Most leaders, during election campaigns or after coming to power, make extravagant promises to turn Nepal into a Singapore within a short span of time. Our own PKD went a step further and said he’d do even better by making Nepal the “Switzerland of Asia”.
None of these leaders display the vision, sacrifice, integrity and hard work that was displayed by Singapore’s founding fathers. There is a yearning in South Asia’s messy democracies for a strong-man like Lee Kuan Yew, a righteous dictator, a father-figure who can lead to a brighter tomorrow. Unfortunately our experience with tyrants in South Asia is not very good. They tend not to be nation-builders. So we have to work with what we have–a rambunctious, feckless democracy–and make the best of it.
Just before the Singapore Air Show last week there was a media report about the CEO of Singapore Airlines revealing to an international conference the secret of his carrier’s success. He said the airline was never regarded by the Singapore government as a ‘national treasure’ or a ‘flag-carrier’. He added that inefficiencies (are you reading this, CAAN, GON, RNA?) crop up with government subsidies and political interference. “The government was the main shareholder of Singapore Airlines, but it gave full management discretion to the board…the secret was self-reliance and accountability,” he said. Unfortunately, our leaders since 1990 have treated Nepal Airlines as a personal cash cow and ran a perfectly good airline to the ground.
Traversing Singapore along the PIE in a motorcycle, you can see the result of LKY’s social engineering formula for jobs and economic growth. The idea was to decongest the city centre with housing and industry at satellite suburbs. The state built the infrastructure and subsidised residence apartments and factory floors to citizens, creating homeowners, raising income, creating jobs and leading to growth.
Instead of turning Nepal into Singapore, however, my friends Hans and Cynthia Hofer every week bring a bit of Nepal to Singapore by flying in organic vegetables, herbs and jams from their farm in Phulbari in Kavre. Organic Himalaya grows cabbages, lettuce, tomatoes, okra and other veggies and sends them on Silk Air flights for sale in Singapore the next day.
Cynthia, a former Straits Times journalist who manages the business, says her customers keep coming back because they know the vegetables are chemical-free, but also because they taste better. “There is something about the soil and climate of the Himalaya that gives the vegetables the taste that you don’t get in the supermarket produce here,” Cynthia says.
Organic Himalaya employs 50 farmers around Phulbari and indirectly benefits hundreds of other families. It cashes in on Nepal’s unique selling point of clean, green and organic produce. Some near-food purists may criticize the enlarged carbon footprint, but that criticism should be proportionately directed at those air-freighting tons of tuna and salmon around the world, or flying bottled water from France to Singapore.
Organic Himalaya is a demonstration farm to encourage Nepali farmers to sustainable agriculture. And it shows that if Singaporeans want to be more like Nepal, then maybe the answer is for Nepal to be even more like Nepal.
Recycled Chinese apple crates bring Nepali organic vegetables for sale in Singapore.READ ALSO: