Retire gracefully

Now that Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala who is also the Nepali Congress President has officially announced  that he will contest  for a second term, the ongoing wrangling in the Nepali Congress (NC) is likely to intensify.

Prior to his announcement, rumours were rife that Koirala would support either Shailaja Acharya or Shushil Koirala, members of his trusted inner circle. Koirala had taken pains to communicate something to that effect some days back. With this announcement, he has gone back on his own words. He was also the one to  advocate the "one person one post" principle. Now, it has become clear that when it comes to pursuing personal interest, he is capable of throwing his own pronouncement to the winds. Instead of handing over  party leadership to second generation leaders and thereby ensuring smooth transition, the septuagenarian leader is more than adamant to stick to the coveted chair of both prime minister as well as party president.

The current turn in NC politics has raised many unanswered questions. Deuba and his allies have accused the Koirala camp of   tampering with the list of active membership and expressed doubts over the prospects of free and fair party elections. Will Deuba be able to stand anywhere in the party elections with the active membership list remaining "uncorrected" ? It will certainly be interesting to see what Deuba's faction will do next. What happens if Koirala wins without the list being revised? Will this split the party? Deuba has warned of a mishap. Whatever the eventuality, the intra-party conflicts pose a threat to the country's political stability.

In the struggle for power within the NC, governance has been badly hampered. A series of issues that merit immediate attention and action has remained grossly neglected. Despite pledges to provide good governance, check corruption and guarantee law and order, virtually nothing noteworthy has been   accomplished. Amidst all this, it is indeed regrettable that the ruling party is   still embroiled in internal squabbles.

As things now stand, the NC is in the thick of infighting which has created heavy clouds of uncertainty. What the NC needs is new and dynamic leadership be it Deuba, Acharya, Sushil Koirala or someone of similar stature. Koirala and Bhattarai could contribute by endorsing a joint candidate in order to send the right signal to the party as well as to the country. This could well reduce the ongoing schism and ensure better functioning of  not only the party but also of the government.

As a responsible leader of the country's largest democratic party, Koirala must do his best to restore peace and stability within his party even if this means sacrificing himself at the altar of party unity. His lust for power will do no good either to his party nor to the country. Rather, this will only tarnish the image of the NC further. It has  already disappointed the public by not translating its promises into practice. Koirala should not exacerbate things further by trying to fulfil his own ambition. He should step down gracefully and make way for a new dynamic leadership that can give the party and the country the new direction it needs.

Poverty : New wine in old bottle

By Diwaker Chand

The UN Millennium Summit seemed to have been very forcefully managed to bring 'poverty' at the centre stage. Since then all those, directly and/or indirectly affiliated with the UN seem to be very loudly trumpeting the perils of poverty. This is not the first time that the world body has been cautioning developing countries that they are going to be firmly gripped by the so called Malthusian phenomenon wherein food production is outstripped by population growth.

Since the late 70's governments in developing countries were offered several poverty combating modules among which were the infamous 'Green Revolution Movement' and 'Integrated Rural Development Projects (IRDPs)'. It was propagated that the only means of enhancing production was through the adoption and absorption of modern agro-based technology which amongst others extensively disseminated the commercial usage of chemical fertilisers. Farmers in Nepal who were accustomed to using compost fertilisers were allured towards chemical fertilisers which promised   windfall gain. It must have brought some gain but planners seem rather tight-lipped when they are asked about the national cost involved in accomplishing such meager gain. At that time Nepal was specializing in jute cultivation and export of jute products which unfortunately was died prematurely.

The blooming carpet industry which had resulted in upward trend in the 80s may have to suffer the same fate as our jute products if due caution is not taken in time. The country which was using merely 494 metric tonnes of chemical fertilizer 30 years ago  is now so strongly addicted to the practice of using chemical fertilizer, the consumption of which now has sky rocketed to over 50,000 metric tonnes per year. The IRDP poverty alleviation module which, till the 90s had envisioned 28 districts, has had investment of Rs 1,464 million so far. Most districts where IRDP has been implemented are ironically the very districts where insurgency activities have been carried out by the so called People's War Group which has killed over 1500 people and has left an  irreparable scar  upon the face of the nation.

