Forging Consensus & Compromise
Ball In The Parties' Court

By Yuba Nath Lamsal

THE long awaited cabinet expansion has now been complete. His Majesty the King, on the advice of Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand, inducted eight Ministers and five Assistant Ministers in the Council of Ministers formed on October 11, 2002. Now the strength of the cabinet is 22.

Combination

There is a good combination in the formation of the Council of Ministers. The members of cabinet, although most of them are new faces, have a clean image and long experience in their respective fields. It looks more like a team of professionals.

Nepal is currently in crisis both politically and economically. Political crisis emerged due to incompetence, vested interest and near-sight of politicians who assumed responsibility to rule and govern the country for the last 12 years since multi-party democracy was restored in 1990. Nepal witnessed a record political instability with frequent changes of governments. In the last 12 years, 12 different governments came to power and fell.

There are mixed reactions about the structure of the present cabinet. While many describe it as a representative cabinet of all sections, communities, and professions, major political parties namely CPN-UML and the Nepali Congress claim that the "cabinet of technocrats" cannot solve the country's burning political problem.

However, the problem did not come up overnight. Political parties themselves are responsible for this. If the problem was nipped in the bud, the situation would not have been as dreadful as it is today.
After the 1990 political change, Nepalese people had high expectations from the governments and political parties. However, the euphoria was short-lived. The parties talked loud about democracy, poverty eradication and creation of employment. In action, they did very little to address the fundamental problems like poverty, unemployment, economic backwardness.

The bitter power struggle among politicians and parties and rampant corruption dashed the hopes of the people. These hopes and faith turned into depression and frustration. Some elements that were seeking to destablise Nepal took advantage out of people's frustration and disenchantment. The Maoist problem is the product of this situation.

Political and constitutional crisis emerged when caretaker Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba backed by all major political parties announced that the government was unable to hold the general elections in the stipulated time due to poor security and recommended for the postponement of the elections for one year.

The reason behind this was the Maoist violence. The violence has already taken more than 5,000 lives and also severely affected Nepal's economy. This situation has demanded unity and cooperation among all the political forces to solve the present crisis. However, the political parties are making mistakes one after another. Now let us take some examples.

His Majesty the King dissolved the House of Representatives six months ago and announced the date for the general elections on the recommendation of then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. However, the caretaker Prime Minister failed to fulfil this responsibility and instead started making unconstitutional and undemocratic decisions. The recommendation to postpone the election for one year is a violation of the constitution, while dissolving elected local bodies was undemocratic. All parliamentary parties supported these unconstitutional and undemocratic decisions of the government.

The King refused to abide by Deuba's unconstitutional recommendation and dismissed the caretaker Prime Minister citing the reason of incompetence in fulfilling its assigned duty in time. His Majesty, then, asked all the political parties to come up with the unanimous name for the post of Prime Minister. Parties failed to do so within the stipulated time that cleared the way for His Majesty to appoint Lokendra Bahadur Chand as the new Prime Minister of the Kingdom. Chand is a liberal, gentle and polite person who wants to go ahead with consensus and compromise. There had been reportedly a tacit but informal agreement among the political parties on Chand's name for premiership.
However, parties changed their voice after the formation of the Chand cabinet especially from the CPN-UML and the Nepali Congress. Jhala Nath Khanal, central leader of CPN-UML, said " We have objection and reservation towards both procedures as well as leadership of the government", and while Arjun Nar Singh KC of the Nepali Congress echoed Khanal's voice.

Despite marathon efforts of Prime Minister Chand for more than a month to go ahead collectively, the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML refused to join the government. This is one of the reasons for the delay in the expansion of the cabinet.

Leaders and parties are also partly responsible for the present situation. Firstly they failed give a common name for the Prime Minister in the new context. Secondly, they refused to participate in the cabinet. Some leaders are even repeating their irresponsible and obsolete demands like reinstatement of the dissolved House of Representatives and reinstatement of the dismissed caretaker Prime Minister. These are all impossible legally, constitutionally and practically.

