Ensure air safety

It took a surprise check headed by minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation at Tribhuvan International Airport to ground three domestic aircraft. If anything, the result of the check, even if intended as a publicity stunt, reveals how lax aircraft maintenance at TIA is. It proves correct the allegation that TIA allows domestic flights without first ensuring the air worthiness of aircraft. No wonder, with such an attitude towards air safety, air crashes, especially of domestic flights, are on the rise.

Apart from the grounding of the three aircraft, planes belonging to private domestic airlines were not allowed to take off until they had corrected the errors that were detected. Some RNAC staff who had overloaded an aircraft well beyond the carrying capacity also got the axe. The moot point of all this is that such carelessness with regard to the safety of passengers cannot be allowed to continue. It is the job of the Civil Aviation Authority to ensure that planes which do not fulfil the requirements of air safety stay grounded. Private airlines as well as RNAC must also be well monitored to ascertain that they conform with air safety regulations. Action, including the revoking of license to operate air service must be taken against those airlines that do not comply with the rules. This is the least the government can do to ensure the safety of passengers.

Surprise checks are good but only as far as they go. They are not in themselves sufficient to ensure safe air travel on a regular basis. What is needed is strict implementation of rules. If this has not been the case so far then it is because so far the civil aviation authority has itself not been particular about air safety. The numerous airlines that have appeared in recent times also cannot evade responsibility. For clearly, by not complying with even the basic safety rules, they have endangered the lives of air passengers. It certainly would not be too far fetched to relate the increasing frequency of air accidents—mainly involving domestic flights and aircraft belonging to private airlines—to the dismal level of maintenance and laxity among officials responsible for authorising the flights.

It is this aspect of the problem that the Civil Aviation Authority must address immediately because in air travel, safety must always be the prime concern. In this regard, the minister’s surprise visit to the domestic flight section of TIA is indeed an eye opener. Since the minister has now seen the state of the domestic sector flights for himself, it is to be hoped that measures to ensure air worthiness of aircraft as well as the safety of passengers will be forthcoming sooner than later. We certainly hope that ministers are not taking extra pains to go on surprise checks only because TIA has made international headlines in recent days. For checks or no checks, aircraft must be fully fit to fly before they are allowed to take off. It is a pity that the minister had to go on a publicised "surprise" check to expose the deficiencies in the way his own department functions. But the net result of this should be greater flight safety in Nepal, otherwise the visit will rightly be labelled a publicity gimmick and nothing more.

The national scene

-By Prakash Chandra Lohani

People had high hopes about the future of the country after the restoration of democracy in 2046. The new leaders seemed mighty and tall; their voices and speeches seemed to herald a new era of integrity and character in public life dedicated to the upliftment of the poor and the downtrodden in the country. Nepal was, until then, viewed as catering to the interests of the few at the cost of many. Its interventions and mediations were not seen as part of an attempt to allocate values and resources among competing groups and interests within the framework of equity and justice. The state was seen as partisan; it represented the ruling elite and its focus was the preservation of the status quo in the distribution of political and economic values as long as possible. While the problem of legitimacy required the state to wear a progressive mask and even launch various development projects in different parts of the country its elitist bias limited its ability to respond to the increasing forces of strain and tension released by the process of mobilization.

Equilibrium of social forces: The restoration of democracy was expected to solve the problem of legitimacy and enhance and reorient the capability of the state to intervene in favour of the poor in a framework of the checks and balances outlined in the constitution. As an ideology democracy is based on dynamic equilibrium of social forces with the participation of the masses in the political process as the foundation of legitimacy for state intervention in the extraction, utilization and distribution of values and resources in the social system. As a process democracy is therefore necessarily evolutionary and implicitly aims at class coordination as opposed to class struggle. It is however, dynamic in character since the renewal of legitimacy for a given style and content of state intervention to accommodate the dialectics of development even within the constitutional framework requires periodic approval of the people in a free, impartial and competitive election. In this scenario political parties are expected to tap the felt needs of the people as inputs for formulating policies and programmes as output of the political system.

