In-depth Analysis

Eyes focussed on junior Koirala's polls at Rauthat

Kathmandu: - Eyes now turn to the by-elections in three crucial constituencies this week which almost inevitably will go to the Congress and the UML, the UML probably losing one or more seat in Rautahat to the much watched Prakash Koirala. Indeed, Koirala's election has become a prestige issue for both the Congress Party and Government and it is unlikely that they will concede the seat to the Left regardless of the fact that Rautahat is a traditional Communist stronghold since long.

The Rautahat poll is crucial in more ways than one. Firstly, Prakash Koirala's standpoints on Nepali 'nationalism and issues' therefrom divert from the conventional Congress mainstream. Secondly, K.P. Bhattarai wants Prakash Koirala in Parliament to woo support away from the Girija dominated Koirala family monopoly of the Congress leadership. Thirdly, Girija Babu can't but deny B.P's son a constituency outside the traditional Morang-Sunsari stronghold of the Koirala-Congress family.

It is these factors that provide Prakash Koirala prestige backing in a Rautahat that has for long been dominated by communist politics. This is not to suggest that Prakash will show a hands-down win. But the elections already indicate considerable establishment tilt in his favor. Whether this also means that a trade-off has taken place in Ilam can't be ruled out to facilitate Prakash. The votes will nevertheless show sizeable Left presence in Rautahat.

A predictable Prakash win in Rautahat, if unable to materialize, will show two trends. The first is that the proximity between K.P. Bhattarai and the UML has not worked in his favor on the issue. Secondly, Girija party backing for Prakash is half-hearted. As yet, however, both these possibilities seem remote and so one can concede Rautahat to Prakash.

A Prakash win on the other hand, allow K.P to induct B.P's son in Cabinet giving him the clout of official resources to woo Koirala traditional loyalties towards him. It will, on the other hand, give Prakash a more legitimate rostrum to build up his national image as B.P's son claiming a mantle of leadership for the Congress organization currently monopolized by Girija. It will perhaps also close the yawning distance between traditional national politics and Congress policies if Prakash is allowed to have his way. Whatever, K.P will have been allowed a Koirala card in his organizational designs.

It must also be said here that G.P is unlikely to be totally unaware of these repercussions. It is unlikely also that he will remain aloof from manipulations to cash in on the possibilities opened by a win of another pivotal Koirala family member. How Prakash will emerge from the internal Congress politics is perhaps less certain than his emergence from the Rautahat polls. One most likely clue will be found in whether he is inducted in Cabinet or not.

So far one finds the Rautahat campaign backed to the hilt by Party and family, so much so that even Indian matinee idol Manisha Koirala is romping the constituency promoting her father.

Strip News:

SA scholars give an ovation to CASAC Kathmandu Conference

Last week Kathmandu hosted a conference that had been well attended by the scholars, academicians and media personalities from the South Asian Region. The CASAC-Coalition for Action on South Asian Cooperation- conference lasted for three days. After the conclusion of the three-day regional seminar the Telegraph had the honor to talk to some of the VIPs attending the seminar. The SA luminaries included Farooq Sobhan, former foreign secretary of B'desh and currently the co-Chairman of the CASAC process; Ambassador Manel Abeyesekera, Sri Lanka; Minister of Planning and Development of the Maldives I. H. Zaki and Ambassador Niaz Naik, Pakistan. The scholars were asked to comment on their personal impressions after the conclusion of the seminar. Below the results-Chief editor.

Farooqu Sobhan, Bangladesh:

We had a very good meeting. We have reaffirmed our commitment to the importance of the Regional Cooperation in South Asia for all our countries in the region. We have recognized that the success of the regional cooperation will depend, on the one hand, on the mobilization of the political will, and on the other, in the mobilization of broad based support from people in different walks of life and disciplines throughout South Asia. We want to make SAARC and Regional Cooperation a movement supported by civil society throughout the region. We were happy that our meeting was able to bring together some of the leading personalities in South Asia including Mr. Inder Kumar Gujral, former Indian Prime Minister, who has been a strong supporter of the regional cooperation for the past 20 years. Nepalese Prime Minister Bhattarai who will clearly play a pivotal role for the future of the SAARC set the tone of our conference because the next summit conference will be held in Kathmandu. We hope that our meeting in Kathmandu will provide some important input for the impending Summit. This morning (December 4) we held the executive committee meeting of the CASAC. We have decided to widely disseminate through the media the results and the recommendations of the Kathmandu declaration. We will also formulate very soon specific programs to be undertaken by CASAC to follow up the Kathmandu conference.