What has been done is good. There was no alternative with the King other than to dismiss Deuba from the post of the Prime Minister. Now the new cabinet has been formed with the seasoned politicians, experts and professionals with clean image, the government needs to kick start to solve country's burning problems and meet the expectations of the people.

Crux of problems

The crux of all problems like poor security, economic downturn and political instability is the Maoist violence. Unless Maoist problem is solved and peace is restored, the country cannot make progress in other fronts. The government has also set its priority of maintaining law and order by resolving the Maoist issue and holding general as well as local elections. But these national issues and problems cannot be solved without the cooperation from all sectors. We must understand that conflict and confrontation cannot lead the country towards the path of progress. Consensus and compromise are the best ways to solve national issues and problems. The government has kept its doors open for dialogue, discussion and cooperation for the task of nation building. Thus, parties need to bury their previous differences and collectively engage in rescuing the nation from political chaos. For this, the ball is now in the court of the political forces.

Changing Life Style: A Challenge For Teenagers

By Shirish B. Pradhan

THE life style of youngsters in Nepal, especially teenagers, is changing very fast like that of any other Asians. Access to Internet, satellite television, influence of western society are some of the factors that determine their life style and habits. This may be attributed to the influence of the 21st century, which has knowingly or unknowlingly changed the way we eat, wear, move, play, enjoy or spend our time. This is what we call ultra-modern living. No one wants to stick to the traditional way of living. Everybody wants to have new experiences and nobody wants to lag behind in this continuously changing society.

New Habit

The food habits of the younger generation is remarkably changing these days. Pizza, sizzler and burger have replaced beaten rice and curry, Jerri and Swari, the traditional Nepali food items. Now there are a growing number of fast food restaurants opening in and around Kathmandu, that cater to the younger generation's food requirements. The new generation people prefer to order continental dishes while visiting restaurants. Office going people are slowly adopting the western food habits of starting their day with breakfast in the morning and ending with dinner at night. Many urban people prefer to have heavy lunch in the afternoon instead of having Dal Bhat in the morning. Few years back girls were rarely found visiting restaurants without accompayning family members or close friends. But now a days they have out numbered boys in visiting restaurants to taste foods of their choice.

These days people prefer to visit super markets or grocery shops to fulfill their daily requirements. Traditional shops have failed to lure clients, who are now accustomed to visit departmental stores and shopping malls. You don't have much time to roam around a dozen shops while purchasing a variety of items. Departmental stores cater to all your needs ranging from kitchen utencils to dresses, from make-up items to stationery goods. These shopping malls also offer cheaper prices. So here you can save both time and money. These departmental stores are equpipped with computer billing, surveillance camera and trollies to carry the goods of your choice upto the cash counter. Like in the western countries a few departmental stores have even operated computer operated price sensing machines for billing purposes.

For those who are fond of dance and drinks discotheques are available in the metropolis as the only night life for the youngsters. Now half a dozen discotheques currently operating in Kathmandu provide full entertainment and excitement to the teenagers. Young boys and girls are enjoying the capital's night life despite tight security in the wake of growing Maoist violence. For those who can afford everywhere its fun, excitement and a thrilling experience. These days nobody thinks twice before spending Rs. 400-500 entry fee to visit these discos and night clubs. During Saturdays and other holidays these places are packed mostly with teenagers. Girls visiting discos and restaurants are no more considered notorious these days. Nepalese teen-agers have been slowly adopting the western way of life in a bid to become ultra-modern.

Another attraction for today's younger generation is indoor games like the pool, snooker and bowling. There are dozens of snooker houses and a few bowling centres in Kathmandu, where teenagers usually gather to spend their liesure time. Modern boys and girls find these places an ideal venue for dating. Now, there are lots of things available for enjoyment, the only thing you need is money to spend.

Cyber café or Internet chat house have become a part of life for the younger generation. These cyber cafés are growing in number faster than any other business. There are cyber cafes in every nook and corner of the city, where teenage girls and boys are found chatting for hours. Now love letters have been replaced by e-mails and e-greetings. You can chat for hours with any body in the world with less money than you spend for a telephone call per minute.

