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Kathmandu,Wednesday April 26, 2000 Baishakh 14, 2057.
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Fight corruption in earnest
There is nothing surprising
about the findings of a survey on corruption conducted by a media consultancy and research
institute. It would have indeed been surprising if people felt that there was little
corruption in the country. As things stand, the man in the street generally sees the
politician, government official and also the keepers of the law—the police—to be
just as corrupt. The survey has only helped to strengthen these perceptions.
Corruption takes many forms and
is not confined merely to graft though this is more common. Favouritism, nepotism, and
turning a blind eye to crimes whether economic or civil, and excessive spending by
ministers and officials of tax payers’ money when savings can be effected through
various measures are all different forms of corruption. There are so many other ways by
which corruption takes place.
The sad thing in Nepal is that
every politician who has risen to power has said he will work to eradicate corruption but
none has really made even a feeble attempt to fight it. The present Prime Minister, Girija
Prasad Koirala, who was knee-deep in trouble over the Dhamija case during his earlier term
as prime minister, has boldly and loudly (so that the gullible hear him properly and
spread the "clean" message) announced that corruption is one of his core focus
areas.
The Koirala government, now
almost six weeks old, has not been able to tackle the corruption problem in any meaningful
manner. This is no way to gain people’s confidence. In addition, with the purchase of
an aircraft in the offing, a lease deed on the anvil, and multi-billion dollar
hydro-electricity projects on the cards, the government must learn to become transparent
in all its dealings. Otherwise, the public perception of corruption in high places will
rise. This is something that is not good for a democratic political system. It only erodes
the confidence of the people in a democratic system and makes them look elsewhere.
In fact, one of the ways of
fighting Maoist insurgency is to eradicate corruption in all forms and regain the
confidence of the people in the present system.
The Prime Minister should be
true to his words and immediately initiate measures to curb corruption. A good beginning
would be to examine the property of all leaders, especially the post 1990-leaders. But
this kind of action needs courage and we hope the prime minister has the will to do this.
A chronic disease requires bitter medicine and corruption needs to be dealt with through
tough and impartial measures.
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