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Businessmen In Politics: A Good Mix?

  2 min 23 sec to read

Are management principles that ensure success in business useful in politics? Can a successful businessman prove his worth in politics? Not always. The chances of failure always loom for the shapeshifter.  
 
These questions will be raised during the second Constituent Assembly (CA) election in Nepal where many businessmen have expressed their interest to contest from different political parties. Further, some businessmen and organizations have already been in controversies due to their alleged involvement to lobby for particular candidates in the CA election.
 
Generally, the issues among the business community should be common: environment for honest and genuine business, provision of a level playing field and assurance of private property, along with others.
 
But in our context, it does not seem that businessmen want to enter politics to foster an environment conducive for business.
 
There is a saying: honesty is the best policy. Businessmen should be honest. The current horserace to get tickets to contest in the CA election or to be listed in the propotional representation list does not show the honesty of businessmen.
 
Businessmen should dare to forge their own political parties if they want to be involved in politics or should announce openly that they will leave business to enter politics. The example of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra can be appropriate here.
 
The greed of businessmen to get tickets to contest in the CA election or to be listed in the propotional representation list has tarnished the reputation of the business community. On the one hand, many accuse businessmen of bribing politicians to secure tickets. On the other, their open affiliation to political parties raises the question of misuse of power and power influence of power in their business activities.
 
Preferably, businessmen should not enter politics when the stand of the business community is divided on major economic issues. How can a businessperson take an independent stand after his/her affiliation to a particular political party? These are some issues that need to be clarified by those willing to contest in the election.
 
If businessmen want to be engaged in philanthropy, there are numerous ways to do so. Blatant use of money to get a ticket in the election and to be a member of the CA or parliament will do nothing more than tarnish the image of the private sector and pull the entire business community into controversy.
 
In the end, businessmen should be clear that you can’t win elections with money alone. If that were true, all the big industrialists throughout the world would have been ruling their countries  already.

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