For the younger generation it's a sign of prestige to have a mobile phone, a latest computer with Internet facility and a CD player. In a sense, these people are equipped with the latest technological innovations in the world. For them the world has narrowed to neighbourhood. Now, there is a craze for studying abroad and these days youngsters are exploring all the possibilities of getting admission to any European or American universities through Internet. Growing unemployment, irregular classes and violence and terror facing the country may have inspired them to go abroad.

The younger generation no more celebrate their birthdays in traditional ways. Ordering a birthday cake to celebrate the occasion has become a normal thing these days. Teenagers also exchange birthday greetings and even give party in restaurants to celebrate the occasion. Cakes have become important items during marriage, birthdays, mothers day, fathers day and even Bhai Puja or brother's day.
Nowadays people tend to enjoy indoor games rather than out door games like football, volleyball and basketball. Computer games, car and motor bike simulators, snooker, bowling have become popular among the younger generation. As they are less involved in physical activities because of the new technology the younger generation need to visit physical fitness centres and aerobic centres for their exercise and physical fitness. Urban people rarely go to the movie hall or theatre these days. They prefer satellite television or VCD to view movies at home. So far as entertainment is concerned they have many choices like CD, VCD, MP3, CD-ROM, Internet etc.

New Opportunity

The changing life style of the new generation has also given new marketing opportunities to the manufacturers and traders. They need to study the changing habit, customes, preferences and life styles of the younger generation if they are to benefit from the new market trends.

Technology And Development

By S.K. Shrestha

TECHNOLOGY and Development are considered as two supports or pillars of a nation. So an investor needs knowledge about different technologies and their comparative benefits with limitations in order to have maximum benefit from investment in technology in the field of economic activities. In the past, very little attention was paid to educate investors about available and adaptable technologies. The investors gave concentration more in acquiring license rather than better technology.

Technology consists of hardware and software components. In our country, most of the imported technologies have been facing high financial cost of hardware component. Projects financed by international agencies have costly hardware contents. If such projects are capitalised, the rate of return becomes low. The donor agencies impose too harsh conditions. At the end, the nation will have no adequate capacity from technological point of view. Prof. Milton Frendmann states that all economic aid will always retard economic development.

Little attention is paid to acquire the hard core technology in the country. Decision maker or the concerned ministry lacks technological vision as the established agencies have undergone meta-morphosis and shifted away from the actual fields. The products are costlier in the international market. The industry is losing its market.

Development is regarded as a basic change for the betterment. It is required for the promotion of higher standard of living, full employment opportunities and conditions of economic and social progress. At present, development is measured in terms of the average annual rate of growth in the gross product of the nations as a whole and the average annual rate of growth of gross product per capita. A large contribution to growth can be achieved through the introduction of modern techniques for production and distribution. An underdeveloped nation can adopt techniques already in the use in developed nations. So, it does not need to invest huge sums on research and development. Nepal has vast natural resources. Right education and training, adoptation of modern productive technologies and better development planning and administration are desirable for the present situation. The educational system has still focused on providing general education and very little on professional ones. In the professional field, the rate of middle level technical hands in transferring the skill is essential.

The concept of development administration has been propounded and is said to be more relevant on the developing countries like Nepal. The administrative blunders canbe avoided through multi disciplinary personnel. The practice of the administration is yet to take its root in our country.
Everybody is interested to have benefits from modern technology. A number of development projects have run under popular imperatives. Such projects have over-looked the techo-economic criteria. This activity leads to misutilisation of the development. Finally, the projects become burden for the nation. For example, the black topped roads having a normal life of 10 years fail even earlier. Maintenance and rehabilitation are costly affairs.

Thus, it can be implied that Technology and Development should be guided by a sound technology policy targeted at making the nation self-reliant and self-sustaining. One needs to study the options of different technology for a proposed project and choose the most sustainable one. Such activity is essential for projects on grants. Only in this case, our nation will be able to face the challenges of increasing liability and dependence on external inputs.