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Talking Politics All Season
After the dissolution of the elected House of Representatives in June 2002 and the dismissal of elected prime minister in October 2002 by King Gyanendra, the streets of urban centers of Nepal continues to witness all kinds of political debates and agitations all the time. The political forces are talking politics all season ignoring the festering problems like growing unemployment, deteriorating quality of education, scarcity of health institutions and disruption in economic development. As long as the elected parliament - though it used to be frequently disrupted by political agitations by main opposition parties - was functional, members of parliament raised the agenda of development. At a time when Nepal ’s two big neighbors India and China are moving rapidly towards round development buoyed by high economic growth, how long can Nepal continue to afford to ignore the real and core agenda of all round development remains to be seen
By KESHAB POUDEL
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Party workers in demonstration : One-point agenda |
A recent news report in Kantipur daily (February 5) said a group of women had to wait for up to twenty hours just to see a doctor for check up. In a camp organized to check up women’s health in Myagdi district, 300 kilometers west of capital, the long queue of women forced the organizers to open the camp whole day.
According to the Asian Development Bank, Nepal needs to restart and accelerate growth to create employment for its burgeoning population. Nepal ’s unemployment problems are unexpectedly higher as a recent survey published by an international organization has revealed that one third of population are unemployed.
Schools and colleges – which need to complete 180 days of class annually - were hardly open for half of the period affecting the quality of education. In rural areas, the education sector is thoroughly hit by ongoing conflict.
Exports of garment and carpet continue to decline coupled with low tourist arrivals, which have already made tens of thousands of people jobless.
Nepal Electricity Authority has announced 17 hours long weekly load shedding since mid of January and it is expected to increase further in April and May. Future of Melamchi Drinking Water Project, a mega project aimed at supply drinking water to capital, is uncertain. The only running Middle Marsyangdi project has overshot its targeted time of completion due to frequent strikes and disruptions.
Although these major agenda have many long-term and short-term implications, they hardly surface in the agenda of political forces – which have been launching different kinds of political programs.
Where Are Other Agenda?
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Street Agitation : Focus is on Politics |
Talking politics all the time has become a pastime of urban elites and politicians in Nepal and nobody has any time to talk about the agenda of health, employment and development that touches the everyday lives of millions of people. Situated between two vibrant and economically powerful countries India and China , how long can Nepalese afford the luxury of talking politics and politics all the time?
There seems to be minimum awareness and concern on other vital problems of the country such as unemployment, illiteracy, poor health and other several such economic issues at political level.
According to a report, Nepal ’s one third of working population are jobless. It is unfortunate to say that these jobless people in the country don’t have their spokesmen in politics. It seems that political forces have used them as easily available cheap slogan shouters and violent and unruly agitators.
The ways the education environment have been disrupted indicate that the country will have a very low quality of students in future who will not be able to compete in the regional and international market. If the government does not invest sufficient resources to help them, the country’s burgeoning jobless people will have no option other than to disrupt the day-to-day life.
“We have very learned, experienced and dedicated economists who reveal that the country’s economy is in alarming situation but that debate don’t go further than that. There is no buyer of that opinion or concern in the organized politics. It requires a bit of serious study and knowledge of some basic facts - which the city centered populist elites find distasteful and boring,” said a political analyst.
The most thrilling and exciting debate is centered around political issues that have distracted even professionals who are supposed to join the genuine debates. Among persons of the academic career - who talk about sensitizing against the Royal Regime and the constitution – who are in high demand in debating forums and media, nobody has the time to raise the issues of interest of broader group of people.
“I have been saying for quite a long time that the economy of this nation has been adversely affected by non-economic factors. Unless these elements are resolved, the economy will not take a positive turn. The major players in this country did not give appropriate and timely attention to the timely resolution of this problem, that is conflict - which has ruined the economy. Now the situation is such that we cannot do much on the economic front even if we try to do so. In the meantime, no concerted efforts seem to be forthcoming to resolve the decade long crisis,” said former governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Dr. Tilak Rawal,
Persons who are seriously concerned about the economic problems of the country, deterioration of education, job and health don’t find prominence in interviews in newspapers and public gatherings. What entertains the people is politics – that, too, of highly inflamed, sadistic and intense nature.
It requires a little homework and a little sense and logic to arise from this quagmire. Being a pluralistic society, which has been guaranteed by the constitution, anybody has the right to dissent against whole society and spread hatred and disaffection even to a document of faith like constitution. To that extent debates are understandable.
