There may be many reasons for Nepal's slow progress. But the main one is our fear of success itself.

Politicians fear that national problems may soon be solved.If that happens they will lose their power to manipulate. Whether it is the Maoists or the five-party alliance, all fear that a resolution of the crisis will mean they will have to share power. The Maoists would lose their reason for being if the country prospered and if everyone got a good education. Even 'progressive' communists do not want things to go well because that would mean their ideology is inferior. For those who thrive on poverty, prosperity is undesirable. Like bacteria, they thrive on decay.

Dictatorships, too, flourish in times of political instability and upheaval. Violence is their pal. Whenever there is peace, people have time to think about other things besides keeping alive: like having a free and independent voice. All around, we see the manifestaion of timid minds that fear success.

The security apparatus in this country has now got a taste of power, their budgets have bloated. Total strength has grown from 45,000 to 70,000, and they are better equipped. An end to conflict now would mean going back to peacetime status.

Media, too, fears success. News is always about the negative, the out of the ordinary. Success is not news, failure is. Political turmoil is good for circulation. In the business of news, bad news is good news. And of course the pseudo-intellectuals who live like parasites off the media would also lose their chance to pontificate if things are sorted out. In fact, if they are not involved in sorting things out, then they are against anyone else who is.

Ditto for the student union leaders who fear success because they would have to actually go back to their classrooms and study. They would have to stop taking orders from their political mentors and actually use their brains independently. Today's political leaders all rose up from student politics. The university is the cradle of their intellectual development, where the empty foundations of their careers began. They can't help behaving the way they do.

Non-government bodies thrive on mediocrity and the fear of success. Nepal needs to remain poor, badly-governed, mismanaged, corrupt and inefficient otherwise they would lose their raison-d'etre. Tax officials don't want to streamline collection procedures and fear anyone who tries to inject some honesty into the system. How else would they be able to squeeze the taxpayer for personal benefits? Taxpayers don't want to pay tax? Ridiculous. It is the tax-collector who doesn't want the people to pay tax.

All of us in our little cocoons behind high walls are afraid of success. The enemy is within us: the confidence and self-esteem we do not have, the insecurity we feed on. Let's individually overcome this fear of success and sacrifice short-term comfort for something permanent and true.