Five years have passed since the declaration of Cyber Law. Yet, the cyber-crime has been growing unabated, and its successful implementation is doubtful. Current cyber law is not enough for the holistic deception of Cyber related crimes, and is affecting every fabric of life of a Nepalese family, be it a financial fraud or promise of false jobs to lure young Nepalese girls into trafficking and flesh trade. How can we promote tourism, our major source of national income, if tourists cannot get connected to the banking facility, medical facility and their loved ones. On top of it, they get regularly robbed and cheated and law and order cannot take care of them due to lack of information transfer and connectivity. Financial losses to tourism and citizens due to cyberattacks are high affecting our financial strength and tourism industry – a major source of revenue to Nepalese family and the country as a whole. In one such incident, a tourist from America lost nine thousand US dollars due to Internet hacking during his travel to Nepal, and yet the law and order could not proceed with meaningful investigation process. Such prevalent incidents can be stemmed by a world class information transfer infrastructure.
Nepal is so rich in natural resources such as water that can be a constant source of energy and our beautiful mountains and valleys that have attracted tourists worldwide. However, we lack the resources to exploit our potential. One of the major causes of the exploitation of these resources that can benefit every Nepalese family is lack of digital information sharing infrastructure that every developed world enjoys. There is an urgent need for fast information sharing if we want to reduce the havoc of natural disasters such annual flooding, regular earthquakes and improve the education of our society and economic prosperity of every Nepalese family. Nepal need to speed up development in education, health, agriculture, tourism, trade and various other sectors using Information Technology.
High speed cyber connectivity will provide us with mobile education for the next generation in the wake of destroyed educational infrastructure and school buildings, build a base for home-industry by educating the women folk, and provide them education to take care of their family and daily medical help. High speed cyber connectivity will connect and unite villages in Nepal that is scattered in remote mountains and have remained disconnected from the world even in the time of great calamity like earthquakes.
There is an urgent need of deployment of 5G infrastructure supported by BIG DATA Scientists, Data Analysts, Behavior scientists to analyze the profiles of all the concerned stakeholders including key members of Nepal Rashtra Bank, International Financial Institutions, Banker Association of Nepal, Nepal Tourism Board, Hotel Association Nepal, Travel Agency Association, Ministry of Tourism, Council of Cooperatives, Association of Insurance companies, Computer Association of Nepal, Criminal Investigation Board, Nepal Police, Nepalese Embassies, Foreign Ministries, Regional and International expert communities etc. There should be capacity building programs for citizens of Nepal to generate empowered society who can utilize their natural resources and promote education and tourism in a more meaningful way.
All concerned stakeholders must come together, and join hands with academicians and social workers to develop Internet and web-connectivity infrastructures in various sectors such as financial, natural disaster, education and social upliftment. An important issue is to protect the youth and enhance their employability that has been adversely affected by the major earthquake of 2015. There is an urgent need of integrating these resources including cyber security experts in the government structure and academia to foster training cells to train the youth and deployment of cyber infrastructure. It is creating havoc in the economy and the society of the country.
Youth Development and Engagement
In the past, our universities have educated and prepared our youth to compete with the world’s best only to find that there is no infrastructure and industry to employ them. The result has been drastic. Educated Nepalese youth has gone out to countries like India, China, Japan and Western world in search of better employability. Nepal remained wanting for the synergy generated by youth energy. Nepal must create a new vision of not just educating the youth but keeping them engaged in industrial and social upliftment, and start a culture of entrepreneurship to make Nepal self-sustainable.
Nepal is a landlocked country, and needs a different strategy and industrial infrastructure than countries who have natural access to sea and ports. However, being landlocked should not limit us from prosperity. There are nations like us such as Switzerland that are landlocked. Yet, it is prosperous due to financial banking, tourism, good governance, and social justice. It has 99% literacy rate and per capita income is better than developed countries such as Germany and Sweden. There are many other landlocked countries such as Austria, Czech Republic and Hungary who do much better than Nepal in terms of education and industrial infrastructure.
