Story of a corrupt and Girija’s fresh avowal

Once upon a time there was a King. Naturally he had courtiers around him. One among the many was very corrupt. The King knew about his corrupt practices but never thought of sacking him. However, some suggested the King to transfer that particular courtier to such a place where he could not commit acts of corruption. He was later sent to a shipyard and was told to count the number of ships arriving there every day and show the list to the King on a regular basis. The courtier was thus totally deprived of his extra earnings for he could not ask for bribe at the shipyard. Just counting the number of water-liners capped his under table earnings.

However, the courtier, clever as he was, devised a superb mechanism that later facilitated him good amount of money. The scheme was that as he saw a ship wishing to come to the shore, the courtier denied the ship easy entry. The reason forwarded by him was that since he had to clear the previous arrivals and hence he needed some time to allow them the entry. The captain(s) of the ship could not wait any longer in the mid waters and preferred to bribe the courtier and thus the process continued. The courtier earned more than what he had been earning in his previous job.

The gist of this story, as narrated by my village colleagues when I was myself in teens, is that a corrupt person will find himself comfortable in any job anywhere.

Last week a media man told me a similar story. According to him a rag-bag-bobby-tail person who in the mid nineties normally prepared tea and instant noodles for the guests of the Prime minister right inside Baluatar Palace now possesses three separate posh buildings at three different cities of Nepal and owns a Turbo Prado. The media man claims that he has already hinted about this person’s puzzling astronomical growth within a short span of time. However, the Prime minister appears to have not taken proper note of the media man’s hints as the same person, who should understandably be a Brahmin, continues to be inside the official compound of the Prime minister. The surprising part of the story is that the Prime minister has this time vowed to curb corruption from the national scene. However, the officials residing in the official compound of the Prime minister perhaps do not fall under his commitment and hence no penal actions needed against them.

Now coming back to fresh Girija avowals of curbing corruption what could be fairly said that when the Prime minister’s own house is not in order how he could clean others’ house? Question also arises as to why the Prime minister outrightly ignored the advice of a media man when the latter had singled out the person supposedly a corrupt one. Just imagine how can a person of modest standing could procure such astronomical amount of wealth in such a short period? This case as pointed out by a media man perhaps is just an example. Hundreds and hundreds of such examples of such good corrupt names could well be collected from the country. A minimum effort aimed at finding out the properties earned by the present day leaders of the country could be compared with their previous earnings and living standards. Any disproportionate earnings, if found during the investigation, should be confiscated as per the laws of the land. The Prime minister must begin investigation right from his own official residence stretching it to his cabinet and then to the bureaucracy.

It is just unimaginable how the mere advisors of the Prime ministers swell their earnings when they do not figure in the state hierarchy. However, in Nepal the advisors are considered to be more powerful than the person whom they advise. We are told that any deal, a heavy one indeed, first is negotiated by the so called advisors which later gets okayed by the concerned Prime minister or for that matter the ministers.

G.P. Koirala as Prime minister is a strong personality undoubtedly. However, his weak points are his relatives, family members and more so his own daughter whose extra interest in the RNAC affairs is simply puzzling.

Let us hope that Koirala initiates actions against corrupts who in his name are cashing enormously being inside his own official residence. It is time that Koirala tames and disciplines his in-house advisors who perhaps are betraying him at all possible steps. Will he heed to these popular suggestions? Not in my life time perhaps.

Headline | National | 5 Question  | Editorial | International | Past |