HOW GREAT PEOPLE AND GREAT COUNTRIES INVENT GREAT HISTORIES

CAN WE LEARN FROM THEM?

After Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a human bomb in May 1991 election campaign, Indian Congress chose a retiring politician P.V. Narasimha Rao , in the words of acclaimed writer Gurcharan Das as their “stop gap leader ” - to head the minority government . Rao a low profile politician had headed almost all major ministries with enormous competency. And the man who had no experiences on financial matters “unleashed the biggest revolution in India since 1947” in his capacity as Prime Minister.

With Rao appointed as premier, India was suffering from the worst financial crisis. The government had no money to buy oil. The foreign reserve was hardly enough for two weeks of imports. The non-resident Indians were withdrawing their money at a massive level. The largest democracy of the world was virtually a bankrupt state.

Rao, the renowned intellectual and a long time politician knew that the remedy does not lie with politicians; but with competent economists having wider knowledge and experiences about the ills of national economy and success story of many countries in Asia and world. Therefore, he chose the soft spoken but renowned economist – Dr. Manamohan Singh as his new Finance Minister. Singh was mandated to initiate new policies most needed for the country, reform old policies if they worked and discard those that has failed and were disfunctional. Then Manamohan Singh and the new Commerce Minister P. Chidambaran sat together, several other meetings were held with top brass in bureaucracy and within a few hours they came with a blue print for a new India. The world has seen the results: India invented a new destiny - from a state of bankruptcy to an economic giant of the world.

They ended the license and permit raj, red tapism and excessive control of economy by the sickened bureaucracy making mockery of decade long development efforts. Inefficient but huge government enterprises were demolished. Innovative ideas and creativity the residual in Indian entrepreneurs were given way. Entrepreneurs were empowered to realize their potentials.

When it was accepted that people have much better knowledge and competency to run industry and business than government; when people were freed to do the business at their will, they unleashed the massive flow of knowledge, energy and enthusiasm they had with. This worked miraculously. India was reborn with a new history for it in the world.

UNLEASH PEOPLE’S POTENTIAL AND INVENT A FUTURE: JAPAN

Countries are great not for their size of the geography, population, economy army or weaponry, but for the vision of their leadership, their capacity and courage in using the resources and opportunities available to them.

On July 8, 1853, US Navy Commodore Matthew Perry anchored at Bay of Tokyo with four black ships charging smokes. Japanese had never seen and thought about such giant objects. What made them shocked most was not the fighting power of those war ships, but the sense of feeling that they were isolated from the world and were deprived of the

benefits of knowledge and technology. Therefore, instead of making a war effort against the Americans, the mysterious island kingdom decided to befriend with them and share the reserve of global knowledge and technology to empower their nation. This ensued Japan signing a treaty breaking down the barriers that was keeping it separated from the rest of the world at the cost of its progress.

Even today Japanese celebrate Mathew Perry’s expedition as a’ Black Ship Festival’ to honor the events that lead Japan to a world of power and glory.

Again after Second World War, Japan lost no time in reaping huge dividends of peace and unleashing the forces of great creativity that Japanese own as their identity. They learnt how to maintain a humble low profile to hand over their defense responsibility to USA and compete with it in the manufacturing of high quality goods available in world market from textiles and electronic goods to huge machinery and ships. As a result of this in every part of the world, we know Japan stands as a symbol of quality, hard work and innovation.

UNLEASH PEOPLE’S POTENTIAL AND FIGHT ALL THE ODDS: ISRAEL AND SINGAPORE.

Eminent philosopher, physicist and noble laureate Ilya Prigogine said “we cannot predict future, but we can prepare it “. In other word great people with unlimited courage and will power create future with their own hands. And people who have visited Israel can easily see and realize how the great visionary leaders of Israel- the barren desert land living under heavy odds since its birth, has changed it into a one of the most developed country of the world.

Israel is no more a desert country now. There is greenery everywhere covered with crops, fruits, flowers and vegetables. They have covered the barren land with millions of trees and created beautiful forest areas. They have laid water pipes under the earth for supplying water to all the trees and plants at regular intervals. People never feel scarcity of water in Israel. They had also developed an efficient system to use every drop of used water. No need to say that they have achieved grand success in running a great conservation programs, high yielding farming, most efficient transport and communications and almost 99.9 percent full proof security to its inhabitants.

Singapore has achieved similar accomplishments since its independence in 1965.It started with nothing at hand but a leader who truly loved Singapore and its people - Lee Kuan Yew. He knew Sigapore “was not a natural country but manmade, . . inherited the island without its hinterland, a heart without a body”. Lee Kuan himself admitted that anyone in 1965, if predicted that Singapore would become a financial centre, would have been thought mad. As one of the great visionaries of the last century - Lee Kuan had two invaluable assets – a great dream for his small country and a massive stock of trust of its people. He knew they can work hard, are thrifty and most eager to learn. Besides, Lee Kuan himself was a great learner. Obviously, only a leader who has big appetite to learn would give his country a new destiny. Lee Kuan with the help of Dr. Albert Winsemius, a Dutch economist who for nearly 25 years was an economic advisor of Singapore created a new Singapore.

Dr. Winsemius, as mentioned by Lee Kuan Yew - one day in 1968 telephoned his friend in London and expressed his desire to make Singapore the financial centre of South East Asia in 10 years. His friend invited him to London and convinced him that he could achieve that goal in just five years. Then when Winsemius arrived in London his friend -Van Oenen from Bank of America, took him to a board room and explained: financial world begins in Zurich,

and then it continues with Frankfurt and London, in the mean time it reaches New York and San Francisco. But when San Francisco closes; the financial world goes to sleep till its 9.00 A.M. of the next day in Zurich. Therefore, if Singapore is placed as a financial centre between San Francisco closes and Zurich opens then the world will have a 24 hours round the clock banking service. The rest is the history and Singapore within a period of less than 30 years rose “from third world to first”.

“FORESIGHT IS A DUTY, SHORTSIGHTEDNESS IS A CRIME.”

What is common in all these countries is that they had foresighted leaders. They loved their country and their people from the core of their heart; they were people who always dreamed for their country.

Federico Mayor, and Jérôme Bindé in their scholarly book ‘The World Ahead ’ have aptly observed - “Foresight is a duty, shortsightedness is a crime “. What we are suffering is - shortsightedness, a crime against nation and people.

Furthermore, our leaders are also befuddled in major concern of the nation. As Mayor and Bindé have mentioned “It is not possible to pay the price of war and the price of peace simultaneously”. And unfortunately, we are doing both these thing at the same time and are heading towards a never ending impasse breeding total chaos and anarchy.

At the time of great crisis only great imagination and creativity works. In true sense leaders are meant for that: dreams and commitment for the people and programs to translate those dreams into actions. The most disastrous thing in our case is that we are lacking this very much and our biggest problems are our leaders themselves, who for their minor gain can bring any great havoc upon us as if they’re only the trader of misfortunes for us.

kpbnepal@gmail.com

Published in ‘the reporter weekly’ 18-24 July 2011