Countering Corruption Media Has A Role

-By Prakash Dahal

If one is to go by the number of corruption busting agencies we have, we are perhaps behind none! Not merely in the region but all over! We have CIAA (Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority), OAG (Office of the Auditor General), Special Police Department, and so on.

Admission
It is said that they have no teeth in their jaws. Therefore, they can’t even saber rattle let alone biting. And, the very authorities entrusted with the responsibilities to lead these agencies admit it.

They seem very much like the teeth-removed king-cobras recoiling around the neck of Yogis around Pashupatinath. No matter how viciously it raises its hood or dreadfully hisses the sound, the Yogi doesn’t give a fig.

Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, who is said to have an architect of the present day Nepal’s democratic constitution which laid down the provisions for these institutions with toothless jaws, seems to have started realising the gravity of the corruption problem. He perhaps thinks, or it seems so, that fitting teeth in the jaws of these old institutions, enshrined in the constitution, would be unwise than to come up with new committees and commissions with readymade teeth-fixed jaws.

This should be the prime ministerial wisdom behind the formation of committees and commissions one after another for busting corruption in the country. Prime Minister Bhattarai, it seems, has started realising that the constitutionally provided agencies are only jewels in the crown of emperors. They should be put in a showcase and placed in the museum because their values are determined by the beholders.

And, to counter maladies like corruption which assumes cancerous growth in the country, there must be something with big jaws and canines in it. That is why there are these new committees and commissions, and others are perhaps in the offing.

Now, patience must be there to wait and see whether those canines with big jaws only saber rattle, bite or do neither of them.

Mr. Bhattarai, may be lying fresh in the memories of many, when he addressed a supposed-to-be intellectual gathering at the Russian Culture Centre, nearly two years back, and countered all rhetoric shed against corruption by his preceding speakers; namely Pashupati Shumsher Rana, Hridayesh Tripathi, Madhav Kumar Nepal and Tara Nath Rana Bhat, in these words, "My preceding speakers made lot of hues and cries against corruption in Nepal. I agree with neither of them. 7 hundred years back, there was more corruption in England than in Nepal."

Mr. Bhattarai, is still remembered having said," You give us only 70 years and not the seven hundred, we’ll root out corruption from Nepalese soil."

These and several other statements made by Prime Minister Bhattarai over the period, may be taken into account to get along Prime Minister Bhattarai’s approach to the burgeoning corruption in the country.

Corruption indeed has assumed an epidemic proportion in the country. Almost everyone, including those at the helm of state affairs, agree.

However, their approach to counter corruption and their identification of the causes leading to corruption are varying.

On Dec. 26, 1999, Pro Public, a non-governmental organization, advocating good governance through counter corruption measures, held a press gathering, at Hotel Orchid, with the view to explore strategies for Nepalese press in countering corruption.

Apart from the press personnel, who had the overwhelming presence, two ministers; Minister for External Affairs, Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat and Minister of State for Education, Rajendra Kharel, were invited to address the press gathering.

Minister of State for Education, Rajendra Kharel, made ‘highly offensive’ and ‘utterly unpalatable’ remarks when he publicly asked," What compulsions are there to Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Congress President, Girija Prasad Koirala to keep two of the most corrupt men in the cabinet and Congress Working Committee?"

On countering corruption, Kharel made serious allegations against Congress leadership when he said," In Congress, tickets are distributed at the instruction of mafia, and its at their instruction the ministers are made."

He also said," The Congress, Communist and the Maoist are plundering the nation; the responsibility now falls on the shoulder of press and the civil society to guard the nation against these plunderers".

Foreign Minister, Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat sat at the dais when the State Minister made these remarks.

Dr. Mahat, however, held different views. In his words, " Our culture is materialistic in consumption but in production, we are not so, and this has led to the rise in corruption".

The Foreign Minister also said," If only we become tax-compliant citizens or if only tax laws are enforced with a sincerity of purpose and honesty in pursuits, 50% of the corruption will be curbed".

On constraints and the problems of press, most of the young journalists from private press didn’t hesitate to admit that they had to lean on the crutch of people and business houses who amass wealth through corrupt means. And, since they are their patrons, they can’t go against them. Here lies the crux of the issue.

Given the scenario, no matter how many readymade jaws with artificial teeth fixed in it come into existence, its all the same.

Jaws
What is needed is to plant teeth in the jaws of the existing constitutionally provided counter corruption agencies because they know what to bite and when. The problem with them is that their teeth are removed and they need them back.

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