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October, 2002 |
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Political |
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Belgium
to Bishek by
Madhukar SJB Rana Prime
Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba set off to Belgium and successfully
engineered a large supply of arms and ammunition to combat Maoist
terrorism and insurgency. As security is the name of the political game
these days he let go the trip to Johannesburg for some unknown reason
and thus let go, too, the opportunity to put up Nepal’s case for
sustainable development in an age of globalization. Let us hope Nepal projects
itself much more effectively in the next international arena to take at
the time of the World Mountain Summit next month in Bishek, Kyrgyzstan.
Nepal must be able to carve a niche for all mountain societies in
the international community of nations and thus regain its lost prestige
with new ideas. This Summit, in early October, is another grand
opportunity. Embrace gobalization yes; but give it a mountain
perspective and insist on a mountain agenda to help mobilize the voice
of the mountain peoples in the global village. Weak politics is one
thing. Poor management yet another. This has further set back the wheels
of the economy. As an illustration, the Royal Nepalese Army’s
helicopter crash at Tribhuvan Interantional Airport virtually grounded
all air transportation within and out of the country. Do we need an
alternative international airport? Or better logistics management in
times of emergencies? Imagine the loss to the airlines during hard times
such as these having to land their passengers in Dhaka, for example? Or
imagine the hardship and mental frustrations to travelers in and out of
Nepal stranded midway somewhere. Mostly, it is the Nepali manpower bound
for Malaysia or the Gulf that must be bearing the brunt of this
disruption as they are pitiably huddled in some airport or the other
awaiting their departure. As the country heads
towards the application of Article 127 of the constitution politics is
as confused as ever with the interim government for election, most
parties vying for an all-party interim government with the recall of the
dissolved parliament by His Majesty, while the UML voices the need for a
referendum on something unspecific. In such a political
scenario capital flight must be immense with banks, nevertheless, soaked
in excess liquidity. Rather than taking bold, immediate measures to deal
with the problem of youth unemployment plaguing the body politic and
handling once in for all the plight of the ‘sick’ industries the
administration stands idly as helpless bystanders in the debate in the
political circles over election or no election in November and the
dumbness arising from the stunning recent attack on the police and the
army by the Maoist. Banks should be more proactive to find a solution to
improving investment climate and recovering their bad loans from genuine
business people facing genuine economic hardships rather than waiting
for the government to give them a bailout. It is said that the CIAA
has laid their hands on Rs 12 billion in criminally garnered assets.
Sale of this should be enough to put the economic ills right. And
further strategic strikes by the CIAA at the people in the helm of
political, administrative and business affairs will surely help to give
due relief to the poor, especially the poorest of the poor at a time
when the GDP is bound to be negative this year with bad governance, bad
monsoon and bad economic management during times of adversity and
crisis. (Rana is associated with Institute of Development Studies) |
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Economy & Policy | No
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