Ambassador Manel Abeyasekera, Sri Lanka:

Well, first of all the CASAC conference in Kathmandu was a great success. I'm not saying this because I belong to CASAC group. But because a lot of good recommendations and discussions came out of it. And also because the conference participants included very many VIPs who are both policy makers at the national level in the SAARC countries but also have input into the policies of the SAARC itself. And I'm sure that they would have taken note of these recommendations. Also since the SAARC Summit is yet to be held in your country, I sincerely hope that the opinions expressed at our CASAC conference and the recommendations made by it would also be seriously considered by our leaders at the forthcoming summit. And that the Secretary-general of the SAARC at the Secretariat will also be able to use some of the ideas expressed at the conference to the advantage of the SAARC because after all CASAC's objective is directly related to that of SAARC and supportive of the goal of cooperation in all its aspects and spheres in South Asia.

Ibrahim Hussain Zaki, Minister of Planning and Development, the Maldives

I think the CASAC conference held in Kathmandu has been successful for many reasons. Firstly, I like to record that we have been able to produce some very good recommendations called the Kathmandu Declaration. Now my specific observation in the contained statement is that it contains some important points, which needs to be considered by SAARC in order to graduate for a higher degree of cooperation in the SAARC. And this is more critical because with the global development insight and SAARC's current status of cooperation. Secondly, this also has served a good input for the forthcoming 11th.SAARC Summit. My very personal observation is the statement gives a clear message that the benefit of cooperation must be equitable within the seven members of SAARC. What I'm referring is the smaller member states must be given special attention as SAARC enters the economic agenda for the future.

With the draft of the Social Charter, I feel that CASAC can contribute immensely to produce a comprehensive and complete document in this regard. My second observation is that the draft of the SAFTA regime instrument is also still incomplete because the current draft doesn't give adequate safeguard measures for smaller states. These are the areas where CASAC can make a difference.

Ambassador Niaz Naik, Pakistan

Well, my first impression is that it has been a very successful conference. The recommendations which have been approved by the freshly concluded conference on economic integration, social harmonization among the seven nations including eradication of poverty and the institutional strengthening of the SAARC mechanism will go a long way in enhancing the regional cooperation. Another achievement of this conference has been the emphasis on political dimensions aimed at creating mutual trust, good will and understanding among the SAARC countries. In another words, the result of this CASAC conference has been to recommend an integrated approach towards the eventual establishment of a South Asian Economic Union-SAEU-. Next, so far the SAARC process has been an inter-governmental process. But this conference has established a strong linkage of the civil society with the development process. Specific recommendations have been made to involve actively such segments of our civil society as Parliamentarians, political leaders, academia, scholars and above all the NGOs. An another important recommendation has been to bring in the younger generation into this process of Regional Cooperation.

The role of the media and the use of information technology have been duly stressed to be used for dissemination of CASAC objectives as well as to create public awareness of the people.

I've attended many such conferences but what impressed me most was that imminent personality from SAARC participated in the conference and made significant contributions to deliberations in Kathmandu.

The inaugural address by Honorable K.P.Bhattarai set a positive tone for the conference deliberations. Other important personalities such as Honorable FM of Nepal and Honorable I.K.Gujaral gave a clear vision for the future development of Regional Cooperation in South Asia. Other imminent experts in their respective fields analyzed for the benefit of the participants the challenges and the opportunities of the new millennium. In this regard the effects of globalization of the world economy were explained in a clear manner. Likewise, how to use the information technology such as the Internet, Web-sites and communications were also brought out with a view to using these new techniques for better understanding and harmony between South Asian countries.

Box news:

CASAC conference concludes with happy note

Kathmandu: The Capital city of Nepal last week hosted a conference "South Asia 2010:Challenges and Opportunities" that saw the courteous presence of the affirmed regional as well as international scholars.

The presence of Inder Kumar Gujaral, Rehman Sobhan and Ambassador Niaz Naik among others gave the conference proper prestige and honor.

The congratulatory messages that arrived from all the seven top hats for the conference organized by the Coalition for Action on South Asian cooperation - CASAC added simply to the glory of the high level meeting of the regional scholars. Inaugurating the three-day seminar, Nepal's Prime minister hinted that the now postponed SAARC Summit would materialize "shortly". Premier Bhattarai said that SAARC which symbolized the hopes and aspirations of the one-fifth of the humanity in this poverty stricken part of the globe had been gradually taking concrete steps to promote cooperation in various fields.

