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Nepal-Japan People-to-people level relations
Puspa Raj Pradhan, Senior Journalist
 Nepal is the birthplace of the Lord Buddha and Japan is a Buddhist country. Visiting the birthplace of the Lord Buddha is a lifetime dream of the Japanese people. They have sentimental attachment with Nepal.
As per the history, in 1899, Reverend Ekai Kawaguchi, a Japanese Zen Buddhist pundit and ascetic had visited Nepal on his way to Tibet.
Notably, the Japanese people worship many of the Nepali deities. The religious relations are closely linked together through the century-old history, which has gradually enhanced in the later years.
The Royal Nepalese Airlines has introduced direct flights to Osaka, Japan, targeting the Buddhist pilgrimage tourists. Efforts are being made to operate a regional airport in Bhairahawa, considering the fact that Buddhist pilgrims like to visit Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha. Many Japanese Monks are staying in Lumbini and many other Monks are frequently visiting the place. Every year, thousands of Japanese Buddhist pilgrims visit Lumbini. It is believed that if we could facilitate more the direct flights to Japan and develop facilities in Lumbini, we could be able to attract more Japanese Buddhist pilgrims to Lumbini, like Muslims visiting Mecca.
Many Buddhist Monks as well as Japanese religious organizations and religious trusts have been supporting in the promotion of Buddhism in Nepal. Many Japanese organizations are involved either in the development of the Lumbini Trust or Maya Devi Temple or construction of the Lord Buddha’s statues in Nepal.
An example of the people-to-people level cooperation can be seen in the field of religious exchange between the two countries.
Besides religion, the Japanese people are sentimentally attached with Nepal’s natural beauty and high Himalayans. Japanese climbers’ conquest on Mt. Manaslu in 1956, which was a great success for the Japanese mountaineers has been a landmark in the relations between the two countries. The first woman to conquest Mt. Everest, the highest mountain of the world, is Junko Tabei, also a Japanese national. She successfully reached the summit of Sagarmatha on May 16, 1975.
A large numbers of mountain lovers from Japan are regular visitors to Nepal since the ascent of Mt. Manaslu in 1956 by a Japanese expedition team. Many Japanese mountaineers have climbed the high peaks of the Himalayas, including Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest).
The year 2002 was even more remarkable than previous years for the Japanese mountaineers due to the achievements of some great explorers who set new world records for the twenty-first century.
Tamae Watanabe,63, succeeded in climbing to the top of Sagarmatha on May 16, 2002. She is the oldest woman in the world to reach the top successfully.
Yuichiro Miura, 69, internationally well known as "the man who skied down Sagarmatha" and his son Gota Miura, 32, reached the top of Cho Oyu (8,201m), the sixth highest mountain in the world on May 9, 2002. He was not only the oldest man to reach a summit of 8000m, but with Gota, was a member of the first successful father and son duo to climb an 8000m peak.
Toshiko Uchida, 71, overturned the record only months later by successfully climbing Mt. Cho Oyu on October 1, 2002, becoming the oldest person atop this mountain.
Ken Noguchi, 29, who has made a name for himself as a committed advocate for the environment, organized a clean-up expedition to the South Col starting from Everest-Lhotse base camp from April 12 to May 22, 2002 and brought down a large amount of waste material. He had previously made clean-up expeditions to Sagarmatha in 2000 and 2001.
Roles and responsibilities of different organizations in Supply system
Jagannath Ojha, Nepal
 Non-Governmental organizations : Service delivery through non-government organization in Nepal is as old as human society. There were a number of community based organizations (CBOs) in different forms in different regions. However, stronger and more resourceful organizations came into existence only after 1960s. The number multiplied after the democratic movement in 1990. But most of these were found fulfilling their political interests rather than delivering economic and social goods and services. The local people allege that most of the CBOs, NGOs and INGOs lack transparency and they are more loyal to the donor. Taking in stock these factors, this machinery also proved to be failure in replacing the government role as provider of goods and service delivery.
