Punish the guilty

Bhutan’s senior most leader Tek Nath Rizal has requested His Majesty’s Government of Nepal to probe the assassination of R K Budhathoki thoroughly. Last Monday, R K Budhathoki, founding president of the Bhutan’s People’s Party (BPP), was attacked just after he had met the BDP students’ wing in Damak. Damak is where the Joint Verification Team (JVT), formed last April to verify Bhutanese citizens, has been doing its work. JVT has been blamed for too slow a pace in verifying the refugees. This appears to be deliberate tactics to deny the Bhutanese refugees their right to return home. The Druk regime has time and again questioned the authencity of the refugees, despite the documentary evidence in their possession. Budhathoki had stood up against the Druk regime. This
could be one of the reasons he was murdered. The unidentified assailants, who attacked Budhathoki, fled the scene of their crime. Some of them seem to have come from across the border. However, the manner in which Budhathoki was murdered indicates that there should have been some people among the refugees themselves who were behind the murder. Otherwise, how could the assassination have taken place with such efficiency, and the perpetrators gotten away so clean?

Budhathoki was the first Bhutanese citizen in exile who ferociously fought against Bhutan’s tyranny. Before he formed the BPP, he was a civil servant in the Ministry of Finance. Budhathoki had begun his political career in June 1990. Until his death, he fought against the autocratic regime in Bhutan. His death has not only brought a setback to refugee repatriation but is also a great loss to the democratic movement in Bhutan. Besides, Budhathoki was close to Rizal, another prominent leader who spent over eleven years in prison to champion democracy in Bhutan. The Druk regime released Rizal only after the international community raised its voice against the Druk tyranny. Bhutan has never recognised the rights of minorities and it did not express its willingness to take back its refugees either. One strongly suspects the hands of the Druk regime behind the murder.

Rizal’s appeal for investigation into the murder should not be taken lightly. It was a brutal act to sabotage the democratic movement in Bhutan. Nepal cannot remain uncaring of this incident when it has sheltered over one hundred thousands refugees since 1992. This government must take the incident seriously and begin the investigations promptly. And those responsible for this brutal act should be brought to justice. Budhathoki was a man of principle who advocated democratic values. The best tribute to him would be to bring his killers to justice.

Maoist-govt talks emanate some hope

By Pradeep Silwal

The attention of the whole nation has been focused on the ongoing talks between the Maoist rebels and the government. The beginning of talks has given a ray of hope to all sectors but at present no one can hazard a guess on the outcome. The first round of talks in Godawari on 30 August ended in about three hours the two sides agreeing to hold second round talks. The talks were without any agenda. It was just an opportunity to both parties to understand and weigh each other. The five-member government side was led by Minister for Physical Planning and Works Chiranjibi Wagle and the three member rebel side was led by former lawmaker from the Maoist bastion Rolpa, Krishna Bahadur Mahara. The Maoist delegates put forward their three major demands— an interim government, a new constitution and a republican state. The government side did not react to their demands. However, in a joint press statement issued after the talks, both parties expressed their commitment to resolve their differences and problems through peaceful dialogue.

The Maoists have been using peacetime to propagate their ideas among the masses and demonstrate their strength by organizing mass meetings. The lull in violence resulted in the cease-fire declared on July 23 by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and subsequently agreed by Maoist leader Prachanda. Maoist cadres have been accused of forcefully collecting donations from businessmen, factory owners, schools, etc. They plan to bring 200,000 people for a public meeting at the Open Air theatre with its capacity of 30,000 at the heart of the capital city, on September 21.

Public institutions, such as schools and political establishments, are jittery that such a mass could create chaos or turn violent . President of ruling Nepali Congress Girija Prasad Koirala has asked the government to get assurances from the top leader of the Maoists that the mass meeting would be peaceful. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba expressed the serious concern through a strongly worded statement of public importance in Parliament on September 2. "The government has taken serious note of the use of force for extortion, mobilization of people, forcible use of public places and means of transport, terrorizing of businessmen and closing of schools despite the commitment of the Maoists to stop such activities," the Prime Minister said.

