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STATE INSTITUTIONS |
Scarcity Of In the absence of capable
leadership and viable growth of state institutions, Nepal has had to pass though political
instability, chaos and confusion in all spheres of governance throughout its five-decade
history of democratization. Whether under the absolute Rana regime, limited democratic
Panchayat system, or today's liberal democracy, the institutions of state have not been
able to perform because of a scarcity of people capable of leading them. The democratic
system, which replaced the Panchayat system that was demonized as corrupt and inefficient,
is facing similar charges. Sections of the intelligentsia are seeking to weaken the
authority of democratic institutions by demanding greater powers for unaccountable
institutions like the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority. As long as state
institutions fail to find capable and efficient people to run them, every polity would be
doomed to decay. By KESHAB POUDEL The Indian Supreme Court recently granted
bail of about Indian Rs.100, 000 to Laloo Prasad Yadav, the former chief minister of Bihar
state, in connection with his alleged involvement in a $300 million fodder scandal.
Nepal's Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) demanded a Rs.30.4
million deposit from Sher Bahadur Thapa, who was accused in a Rs.30 million corruption
case in Nepal Bank Ltd. Citing the exorbitant security deposit, Thapa went to the Supreme
Court seeking a reduction in the amount. The court upheld the amount set by the CIAA.
In both countries, the principle of
bail says that no institution can seek an amount that an individual cannot afford to pay.
The judiciary in India made its decision according to that principle. Nepal's apex court
thought otherwise. Judges speak with great conviction and eloquence in the media on the
need to curb corruption and to ensure fairness and equity. However, when it comes to
delivering judgements and orders that matter, they somehow fall short of applying those
standards. The parliament is full of similar stories
of remissness. Its responsibility as an organ deriving its mandate directly from the
people is to control the executive through legislation. But parliament has been working in
the manner of a super executive. It is often found directing the executive to do this and
not to do that. The Public Accounts Committee, State Affairs Committee and other
parliamentary panels are often seen doing the job best left to the executive. There are hundred of cases of misuse of and
lapses in the executive's functions. It changes its stand without explanation and often
takes decisions in such a haphazard manner that no one can be certain what it intends to
do next. In some cases, cabinet decisions have been reversed within 24 hours on flimsy
grounds. In controlling the civil service and making decisions, the executive hardly
follows any set of rules. The executive hires and fires secretaries not on the basis of
academic qualifications, performance appraisals or experience, but personal influence. A
civil servant who has spent his entire career in the Finance Ministry is suddenly posted
as secretary at the Election Commission. It has become more than an adage among employees
of the Ministry of Culture to be perpetually prepared for a transfer to the Ministry of
Agriculture and vice versa.
The media, which is supposed to serve
as a pillar of democracy by disseminating objective and balanced information on vital
issues of the day, has not been free from criticism even after emerging from the controls
of the Panchayat regime. Politicians and intellectuals often accuse the media of
misquoting and distorting their opinions. The latest victim was former prime minister
Girija Prasad Koirala, who complained that the local media misquoted comments he made in a
recent interview on BBC Nepali Service as a call for a national government. For two days,
broadsheet dailies and weeklies ran stories on what Koirala insisted he had never said.
Although the ownership, accessibility and size of Nepal's media have changed drastically
over the last five decades, improvements have been slower when it comes to reliability and
credibility. Many politicians accuse journalists of
deliberately misquoting their statements. More than half a dozen broadsheet daily
newspapers are being published and a similar number of private radio stations are on the
air. The demand for competent media professionals is growing. From the complaints you
hear, it seems there is a serious dearth of qualified media professionals. Nepal's thinking classes have bared their
intellectual fickleness, too. The same speaker can be heard supporting the basic tenets of
liberal democracy at one seminar and defending the empowerment of an unaccountable body
like the CIAA at another. The importance of making critical evaluations is often far
removed from the picture. "A capable leadership can bring
tremendous results in a very short period of time," says an analyst who has been
studying political practices in Nepal over the past decade. "Politicians and
officials are leading the democratic process but they themselves are not practicing
democracy. No one is prepared to accept restrictions on the exercise of power. The
leadership in almost every sphere of society remains democratic as long as it does not
hurt its petty interests," he says. Institutions Without Governance Nepal's experience has elucidated that
modern institutions alone are not enough to change the pattern of governance. The country
also requires a large pool of trained people who are capable of providing leadership
to these institutions.