But it is quite unusual to see such debates bring in the prominence such issues, which have no relevance with the broad spectrum of the moments. And one fails to understand how the change of the constitution will ensure the stability and respect of the new constitution. One is hardly provided convincing illustration based upon serious and logical thinking.
“We are talking politics all the time to bring the economic prosperity. The economic development has no meaning without political freedom,” said CPN-UML leader K.P. Sharma Oli. “Talking about non-essential issues like economy, education will only strengthen the hand of regressive move of the King.”
Debating all the time about the forms of the constitution and, thus, changing the constitution one after another has become a common phenomenon. The agenda of economic development, creating job opportunities and making the quality of life happier and arresting the economic debacle has become nobody’ agenda though it is related to the basic needs of the people who have been taken for granted as an instrument to destabilize one political system after another and one constitution after another.
“A complex political setting with Palace, government and political parties and CPN/M vying for state control and power made it more difficult for government to focus the country’s development challenges,” states Asian Development Bank’s Country Strategy and Program 2005-2009.
Development Left To Donors
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Health workers administering vaccine : Core concerns overshadowed |
Development needs of the people have been completely left to the concerned departments of the government as well as bewildered donor agencies. Sometime politicians must have to take up the economic problem - which is much related to the problems in the country. Many political parties were established as socialist or equalitarian or welfare but now such things are rarely found in the speeches of politicians.
“One of the important parts of the present time is that politics receive more priority and economic sector is pushed into shadow. There is a need to take political risk to address the real problems but we are unable to take such risk,” said former chief secretary Dr. Bimal Koirala to Agenda, a weekly tabloid. “Country’s economy has been passing through a very critical phase and there requires immediate steps to bring the economy right in the track.”
What has made dysfunctional the role of political parties is the lopsided, city-centered populist tendencies to maintain the popularity. After all the common people at the grass roots are the real base of power but the articulation of the urban centered middle class elites ignore them.
The Role of Elections
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A drinking water pipeline : Rare infrastructure |
The absence of elections in the last few years has widened the gap. The more the elections remain distant, the more the grasp of the urban elites strengthen compared with the grass root interests.
Thanks to the activation of elected system, Nepal had made major strides in the area of economic development. Prepared by the experts from the World Bank and Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the Nepal Living Standard Survey II revealed that popular participation of people can bring about the desired changes. Despite frequent changes in the government, political violence and anarchy, the poverty had drastically reduced during the period of 1996-2003.
Keeping in view the functioning of three parliaments in the past, the lesson is that the people get their issues in prominence as long as periodical elections are held. Presently, as there is no election, there is no relevance of the political debate with the real interest of common people.
When sensible persons have failed to grasp the gravity of the situation, they have also missed the opportunity to act realistically. Politics is not merely a game of war and conflicts for the sake of power, - but it is also a game of negotiation and compromises directed at the welfare of people. One of the vital rules of the democracy is to accommodate conflicting interests to deliver change to the basic life of the people.
All Politics
From economy to development, trade to health and education to employment sectors and energy, all have been passing through a very critical time, as overall development programs remain virtually standstill. But, city-based political forces and urban elites have a little time to perceive the country’s major problems. Political agitations and political agenda are dominating country. Political forces –which are mostly city-centric - have been enjoying the irrelevant political debates using political jargons like absolute democracy, ceremonial monarchy, Constituent Assembly, active monarchy, meaningful democracy, monarch of 21st century, inclusive Loktantra etc sidelining the country’s most burning agenda.
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Water distributed by tanker : When will Melamchi come? |
“In the 1990s, Nepal ’s annual economic growth averaged around a healthy 4.9 percent but the escalating insurgency saw this drop to an average of 1.9 percent between 2002 to 2004. Given that this conflict is persisting and that there are chances it might actually deteriorate, Nepal could lose significantly more than two percentage points of GDP per annum,” said Sultan Hafeez Rahman, country director of Asian Development Bank recently. “With 31 percent of the population living below absolute poverty line and with an average income of just less than $300 a year, the troubled Himalayan Kingdom cannot afford this kind of loss.”
Not only the head of Asian Development Bank but also heads of other international donor
agencies have been expressing similar concerns about Nepal ’s overall position in terms of health, education, economy and other development indicators. But, these warning and predictions have little effect on country’s political forces - which are more concerned about their own political agenda.
As the country does not have elected institutions accountable to the people, such vital issues of day to day concern are nobody’s agenda. Had there been elected and accountable body like parliament functional, the issue would have disrupted the proceeding compelling the government to take certain drastic steps.
When the country’s political forces are fighting to justify their own political agenda and pursuing irrelevant political jargons, genuine problems and issues faced by common people have been completely sidelined. All these political controversies have overshadowed other serious problems of the country.