The coordinative and evolutionary character of a democratic set up can be expected to function as long as the constitutional check and balance of the system are respected as parts of the rules of the game that define the boundary conditions of the system. This is implicit in the very idea of dynamic equilibrium that is supposed to characterize the system. However it is to be noted that the conceptual paradigm of constitutional checks and balances are not endogenous to the social system, of a country like Nepal. They are exogenous and the trials and tribulations involved in internalizing them represent the greatest threat to the survival of the democratic system. In this context the gap between the manifest and latent objectives and behaviour of individuals and institutions in lead position goes on to define the level of stress and tension over time. The manifest represents the exogenous element of the new paradigm while the latent defines the behaviour that has been culturally ingrained by the relations of production in the society, and is therefore endogenous. The gap between the two is not a constant and may increase or decrease and thus affect the stability or the survival of the system. Which direction it will turn will crucially depend on the feedback mechanism and the institutional capability of correction before the gap generates a momentum of its own that feeds on itself and becomes explosive and unmanageable. It is the general assumption that in a democratic set up there are enough institutional check and balance including the civil society and the press to limit this gap before it generates a thrust of its own that makes a mockery of the boundary conditions of the system.

The manifest and the latent: In Nepal it is becoming increasingly clear that constitutional check and balances implicit in the democratic ideology are not working to manage the gap between the manifest and the latent. While paying lip service to the democratic ideology the democratic process that requires for its successful functioning endogenization of new institutional values has been perceived by the new ruling elite in Nepal as an obstacle to the accumulation, expansion and utilization of power, ironically, for survival in power. Thus, governments, one after another, have flouted with impunity the notion of constitutional equilibrium and have miserably failed to use power to empower the masses to organize and accumulate resources -- both economic and political -- to change their reality in a spirit of self confidence and self reliance. The new ruling elite with the legitimacy based on the democratic ideology has consistently failed to use this tremendous resource for empowering people and institutions at the grassroots level. The theme for the last ten years has been to use the new legitimacy to empower the party in power to misuse power for the financial welfare of the few while relegating other institutions that could challenge this trend to a dysfunctional state. The civil society and the press could act as a watchdog against this trend. But in an economy where well paying jobs are scarce, the mass of the people uneducated and without a tradition of democratic participation and the financial independence of the media being weak and fragile, the abuse of power to ignore the boundary conditions of the constitutional system continues unabated. The legitimacy of the democratic system is thus being misused to rob the masses of their right to dignity and hope in a model of development where resources both foreign and local are being squandered to empower a few to increase their entitlement while usurping the right of the downtrodden and the poor to give a creative expression to their aspirations for development. The performance of the so-called majority government during the last six months clearly indicates that when it comes to the question of shifting the entitlement balance in favour of the ruling elite the question of a majority, minority or a coalition government becomes virtually irrelevant.

Need for reform: An increasing number of people and specially the youth are losing faith in the ability of the democratic model to correct the anomalies while remaining within the system. And yet one of the advantages of a democratic system has been its ability to "muddle through" the problems before it reaches an explosive stage. In the Nepali case it is becoming obvious that the present structure of check and balances that go on to define the constitutional equilibrium are being made increasingly dysfunctional by the ruling establishment in the country. The result is not only enrichment of the elites of the establishment but also the strengthening of indirect mechanisms to sustain poverty and underdevelopment with the democratic ideology acting as a shield. Stability and development that caters to the masses demands a radical change in this scenario. It also means a reform of the constitution remaining with the democratic parameters of the constitution. This may seem like a tall task but the strength of the democratic model has also been its ability to reform itself without losing the core.

(The author is the vice president of the National Democratic Party)

A social stigma

-By Manish Kiran Shrestha

It was growling fiercely with hunger. The cry was so loud that it could be heard by the person sitting next to me . Well, I could have taken something at Mugling but you know the "hygiene" out there. It had already been 6 hours since we had left Pokhara. We still had half an hours of climb up the winding Naubise road and then half an hour from Thankot to home. Little did I know what Thankot had in store for us.

Finally, we were at Thankot and as usual a police entered the bus but he had a strange look in his face. He was hungry too, no , not for food but for something, money! That is why he even checked our hand bags even when we told him that we were students and we had books in our bag. What was most disturbing was when he opened a packet of biscuits from my bag. Mockingly I offered him some. Surprisingly, he didn’t have even the faintest sign of embarrassment on his face. He carried on as if nothing had happened. He got nothing from the passengers in the bus. He then went on top of the bus and what did he see? Boxes! Something raced through his mind and an uncanny smile appeared on his countenance. I knew then that poor old lady, a resident from Jomsom, was in deep sand. The police then summoned the lady to his office they opened the boxes and found home made dried yak meat in them. The police insisted she produce a bill. There was a brawl between the two parties. The lady broke down and pleaded in front of them.