Within government structure of Nepal if there is will among politicians, large numbers of government digital, banking and engineering projects can be generated to improve governance that will help in realizing a vision of Nepal in 2030. If Nepalese citizens demand for good governance all the youth forces specially with technical back ground will get great opportunities to gain national experiences to qualify for international experiences through social media engines on the Internet such as LinkedIn and other educational and technical websites. LinkedIn engine has 48000 sectors for getting experienced people networked with global opportunities.
There is a need of new model of functioning of the governance system of Nepal. We need to move away from the traditional functioning of the political parties in the country, which is still monolithic, centralized in structure, power-centric and not inclusive enough to include visionary technological savvy youth in the governance system. Heavy participation by intellectual circles and educated energetic youth are encouraged to be part of system so that this new proposed model is well implemented within country and are adopted by other developed countries where their existing models are failing.
We need to focus on economic revolution for some decades. We will basically focus on economic prosperity, inclusion, participatory democracy, good governance and protection of our independence and sovereignty. We are surrounded by two major economies. To become prosperous, we do not have to remain dependent upon them, but, improve our own infrastructure to compete and cooperated with them. We need to implement the new constitution to achieve the goal of new economic revolution. Unless we overcome the problems of poverty and lessen foreign dependency, we cannot prevent the dangers of conflict and neither can we ward off the threat to our sovereignty.
In the present context, all existing parties with their old methodology of leadership, party functioning and structure and plans are unable to address the challenges of the 21st century—the demand of entering a new stage of development where the productivity of all citizens need to be unleashed to create a society with equal opportunities for all. Youth of this nation are excited about the new alternative model proposed and feel that this new proposed model will bring more sustainable delivery in the nation.
The society we are trying to create will promote individual initiatives, equal justice, equal opportunity and ensure social security. Culturally speaking, it is going to adopt a new political culture of transparency, respecting the value of labour and unity in diversity. It will encourage all cultures, which will help in doing away with the remnants of feudal relations and values, and unleash the productive forces of society to move it towards enriched socialism.
It will provide proportionate representation in the party to the three major clusters of nationalities, the Khas-Arya, the Tibeto-Burman or indigenous nationalities and the Madhesi-Tharu. There are countries who follow human rights-based approach to development aims to ensure that even the poorest know their rights, and are able to exercise them. Nepal is way behind. Poor people of Nepal are utterly unaware of their rights and are not able to exercise them. They should be given platform for experiential learning for capacity building process. We the citizens of Nepal from intellectual circle have to ensure that even the poorest know their rights and can exercise them.
NSN represents five ‘s’s : Samriddha Nepal (Prosperous Nepal), Samanupatic Nepal (Proportionate Nepal), Swadhin Nepal (Sovereign Nepal), Sushashit Nepal (well-governed Nepal) and Samunnat Samajwadi Nepal (enriched socialist Nepal). Five " S " is holistic in approach. It is a process of reconstruction and development in various dimensions of a nation and development of individuals.: A holistic view is aspired in understanding the stakeholders’ livelihoods as a whole, with all its facets, by a manageable model that helps to identify the most pressing constraints people have to face.
The NSN has a mission to start a new methodology of political organization (participatory and based on inclusion and proportional representation), leadership (fixed term for leadership), and new plans (based on immediate national needs and their implementation).