In the mid 80's ie during the beginning of the 7th plan, it was felt that poverty could possibly be alleviated through 'Structural Adjustment Plan' whereby the World Bank had extended Structural Adjustment Loan (SAL) and the IMF had provided Structural Adjustment Facility (SAF). The initiatives that were expected to be taken were: to strengthen macroeconomics and sectoral development policies and improve the efficiency of public sector investments and institutions and also to take structural measures to address  constraints to growth in the agricultural sector and to improve the availability of inputs and services by improving the effectiveness and efficiency of public institutions, providing the services, liberalizing the pricing and distributions of inputs while increasing the role of private sector (source: 'Nepal Policies for Improving Growth and Alleviating Poverty', the World Bank, Oct 14, 1988). Since then, agriculture is being accorded high priority, and as a matter of fact, the government even went one step forward by enunciating Agricultural Perspective Plan (APP) which was being closely supported by ADB as a national priority agenda to enhance overall growth performance and reduce rural poverty. APP proposed that fertilizer subsidies be reduced and private sector involvement in the import and distribution of fertilizer be promoted, and that a pragmatic and innovative initiative be proposed in the agricultural sector. Furthermore, donors reached consensus that inspite of economic liberalization, the poor performances of the fully government-owned banks had negatively affected the overall system's resources (source: Nepal 1997 Encouraging Update: The Challenge of Accelerating Economic Growth, the World Bank, Nov 11, 1997) which was very strongly supported through the findings of KPMG. These institutions, instead of heeding  professional advice, are dragged by vested political interests. Unlike private and joint venture banks which have to perform well even to survive, non-performance ultimately leads such institutions towards immediate closure while better performance  enables them to earn better profits which means sharing and distribution of bonuses and incentives, thereby enhancing the overall efficiency and performance of the institution. This is probably the rosy side of the picture of economic liberalization. Getting back to our aging (without gaining professional maturity) financial institutions, they have apparently ceased to function as institutions. They are being steered by non-professionals recruited in high places by politicians with an anticipation of reaping benefits whenever and wherever the opportunity arises. They have also been instigated to political vendetta by unnecessarily creating hurdles and discouraging them to forego projects no matter how sound and technically viable they may be for the institution. These institutions need not worry about their fate as long as they receive their salary from the government's treasurery. I think the civil society and tax payers in general also need to be conscious of such dormant and passive institutions and make every effort to make them accountable to the people and if deemed not necessary they should be forced to close down if they persist in being non-functional.

The advices and suggestions from   donors have been frequently deliberated and debated and a lot of professional documents and plans have already been developed. Some of the institutions have even come up with pertinent issues regarding the perception and applicability of such plans and programmes. Recently, the World Bank had organized a symposium on foreign aid productivity analysis 'Assessing Aid-What works and What doesn't and Why ?' and just recently they had launched the World Development Report 2000/2001 - 'Attacking Poverty'.

The manner in which these reports are being presented, makes us feel as if 'poverty' appears to be a completely new phenomenon, which, like the pervasion of HIV/AIDS in the health sector, needs to be discussed as a separate global agenda. What one fails to understand is that these developing countries had been in the clutches of poverty in the past and they have been living with poverty. This is the reality and an infallible fact. What we seriously need to do at this stage is to empower people and enable them to reap the benefits of development.

Strategizing parameters, determining indicators and levelling priority to intervene are merely academic exercise which we strongly feel are more than enough now. What we actually need are action oriented programmes, productive output based activities and better employment opportunities etc. We should have all the patience to heed advises of these professionals and the donors, but we should learn to act on our own. The government on its part should make every effort to enforce those plans and programmes that have proved suitable, productive and sustainable with high level of commitment and true sincerity.

The sympathy of the rich industrialized nations towards the poverty of underdeveloped countries is being expressed in strong and euphemistic words, but as action they are still not forthcoming. Nepal which has been overburdened with debt burden has unfortunately not been incorporated in the list of high debt relief nations by these very groups, so as the consequences, the country has to suffer even more from the pangs of poverty. The world has been deliberating on issues on poverty but the irony in developing countries like Nepal, especially due to unprecedental rise in oil prices has been devastating. So what would one expect to be the impact in an area  where about 37 percent of the total population, if he/she spends over 35 percent of their earning towards the purchase of one particular daily necessity item, how would they feed themselves and his children and pay for rents forget, about educating their children and accessing health services, etc which to them would be a mere luxury under the present circumstances.

Vacancy open for mediators

By Razen Manandhar

After being knocked down in the long-hyped Maoist deal propaganda, now we are in search of another joker who will help us pretend we are talking with Maoists and make people believe that we are indeed serious about solving the problem "politically".

The four-and-half year old Maoist insurgency has done quite a lot in our favour. It has monopolized people's attention and left them with no time to complain over other snail-paced development projects, and 99 cases of mismanagement or corruption.

This Maoist stuff is also equally thrilling to people of all walks of life. It is also the newspapers' favourite item.

This Maoist insurgency has given us promotions, foreign donations, reshufflings in the cabinet, chances to lease helicopters, to buy arms and so on. Then who would want to kill the golden-egg-laying chicken only for the sake of gaining popularity? A fool.

But when the Maoists themselves were showing interest to come to the table, we could not resist such a powerful petition and that's why we were compelled to bring the talks-business onto our agenda. Still, there are people who believe we could work in a reasonable manner.

All right. The Maoists wanted someone to mediate our talks (how wise of them, they could smell our shrewdness) and a qualified man was chosen, whom the Maoists as well as we could trust. Since the curtain was raised earlier than we had actually planned, the mediator turned his back.

