Daily Lessons from Life 11 November 2009

"Nepal minister slapped official over car snub
Minister admitted to grabbing worker by the collar and hit him repeatedly across the face. -Wed, Nov 11, 2009 AFP

A Nepalese government minister has admitted slapping a senior civil servant in the face because he sent an old car to pick her up during an official visit, reports said Wednesday.


Deputy Agriculture Minister Karima Begam said she grabbed the local government worker by the collar and hit him repeatedly across the face after he failed to send the car she had requested.

"Yes, I beat up the CDO (chief district officer)," Begam told the Republica daily. "I slapped him five times."

Begam was on an official visit to the south of the country to attend a meeting of women lawmakers when the incident occurred.


She was apparently angered by the fact that the functionary, Parsa Durga Prasad Bhandari, had not sent his best car to pick her up, instead dispatching an older model.

"Why can't a minister use the (newer) vehicle? Who is senior, a minister or a CDO?" she is reported to have asked.


A spokesman for the prime minister told AFP that Begam's behaviour was unacceptable, but declined to comment on whether she would be fired.

Many of Nepal's newspapers carried front-page pictures of a tearful-looking Bhandari, who said he had tried to reason with the minister but could not get her to listen.


"She even broke my spectacles," he told Republica."

Well well. What an outburst over 'who is more senior?'!! LOL!! Is this a tradition or somehow the people in power has such a big 'entitlement mentality' that it is nothing unbecoming of a minister's behavior?

Lessons for me are:

1. when you are in a position of public power, you have to be measured by a far stringent standard of behaviors. Like it or not, this is the price you pay for being a public servant!;

2. when you are 'there', do not forget where you originally come from! It is NOT as bad as those who behave in a thuggish manner who had inherited the 'position of public power' as he or she would have not known any better!;

3. when you behaved in such a manner, it is time to practice self-reflection. Ask yourself why do you want to be a public servant in the 1st place? Is it for fame and fortune? If so, it is still acceptable. However, if these are the only motivation for you, then you will eventually goes towards the route of : "as long as I am the powerful one, I don't really care!" That is when you will trip and smash your face and looked really stupid!!

May the Minister apologized in public to the victim and to salvage her reputation!!