Private sector : Private sectors are more efficient in service delivery. But these organizations are more profit oriented and worked in those areas only where profit can be maximized.
Hybrid organization: The government has to form special type of institutions for the delivery of goods and services in the conflict area. The role of government should be limited to make conducive policies to attract private sector which encourage the investment in the rural communities. Such incentives may be in the form of subsidy or tax rebate for long run. Similarly, the role of government should be catalytic to activate non-governmental and community based organizations for the delivery of goods and services in the conflict areas. The next task could be to establish an efficient monitoring system which can be used for policy formulation. UN agencies in Nepal and civil society could be major stakeholders in this process. The most efficient organizations are the Community Based Organizations (CBOs) which are more localised and have influence in solving community problem. The performance of these community based organizations depends on education, profession, societal values and economic levels.
Roles and responsibilities of different organizations :
The conflict in Nepal is becoming more serious day by day and both the conflicting parties have only partial area under their control. If we try to analyse the situation in terms of their strength, it seems that neither parties can materialise their interest. This will further detoriate the livelihood of rural poor. In such situation the only choice left, is to encourage and establish hybrid organization for the delivery of goods and services. There is no overnight solution of armed conflict. The roles and responsibility of the concerned partner in such organization will be as follows:
Government organization: Due to limited number of government institutions in conflicting area, the role of government should not be to provide service, but to make sure that services are delivered by market and other mechanism. The scope is adapting changes that the conflict and globalization has brought, making conducive policies and programme so that wider participation can draw, balancing competition by adapting uniformity in rules and regulation, promoting community based organizations and civil society as partner in adapting social justice and human right components in service delivery, etc. More specifically, role of government has to be promotional rather than implementer. Such promotional activities may be long term or short term. For example, promotion of research in Humla, to grow high yielding local verities or adaptable verities is a long term solution which has to be supported by government through proper institutions (NGOs, Universities or other research institutions), where as support through food grain supply based development projects could be the short term solution in delivering essential food grains. The development approach has to be revisited and should be oriented as "conflict sensitive development approach". The role of government with strong support of civil society, NGOs and local government institutions is to see whether the food supply is in accordance with the plan and serving the targeted people. It could be similar to other essential goods. It should also empower the community or subject specific organizations such as dairy production, seed production, consumer association, community forest association etc. The main restructuring of government institution has to be oriented as "less-government" instead of "should-do-everything". Therefore, the role of government is bringing stakeholder together in decision making, putting economic and social institution in motion, monitoring, coordinating and adapting the changes from rule driven to mission driven based on social justice and human rights. A committee has to be formed at the centre and expanded to district level representing the private sector, civil society, NGOs, subject specific organizations, etc. This committee will be responsible for reporting, communication, policy guiding, monitoring and feedback to future policy and programme approach.
Non-Government organizations and UN agencies: There are 94 International Non-Governmental organizations (INGOs), 10475 NGOs registered with the Social Welfare Council as of March 26, 2000. According to the Ministry of Finance, there are 30000 NGOs out of which about 8000 are active in various sectors of development. Most of the NGOs are working in social sectors. Past experiences and performances have shown that they can be one of the most effective partners in people's empowerment and implementation of development works in conflict situation. Therefore, the role of NGOs should be focused towards empowering the rural people through strengthening local organization, networking them, implementing development and social programmes. Awareness building, institution building, participation in negotiation on behalf of community, implementation of basic needs programme such as health, education, drinking water and sanitation etc. Skill enhancement programmes and self employment programmes can be run simultaneously through these organizations in the most inaccessible parts of the country. These institutions can also be one of the partners in monitoring the delivery of basic services using the tool called Community Based Participatory Monitoring System (CBPM). Access to right and right based approach is the most popular programmes of NGOs in remote deprived parts of country. Similarly, UN agencies have become to some extent successful in conducting such humanitarian activities. Therefore, UN agencies should be utilised as supporting roles in basic goods and service delivery component
Private sectors: Private sector should be encouraged to work in this area and their activities should be monitored to ensure that they are functioning in competitive way. So far this sector is limited only in urban areas where infrastructures like road, communication, market, etc. are existed. The government efforts should be therefore to create such infrastructures. The government should also encourage them to extend their area of business and even to work as a partner in supplying goods and services in remote part of the country. Business community can organize and negotiate strongly with conflicting parties and continue their works but they have to conduct their business according to the business code of conduct.