In fact, the political controversies are not coming up from the bottom – the grass root people - but being imposed from the top professionals in politics who have manipulated, sponsored and guided the unrealistic debates. Irrelevant political debates are being generated in society.
One cannot reach into any realistic conclusion about the situation of the country and mood of the people by these high sounding political rhetoric – which are being underlined by burning tires in the streets, disrupting the educational calendar and bringing the country now and then into a standstill by the call of bandh - and by suppressing the voices of organized political forces.
These troubles don’t indicate a symptom related to the common people who have been all the time used as a commodity to inflate the crisis. The priority of overwhelming majority of common people is to see the reconciliation between the country’s political forces to achieve the economic development.
The villagers in Sunsari district, the constituency of Nepali Congress (NC) leader Girija Prasad Koirala, do not sleep in night because of threat from the armed robbers. The schools are irregular as well as irrigation canals have dried up due to interruption of water supply from Kosi. Out of 180 class days, the educational institutions run for less than half the time.
Although King Gyanendra stayed at Itahari (a few weeks ago), just 30 kilometers north of the village, and although Nepali Congress leader Koirala frequently visited his house in Biratnagar, 20 kilometers east of the village - the problems of the villagers continue unresolved. In the current round of battle, talking politics seem to be the only agenda for them.
How Much And How Long Of Political Debate?
Nobody knows how long and how much the country can afford the luxury of political debates ignoring the country’s major agenda concerning the people. For the past five decades, Nepalese spent most of their time in raising the fundamental political questions – which are yet to be settled.
Following the revolution of 1951, debate on Nepal’s core political issue, which was attempted to settle at least a couple of times in the past, continues to remain unresolved giving opportunity for the force of instability to gain maximum benefit out of the rift between Nepal’s internal political forces. Accepting the constitution given by then King, Nepali Congress leader B.P. Koirala had formed the first elected government winning the majority in the first free and fair elections in 1958. In mysterious circumstances, the elected government was dismissed and prime minister sent to prison paving the way to revive old political agenda of sharing the power.
After functioning 30 years despite stiff oppositions, the last days of Panchayat brought some real debate concerning people. When Panchayat was itself in the process of settling the political debate, a new political turmoil of 1990 finally succeeded to usher a new era of power sharing through political consensus between the King and the organized political forces. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990 was promulgated hoping to end the debate of power sharing between the political forces. The question against the fundamental values of democracy was raised by the Maoists in 1996 by raising arms against the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990 - demanding to decide the fate of power sharing through the elections of Constituent Assembly.
Major organized political forces faced the violent rebellion launched against the system. One local and national level election were successfully held despite the threat of insurgents in 1997 and 1998. The new political courses emerged following the Royal massacre and accession to the throne by King Gyanendra in 2001. Leaders of political parties, knowingly or unknowingly, pushed the situation to this level in just one year that prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala was replaced by his colleague Sher Bahadur Deuba under whose recommendation the King dissolved the House of Representatives. King Gyanendra, who dismissed Deuba in October 2, 2002 instead of accepting his proposal to postpone general elections, took over absolute executive power.
In his three year long reign, King Gyanendra appointed three different prime ministers and finally he took control of executive power on February 2, 2005 constituting the cabinet under his chairmanship.
Although irrelevant political debates were there all the time, it was just confined to small groups and there were hardly any debate on the core constitutional issues as long as the elected House of Representatives was functional.
During the one decade of elected government, the country did witness a new upsurge of economic development with the establishment of high quality educational institutions, transformation in agriculture and infrastructure development.
Even the CPN-UML – which conspired against the Arun III mega hydro-electricity project - introduced a Build Your Village Yourself Program that generated a new wave of development program in the country. Although organized political forces had made several mistakes thanks to inexperience, they had competed on the basis of their plans in accordance with their own agenda for the development.
As the debate has gradually shifted on power sharing, the streets of urban centers are now full of political agenda ignoring the vast and important area of economic development. “The inability to resolve the locus of ultimate state authority is causing all kinds of political problems. As long as the core political issues remain unsettled, power contestants will confine their struggle in power generating continual instability. External elements will then find proper time to instigate various contestant of power against each other to maximize their benefits,” said sociologist Sauvagya Jung Shaha. “Because of this kind of unsettled locus of authority, we hardly find time to pursue economic and other agenda and all will involve in political debates and talks politics all the time.”
As long as real political power to choose their representatives is not given to the people, talking politics will be the one and only agenda of elites and politicians and nobody will be there to speak the voices of grass root people.
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