Maoist activities had put the Prime Minister in a pretty uncomfortable position because his party was putting pressure on him to cut the Maoists down to size. On the other side, the Maoists also accused the government of trying to spoil the environment of the talks. Prime Minister Deuba has already freed more than two dozen Maoist leaders to bring the Maoists to the table. He also declared a partial
ban on alcohol under pressure from the All Nepal Women’s Organization (Revolutionary) and announced Land Reforms and slapped a ceiling on land ownership in order to take the wind out of Maoists’ sails. General Secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) Puspa Kamal Dahal who is known as Prachanda has issued a statement that the Sept 21 mass meeting would be peaceful. But he stopped short of giving his assurance that the meeting would not be violent. The government must have raised the issue of peace and security on Sept 21 during second round talks held on Sept 14. If the Maoists fail to convince the government that their mass meeting would be peaceful, the government might take coercive steps and thus the future of the talks could be jeopardized. The second round talks are very crucial for a peaceful resolution of the insurgency which has already claimed 2,000 lives since it started six years ago.

By watching and analyzing a series of events, one should be able to guess the course the Maoists would take in future. If they can bring 200,000 people on the streets of Kathmandu, and despite such huge support they still remain calm, it will show that the Maoists are really serious about talks and are looking for an opportunity to make a safe landing, whatever their declared demands are. In such a situation, there might be a third or fourth round of talks. The second round of talks would just agree on the agenda for the third or final round in which top leadership from both the parties might take part.

On the other hand, if the mass meeting turned violent, there might be civilian causalities. It depends on the government security apparatus how well it will handle the situation. If the Maoists could keep such a huge mass in discipline, it will also demonstrate that the Maoist movement has not slipped out of the Maoist leadership’s hands, as some quarters have suspected.

The three demands of the Maoists — a new constitution, an interim government and a republic — are for public consumption only if they have already decided that their six year long revolution needs a safe landing now. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba cannot fulfil any of these demands because the present constitution does not have any provision for them. He cannot act against the four basic tenets of the constitution: constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy, adult franchise and multi-party system. The preamble of the present Constitution has made these unamendable. He can discuss these demands but does not have the mandate to fulfil any of these. We cannot assume that the Maoist leaders are unaware of this fact. Still they are sitting for the second round of talks. It gives all of us some sense of hope.

In a drunken stupor

By Perina Pathak

After a long and agonising wait, I got onto a Microbus one evening on my way home. The bus was packed. After a while, one of the passengers, who was heavily drunk, started shouting on top of his voice and was cracking jokes about bigwigs. He was taking about everyone as if he knew all of them personally. Though he was unknown to me, the persons about whom he was talking were familiar. Because of their reputation and familiarity everyone in the bus knew them, and everybody burst into laughter.

Soon we were in front of Singh Durbar (the Durbar for all politicians). Then the drunkard started to shout, "Look at that building it is Singh Durbar, very hi-fi people work there. Whatever happens in the country, it happens from here."

He was not commenting about Singh Durbar only. In the process of hurling abuses, he did not spare anybody and anything. Potholed roads, choking traffic, staggering price hike, stinking garbage, astonishing crime rate................the list goes on. It is amazing how almost everybody becomes a critic in a drunken stupor.

But he was cent percent right, and his complaints are very much a part of urban life. He rattled off all the weaknesses prevailing within the Kathmandu Valley. He blamed both MPs and citizens for failing to discharge their responsibility.

It was all very true. It was only that he was speaking in an inebriated state. He was speaking the reality from his unconscious mind. Here everyone dares to be right and true when he or she is in a state of unconsciousness. But once they come back to consciousness, they are true only to themselves. This is the reality.

Due to this attitude, our country has been suffering. Whoever comes to power promises this and that. They shout on top of their voices just to draw people’s attention and their precious votes.

From the drunken man, I came to know more about the reality we are living in. What he uttered was very true, and everyone on that Microbus knew this.

May be this is another reality: People are oblivious, genuinely or in pretence, to what is happening around them. Or are they too scared to speak, and too lazy and selfish to do something about it?