Civil societies: The most powerful organization in conflict situation is civil societies. Their role could be both monitoring and advocacy. The role of negotiation they have played during industrial and transport strike was effective which could be applied in supply of goods and service in conflicting situation as well. The other role could be human right protection, access right of people to different goods and services, advocacy in for of deprived communities, etc.
Community: Community should also be engaged for collective bargaining with the conflicting parties. Their role is also vital in utilizing resources for development and developing self-sufficiency skills.
Remain alert O! Yeh! Nepalese ! India is coming in a disguised way!
India's Marshall Plan to control Nepal
AFTER the recent 19-day political movement in Nepal ended according to its roadmap thus bringing Nepal's politics under its political umbrella, India has now announced an economic roadmap to also bring Nepal's economy under its economic control that its was already there.
Within days of the political movement ending according to its will, India announced various projects for Nepal, and dubbed it as India's Himalayan Marshal Plan. According to India watchers, New Delhi devised the Marshal Plan for Nepal feeling 'sorry' for the plight of the Nepalese and its brethren in Nepal. The plan is said to be the brainchild of the troika appointed by Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh -- special envoy of the Indian government Dr. Karan Singh, Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and India's National Security Adviser MK Naravanan. The troika have already approved the plan from the Indian prime minister.
Under the plan India is willing to spend as much as Rs. 12 billion in Nepal. This is a completely different plan from the regular Indian assistance. India is defending its Nepal plan arguing as democratic polity cannot sustain without economic development, India has realized its responsibility towards Nepal to sustain and stabilize democratic system in Nepal. But this has again proved India's evil intention of undermining or even taking over Nepalese sovereignty by working to make the Nepalese people's aspiration for democracy in its favour. After it has succeeded in treading the political parties and even the king to walk on its roadmap, India does not want the people's opinion to go against it. What India wants is to make all - the political parties, king and the people in Nepal - to dance to its tunes.
The façade of India's Himalayan Marshal Plan looks pretty attractive. Those who have got the hint of the plan said it includes building east-west railway, expansion of postal roads, linking all districts, which do not have road access, in the road network, construction of oil pipeline from Barelli to Kathmandu through Amlekhgunj and providing Nepal with cash and loan to reduce Nepal's trade deficit with India.
But if one looks at the real intention of the announcement of the plan without consulting Nepal and its publicity of early implementation, it is clear that India is not even treating Nepal as its State, but putting Nepal at even lower rank -- its center administered areas. But it is an irony and paradox that nobody here is giving much of a thought to the Indian propaganda and publicity.
If one looks at the past Indian ventures in Nepal such as the Koshi and Gandaki projects, Tribhuvan and Siddhartha Highways, Industrial Estate and airport in Rajbiraj all Indian projects in Nepal have either failed altogether or have become white elephants or are more bothersome than boons. Those who have worked in Indian-made projects or have looked into those projects say that the newly announced projects will not be different from the earlier doomed projects.
Already planners here say several projects, announced by India such as the Bir Hospital expansion project, Dolalghat-Dhankuta Road project and expansion of Janakpur-Jayanagar Railway, could remain on paper and in announcements only.
Nonetheless India has succeeded its political roadmap in Nepal and is now on the second phase of pushing its economic roadmap to bring Nepal completely under its economic and political control. But even if the political parties have surrendered themselves and the King has cowed down before India, India's domination, the so called will not be acceptable to the Nepalese, who are true nationalist. Nepalese people will come out and oppose India's new hegemonic face under the guise of a new democratic nation, which it is not in effect.
(Main Text courtesy: The Sanghu weekly and reproduced from People's Review and later improved by The Telegraph Weekly-ed).
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