Curb misuse of authority

It is indeed disconcerting to note that politicians and government officials of different ministries have been misusing funds under different heads to benefit themselves and their supporters. That such activities should continue—in fact increase—after the restoration of democracy is a sad commentary on the level of accountability and transparency among Nepalese leaders. But what can be expected when politicians, who, in the first place should have prevented the misuse, are themselves involved directly in such activities? As a result of this rampant misuse, public property and funds of various departments are in a chaotic state.

The home minister along with his officials misused more than 16 million rupees under the heading "secret fund" during the last fiscal year alone. In this regard, expenses have not been audited. There are no details as to whom and why the money from public funds was paid. Apparently, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which is investigating the suspected misuse of funds has no way of telling whether or not the fund was used to finance political support or personal expenses. Had there been receipts or identities of some individuals or organisations, PAC could at least have disclosed the names and reasons for the expenses after investigation. Now the Home Ministry does not even deserve the benefit of doubt. In the past too, the Home Ministry had spent over 32 million rupees without keeping proper records of the expenses. This fund, being meant for security purposes has been kept under heading "secret" and this has apparently made it easy to misuse the fund.

The misuse of government property, especially vehicles, is known to all. It is interesting that two former prime ministers have yet to return their vehicles and one former minister has even replaced the government number plate of a jeep with a private plate. These leaders continue to use government vehicles even when they are out of power. If our leaders can flout the rules so openly then what cannot they do with funds that are marked ‘secret’?

Due to excessive misuse of authority, corruption and lack of effective law, the country’s situation has been deteriorating. In the last one decade, there has not been a single case in which a corrupt politician has been punished. As a result, misuse of public property and fund have increased. The moot question is - how long will such illegal activities be allowed to continue ? The government has to take action and implement laws effectively to punish those who have misused their authority. In this regard, keeping the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority virtually disabled is not going to do any good, for the government will not get anywhere in controlling corruption and misuse of authority with this attitude.

Casino politics : Will it serve the nation ?

By C D Bhatta

Bertrand Russell once said it was better to be ‘red’ than to be ‘dead’ citing the example of rising communism pressure in the Soviet Union which was backed up by the nuclear arms of mass destruction. But the collapse of Soviet bloc in 1990s has diminished the threat emanating from communism, though, the nuclear arms talks, like START II and CTBT are not getting underway.

Many African Sub-Saharan countries were liberated from the colonial raj, following the decolonisation process of 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and until 1990 these countries were ruled by single regime that is, ‘one man’ rule. But the political upsurge of 1990s that is, ‘Perestroika and Glasnost effect’ have resulted in many ebbs and flows in the world political arena, especially in the third world countries. Every movement in the world was guided by the principle of democracy, that was propounded in the ancient Greece few hundred years back, experimented in Britain and further consolidated in the US by the principle of three Ps that is, by the People, for the People and of the People.

The end of Apartheid regime, the fall of Berlin Wall, massacre in Tiananmen square, the concept of human rights, invention of sophisticated means of communications and excessive freedom available to media had brought many new things to the general public. They just could not confine themselves in the boundary of one nation. These all have sparked the democratic movement in different parts of the world for the search of newness in governance. Each country was looking western model of democracy and freedom. The rulers knelt down in front of the movement. Virtually democracy came in many Third World countries, people held very high hope on it but the results were very unexpected.

After the arrival of democracy, there has been corruption in every nook and corner of the society, increased crime rate, ethnic cleansing and the lust of power have resulted in another movement - Civil War in many parts of the world ranging from African Sub-Saharan region to Balkans to Central Asia. Nevertheless, Africa was hard hit by this fervour. For example Sierra Leone ("operation nothing alive" of 1999), Burundi, Rwanda, Liberia, Myanmar and list goes on. In Burundi and Rwanda people were even forced to bribe for their death, that is, if anyone who wanted to be killed with less pain (because death was sure) had to pay for the price of bullet and the one who could not offered would be axed to death. These are the few examples of the leadership in the countries where democracy was stained with blood during the transitional period having difficulties in adaptation. There was a violation of everything but ironically, the west and so called human rights activists were not seen even faraway.

Even in our neighbouring countries, India and Pakistan, there was a massacre right after the independence. The only successful country is Nepal where democratic transition was very much successful and smooth compared to other countries in the world. But few years later we happened to witness different problems due to reckless leadership. The bottom line here is everyone whether he is an economist, an engineer, a doctor, or a lawyer the ultimate destiny is to get into the politics to do something for Mother Nepal. Paradoxically, nothing has been done for the Mother Nepal during the last ten years, following the restoration of democracy for the second time.