Poverty reduction and agricultural sector

By Chandi Prasad Aryal

The budget, the summary estimate of incomes and expenditures of 99.79 billion rupees, has been passed for fiscal year 2001-02 by Parliament. Of the total, 50.47 billion rupees has been allocated for development expenditure, and the rest (49.32 billion rupees) for regular expenditure. The budget has aimed to reach a GDP growth of 6 percent, bring inflation down to 5 percent and the money supply growth to 12 percent.

Though the Grameen Bikas Banks (GBB) have been established in the five development regions for poverty reduction purposes, their performance in micro financing has proven unsatisfactory and they are running without sufficient funds. They have been incurring losses since a year after their establishment. They can be treated as technically insolvent because of managerial weakness, political interference, low debt recovery and overstaffing. Now RMDC, the wholesale credit organisation for rural micro financing, seems reluctant to provide credit for these institutions.

Nevertheless, the GBBs have proved themselves to be successful financial institutions not only in Asia but also in western countries. Even world economic institutions like the World Bank and IMF have appreciated the role of the GBB in Bangladesh, which has brought about a huge improvement in the living standard of Bangladeshis.

A 100 million rupees allocated for capital investment in Rural Development Banks is not enough. According to NRB guidelines, up to 20 million rupees was allocated for a 10mw hydropower project. This was not sufficient to complete the project, so almost all commercial banks were apprehensive of investment in this sector. However, the current budget has encouraged private sector investment of up to Rs 100 million rupees by the commercial banks, including joint venture banks in small and medium hydropower projects.

The Ninth Plan’s main objective is to reduce poverty to 32%. The Plan has one more year to go, but the midterm evaluation is not satisfactory. To reduce poverty, the government established the Poverty Alleviation Fund last year. The government had also promised Rs 100 million for 119 VDCs (8 lakh rupees for each VDC) in 65 districts as a ‘Model Programme’, and the fund could be spent through a Local Trust Fund. However it remained ineffective due to the lack of coordination between the National Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance. The fund should be utilized properly.

Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat announced that the Poverty Alleviation Fund will be the umbrella fund to run all the poverty alleviation programmes with an integrated approach. Now the budget has allocated Rs 100 million (like previous year’s allocation) for capital investment in the Grameen Bikas Banks, which are conducting poverty alleviation programmes. Further he has allocated Rs 206.3 million for a Poverty Alleviation Fund. Given the amount allocated to poverty reduction, it is to be hoped that poverty will be addressed to some extent.

Being a small and least developed landlocked country, Nepal does not have much choice. Furthermore, our economic backbone is the agricultural sector. Without developing this sector, the structure of our national economy cannot be changed. 90 percent people are engaged in this sector and contribute 40% to the GDP of the country. The budget cannot emphasize the improvement of the agricultural sector without bringing in a Land Reform Act. The budget allocated a heavy amount for security, which comes to about 11% of the total. But the objective of reducing poverty without supporting them with development programmes, will be like water bubbles. The only relief the budget has brought to our farmers comes in the form of interest rate cuts in banking sector loans.

The Agricultural Prospective Plan can be considered the principal vehicle for reducing poverty, but the budget has allocated just 3.94% of the total expenditure for agriculture against 3.67% in fiscal year 2000/2001. The budget subsidy on chemical fertilizer and irrigation was withdrawn in 1999/2000. And now a little interest subsidy has been proposed for seeds and some other specific cash crops. Many farmers expected the resumption of chemical fertilizer and irrigation (shallow tube wells) subsidy but nothing of the sort came in the budget. This proves that the budget is not at all serious about its objective of poverty reduction through agricultural development.

In conclusion, the budget has been unable to present any new programmes for poverty alleviation. However it has revised and renewed previous poverty reduction programme. Being a least developed country, we are now travelling through difficult and uncharted terrain, where no action is undertaken without risk, and success may not be immediate. Now the Poverty Alleviation Fund must be an effective regulatory body for all micro-credit programmes, and not for any political party’s fund. By integrating the agricultural sector with the rural industrial sector, the gap between the urban and rural areas can be bridged.