Professor Rehman Sobhan in his introductory remarks opined that whilst SAARC leaders still remain captives of their respective bureaucracies who retain their historical memories of past animosities and divisiveness these same leaders are becoming more conscious that civil society in SA is itself moving more rapidly to integrate the region.

Herr Horst Mund, FES representative in Nepal and India expressed his profound happiness in having been able to cooperate the SAARC process through the CASAC and said that 'true regional cooperation can become an effective means in the promotion of economic and social development and the creation of peaceful, harmonious relations between regional countries.

The Chairman of the inaugural session was Minister Ibrahim Hussain Zaki who said that regrettably SAARC was still stuck on the starting blocks and that the free trade area is still struggling through bureaucratic red tape while opportunities for closer cooperation were being simply wasted.

In his welcome address, the co-convenor of the CASAC Nepal chapter, Professor Sridhar Khatri said that the declaration of the Male Summit in 1997 was crucial for SAARC since it symbolized a serious move in various directions. He also hoped that the recommendations emerging out of the Kathmandu conference would be seriously taken up by the SAARC-7 during the impending Kathmandu SAARC Summit.

On 3rd.December, 1999, I.K.Gujral made his valedictory remarks in which he said that for the enhancement of the SAARC process there was no difference among the Indian leaders. He, however, suggested the attending participants not to bring the contentious bilateral issues to the forum of the SAARC.

At the end of the conference the attending participants denominated the three-day meet as a grand success.

Miscellaneous

 Bhattarai facilitates Deuba's chances?

 Kathmandu: The last weapon what had been supposedly lying under Prime Minister K.P.Bhattarai's sleeve has been used against his political competitor President Girija Prasad Koirala.

The weapon has been used to frustrate the Koirala designs which were aimed at, say Bhattarai sources in government, destabilizing the seat of Bhattarai's Premiership through the pronouncements of the ever growing Maoists' terror in the nation and the government's inability to contain the threat.

A clever Prime minister appears to have fully capped the recent Koirala overtures regarding containing the Maoists threat through the sole use of the latter's good offices by nominating former Prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to head a powerful committee which will have to submit a report after proper consultations with other political parties. This committee will provide suggestions to the government on how to proceed with the Maoists' issue.

To recall, Deuba is a declared supporter of Premier Bhattarai.

 Deuba's selection as the head of the committee also amply hints at the fact that Premier Bhattarai wishes Deuba to become the next Prime Minister after his term. This also concurrently sends signals to the Koirala camp that President Koirala should now not dream of the Premiership.

Surprising of it all is the naked truth that the Deuba committee houses such members as R.C.Poudel and the likes who had rejected the personal requests of President Koirala to be included in a forum for initiating talks with political parties on the question of the Maoists. Sushil Koirala, close relative of G.P.Koirala also is in the Deuba committee.

With the sudden formation of this committee under S.B.Deuba, it is talked that Koirala has nothing left for him. It is also talked in the congress circles that Premier Bhattarai has arrived at a tacit understanding with UML general secretary Madhav Nepal for the victory of Prakash Koirala-late B.P's son. If Prakash Koirala wins then it would also mean that Bhattarai will enjoy Prakash unconditional support. Prakash had been denied party tickets by President Koirala, say Prakash loyalists, thinking that a Prakash win at the hustings might damage senior Koirala's image in the party.

How President Koirala retaliates to this unexpected turn in Nepali Congress politics will be watched.

Things will perhaps take shape after the conclusion of the by-elections.

Tussle continues in UML camp?

 Kathmandu: The United Marxists-Leninists party has finally submitted a petition at the Royal Palace yesterday demanding a special session of the Parliament to be duly convened by King Birendra.

The special session has been summoned to grill the government over the recent price hikes effected in certain essential commodities such as Diesel, K-oil, and electricity power rates.

The UML also expects the support of other political parties currently in opposition.

This notwithstanding, a few parties in the opposition have already expressed their reservations regarding the convening of this special session. They say that it would be of no use to the people but will cost the nation very high in terms of money and time.

Vocal is ML-the political competitor of the UML, which says that the UML should have taken the course of street demonstrations rather than convening of the special session, which will prove costly to the nation.