A relatively honest friend who joined politics recently said it was his zeal to grab whatever he could from Mother Nepal that motivated him to join politics. There are many persons in Nepal who jumped into the Casino Politics of the country and have got out many things from Mother Nepal within a very short span of time. Another friend who has done his PhD in Development Economics from one of the best University in USA also jumped into the politics. The question raised to him was the same and answer was, he too wanted to do something for Mother Nepal. But the only tangible thing that has been noticed over the years is his frequent interviews in the vernacular weeklies of the country on his economic vision for Nepal declaring himself as a Yuva Arthashashtri of the country, limiting his micro-economic visions just in books. So in principle, politics, to some extent, has become a cause of brain drain in Nepal.

Dr Babu Ram Bhattarai, a man supposed to be an architect by profession and considered to be a man with high head in the country, architects civil war in the country in the name of serving Mother Nepal. His few years old hardline political movement has already cost many innocent lives and the killing continues unabated. His engineering mind - which is floating on the dogmatic principle of Maoism has terrorised the country. It’s for sure that either he failed to understand Mao’s principle or just using the people like Mao did for his personal benefits. Because Mao Tse Dung’s campaign to capture state power in China has long served as the premier illustration of revolutionary warfare which was in fact designed with no intention of responding to needs of people. As a matter of principle, he was just looking for their support for the revolutionary endeavour, and use them as and when needed. This is the root cause of departure of this dogmatic doctrine from the world political arena. No wonder, the present Maoist movement in Nepal is also directed to the same direction. But it is to be noted that ‘people are indeed not the water in which guerrilla fish were to swim’. No leader or politician can serve his/her country by killing its own people.

In fact the ‘People’s War of the Maoists seems to follow the footsteps of the Vietnam War. The years since 1975 to the end of the Vietnam War had seen four benchmark instances of revolutionary warfare consciously modelled after Mao. These have occurred in Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Peru and now in Nepal. The four of the battles, those of Philippines, Sri Lanka, Peru and Nepal are in continue on the dead principle of controlling the countryside for the purpose of encircling the cities. The Maoist movement that has once engulfed Thailand in 1970s and 1980s has now become history mainly because of government’s economic effectiveness. Thailand is the classic example as how to win the people’s frustration.

By and large, the Nepalese people are in fact not looking for any further political movement. The only movement we need in the country is the ‘economic movement’ which in no way can be done by the Maoist movement, neither by the way the government is working at present. It is apparent that high level task force constituted under the leadership of ex-premier Sher Bahadur Deuba, may not be able to find out ways to make any breakthrough toward solving this problem. The only way out is the economic progress. To achieve this, to some extent, we need to minimise the daylight robbery that exists in our state affairs. Otherwise, who knows, Bertrand Russell’s line will turn out to be true. People will become ‘red’ for the fear of losing life, if not for the charismatic principle, which in fact are not.

By and by

By Smriti Jaiswal

She looked around at our blank yet expectant faces. Eight of us, all around twenty years of age, a few even in their thirties. It was a novelty in itself that women of these years felt the urge for education.

Actually we were twenty of us admitted for the masters level but twelve were as rare as festivals. That, however, was of little concern to the eight of us, we were regular, eager and zealous. We wanted to learn.

"No?" she asked. "Didn’t understand? Well, no matter. This is a difficult topic and you will have problems, but don’t worry you will get it by and by." Thus consoled, we went on with the lecture. It certainly was a confusing piece, written in the most exaggerated style. We waited to understand by and by but there were obstructions and the obstructions were fatal.

The major obstruction was that she did not know what she was teaching and if she did she did not know how to teach it. She played games, hopping from one end of the chapter to the other, then reverting back to its centre. We could only stare at her idiotically, neither understanding nor asking questions for she neither understood our dilemma nor entertained problems. We were in a genuine fix.

When we had carried on this way for quite some time she said. " look you need not worry at all. This is not so tough as it seems and have faith in me, I’ve done my PhD on this topic and am thorough with the whole business. I’ve taken a lot of pains to make notes too, though I must confess it’s all from your text book. That’s not my fault, you see, we don’t get books in Nepal. But no worry, I’ll get them as soon as I can. You should not get troubled. Oh ask your seniors about me, they know I am the best around here, and one of the few who have done their PhD. Its rare you know, doing the doctorate. Just rely on me and watch on, you will come off like the Chicago Bulls, scoring real high."

She laughed loudly at her joke and we smiled back timidly. We were perhaps a little awed by the fact that she had done her PhD and hugely impressed. PhD was among the most elevated of our dreams. The lecture lasted for fifty minutes and then she left. "See you next week," she said cheerfully. We faced each other uncertainly. We did not know whether to confess our bewilderment, to sigh in relief or to smile and pretend nothing had happened. It was a moment of suspense before someone asked, "so girls how was the first week of MA?"

We shrugged "Well she went on, as for me I am no wiser for it than I was a year back. If this is the way they teach I don’t think I need them. We had to agree with her.

A second girl said, "all I could gather today was that she has done her PhD and we will pass if we rely on her. I have a feeling we talked of nothing else." We had to agree with her too.

The next day when I went to college there were only three students present.

"Hey, where are the rest of them?" I asked.

"They aren’t coming," came the answer.