The immediate agenda of New Force Nepal (NFN) campaign is to form an alternate political party grounded on principles of national sovereignty, prosperity, accountability, transparency, sustainability, and inclusive participatory democracy. Not limiting itself to being a political party, NFN will also be an alternative political movement for the fulfillment of new demands of a new era. It must adorn Nepali politics with honest and ideal strategies, policies, methods and culture. It shall be a socialism-oriented left-democratic force. It's main commitments, in the form of five "Sa", are as follows:
1.Sovereignty
Protection and advancement of Nepal's sovereignty and territorial integrity is our foremost commitment. We shall forever keep the complete sovereignty and freedom of the country and its people at our forefront. Through a skillful/efficient management of the peculiar geo-strategic location of Nepal—situated between two big nations, India and China, we will exercise a national security and foreign policy that corresponds to the contemporary era, and that shall contribute to the nation's dignity and honor. For this, we shall follow a policy of utilizing benefits from the rapid economic development of the two neighboring countries and make Nepal prosperous and interdependent. Instead of the old reading of Nepal as a "yam between two boulders", we shall create a new portrait of Nepal that is a "dynamic bridge between two developing neighbors" with its own educational, infrastructural and industrial competence. By strengthening internal national unity and economic prosperity, we shall espouse 'progressive nationalism' that aims to end our longstanding dependency. We shall contribute to world peace by maintaining equal and friendly relationship based on mutual benefits with all countries.
2.Equitable Prosperity
A primary aim and rationale of NFN is to transform Nepal into a prosperous and happy nation in our own lifespan. Our goal is to end of absolute poverty and unemployment in Nepal within next ten years. With the next generation of youth support, we will strive to reach a medial development level that will foster the next generation of entrepreneurial youth of Nepal to take Nepal at the pinnacle of prosperity. We will pursue a policy of economic growth wedded with employment generation and social justice. It is possible as there are many model countries that have similar geographical constraints, yet have phenomenal success in providing education, employability and social justice to their citizens.
We can achieve this with inputs and cooperation from academia experts, private sector and youth representatives who shall prepare a program of economic development and prosperity, and shall implement it with ardent speed and intensity. Moreover, we shall espouse a unique and realistic development policy that will ensure that the fruits of development reach all classes, regions and communities in an equitable manner. For this, we will need to appropriate collaboration between the state and private sector for equitable allocation of resources towards the balanced development of agriculture, industry and service sectors, that fairly incorporates human resources, technological infrastructure and financial investment (both national and international). Environmental protection and sustainable development will be the cornerstone of our developmental policy. Attention will be paid to the mental happiness/peace of people alongside their material prosperity. We will not indulge in hollow sloganeering and rhetoric; we believe in actual practice. We will build a prosperous and equitable Nepal not in some remote future but in our own lifetime.
3.Inclusive, Proportional Representative, Participatory Democracy
Another important commitment of NFN is to transform the existing formal and ritualistic exercise of democracy, both within the party and the state, into an inclusive, proportional representative and participatory democracy that reflects the country's peculiar situation and demands. We will be fully committed to the foundational principles of a republic, federalism, secularism and inclusive proportional representative democracy. We will ensure inclusive proportional representation of varied class, nationality, region, gender and other marginalized communities from the Himalayan, hilly as well as the tarai-madhes belts, in all party and state organs. We will pay special attention to the representation of youths in all areas. To end the prevailing utterly centralized autocratic character of parties and the state, we shall practice direct and participatory democracy. To end the hegemony and abuse of power by some individuals and/or families, we shall practice the principles of—one person, one executive post, and two tenures—right to reject and right to recall elected representative.
We believe that the mixed electoral system and parliamentary system of rule that have been adopted in the current Nepali constitution will not bring political stability in Nepal, and without political stability it is impossible to achieve economic development and prosperity. The above-mentioned systems need to be changed, and for that the constitution must be amended. For this, NFN will conduct a nation-wide campaign for the separation of legislative and executive functions so that there will be proportional electoral system for the legislative assembly and direct electoral system for the executive.
