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| Kathmandu, Thursday March 20, 2003 Chaitra 06, 2059. |
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Now
what ?
The high-powered
Judicial Inquiry Commission on Property, set up nearly a year ago, submitted its findings
to King Gyanendra on Tuesday, which was immediately handed over to Prime Minister Lokendra
Bahadur Chand. The message of the King’s gesture for anyone to see was clear -- take
suitable action. The Commission, formed by the government of Sher Bahadur Deuba last year,
can be said to have been one of the boldest steps taken by any government. This despite
the fact that there was clamouring all round for impartial probe into the wealth of the
nouveaux-riches among political leaders, political appointees and government officials.
The Commission was mandated to probe into the wealth of those who might have acquired it
illegally after the restoration of 1990 democratic dispensation. Such a probe body was
long overdue in view of the people’s impression and the calls made by international
donors to control corruption. Nonetheless, the formation of the panel was a matter of
uncommon courage on the part of the then prime minister for there is no guarantee,
especially because he himself was in the scope of the panel’s scrutiny.
The setting up of the
panel, with the advent of democracy as cut off date, by no means suggests that those prior
to the 1990-era were free from any kind of ill-gotten wealth. The point to be noted here
is that the past system was "bad" but in democracy transparency and
accountability have to be convincingly demonstrated. The probe report comprising over 800
pages is being described as a treasure as far as details of wealth of people in high
places are concerned. This might be so but it is imperative that all those implicated in
the report be thoroughly investigated further. If the wealth amassed in the past 12 years
was indeed in excess of their disclosed source of income, due action must be initiated. It
is always easy for the government to initiate action against some small and insignificant
people or those out of power in order to buy time and forget the big offenders altogether.
This must not happen. The Chand government faces tough challenges ahead. Even though the
report has not yet been made public so far, it is more than certain that political leaders
must have been implicated in the report. Any action against them will draw the political
wrath of the parties they belong to and the government may face the charge of having acted
with vendetta. But action must be initiated in accordance with the panel’s findings.
For, corruption is much
more dangerous than any other cancer that ails the nation as it eats into the very vitals
of the society and the country as a whole. Among the other reasons, prevailing corruption
contributed to the Maoist movement which was further catalysed by disparities and
injustice in the country. There are many a leader and government official who came to the
capital with little or no worldly possessions but now they rank among the wealthiest of
the Nepalese. Newspaper reports say that about 2,000 people were unable to account for
their wealth including some 600 political leaders. The probe panel distributed over 40
thousand property detail forms but only about 31 thousand were filled and submitted, and
the remaining did not. The cause for this also needs to be made public. The Chand
government now faces a difficult task. But any action initiated by the government must be
in accordance with the law of the land as we are presently governed by the 1990 democratic
constitution. The rights of the accused must be fully protected and respected. This might
mean that while action is most desirable, attention must be paid equally to ensure that
whatever is done is done with the due process of law, which leads one to ask: What is the
course for the government now? |
