Message For Unity

HIS Majesty King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev has said that all Nepalese should work together to build a strong and prosperous Nepal with an environment wherein every individual enjoys the benefits of democracy. In a message, to the nation on the occasion of Vijaya Dashami the other day, His Majesty the King said that it is of utmost urgency to create and maintain mutual trust, goodwill and harmony among all Nepalese people to achieve the goal of nation building and creating a peaceful and prosperous Nepal. Vijaya Dashami symbolises truth, justice and brotherhood and celebration of this national festival should remind and guide all of us to shun violence, mistrust and animosity and work together for the common good of all people of Nepal. Nepal, at present, is passing through a difficult phase. A section of misguided people has unleashed terror in some parts of the country and as a result, every sector of the country has been severely affected. Violence begets violence and terrorism only invites destruction and mistrust. Today's need is mutual cooperation and harmony through which the country, which has already been stung by a resource crunch, can move ahead swiftly on the path of development. Peace is most urgent to create an atmosphere of mutual trust, goodwill and cooperation, without which development and prosperity of the nation is impossible. His Majesty the King has recently formed a new Council of Ministers and entrusted it with the twin responsibilities of restoring peace and holding general elections in the country. These are the two most important tasks that the governemnt has to fulfil as the nation is now without the elected representatives both at the centre as well as at the local levels. General elections, which is the fundamental and the real pillar of democracy, had to be postponed because of growing violence and poor law and order. Besides, His Majesty's wish is for giving the people a sense of good governance, transparency and rule of law, which is also the desire and demand of all the Nepalese people. If the government honestly and sincerely works to achieve these goals as wished by His Majesty the King as well as by the people, it would, no doubt, garner an overwhelming support from the people. However, these goals cannot be achieved with the efforts of the government alone. There must be strong support and cooperation from all political sectors for the successful accomplishment of these objectives. It is, thus, the duty of all to extend support to the government and help rescue the country from violence and terrorism and a return to normalcy.

Serving The Underprivileged

ONE of the positive highlights of the present composition of council of ministers is without doubt the naming of Badri Prasad Mandal to the position of deputy prime minister, the No. 2 position in the administration of Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand. The appointment of the Acting President of Nepal Sadbhavana Party to the deputy prime ministership naturally was interpreted by watchers of Nepalese politics as a well-considered installation of a leader from Madhise community in the new government. Mr. Mandal expressed as much when he said in an interview last weekend that he considered his appointment by His Majesty the King as important for the Madhise community. As one who comes from that community he naturally puts the resolution of the problems of the Madhise and other backward communities as his priority task. The selection of Mr. Mandal as the deputy to Prime Minister Chand is clearly born of a need not only to give the cabinet, rightly, as inclusive a look as possible, but also give priority to the problems faced by Madhise community. Mr. Mandal's emphasis on resolution of the citizenship issue that remains unresolved for many years should strike the right chord among many Terai people.Be it resolving this problem or undertaking other tasks targetted at the underprivileged, national consensus is absolutely important. Like his other cabinet colleagues, Mr. Mandal also stressed that the special characteristics of the present government would be to move ahead on the basis of national consensus to remove the prevailing atmosphere of unrest in the country. A comprehensive national consensus, as Mr. Mandal put it, was the need of the day, in order to protect and promote the Constitution and to resolve the national issues. Indeed, the new government can perform its primary tasks-ending murder and mayhem, checking corruption, ensuring good governance, etc.-in a satisfactory manner if the political parties rose above party politics and joined hands with the new government sincerely. All the political parties should remember that the successful tackling of the above-mentioned tasks is a prerequisite to undertaking other tasks to uplift the underprivileged. Serving the underprivileged, as cited as a priority job by Mr. Mandal, becomes possible only in an atmosphere of peace and when good governance takes roots.