland

It has been more than one and a half months of the Gen Z revolution, and the general people's initial enthusiasm for change has gradually faded away. They had expected the newly formed interim government would take immediate action to punish those who were directly involved in the murder of more than 70 innocent people on the 8th and 9th of September. Unfortunately, there arose so many other issues to be addressed, which blanketed the main issue of finding out the guilty people. This has created frustration in the general public, and they are sceptical of getting justice.

There is no doubt that the government is doing its best to maintain normalcy, but it faces many challenges. First, the Council of Ministers has not yet been completed. More than this, what is ridiculous is that several people whom the Prime Minister recommends as ministers to the President do not turn out to have a clean image. There must be extensive research before making any decision so that it should not be changed time and again. In addition, the process of selection could also be accelerated. 

Focus

Once the cabinet is full, then the government's sole focus would be on the main issues, which are to find out the guilty people, to start working on anti-corruption, and to hold elections successfully on time. The government has formed a three-member probe commission headed by a former Supreme Court Judge, Gauri Bahadur Karki, to investigate everything related to the Gen Z protests, and the commission has been given three months to complete the probe. I am hopeful that, without being influenced by anything or anybody, the commission has been working fairly to reach its goal.

The Nepali people are witnessing many unprecedented happenings during such a volatile situation. Among them, the most annoying thing that I am experiencing is how people are spreading negativity using social media platforms. They are posting fake news, instigating awful comments. There is the use of foul language, swearing words, and whatnot.  Sadly, the same bad language used in the cyber world has come to the real world as well. A language is related to people's identity, so by using the taboo language, what sort of identity are we creating? What will be the impact of this on little children who are in the process of learning the language and being massively exposed to swearing words?

We have recently seen different groups of unauthorised people entering the government offices with their demands and threatening the officers. They even asked for their resignation. It was absolutely wrong in the name of the so-called Gen Z youths. A responsible Gen Z group would never be involved in such a filthy task. There must be a protocol to follow if you want something to be done in a formal organisation, which was breached by a bunch of young people who had pretended to be an authority themselves. Activities like theirs create terror and insecurity in people. After a couple of such incidents, the government has arrested some of the people who were terrorising the government personnel. 

An acute blame game has also been developed after the Gen Z revolution. If we believe what people are claiming, there is not a single person we can find in the country with a clean image. Whether you consider the great personality Dr. Sanduk Ruit, the Prime Minister Sushila Karki, the Minister of Home Affairs Om Prakash Aryal, the Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Kul Man Ghising or anyone who has done something good for the country, they are being criticised baselessly. 

Some renowned e-papers are also selling the same sort of stories. The interim government has a lot of tasks to do within a limited time. These nonsense stories may distract its main focus, and this may be the intention of rumourmongers.  Journalism is regarded as a very sacred profession. It comes after the three branches of democracy - executive, legislative and judiciary. So, it is called the fourth branch. 

These days, some journalists have also failed to follow their work ethics. I remember a so-called journalist who was shouting at one of the Gen Z representatives to take accountability for every damage that had happened during the protest. The poor Gen Z boy was trying to clarify that the probe commission has already been formed to investigate the incidents of killing and vandalism, but that pathetic journalist was unable to process this information. His stubbornness was ridiculous.

Entire attention 

For the past few days, Balen Shah's poem has received an entire attention on social media platforms. In that poem, only the expression 'as dirty as a farmer' was being attacked. A majority of people interpreted this expression denotatively instead of connotatively. They stated that Balen Shah insulted farmers saying that they are dirty people, and they vented their anger upon him. 

More interestingly, the All Nepal Peasants' Federation even issued a press release asking Balen to remove this expression from the poem. The word 'dirty' reminded me of my PhD days. At that time, my research supervisors used to tell me to dirty my hands while conducting my study, and then only I could succeed. Doing a PhD and farming are equally daunting, and without working hard, neither PhD scholars nor farmers reach their goal.

All these examples are evidence of our mental level on average. We do not have the practice of critical thinking; as a result, we are unable to differentiate between facts and rumours. During this critical time, we, as responsible citizens, must be united for a common cause to relieve the country from all the problems that she is facing right now.  

(The author is the director of Vidya Shilpa Academy, Damak, Jhapa.)