A disgusting event suddenly took place. I could not believe my ears, I felt like throwing up; I was shocked. That person in blue suit with a maroon cap, the so called police, asked bluntly for Rs 200 to have tea or else she would be held back. For a moment I was stunned and ashamed to have been born a Nepali. The head that stood high like Mt Everest, lowered. By then, we had been held at Thankot for more than half hour. The poor old lady, what more could she do; she silently paid the amount and we left Thankot.

These kinds of scene are not seen at Thankot only but at almost every check post on the highway.

Who is to be blamed? Sometimes I wonder what changes democracy has brought us? The police used to do the same before advent of democracy and the same thing is continuing till now.

They boast on TV, radio and other media about ethics, morals etc. But look at them. It looks like they need it more than us. I feel that they need to attend classes on moral science before they come out of the academy.

By now there must be many Nepalese who despise the Nepal Police and as if it was not enough the Nepal Police seem more pathetic nowadays especially because they have been scorned at by many international bodies, regarding the Indian airlines hijack.

It is disgraceful to hear about the incompetence of Nepal Police on news channels like BBC and CNN. Furthermore, this has even hampered the inflow of tourists. PM KP Bhattarai may have suspended the staff responsible for the mishap, but this does not solve the problem.

I hope that this incident has been an eye opener for the higher authority and hope they’ll take some action. Not only should they tighten up the security at TIA but they should also make an effort to root out such problems at check posts. As the saying goes, "it's drops that make an ocean", if Nepal Police does not brush up its image now, only god knows what calamity we might have to face in the next millennium!

Tackling girl trafficking

-By R B Lamichhane

The Nepalese young girls who are being sold by their own native fellow citizens and in some cases by strangers from a neighbouring country, who lured them promising a better living standard, good food and money eventually end up as sex workers in cosmopolitan cities like Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi. So far the changes of government in the entire decade has not updated the law and has done very little to stop atrocities. Sexual exploitation of these young girls has reached an alarming stage in the rural areas. One can find people conducting bogus marriages to show the authority the drama and eventually take them out of the village and sell them at good prices in different parts of India. These poor girls take it for granted on realising the hardships they have been going through, and are prepared to accept the offer. But to their dismay when they reach their destiny these girls are sold to the agents. Most of the people craze those who are 15 to 17 years old.

There are a few thousand of people in the cosmopolitan cities in India who take pride in this odd fancy game and few groups who are involved in prostitution and young girls who have been the victims have confessed that they are badly addicted to this habit as there is not other means of entertainment for them. It is shocking to note that young girls are being driven into sexual exportation. The authority has not yet extended their hand of law to crush these plagues from our society. It is true that social workers from various districts and towns are engaged in efforts to prevent young girls from being lured into prostitution. There are numbers of reasons why the village girls tend to leave their parent’s home. One of the causes is the constant economic burden being suffered by their parents, unable to meet proper education facilities and the demand for decent food and good clothing. A majority of Nepalese people cannot cope with the present inflation that has led to skyrocketing market prices. Finding this opportunity brokers from urban cities go directly to the village to find young girls who are under the influence of a good life in a big city and they leave the village.

The number of Nepalese women working as prostitutes in India is estimated at anywhere between 60,000 to 70,000. But the last report received from a non-government organization claims the number to be 52,000 in Bombay alone, out of which about 20,000 are thought to be girls aged 17 and below. However, the police department’s figure show a smaller number although they also admit to the gravity of the issue. If the authority does not become hardliner and initiate appropriate actions against those who are involved in girls trafficking it will aggravate the problem further. It will also courage more people to involve in this racket thereby hurting our national and cultural image.

There are strong comments from the mass that due to the lack of substantial research into the cause and situation of the flesh trade the problem of prostitution is mounting. Flesh trade exists even within the country although clandestinely. Growing urbanisation and comparative rise in socio-economic conditions also have their role to play in it. However, the government’s lenient attitude towards punishing those who are found guilty is the main factor inspiring the sexual crimes. It also necessary to know when people began to see flesh trade as nothing unusual in our society and what kind of situation influenced them to start this racket. It appears that something must be wrong in our society which inspires flesh trade for living and easy income. To a certain extent, this is entirely due to the socio-economic financial status. It is quite panicking to learn from various newspapers and other media that these socially discarded events are taking place almost in every district where not much is done to raise people's education level and skill development. A research done in various villages in Nuwakot revels that over fifteen hundred women were abducted to India and sold off there from district alone. And we must note that this is only the tip of the iceberg. The whole problem cannot be tackled without a firm political commitment and economic well being of the people.