"The special session has been summoned for gulping the perks and the facilities by the ruling stalwarts of the Party", commented a ML leader.

In the meanwhile, the ongoing tussle in between the two UML stalwarts, Madhav and Woli, has intensified whose effects could well be seen in the by-election results. Reports have it that Woli lobby is hell bent upon defeating the Madhav candidate in Rauthat. Rejecting this claim from the other camp, the Woli coterie opines that Madhav has already sacrificed his candidate in favor of NC candidate-Prakash Koirala.

Similarly, in Jhapa, Madhav lobby is concentrating its entire efforts to arrange a defeat of the Woli candidate there. All put together, the UML appears to be heading for a big personality clash.

While NC and the UML were engaged in intra-fighting, the former party of the Panchas-RPP-Thapa and RPP-Chand were almost announce their reunification.

Poll survey on five-day work is mixed

 Kathmandu, December 20: Public reaction to the five-day work week enforced by the Bhattarai Administration in Kathmandu Valley on an experimental basis since August 17 this year is mixed. Those standing for and against the "experimental" system are almost evenly divided. An opinion poll conducted in the capital valley by the Media Services International (MSI) a professional agency dedicated to media study and research, has found out that 47.4 % of the people think that the five-day work week has benefited them. Those who say they have not benefited from the new arrangement constitute 39.8 % of the respondents.  A substantially lower percentage (12.8 %) of the respondents chose not to express any opinion on the matter.  The MSI poll completed with the support of the London-based Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) queried a total of 200 individuals including civil servants and corporation employees (40), school/university teachers (30), owners and employees of  industrial/business enterprises (30), housewives  (25), school/college/university students (25), taxi/tempo owners (25) and service users group (25) of the valley to arrive at the above conclusion.

 The poll revealed that a considerably large number of the people (57 %) believed that the five-day work week had proved to be convenient as it allowed them more time to execute their day-to-day official responsibilities. By the same token, if  23 % of the respondents said the new arrangement was ideal as it offered a longer weekend, 19 % said the change in hours was suitable for going to and returning from the workplace. Only a lowly 7 % have welcomed the change in eating time.

 Among those who say they have not benefited from the five-day workweek, 67 % thought the new routine was not so very welcome because it did not help them in satisfactory execution of their responsibilities. The change forced by the new system in eating time has not been liked by 25 % of the respondents, whereas 5 % have cited the problem of going to and returning from office as the main one. Those against the longer weekend (of two days) constituted only 3 % of those covered by the survey.

  Should the five-day workweek system be retained? 56 % replied in the affirmative, whereas 35 % voiced an emphatic "no". The latter group wants the old routine resumed, while only 9 % opted for a neutral line, meaning it is okay either way.

  As for the question if the new practice had made any difference in the working style of the government and public corporations, 44 % of the respondents opined that it had made no difference. Those

who thought the five-day week had served to improve the performance of the official agencies and public corporations and those who said the performance had worsened were almost equally divided, 17 % and 16 %, respectively. The percentage of respondents with no definitive opinion on the matter was 23 %.

 To the query whether it is desirable to have the five-day work system implemented throughout the country, 47 % said "yes" and 38 % said "no". The rest (15 %) did not say anything on having the system introduced nationwide.

 On the issue of curtailing public and cultural holidays in the context  of an extra day-off a week, 58 % stood against such an idea as opposed to 30.3 % who wanted the number of holidays proportionately scaled down to make up for the "lost day" in the week. Only 11.4 % have volunteered no opinion.

 With respect to the official reasons justifying the decision to introduce the five-day week system in the capital valley, 59 % of those reached did not respond, one way or another. However, the percentage of respondents believing that it will reduce government expenditure, control pollution and enhance efficiency stand at 12 %,10 % and 8 %, respectively. Quite revealingly,though, only 11 % of the interviewees were of the view that the longer weekend was simply being wasted in gambling and other fool-around escapades.

Intl. Terrorism has no borders says Yeltsin

Kathmandu: President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin has authoritatively said that the ongoing second stage of anti-terrorist operation in the Northern Caucasian area has completed bagging full success.

President Yeltsin made these remarks December 3, last week while addressing his fellow compatriots.

A statement issued by the President's office says that while the third stage will begin soon but a few things will have to be taken into account prior to jumping on to the next phase in containing the terrorism.

