FEATURES NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

Pandey’s Confession
A Blow To Corrupt Politicians

By Ram Kumar Kamat

LAST week Hari Prasad Pandey, former Minister of State for Water Resources gave a big surprise to many people. His revelation and confession of bribery hit the headlines of the newspapers. He, Perhaps, is the first person of his stature in the history of Nepalese politics to have made such self-damaging confession. He was Minister of State for Water Resources during the nine month government of the Communist Party of Nepal -United Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML). As reported in the media, in his four and half hours long press conference, he confessed that on many occasions he bribed people to serve his business interest and evaded tax.

Before the convincing facts emerged to the public, people went on guessing as to what could be the motive and mystery behind the confession of Pokhara based industrialist Pandey. Some admired Pandey for his confession. Others ridiculed him. They said that he might have gone mad. Some others thought he might have been compelled by the terrorists to confess the crime of corruption. But when her wife came to defend his step, and none of Pandey’s family objected his disclosure, many people lauded his confession.

One more incident made the news: Industrialist Pandey went to the office of the Chief District Officer (CDO) demanding his arrest and prosecution. But his plea was rejected. The CDO was right to reject Pandey’s pleas of self arrest because under the existing legal provision, the CDO is the chief of Special Police Bureau who has no jurisdiction to prosecute the person of Pandey’s status who is a former minister of state. In such a case only the Commission of Investigation against the Abuse of Authority (CIAA) can prosecute the person. Now the CIAA doesn’t have to await any lawsuit or formal complaint to detain and prosecute Pandey since his confession alone is enough for CIAA to prosecute him.

Money, indeed is very dear to all human beings. Nobody wants to loose it no matter whatever the means-legal or illegal, genuine or bogus. But contrary to this belief, Industrialist cum politician Pandey has declared that he is ready to return almost 1/4th of his property, which he thinks, is not his genuine earning. He has property worth 40 million rupees. This is really a big offer from his part. But before we conclude that he really wants to help the nation in its crusade against corruption, we should wait and see how courageous and truthful he is. Corruption is generally committed by more than one person. Industrialist Pandey has already disclosed that he has bribed people. The people he referred to could either be government officials or the politicians. He is reported to have said that at appropriate time he would reveal the names of those who took bribe from him. If he is really concerned of the sorry state of the country and want to rid the country of political corruption Pandey must dare to disclose the names of the corrupts. If he doesn’t do that, then his confession can not be meaningful and some may term it as a ploy to draw media attention. His responsibility doesn’t end only in disclosing the names of the persons he bribed in the past. He should also help the legal bodies like the CIAA and subsequently the court by providing substantial proof of bribery or corruption. If he fails to do that, it will be difficult for the court to vindicate the charges and book the culprits.

If Pandey is not prepared to reveal the names of the persons involved in the corruption at this point of time and if he is awaiting the moment when the newly passed anti corruption bills receives Royal assent then we should really appreciate him. Then, Pandey would surely be considered government’s eye witness. Maybe Pandey is taking stock of all these things. Anyway he will have to disclose all the names involved in bribery. Only then his confession could earn him a heroic image.

On the other hand, his startling revelation came at a time when the high level commission constituted under the chairmanship of ex justice Bhairab Lamsal to investigate into the assets of public figures has already initiated its task. Some people are of the view that since the commission is told to inquire into the assets of all the ministers, former ministers and civil servants, it will be impossible for the commission to bring desired result and in that case the Commission will be meaningless as was the case with Mallik Commission. And, this logic holds some water. People have seen how some of the politicians have amassed property during the 12 years of democracy but the irony is that nobody can question them.

If Pandey has analyzed all this and finally has come to the conclusion that the public figures particularly the politicians should themselves confess their crime before the State nabs them, it is, indeed, a welcome step. If he wants to give the message to the public " If you want to change the society, first do it by reforming yourself," then we need, at least 100 more other people like him to cleanse the corrupt practices that are besetting our politics.

Anyway Pandey’s revelation has exposed the flaws in our anti corruption laws. World’s examples show that no society is entirely free from corruption but it is also a proven fact that if some of the strict measures are implemented, its control is highly possible. Scandinavian countries are best examples in this regard . It is true that the laws that can comprehensively deal with the problem of corruption were passed only in the 21st session of the Parliament but that should not mean there were virtually no laws to punish the corrupts and control corruption earlier. There were/are some laws but never implemented effectively. If the politics remains purely politics and if the politicians have that willpower, nobody can dare to siphon government’s precious resources off and take personal benefit. But this is not an easy job to do. Today if there is any big problem in the society, it is with the contemporary politics and the politicians. The challenge that we confront today is to rid the country of over politicisation of each and every sector of the society and strictly implement the legal measures introduced to check corruption. Let’s hope that Pandey’s confession of corruption could initiate the process of breaking the vicious circle of corrupt practices so rampant in the country.

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