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Kathmandu,Thursday March 09, 2000 Fagun 26, 2056.
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Polemics
damage credibility
Puran P Bista’s article
"Enron between myth and reality" published in TKP on March 3, 2000 takes an
extremely limited view of the complex process of societal change and equates it with
physical intervention. The author argues in essence that no one should ask questions when
in all societies, opinion differences are real. In Nepal we opted for multiparty system in
order that different views coexist.
Any project is only a means
to an end. In Nepal several community groups, government departments, volunteer
organizations, NGOs, leading banks, private sector and bilateral agencies are involved in
different projects. Activities of these actors range from local level income generation,
health and non formal education to gender sensitization and construction works. In all
these efforts, decentralization of decision making authority emerges as key to
empowerment, which is contested -- and rightly so -- every step of the way.
The article veers towards
superficial explanation of why social/environmental movements take place in such milieu.
Although transparency in governance, parliamentary proceeding and public lives are values
espoused by all from prime ministers to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen by the writer’s
logic, all such views qualify as bikas birodhee.
Thanks to civil society
questioning, Nepal’s power sector is seeing more than six ongoing hydropower projects
(Kali Gandaki, Puwa, Khimti, Bhote Koshi, Modi Khola, and many others being built by
Nepali entrepreneurs) nearing completion soon. The country’s installed capacity will
almost double. All the political parties that formed government, at least on this specific
count, need to be appreciated for allowing this positive change to take place in the
country. We need to build on the positive experience gained so far and create new
opportunities in order that the share of electricity in Nepal’s overall energy use
increases and reaches a large population coverage at fair and competitive price.
While creative criticism is
always welcome, care must be taken to avoid sloganeering and unexamined bias in the name
of analysis.
Ngamindra Dahal
Ratopul, Kathmandu |