4.Good Governance and Good Conduct
The main elements that shall distinguish NFN from the old parties are good governance and good/moral conduct. This is important because politics and corruption have become synonymous with each other in Nepal today. Many surveys have shown that political parties and politicians are some of the most corrupt institutions/people in the country. Similarly, bureaucracy, judiciary and security bodies become hubs of corruption in the absence of accountability. Therefore, one of the major responsibilities of NFN will be to rescue politics and public services from the quagmire of corruption, and uphold good governance and good conduct. To achieve this, first, we want to redefine politics as a way of conducting voluntary social service and not as some private career-building project. We shall maintain transparency, accountability, rule of law and zero tolerance to corruption in all our conducts and financial transactions. If any cases of corruption, misconduct or fraudulence be found and proved against any of our leaders or cadres, immediate action shall be taken against them. Simple lifestyle, humble behavior, respect for labor, social harmony and progressive culture shall be the cultural identity of NFN. Independent and impartial ombudsman groups will be formed at different levels of our party to evaluate our conducts and to run enquiries on public allegations against our leaders or carders, the decisions of which shall be unequivocally accepted/implemented by the party. We will do as we speak—selflessly, in favor of the people.
5.Enriched and Enhanced Socialism
Nepal has only recently entered into a capitalist stage after battling out of an autocratic unitary feudal system. However, feudal remnants still pervade our economic, social and cultural arena. Therefore, our immediate task is to eliminate these feudal remnants, develop national industrial capital as well as to improvise and rectify bourgeois democracy. However, we also acknowledge that it is not an easy or simple task for a small underdeveloped nation like ours to build an independent national industrial capitalism, given the current world schema of globalized monopoly capitalism. In such a context, capitalism is more likely to be characterized by dependency and cronyism that increases class and regional inequality. Therefore, it is important to transform the nascent national industrial capitalism towards the path of socialism. The state must be responsible for guaranteeing education and health services for all, as well as for providing social security. However, a repetition or reproduction of state-controlled or autocratic socialist models of the twentieth century is impossible today. Therefore, in accordance with the demands of the twenty first century and the specificities of Nepalese situation, NFN will develop a new model of enriched socialism. This attempt will be based on furthering the methodology/principle of dialectical and historical materialism as propounded by Marx and developed by other thinkers. This will not be a socialism that is enforced from above, or one that distributes poverty, nor will it be an autocratic system that is centered on an individual. Rather, this socialism will be built from below, will distribute prosperity, will unfetter the individual's initiative, and will be participatory. NFN's immediate task will be to focus on the development of national industrial capital and lay the foundations of enriched socialism. New Force Nepal is not a non-ideological group of people. Rather, it will be a transformative progressive force that will embrace and build upon human being's latest achievements in areas of knowledge and science.
A central issue of the approach is the recognition of everyone's inherent potential for the removal of constraints and realization of their potentials. Intellectuals of Nepal must lead this nation by identifying their strengths in order to contribute to the stakeholders’ robustness and ability to achieve their own objectives. As people are often affected from decisions at the macro policy and vice-versa, this relation needs to be considered to achieve sustainable development. Intellectuals of Nepal have the capacity to emerge as analysts in these areas. Big data scientists are available to generate analytics to promote this integration. The process will involve students, policy makers, lawyers, legislative and judiciary bodies and academia.
Policies, institutions and processes can determine access to assets and influence decision making processes. Have citizens of Nepal been able to choose right people at the decision-making places? How much aware are our citizen ?
Time is running out.
To achieve integration, we will need technologies that go beyond the traditional human operators writing rules. We need to use the power of the ecosystem to find new patterns, machine learning to uncover subtle signals and big data tools to help humans analysts work better and faster to meet these new threats. We need to identify the platform that meets these needs. We need to build capacities to trace a real world complex threat.
What kind of exercises on Data Analytics are done in the context of Nepal ?? Resources and data analysis capacity are primary constraints to using data more often and/or more effectively for planning and decision-making in Nepal. It is difficult for officials to “get from raw to final data” in their analyses. Vast amount of government data products are tabular reports, incorporating limited analysis and few recommendations.
Nepal has little data in digital form. Currently, the data is available only in papers, registers, and in dhadda. There are publicly available technologies such as Google search engines, Wiki and machine learning tools that can improve the storage and retrieval of accumulated data for better intelligent analysis and improve our Nepali context. The analyzed data can be translated using available Google technology for mass education and bidirectional communication with the citizens.