Governance in this country, without circulating rumours that we believe in talks, is impossible. We have to revive the drama again for our existence. But the question is inevitable: Who will bell the cat? We had Padma Ratna Tuladhar, whom we made a joker for months and duped him at the eleventh hour. Our last step was much more childish than we wanted to make it, so he got the message. He is not going to help us in this drama.

So, we are desperately in need of a joker whom the Maoists will trust again and we can again make him a fool with our next childish steps. Let me explain some of his basic qualifications: he must have a clean face, worthy to be trusted even in political dealings, must be innocent in "our" politics, a naive guy who does not hesitate to trust even politicians. He must be an optimist towards solving the problem through talks, a respectable figure among Maoists, having some role in human rights issues, for these are hot issues even in the international market.

If you find yourself suitable, please send your curriculum vitae to Singha Durbar with your contact address. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for interview.

Religious and conservation tourism

By Basant Raj Mishra

In the past, promotion of Nepal has been through different kinds of tourism. It has been successfully operating and taking benefits from adventure, nature, culture and wildlife tourism. The sightseeing of the historic cities of Kathmandu valley, expedition and observation of mountains from various peaks are also very popular items that attract tourists.

The idea of convention tourism really took off when the government constructed Birendra International Convention Centre before the SAARC summit in the capital in 1987. Following the SAARC summit, few hotels did very good business, which drew attention of all entrepreneurs to convention tourism. Subsequently, all the five star hotels aspired to develop convention facilities. Now, almost all big hotels and resorts can boast of international standard convention facilities.

However, Nepal still has to explore its most potential field of tourism, that is, spiritual and religious tourism. Many people explain the influx of Indian tourists during the time of Shiva Ratri (one of Hinduism's biggest festivals) as true religious tourism. However, despite being a Hindu state, Nepal is not only about Hinduism. It is capable of attracting followers of any other religion, thanks to unparalleled religious tolerance among the people. Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, if promoted properly, could be flooded by Buddhists from around the world as Mecca by the Muslims.

Due to the same tolerance among people, anyone from any religion does not hesitate to visit the country. Not only individuals, even big organisations are showing faith and confidence in Nepal's religious harmony. Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), an independent international charity, has shown its incredible faith in Nepal to launch a historical initiative in celebrating past, present and future contributions from the faiths for the preservation of a living planet.

The initiative from ARC is really effective to gather all religions for  conservation, and to provide inspiration and mutual support for the future. For many years WWF International in collaboration with ARC has helped religions around the world to be more effective on the issues of conservation, development and ecology. King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC) deserves credit for bringing such an event to Nepal.

ARC is now working to encourage different faiths to highlight important conservation actions as sacred gifts for a living planet. This event in Nepal is going to be an opportunity for all  conservationist and faith communities worldwide. Organising such a big event in Nepal proves that the country is a real centre for religious harmony and peace. It is also an example of how religious faiths could be harnessed for the enhancement of conservation.

The choice of Kathmandu as the venue for an internationally significant event has caused a lot of excitement as well as some speculation in various quarters. However, this selection will have to prove an appropriate one as Nepal has been globally proclaimed as a spiritually significant site. The country also has great environmental beauty and diversity in such a small span of area. Similarly, strong and successful wildlife oriented tourism, which has helped to preserve national parks by generating income is a successful example of tourism and conservation working together to supplement each other. This conservation and tourism success is also one of the plus points for the event.

Journey to Kathmandu, that is what   ARC has named its mega event, is going to observe nearly hundreds of very influential representations from  major religions of  world faiths like Bahais, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and Taoists along with around two hundred fifty personalities, the ardent supporters of nature conservation. This representation would encompass the faiths of five billion people, with five million Bahais; 700 million Buddhists, about two billion Christians, 750 million Hindus, 1.4 billion Muslims, 12.5 million Jews, 10 million Jains and 16 million Sikhs.

ARC's upcoming event is just an example of how Nepal could benefit from religion and conservation conventions. In terms of recognition also, Nepal stands confident as a venue for the mega conferences where world-renowned personalities will participate. Also, such events will definitely highlight issues of conservation, redevelopment and ecology throughout the 200 eco-regions designated by WWF on the basis of being outstanding examples of the earth's ecosystem.

Now it is the time Nepal too benefit from the newfound spiritual and conservation tourism. If the government provides a good environment to thrive and support the private sector with appropriate policies and programmes, the country will definitely progress. It will definitely encourage and bring confidence to these new avenues of MICE tourism in the kingdom of Nepal. Although recognized and committed by the ruling party and all other political parties unanimously to support the tourism industry, there have been various instances of lack of cooperation. The Nepal Bandh program and the announcement of labour strike in hotels are few examples. The failure of tourism in the kingdom of Nepal will create a major economic crisis. This definitely requires the nourishment of honesty, seriousness and sincere political will to give longevity to this fragile industry in the arena of global competitiveness.