Nepal's northern neighbor, China, has
been training a large number of its citizen abroad on efficient methods of running modern
institutions. As former colonies, South Asian countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh
and Sri Lanka have a vast reservoir of trained and capable work force. Nepalis, who have
to deal with such competent people in the north and south, can expect to face difficult
times ahead in terms of pursuing their point of view and presenting their interests. A
country that should be working to build effective infrastructure for modern governance,
however, finds itself engrossed in the shifting equations of politics. From politics to the judiciary and from the
bureaucracy to the media, all institutions seem to lack the quality of human resources
needed for effective governance. Even political institutions run by elected
representatives are struggling to prove their relevance to an increasingly disillusioned
citizenry. When you see politicians, intellectuals,
professors and other influential people calling for the empowerment of unaccountable
organizations to restore order and probity in life, you are forced to wonder where Nepal's
experiment in democracy has gone wrong. Strangely enough, even some western donors under
whose moral support Nepalis are learning the challenges of democracy, appear to be in
favor of using such unaccountable organizations to control bodies that are
responsible to the people. Experts argue that Nepal's problem is not
one of institutions and regulations, but of their performance. "The institutions are
not abiding by their prescribed acts, like in the case of the CIAA, which intervened in
Nepal Bank's internal financial irregularities," says a political analyst. "The
CIAA statute does not permit it to investigate those institutions in which the government
does not have an ownership of at least 50 percent," adds advocate Gandhi Pandit, who
appeared in the Supreme Court in connection with the case. Failure of Leadership
Nepal's acts and institutions are
similar to their western counterparts, but they are giving the opposite results. This puts
the blame squarely on the people who are leading our institutions. Unlike former colonies,
which benefited from the strong institutions and capable work force the departing power
left behind, Nepal has had to build institutions from scratch. These institutions have
grown under various political systems. For 104 years, the Ranas had promoted and protected
their own institutions, which left its distinct imprint on the country. After the
political change of 1951, the country found itself without the trained work force and firm
institutional structures that were vital to strengthening the new democratic order. As a
result, the country embarked on path that would go through wildly varying political and
economic models. In his memoirs, "Atma Britanta",
B.P. Koirala speaks of the pathetic situation the country was in when he was appointed
home minister. He had to build the ministry literally brick by brick, as there was no
institution to command or competent officials to delegate authority to. "The hopeful sign is that a large
number of people are being trained and prepared to run modern institutions," says an
analyst who has closely studied the evolution of the modern Nepalese state. "As a
small country nestled between two big neighbors, Nepal does not have an easy way out. What
is particularly frustrating is the incapable leadership that is on the top of the
ladder." Cultural factor Any discussion of the growth of state
institutions needs to take into account the cultural dynamics of the country. A society
with a long history of feudalism cannot transform itself overnight. Radical thoughts alone
cannot change the behavior and value systems of the people. During the Rana regime, a few high-class
officials sent their children to Indian colleges and universities. However, the pool of
educated work force was too small to meet the emerging challenges. Moreover, the
feudalistic background of these qualified Nepalis stood in the way of social and economic
change. The value system accumulated over the past
decades has prevented officials from becoming powerful agents of change. The tendency of
becoming a cynical, rather than critical, citizens, persists. This feudalistic culture
continues to influence the outlook of the power elite, who do not hesitate to swing from
one extreme to the other. The ignorance of the common citizens, most
of whom are deprived of purposeful education and the luxury of contemplation, is
understandable. What is surprising is that highly educated and westernized members of
Nepal's intelligentsia are in favor of empowering unaccountable organs like the CIAA
instead of working to encourage greater efficiency and responsibility in the parliament,
executive and judiciary. "It is rather shocking too see nobody
talking about how to make the CIAA accountable," says a political analyst.
"Where have the energy and enthusiasm that had gone into overthrowing the Panchayat
system a little over a decade ago gone today?" Public cynicism has grown to such a level
that people are willing to count on measures that would limit individual freedoms and
liberties to solve all their problems. Incapability and ignorance have prevented the
political leadership, intellectuals and others from understanding the depths of the
origins of the violent activities in the country today, which forced the state to impose a
national state of emergency. At a time when the Royal Nepalese Army, the
country's oldest and most professional institution, is disarming the Maoists, political
institutions are incapable of hailing the soldiers' sacrifice. "In response to such a
grave situation, the country has mobilized the army, but the political leadership, both
from the left and the right, is raising questions of credibility," says a political
analyst. If one gauges Nepal's position in 1950
through the eyes of Tony Hagen, the present changes and development, though slow and
steady, have definitely been able to inject feeling of modernism in the mind of the
people. According to "Observation on Certain
Aspects of Economic and Social Development Problems in Nepal, 1959" published by the
renowned Swiss scholar, "There is total lack of rural administration, of local
organization and local government. Until 1950, Nepal was entirely a forbidden land and
closed to the rest of the world. It is certainly tempting for the government officials to
think in terms of big industries, modern research and techniques rather than in terms of
the life, problems and needs of the common people." Political Instability Even with the growth of new institutions
and establishment of nation-wide networks in the last five decades, Nepalis are yet to
feel their existence and contribution. In the last five decades, no government has
survived for more than three years. Political instability has ruined the country from 1950
to 2001. From 1951-1960, Nepal had six heads of government ó Mohan Sumsher Rana, Matrika
Prasad Koirala, Tanka Prasad Acharya, K.I. Singh, Subarna Sumsher Rana and B.P. Koirala.
