COMMENT

Who is to blame?

The House of Representatives echoed with voices of indignation on Monday. MPs of all hues and ideologies lambasted the outrageous remarks made by some speakers, including former Prince Dhirendra Shah, at a talk programme organised by the Rastrabadi Yuba Morcha (Nationalist Youth Front). At the programme, speakers berated the present multi-party democracy and even went as far as saying that they were ready to shoot the Prime Minister if an order was given. This was indeed a very extreme remark, but what added insult to injury, was the fact that, Dhirendra Shah, no less than the King’s own younger brother, was present at the function and he seemed to support such ultra-rightist slogans. Speaking to a newspaper reporter, he also said that presently it was not democracy but "anarchy" that prevailed in the Kingdom. The lawmakers in the Parliament were irked by the statements of the former Prince, and one after another MP, crossing all political barriers, strongly criticised what had been said. There is no doubt that the present democratic system was ushered in through the popular will of the people and many known and unknown martyrs sacrificed with their lives to ensure all the Nepalese could live in an environment of political freedom.

However, it is also true that the nation has seen much woes in the last ten years since multi-party democracy was established. The two most alarming developments have been the steady breakdown of law and order and also the escalating level of corruption. Not only have the people had to face sky-rocketing inflation, but they also don’t have a complete sense of security. Of course, the system can’t be blamed for such problems. The politicians who are so good at preaching and berating others, must realise that they are responsible to a great extent for the present mess the nation is in. Not one major political party has done any work worthy of mentioning. Virtually all of them have had the opportunity to lead the government in the past years, but the people in general have not felt they have honestly worked for the nation. Moreover during the time of coalition governments, the behaviour of many MPs was so shameless, it is hard to describe how the Nepalese endured it. It is no wonder, now with the Maoists steadily increasing pressure and disgruntlement increasing among the general populace, opportunists will try and take advantage of the situation. So just holier than thou speeches in the Parliament will not save the situation. Leaders will have to look back in retrospect and realise what mistakes they have committed for dangerous elements to raise their heads with so much bravado. Unless the errors are corrected, more such challenges will be thrown up and the blame will have to be borne by none other than the very leaders who are in the Parliament or the leading political parties now.

Over burdened Earth

Going by the billions of wide open starving mouths, emaciated bodies, drought or flood hit lands, scorching heat that lights up forests, exhausted land that is unable to yield much .... the Earth indeed is facing a crisis. Overloaded with so many more mouths every day, its limited resources are getting depleted. In the process, only those who can afford it can survive but only till the man induced natural disaster hits without any discrimination.

Everything is inter linked and we fail to realise this and waste our time blaming this and that. The root of all problems start with over population that is out of balance with the existing resources. This problem is starkly vivid in the under developed or developing countries, that are rich only in its ever widening girth of population.

According to the statistics, Nepal today has a population of 22.9 million. Going by the trend, the population will have doubled in another 29 years. We have not been able to cope remotely with our existing population, can we imagine the scenario 29 years from today? Population control is one of the pressing issues of today that has to be given its due priority. If it is ignored very soon we will be at each others throat.

Uncontrolled migration is another important issue that needs to be resolved fast. The bordering Indian state Uttar Pradesh now boasts of 180 millions. According to the projections by the Indian government, with the current rate of growth, the number is likely to reach 500 million in the next fifty years. One can easily imagine the rate of influx into Nepal then and the ensuing problems; not that there are not enough problems brought about by migration already.

Politics of morality

By J.B. Mathema

When a train met with an accident in India, the then railway Minister, late Lal Bahadur Shastri submitted resignation on moral grounds.

Even, during Panchayat days, former Prime Minister Kirti Nidhi Bista resigned from his position, when Singha Durbar Secretariat caught fire and was destroyed in 1973. Bista recalls, "Although it was not necessary that I should resign, I felt that I should resign on moral ground because of immense national destruction."

After submitting resignation to His Majesty the King, Bista recalls (see the article written by Pratik Rawal entitled "The Night Singha Durbar Caught Fire", published in Kantipur dated June 25, 2000 that he was asked by the then Indian Ambassador L.P. Singh, why he resigned. Bista in reply reminded him of the resignation submitted by the then Railway Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri because of the train accident. Then the Ambassador kept mum.

When Bista resigned after five days following the fire at Singha Durbar in 1973, His Majesty had said that it was not mandatory for him to resign. Bista was adamant and His Majesty the King had to accept his resignation reluctantly.

Similarly, former Minister of Education Keshar Bahadur Bista had also resigned on moral ground during despotic Panchayat days.