I considered this for some time then said, "They have brains, I must say". All we do here in this classroom is waste time. I am not coming here from tomorrow either, or as a matter of fact from today. With that I left the room, shutting the door resolutely behind me.

The bottom line

Long on peacekeeping, short on peace

By M R Josse

Recently much excitement was generated by group activity billed as the South Asian Peacekeeping Operations Multi-platoon Training Event that took place in the picturesque Panchkhal Valley not far from Kathmandu.

Going gaga: But, poring through the breathless media write-ups on the gala opening and closing ceremonies of that eye-catching, two-week training exercise one could not fail to note that much of the frothy rhetoric that was spawned then seemed just that.

Of course, fulsome praise on Nepal’s splendid role in UN peacekeeping operations was like soothing music to the ears. Ditto for the deserved tributes paid to the fine qualities of our soldiers and officers engaged in such worthy endeavours. Much was also made about Nepal being endorsed as a permanent UN peacekeeping training centre for South Asia.

Scanning the fine-print, however, one discovered that despite all the mellifluous words and soothing diplomatic noises from those directly involved with Exercise Shanti Pyaras, the actual formalisation of such a regional peacekeeping training centre here is hardly a fait accompli.

For that, surely there must be unanimity at least among all the countries of the region on, one, the concept and purpose of such a training centre and, two, its location in Nepal — apart from the crucial aspect of its financing on a permanent basis.

One truly wonders why if there were such unanimity India and Pakistan did not participate in such a worthy show bank-rolled by the United States and supported by the United Nations.

Since India and Pakistan did not participate in the multi-platoon training event can it be assumed that, if or when, the UN takes a formal decision on the establishment of such a centre, the enabling General Assembly resolution will go through like a shot?

That apart, the absence of the two most militarily significant countries in South Asia — which are, incidentally, also the latest nuclear weapon states — leaves one wondering why that was so. No clear or convincing answers have yet been provided.

According to the Kathmandu grapevine, which is not to be scoffed at, it would appear that India did not wish to participate because she believes that the US, which reportedly funded the show, should not come barging into territory she considers her natural — and exclusive — turf.

Begin at home: Regarding Pakistan, the buzz in the bazaar is that Uncle Sam was determined to put General Musharraf in his proper place by demonstrating that it is not "business as usual" with Islamabad — or, at least, not quite yet.

However, what is even more glaring than the absence of India and Pakistan from Exercise Shanti Prayas is that prospects of durable peace in South Asia are threatened most of all by their nuclear/missile arsenals and deadly rivalry — and by their over 50-year old unresolved dispute on Kashmir — rather than by the distant thunder of guns in lands across the seven seas.

Thus, without minimizing the importance of group exercises in UN peacekeeping procedures and the like, should Nepal — as also Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the United States, the other participants in the multi-platoon exercise — not endeavour to do something tangible about that nagging regional peace issue?

Or are we — along with the Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans and the Americans — destined to be more concerned about what is happening in Cyprus, Haiti, Rwanda, the Congo and so forth than with the nuclear time bomb so ominously ticking in South Asia?

In other words, if we can work ourselves into a tizzy about peacekeeping operations in far-off corners of the globe, shouldn’t we be even more concerned about what is happening, or could happen, in our own neck of the South Asian woods?

Is tackling that awesome challenge to regional/world peace less important that shoring up the UN peacekeeping capabilities of a few South Asian states? Phrased otherwise, isn’t prevention of a South Asian armageddon supremely more important than that?

Incidentally, it was rather intriguing to read in a statement by our Army chief a reference to King Birendra’s 1975 Zone of Peace proposal which he said, in an understandable mood of exuberance no doubt, had invigorated the peace process in the world.

Be that as it may, let us now mull over the sheer paradox of getting hot and excited about honing the peacekeeping capabilities of our Army chaps in operations in, as the old song goes, "those far away places with the strange sounding names" when the Army has not had any role in peacekeeping right at home, where such operations are even more urgently needed.

I refer, of course, to the four-year long "People’s War" currently being waged, mainly but not exclusively, in remote corners of the kingdom, a gory guerrilla conflict in which the Army has not, thus far, and for reasons that are not altogether clear, had any visible role.

There has been much loose talk, and some informed but inconclusive debate, on whether or how the Army should tackle such a "peacekeeping" operation — thus far, without any worthwhile result, as most are painfully aware.

People’s war: Politicians flatter themselves that even when they pose for photographs of jaw-boning sessions on the Maoist problem they are making a solid contribution to peace and security.

While events on the ground tend to suggest otherwise, it may be salutary to recall Henry Kissinger’s sage observation that "henceforth the adequacy of any military establishment will be tested by its ability to preserve the peace."

If our UN peacekeeping efforts have helped in making the world a slightly safer place than hitherto, can we say with equal justification that we have contributed to making South Asia — or even the kingdom itself — more secure for future generations?

If we can’t, may not critics charge, with justification, that we are long on peacekeeping but short on domestic/regional peace?