COMMENT

Stalemate continues

The stalemate continues. No understanding has been reached between Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, the two senior most leaders within the ruling Nepali Congress. The crisis this time started with the sudden sacking of Water Resources Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka. Khadka, who was instrumental in helping Koirala become the Prime Minister a little over four months back, at once was pounced on by the PM’s rivals within the party and thus started the present bargaining for power within the Nepali Congress. At present, it has been revealed that Prime Minister Koirala, who is also the president of the party, has rejected the majority of demands put forth by the Bhattarai camp. For example he has said he will not resign from the party president’s post nor as parliamentary party leader. He has reasoned that as party president he cannot appoint another as acting party president. The Prime Minister is right in his stance in both the cases, but what he should realise is, as a leader, he must be able to accommodate the demands of the opposition too, even if just to allow the government to function smoothly.

However on the other hand, former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai must be more responsible in his outlook. The public utterances he makes time and again, doesn’t present him in good stead with any thinking public. Even now, it can be made out that Bhattarai is only acting as a front for the rivals of Koirala. Koirala may not be the best of leaders that the country has seen, but at least he projects himself as an active person who is working hard. That can’t be said of Bhattarai, who doesn’t look even physically fit. In this regard, other Nepali Congress leaders like former Prime Minister Sher bahadur Deuba and his followers must show more courage and not hide behind the shadow of a leader like Bhattarai. They could learn a lot from Khum Bahadur Khadka, who has stuck to his stance, both, while speaking with the press and while addressing the House of Representatives the day after being ousted from his post. He at least has shown the courage to stand up to Koirala. The worst part of this struggle within the ruling party, has been the adverse impact it has on the nation. Even the routine works have virtually come to a standstill, forget "priority agendas" like improving the law and order situation and providing good governance. If the leaders of the Nepali Congress do not pull up their socks and sort out their internal problems, the country could fall into an even bigger mess. That could be dangerous for the present political set-up and very unfortunate for the wellbeing of the nation. The present crop of leaders, specially within the ruling party, must ponder whether they want to be responsible for such a heinous act?

Facing floods

The incessant rains of the past week, have caused much havoc in many parts of the country. Even according to government figures, virtually all the districts of the Kingdom, 72 out of 75, have been affected, either by floods or landslides and more than 120 people have died. The loss of property, as can be easily guessed, has also been enormous. Such tragedies seem to befall the nation every year during the Monsoon season. But we must question ourselves, is only nature to blame for the havoc that is created in the lives of the people? It definitely does not seem so. For example this year, even many neighbourhoods in Kathmandu were affected by the heavy rains. How did this happen? In most of the cases of inundation or even houses being damaged, it was either because the settlers had encroached on river banks or because house owners had not bothered to make any outlet facilities for rain water. So whose fault was it that the rains caused havoc?

Quite naturally, the authorities who overlook the development of Kathmandu Valley are also to blame for such a situation. They should not have allowed the construction of houses without basic needs such as roads and sewage outlets among others. Seeing the rapid growth still going on in the City, it can be expected that this problem will get worse in the days to come. Sadly, the situation seems no better in the Terai and hill areas too, though the problems there could be different. Poverty and lack of awareness have been aggravating the flood and landslide situations in such rural places. Constant deforestation is responsible for many of the landslides and also floods. The people should have been made aware that their own actions could be causing so much tragedy for them. As Monsoons are an yearly event, both the government and the people should be better prepared to deal with it.

A pan-kamaiya system

By K.C. Bhatt

In a country like Nepal, a significant portion of the total GNP has to be spent as debt servicing. Yet, the current lot of the democratically elected politicians too do not refrain from heavily acquiring loans to run the machinery of the state, in order to achieve developmental activities- if not objectives-in the country.

So, the debt-trap of the nation is expected to become worse in the near future, if the regular expenses of the government will remain disproportionate to the developmental expenditures. As, obviously, in order to run such a self perpetuating system of the governance, in the absence of any tangible reforms to mobilize the internal resources, a major chunk of the total national budget has to be borrowed from external sources.

One does not have to be a genius therefore, to conclude that, the nation is steadily sinking deeper in the debts from the International financial Organisations (IFOs), those are generous enough to finance such an explicitly loss making enterprise of governance, in a country like Nepal.

Also, given the rampant corruption among the bureaucracy and politicians of the country and the inane and arcane, politically motivated conditionalities of the IFOs, any dollar-driven-development; if achieved; may not be in the interest of the majority and may also cost inflatedly, thereby making the lives of the future generations even more penurious and complicated-those will inherit the nation from us.

Recently, hype is there in the air, about writing off the debt-burden of the poor countries of the world; in order to make them move viable an economically sovereign. However, even the most recent G-8 summit of the industrialized nations - like the previous ones - has ended in Okinawa, Japan, without making any significant progress on this vital issue.

In fact, the existing system of the world like a mammoth and monolithic system of bonded labor, where a handful of the people are the landlords and rest of the world population is their subject. These subjects work through out their lives and produce wealth only to pay for the ever-increasing bill of debt servicing. This debt - in many instances - was {and (any be) continues to be} borrowed by a dictator, a tyrant or other venal kind of political leaders, depending upon the kind of system that was previously (or currently in existence; as the case many be in the context of a particular country.

Recently, the government of Nepal has done well to abolish the Kamaiya system in the country, little realizing that the nation itself is victim of pan-kamaiya system. And a government that can emancipate Nepal and it’s people from this figurative and literal status of kamaiya is non existent in the current world order.

Guilty should be punished

I was reading the article about the death of a young singer Mr. Gurung, who was killed by Paras Shah’s car. But Shah is still walking as a free man. I think he should be put behind bars and his Royal title should be stripped away from him. The law should be equal to everyone. Just because he is from a Royal family he should not be excluded. All should be punished according to the law, so that such offences will not be repeated. In a country like Canada if anyone kills anyone they are imprisoned for life, and I think that should be applied in nepal too.

Does Paras Shah realise that because of his carelessness one family has lost a father, son and a husband.Does he realise what the family must be going through. I think The Royal family should make sure they compensate the Gurung family by giving them enough money to last them till the end because they have lost their bread earner. If they are not compensated then who is going to make the ends meet?

So Mr Paras Shah don’t think you can do what you want just because you are from the Royal family and you have lots of money!

Shova(Nanu) Kassam