These were the precedents set even during dictatorial Panchayat regime.

The incumbent Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi has so far failed to maintain law and order in the country. Since the time he became Home Minister, Maoists have intensified their assualt in various Maoist affected areas. Almost every day, we read in the newspapers of the encounters between policemen and Maoists in several Maoist affected areas. The death toll has reached approximately 1400 combining the both sides and property worth 180 million was looted since the "peoples war" began in February, 1996.

Police suffered heavy casualties during encounters with the Maoists in Panchkataiya Village in Jajarkot with the death of 22 police men, villagers incuding five children. Inspector Navaraj Poudel under whose leadership the encounter with the Maoist took place was killed mercilessly. It was alleged that inspector Navaraj Poudel was sent to that dangerous area as he was out of favour with the present top brass. It has been noticed that the morale in the police force has declined. The police have suffered heavy caualities in the fight against the Maoists.

It has been alleged that nepotism and favoritism is rampant in the Police Department. Even the former Minister of State for Home and Incumbent member of the parliament Devendra Raj Kandel has voiced against the present affairs of the Home Minister and Police Department. During parliamentary session held last Monday, Kandel opined that; the Home Minister, Home Secretary and the Inspector General of Police, who have so far failed to maintain law and order situation in the country and have indulged in nepotism and favoritism should resign immediately.

A number of parliamentarians belonging to Nepali Congress Party has asked the resignation of the incumbent Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi. They have even submittd memorandum to the Prime Minister to ask for his resignation.

However, the Home Minister is not in a mood to resign. Does he feel that he should submit resignation on the ground of morality?

Morality should emanate from inner mind. Although man is a selfish animal, sometimes realization of what is right and what is wrong comes from a man’s inner soul. This is how he demonstrates his sincerity and he can be judged by his action.

The question arises whether our political leaders have retained their morality? Or does the politics of morality no longer exist. It is yet to be tested.

Democratic Governance- A Retrospect

By Kalyan Bhandari

In the ten-year of multiparty democracy it is now time for us to see ourselves in retrospect. In the post Panchayat era there are many things we achieved and many we couldn’t. In these years of restoration of democracy our attitudes towards democracy has matured a lot. In democratic system, people have high expectations from the government due to alluring election manifestos of various parties. Our expectations were at the pinnacle due to stagnation of thirty years under tyranny and pseudo democracy. On the contrary, due to limitation of the resources and sometimes incompetent politicians compounded with the preoccupied bureaucracy, good governance becomes almost invisible to the people. In last decade of restoration of democracy this exactly was the case.

The art of governance has always been misunderstood and misinterpreted in Nepal - it was merely taken it as handling of daily affairs. In this sense, most of the government in the past failed in delivering to the people due to lack of their approach towards governance. The government of today has more challenges than that of yesteryears. It has more business to deal with. The negligence in governance in the past augmented mismanagement, lawlessness, which eventually led to sprouting of various subversive activities.

When we examine these ten years of democracy there are achievements. We have made a leap towards new century with an array of new legislation, treaties, regulations, privatization, reforms, liberalization and political exercises. These are prerequisites to setting up of a framework for a democratic society. Democracy flourishes and matures with time and the environment within and outside its set up. The functioning is totally dependent on the democratic set up it is guided with. Ultimately these developments have contributed to the institutional strengthening of the democratic set up we possess.

Sandwiched between the world’s two fastest growing economies Nepal can have accelerated growth if it taps its potentials. With the high growth of information technology the geographical constrains Nepal was facing in its development endeavors can now be significantly minimized.

The performance depend upon the proactiveness of the people in charge of providing governance. Government has to be proactive, not reactive. The various governments of the past till date have shown them to be reactive only. The government has never acted in advance despite many alarm bells rung by various pressure groups. The aggressiveness of the policy and programs has to be equated with the aggressiveness of the execution and implementation. We have always lacked pragmatism in our policies and approach.

With improvement in the approach of the parliamentarians and the relatively matured opposition, things would definitely change at a faster pace. The improvement in the performance and evaluation of various parliamentary committees and growing concerns shown by them in various decision-making procedures of the government are laudable. With more privatization and reformation in offing, the government has more time in looking after the governance than in running the ill, unproductive government corporations.

These ten years have been a period of transition of our demography from a feeble and unstable to bold, matured and stable which is definitely a harbinger to fulfillment of our long awaited aspirations and redresser of unattended plights.

We after these ten years of democratic experience have understood the compulsions and derivatives of the system. At this juncture of chronological leap to a new century, we at least can see the future with the optimism. The optimism that we have dreamt of. The optimism that we deserve.