"Enormous work is ahead since the terrorists left behind them totally burgled land. Infrastructure is destroyed, the plants are stolen. Russia is ready to support the population of Chechnya to eliminate the consequences of the bloody unrest by the terrorists. But it is important that the people of Chechnya themselves should join the process of construction as soon as possible. It is their land and it is them who should jointly restore it," added the President.

President Yeltsin also made it a point to send messages to the West who had some reservations regarding the Russian actions stating that he was aware that those in the West who still for some reasons did not understood Russian actions will be convinced in their (Russia's) right cause. He also mentioned that international terrorism does not have borders and that the whole world had been its target.

Finland to lead strong and open Europe to new millennium

Kathmandu : Finnish Charge de' Affaires Esa Hurtig has said that 1999 was an important year for Finland.

"We have been privileged to assume the Europe as a whole. The role of Presidency has grown from chairing EU-meetings to becoming the primary manager of the European Council. We Finns feel that as the most northernmost and easternmost country of the Union, and also as the neighbor of the highly important Russia, Finland has lots to offer to the Union", added Hurtig.

The Finnish diplomat made these observations while talking to this scribe last week.

Dwelling on the ever growing Nepal-Finland ties, Hurtig opined that Finland hosted and will still host several events in Nepal to present Finnish culture in this important year of EU-Presidency. For example, continued the diplomat, the Embassy invited former Foreign Minister of Finland and also former Member of European Parliament, Me. Pertti Paasio to interact with high –level Nepali audiences about Finish experience in nation building.

At the same time we also invited our most famous singer, Mr. Eino Gron, to perform in a big open-air concert in Kathmandu. This took place in mid-October. We feel that these people-to-people contacts and performances bring Finns and Nepalese closer to each other.

This year, goes on to say the Finnish envoy, we will celebrate our National Day also in Nepal's industrial city, Biratnagar, this Saturday. Furthermore, some smaller events, like theater performances and exhibitions of Finnish artists, will take place within this 6 months' time of our Presidency.

The European Union – the Member States and Commission together – is the biggest trading partner to Nepal, and also the biggest financier of development activities.

"I am proud to see that contacts between the Union and Nepal are increasing year by year. I am also happy to see that the efforts placed by Nepal to further develop economic links with the Union are vigorous. This was clearly seen during the Meeting of the EU-Nepal Joint – Commission in Brussels in October 1999. A strong Union will be an interesting partner to Nepal. I am looking forward to an enhanced cooperation-political, commercial, and economic and culture – between the European Union and Nepal in the days to come.

On the occasion of the Independence Day of Finland I send my best wishes to the people of Nepal, concluded Esa Hurtig.

WTO negotiators failed to recognize shift in world power structure

Kathmandu : The abrupt collapse of the world trade talks held in Seattle last week has been celebrated by many developing countries

It is certainly a serious humiliation for President Clinton, whose hopes of ending his second, scandal-slimed term on a high note have been destroyed after days of rioting in front of the world's cameras and days of fruitless talking behind closed doors. The World Trade Organization is however, not about to collapse and the negotiations will reportedly start again, presumably next year in Geneva. But for advocates of free trade, there is no getting away from it - last week was a catastrophe of a kind that has not happened in the post-war world before.

How did it happen? Essentially, the vested interests were simply too strong.

There is a visible and distinct shift in the world power structure, say Nepali economists, the Western negotiators had failed to recognize this round. The days when Asian, South American and other Third World countries could be ignored are coming to an end, opined one Nepali senior economist.

The ragged coalition of protesters at Seattle uses the language of socialism but have no agenda of their own. The protesters accused the WTO of helping 'the exploitation of our planet and its people by the global capitalist system'.

Instead, they demanded 'alternative social and economic structures based on co-operation, ecological sustainability and grassroots democracy', which sounds like the Communist Manifesto rewritten by Christopher Robin.

If something is going wrong somewhere, then it is the faceless WTO and its evil spirits, the trans-national corporations, who are to blame. Since something is always going wrong in this postlapsarian world, the list of charges against the WTO grows by the day.

Telegraph adds: Fears are being expressed here stating that the Seattle Protest Could Have Lasting Influence on world trade with the sudden emergence of a new and vocal                  coalition that will make it expectedly far harder for the Clinton administration to move ahead with its plans for freer trade.

In addition, many Seattle protesters hope their movement will last longer than the Vietnam War movement because their target, globalization, is not a single issue that can be resolved by a peace treaty.

Book of the week