Between 1961 and 1990, Nepal saw 11
prime ministers ó Tulsi Giri, Surya Bahadur Thapa, Kirtinidhi Bista, Nagendra
Prasad Rijal, Tulsi Giri, Kirtinidhi Bista, Surya Bahadur Thapa, Lokendra Bahadur Chand,
Nagendra Prasad Rijal, Marich Man Singh Shrestha and Lokendra Bahadur Chand. After the
restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990, Nepal has had 10 prime ministers ó Krishna
Prasad Bhattarai, Girija Prasad Koirala, Man Mohan Adhikary, Sher Bahadur Deuba, Lokendra
Bahadur Chand, Surya Bahadur Thapa, Girija Prasad Koirala, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai,
Girija Prasad Koirala and Sher Bahadur Deuba. With every change of government, there have
been changes in the bureaucracy and project coordinators. Such changes hamper the overall
development of the country. Along with political instability, Nepal has also faced
frequent problems of violent insurgency after the change of 1950. According to Nepal 2000 Update published by
the World Bank, persistent institutional weaknesses at virtually all levels are a major
impediment to development effectiveness in Nepal. At the heart of the problem is a weak,
underpaid and unmotivated civil service. Increased political interference at key points in
the project cycle, particularly in procurement matters and in appointments and transfers
of key staff, has further undermined the efficiency and effectiveness of the civil
service. Because of instability, the majority of
mediocre people in the bureaucracy and politics have succeeded in sidelining the small
number of exceptional individuals. The lack of competent people in different important
fields hampers the development process. In the bureaucracy, the situation is particularly
pathetic because of relentless political interference. Instability in the bureaucratic structure
has often led to the harassment of foreign investors. Kodak Company, which was permitted
to open its processing factory, had to close shop after the government refused to issue
the certificate of origin of its products. Nepalese Students Although a large number of Nepalis go to
India, the United States, European countries and elsewhere for higher studies, only a
handful return. Those who do soon become so fed up with the Nepalese environment that they
leave the country at the first available opportunity. According to the Ministry of Education,
more than 10,000 individuals have returned from foreign countries after completing higher
education. This number includes senior officials in the bureaucracy and judiciary. The
number of graduates from the national university is also increasing. In the bureaucracy,
students from the local university hold the lion's share of the positions. Because of the
poor quality of education in Nepal, newly recruited graduates find it difficult to meet
their challenges. Whether it is in the private or public
sector, there is a dearth of people capable of understanding the trends, problems and
efficiency requirements of institutional growth. Nepal entered the modern age with few
capable and skilled people. According to "Half-a-Century of Development: The History
of U.S. Assistance to Nepal 1951-2000", published by the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID), Kathmandu, there were very few skilled personnel
capable of formulating and directing policies appropriate for Nepal's identity, and a lack of
administrative machinery capable of translating King Tribhuvan's political vision into
economic and social reality. Approximately 98 percent of Nepal's eight
million people were illiterate with only 300 college graduates in the entire country. The
highly centralized government administration was ill equipped to realistically consider
the demographic needs of its rural majority, making it virtually impossible to plan
comprehensive development efforts. Over the last five decades, the number of
educated persons has increased by many folds and thousands of university graduates are
competing in politics, judiciary and other sectors. But how capable are they of running
modern institutions? "We have been spending very meager resources on university
education," says a professor at Tribhuvan University. "A campus built for 100
students is admitting 3,000 students. How can you hope to produce quality students from
existing infrastructure? Instead, we are producing mediocre manpower with a radical
political orientation." Nepal embarked on human resources
development with support from the United States in the 1950s. According to "Half A
Century of Development", between 1952 to 1959, USOM trained 164 Nepali participants
in US universities. Nepal did not have its own university system at that time so USOM
developed a participant training program to send Nepalis to US universities for
specialized training. The cynicism that has gripped civil society
has helped instil a general sense of negativism. In the last 12 years, members of the
highly educated class have been at the forefront of political destabilization. Whether it
was under the limited democratic Panchayat system or liberal multiparty system, Nepal has
faced similar problems of political instability. In the process, politicians have lost
their credibility. The ability of state institutions to deliver has eroded. However, the
country's problems could go from bad to worse in the absence of urgent steps to stem the
rot. Building Competence The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal
1990 has envisaged strong institutions. Those that exist have been undermined by political
instability. Except for a few years during the Panchayat system, Nepal has not experienced
the political stability that is essential to achieving the country's goals. In his book "Nepal: Growth of a
Nation" Ludwig F. Stiller, S.J. writes, "The Nepalese nation was born against
improbable odds." These odds still exist in different forms. The challenge this time
is to encourage capable and competent people in state institutions. Without that,
tinkering with the political system would only add to the nation's woes. |
Send your feedback to the
editor: spotligh@mos.com.np |
