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Kathmandu Monday August 27, 2001 Bhadra 11, 2058.
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Illegal wealth probe
One thing has led to another in quick
succession. The Maoist people’s war has inspired the government to announce a package
of reforms including radical land reform in order to make the comrades who have taken up
arms more amenable to peace talks. The land reform mooted and, in particular, the
accompanying freeze on land related transactions and a proposed ceiling on land holdings
have the RPP and the Nepal Sadbhavana Party crying foul. They are demanding that ceilings
should apply to property in general. That in turn has now moved the Nepali Congress to
decide on a clamp down on illegally accumulated wealth. The party central working
committee, in what can only be described as a timely and essential move, has directed the
government to probe wealth amassed by those who have held high office in government since
1990, and to that end enact new laws if needed. Although general secretary Sushil Koirala
has stated that land reform and probing wealth amassed improperly are two different
things, it is clear the property probe is meant as a sop to those trying to thwart the
land reform agenda for reasons of their own.
Nepali Congress leaders outside government
have added their own voice to the need for government to act on this front. They have not
been too forthcoming however on how exactly the government should go about it. This raises
suspicion that the proposed probe into unaccounted wealth might be just a red herring
which it should not become. Though the government should be given the benefit of the doubt
for now, tall promises made and dreams woven by previous Nepali Congress governments were
mere populist slogans without the political will to attain the objectives. With party
backing, whether or not such backing is genuine, the Deuba government has the necessary
mandate to carry out the probe and seize ill gotten wealth and bring the guilty to
justice. It would be a shame if the country turns out to be utterly incapable of doing
anything to curb ill gotten gain among those in the corridors of power. The main
opposition CPN UML which the other day did the unprecedented in taking out a street
demonstration to show its solidarity with something on the government’s agenda, can
also be lined up behind any genuine anti-corruption drive.
The government’s probe task is not going to
be easy. It is ambitious, and all attempts in the past to wrestle the monster of
corruption to the ground have themselves run into the ground. Ms Acharya of the Congress
leadership says that it is up to the government to decide whether it wants a legal probe
or to work the probe mechanism into the constitutional architecture. That sounds lofty but
is of little practical help. There is no denying that the government could run into rough
weather over its own initiative. And in fact, Deuba may be thrown out while in the process
of investigating ill gotten wealth. But that should not deter him from going full steam
ahead with the probe as the people will stand by him. Party general secretary Sushil
Koirala has been more helpful with assurances of full support regardless of whether
someone from the party itself should be caught out. It remains to be seen if he will live
up to his word. The Congress party does not have an enviable record in this regard. More
than that there is the stark reality of Congress big wigs both inside and out of
government being in the forefront of those on the take when it comes to graft, commissions
and corruption in general. They could cause mischief for Deuba. We have already seen how
the land reform agenda itself has not gone down well with some members of his own party.
This is one single measure, however, that is needed towards attaining clean governance and
once the post 1990-probe is over, it should be extended to the pre-1990 Panchayat days as
well. For corruption in any form was as illegal then as it is now. But for a start it is
best to begin with the post-1990 era.
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