PM Nepal’s challenges

With their varied interests, members of the rainbow coalition may bring constant pressure to bear upon the Prime Minister to promote their petty and party interests. He may have to placate them to prolong the life of his government. His leadership will come under increasing challenge the moment their interests are not taken care of.

By Gopal Thapa

The changes brought about by the historic Jana Andolan-2 were indeed monumental in scope and intensity. With the signing of the historic Peace agreement, the country witnessed an end to the decade long insurgency. The Maoists were brought to the mainstream of politics, joining as they did the government of the time. Elections for the Constituent Assembly were held peacefully. Maoist Party emerged as the largest party through the election. The first session of the Constituent Assembly declared Nepal as a Republic. The age-old institution of Monarchy was abolished for good. A new government under the Maoists was put in place giving hope to people that the dream of an inclusive Nepal would now become reality. Sadly, the hopes of the people have been dashed. We did not get to see much of the magic that the Maoists would often talk about, being played out by them while in government. Works in completing the peace process and drafting of the new constitution did not progress the way they had to. The economic and other woes of people continued, or rather got worse with the deterioration in the law and order situation. Much to the disappointment, the Maoist party left the government throwing the country into complete disarray.

Madhav Kumar Nepal has thus become the Prime Minister at a very challenging and defining time. The contour of new Nepal consistent with the visions and aspirations of the people has yet to emerge. The peace process is barely half way through. The constitution drafting work is progressing at a snail pace, throwing a serious doubt whether it will be completed within the stipulated time. The spirit of consensus, unity and cooperation forged and followed after the 12 -point Peace Agreement, which was instrumental in bringing the country where it is now, sadly stands broken, albeit not completely. On the contrary, mistrust, misunderstanding and misperceptions have deepened among the major political parties. Rebuilding the much depleted trust, restoring the fractured confidence and replacing the bitterness with amity are some of the big challenges to be surmounted. Certainly, the challenges he is faced with are immense.

Formidable opposition

More than that the largest party in the CA is sitting at daggers drawn in the opposition bench. Sitting in this comfort zone, it can easily choose to become irresponsible and unruly. With the hindsight benefit, it can take resort to the politics of quid pro quo. This may lead to the frequent boycotting and obstructing scenario in the CA, thereby severely impinging upon its works. It is everybody’s knowledge that in the absence of its constructive cooperation, the twin task of taking the peace process to its logical conclusion and writing of a new and inclusive constitution well within the stipulated time-frame will not be possible. Although, the Maoists have underlined their expressed commitments and cooperation towards the peace process and promised that they would act as a responsible opposition in the CA as far as these two important issues are concerned. But they have put forward difficult caveats for the new government to comply with.

The new government has also to grapple with the issue of integration and rehabilitation of the PLA in a manner satisfactory to all political parties and the Nepal Army. The peace process cannot reach its logical conclusion without completing the integration and rehabilitation of PLA members now languishing in various UN supervised camps. This work demands application of balanced judgment, high degree of impartiality and fairness. Herein would lie the skill and efficiency of the Prime Minister as a consummate negotiator and confidence winner. This would be the first challenging test for his leadership.

Intra-party and Inter-party challenges

The Prime Minister may have to face challenges and dissenting voices from his own party as there is a distinct division of opinion in the UML on the wisdom of breaking the earlier alliance. Inordinate delay in selecting Ministers is a case in point. Overtime, his prudence, imagination and tact will be severely tested to balance differing and often clashing views within the party. His is a government of a rainbow coalition, each coalition member having its own interest and agenda to push. With their varied interests, members of his rainbow coalition may bring constant pressure to bear upon him to promote their petty and party interests. He may have to placate them to prolong the life of his government. His leadership will come under increasing challenge the moment their interests are not taken care of.

Administrative challenges

Poor delivery in development, rising unemployment, soaring food price, unchecked markets, corruption in bureaucracy as well as growing instances of impunity resulting in debilitating law and order situation are some of the many administrative challenges that the new government has to grapple with. The last nine months saw no genuine efforts being made by the government of the time to address these problems. A mere sweet word of promise for good governance is not enough; the new government must be seen making a swift action to reach out to the people to make a difference in their lives. To be able to deal with these administrative challenges would require transforming our bureaucracy into a model of efficiency.

International community

Undoubtedly, the initiation of the peace process and the achievements made so far are the result of our home grown efforts, there is no denying that international support, cooperation and understanding to bring this about was equally crucial. In fact, in the days to come, as we move forward to complete the peace process and to draft the constitution such international goodwill and support will be required even more. International community seems getting frustrated over the protracted delay in completing the peace process. It has begun to indicate that funding of UNMIN is a costly proposition. Therefore, the sooner we move ahead in a concrete manner in completing the integration and rehabilitation works, the more international goodwill and cooperation would be ensured.

Similarly, pursuit of a consistent, bipartisan, pragmatic and effective diplomacy, in consonance with our foreign policy objectives is very important for sustained and enhanced level of international support and understanding. For this, there has to be consensus and unified position, as far as possible, among all political parties when it comes to the conduct of Foreign policy. The role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is the main instrument of the Government for pursuit of its foreign policy, has to be made central. It has to be allowed greater degree of operational freedom without undue and frequent political interferences.

Conclusion

But the comforting fact is that the Prime Minister has well recognised those challenges and made no attempt to gloss over them. He has made an honest effort to offer a soothing message of healing, at least in words. He has certainly conveyed his response to his detractors, but in a tone of modesty and respectability. Care seems to have been given to avoid making tall and undeliverable promises and in sending a clear signal that he is not in the business of selling pipedreams. He makes a passionate plea for consensus politics, has professed his unshakable faith in the fundamentals of democracy, respect for human rights, rule of law and individual freedom and exhibited his categorical rejection of attempts, under any pretext, at undercutting these universally acclaimed ideals. Similarly, he makes no bone of the ominous clouds of challenges gathering around the country and has not made any sanctimonious promises of a silver bullet to dispel them forthwith for a magical sunshine.

Greatness of a leader is tested only in times of crisis and a leader gifted with vision and foresight can make a difference. And this is a testing time for the Prime Minister’s political acumen, his ability to reach out to other political parties as an effective peace broker. Here is the opportunity as well as a challenge for him. A seasoned traveler in the rough, unpredictable and often bumpy political road of Nepal, and having had the benefit of being part of the peace process right from the beginning, he is fully aware of the sensitivities and intricacies involved in it. We have to wait and see how efficiently and sincerely he will be able to consolidate his commitments into concrete actions in the coming days. As a captain, he has to prove his ability to navigate the chosen mission safely to its destination. Rather than indulging in belittling and nit-picking him, it is time to strengthen his hands for the efforts he will be making to take the country out of the present turbulent times. Let us not lose sight of the fact that institutionalizing of the peace process, writing of a democratic and inclusive constitution and delivery of good governance in the meantime to bring perceptible improvements in the lives of the people who have long been smarting under cornucopia of woes is a collective enterprise. It is and should be the collective responsibility to carry it through, in a spirit of unity, political consensus and cooperation. The Prime minister doesn’t possess a magic bullet to solve them all.

(Thapa is a former Chief of Protocol, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He can be reached at: bhimsen29@gmail.com)

(Editor’s Note: Nepalis, wherever they live, as well as friends of Nepal around the globe are requested to contribute their views/opinions/recollections etc. on issues concerning present day Nepal to the Guest Column of Nepalnews. Length of the article should not be more than 1,000 words and may be edited for the purpose of clarity and space. Relevant photos as well as photo of the author may also be sent along with the article. Please send your write-ups to editors@mos.com.np)

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