Businessmen CAM
All the big political parties have fielded some businessmen as their candidates under the proportional representation system for the forthcoming elections to the Constituent Assembly (CA). Whether these businessmen actually win the elections and become the Constituent Assembly Members (CAM) is still to be seen. However, their candidacy clearly hints an active involvement of the business community in the Nepali politics in the coming days.
Though there were several people from business background involved in the politics also in the past (some of them became the ministers overlooking important ministries like tourism, industry and finance), the present development is different. In the past the number of businessmen candidates in the elections to the parliament used to be small. This time it is much larger. The previous businessmen MPs and ministers had some background in political activities as well. But significant number of businessmen candidates this time had their previous political involvement limited to deciding the amount of donation they should give to different parties.
This new development reminds of the Social Cycle Theory of PR Sarkar popularized by Professor Ravi Batra of Southern Methodist University, Dallas, which basically says that the society goes through a cycle with different classes successively taking over the control of the society. Perhaps, the present time in Nepal is for the business class to take such control.
This also reminds of telecommunications businessman Thaksin Sinawatra’s ascent to power in Thailand and the role of Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled energy giant, in Russia’s politics. Though quite successful in business, Sinawatra’s success in politics was only for a limited period before being ousted by the country’s military. The Thai military lost the power in the recent elections and Sinawatra is likely to regain his position very soon, the example however shows that to be successful in business is different from being successful in politics. Similar example is available from the rise and fall and recent resurgence of Nawaj Sharif in Pakistan.
In Russia, Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, was successful to contain the growing political clout of private sector energy giant Yukos and its owner businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Now, Putin is managing to remain in the power centre by appointing himself the Prime Minister and retaining the control over Gazprom. The Russian example shows that success in politics depends a lot on having access to economic resource. But Thai and Pakistani examples show that in societies that still have high regard to traditions and the military, the businessmen politicians have to be wary of several risks.
Therefore, the challenge for the Nepali business community now is to maintain the importance it has gained in politics. None of the businessmen candidates have shown such high ambitions like becoming the prime minister of the country. Therefore, they don’t face the same dangers as in Thailand or Pakistan. They have said that their efforts will be focused on getting the economic agenda on the top priority of not only the respective political parties they have sided with but also in the Constituent Assembly and the new constitution. We wish them all the success in such efforts.
