Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Unqualified hacks


Gopal Thapa, kathmandupost.ekantipur.com

image from article

Foreign Ministry has been reduced to a mere tool to be used at the discretion of powerful political masters

Excerpt:
[M]arked elements of individuality, powerful personality, experience, seniority and, above all, an impeccable performance track record are supposed to be the hallmarks of a seasoned and successful diplomat, career or non-career. In view of a lack of enough information about their professional antecedents, questions remain whether all the nominees from the foreign service do really embody those hallmarks, whether they are experienced enough to successfully deal with the diplomatic challenges that may be thrown at them and whether the Foreign Ministry has prepared them sufficiently for the new diplomatic role and responsibility. Perhaps it is for this reason that they are assumed to be fairly young and untested. Dissemination of information about their professional antecedents through regular exercise in public diplomacy by the Foreign Ministry would have helped defuse such a public misperception. Informed members of the public, politicians and intellectuals have pinned their hopes at least on the foreign service nominees. Now it is up to them to demonstrate their diplomatic prowess and calibre through their performance. ...
Thapa is a former Chief of Protocol at the [Nepalese] Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ...

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