FEATURES NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

By Mukti Rijal

THE government decision not to extend the term of local bodies after they completed their five year tenure has provoked controversy. Legally the decision cannot be faulted as the Local Self-Governance Act leaves room for the government to opt for otherwise.

Best Option

However, from democratic point of view elections is the best option for which there should not be any alternative no matter the situation prevailling in the country. For a fair democratic elections voters should be fully relied up and they alone can defeat the forces that impose obstruction in the exercise of their franchise right. Local election is the foundation of political process. People have greater stakes on local government as the authorities at the local level deliver services to electorate at their doorstep. In a democratic society if local governments in the true sense of the term do not exist of function greater part of popular concerns remain unattended to.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair who gave more clout to local government after being swept to power almost seven years back wrote, "we need a new, a different local government to continue the task of modernisation and development. A new role for new millenium. A role that provides local people and their representatives with new opportunities. At the heart of new local government's new role is leadership-leadership that gives vision, partnership and quality of life to cities, towns and villages".
It shows that the local governments have been given greater recognition and role in the contemporary world and they are regarded as the vehicle of democratic evolution and transformation.

Local governments in Nepal found new meaning and substance especially after the enactment of local Self Governance Act in 1999. The local bodies developed clout and strength as they acquired political significance through massive political competition and education process unleashed at the local level. The government decision not to extend term of local government gained tremendous amount of publicity and even donors were reported not being happy with the step. The central fact behind it is the growing importance attached to the local bodies and enhanced process of political empowerment. Women and disadvantaged groups have found in local governments some space to articulate their aspirations though it is not very effective. Local political recruitment is in high gear and political parties compete in clinching power at the local level. Therefore, the resistance of local bodies against government decision not to extend tenure of local bodies got political overtone.

Besides this local bodies have started to play a major role in development activities with donor agencies going to them as partners. This should be the reason why some donor agencies gave their reaction against the decision of the government to let the local bodies go in a limbo. The strong and enlarged constituency of opinion in favour of local governments has however contributed to generate two positive outcomes.

The first outcome is that the government had to act fast to urge the Election Commission to conduct local elections within the current financial year. The second outcome has been the decision taken by the government to make an interim arrangement for carrying out functions of the local bodies. The local government bureaucracy in coordination with some line agency officials directly related to development has been given responsibility to perform core functions so that the people are not debarred from getting minimum services. It is perfectly an ad hoc arrangement which will finally lead to an early local elections. Instead of this, had there been an interim arrangement manned by local political workers recruited through cooptation, elections could have been put off for some more time under one or other pretext. Political functionaries tend to stay in positions to exert influence without going through political test.

There has been a trend worldwide to redefine the role and functions of local bodies in new dynamics and perspectives. There are certain phraseologies doing round in modern local government literatures these days. Most prominent of them are business-like, competitive, partnership, customer orientation, civic pride and caring. All these terminologies reflect the modern day trend of globalising world that require local governments to act in an innovative and imaginative way. Local governments in the modern day world should act as corporate entities do and devise strategy so that results and outcomes are efficient and effective. A corporate strategy is a set of decisions about the overall direction of an organisation, decisions which integrate its various activities and plan the response to contextual changes in the medium or long term.

Task

In Nepal partisan orientation is strong in local bodies. No matter legal mandates and competencies this has stopped the local government leaders from being creative and innovative. Their primary interest often seems oriented to serve to the partisan interest. The government decision not to go in for extension of the term of local bodies is motivated by political consideration as well. The main task that lies ahead is to exercise local bodies of petty politics and make them democratic entity committed to serve the people in businesslike manner.

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