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Repeating History
History repeats with such precision but we fail to notice it.
Since mid-April, the interim parliament has not been in session due to disruption by MPs of various parties. Back in 2001, CPN-UML had stalled the parliament proceedings for a similarly long period. The current disruption was started by the Maoist MPs, then the Madhesi MPs took over. Recently Rastriya Prajatantra Party joined in the action.
The 2001 disruption was followed by the June 1 palace massacre and resignation of Girija Prasad Koirala as the prime Minister in July. Then came in Sher Bahadur Deuba as the Prime Minister, and he declared emergency in November, thus providing the strongest proof that democracy had failed and military rule is what serves the country the best. Following year in mid-May, he dissolved the parliament seeking an election despite the fact that anyone with a straight mind could have easily seen that the situation was not going to be suitable for any election. As that was not enough to kill democracy, he refused to extend the tenure of the local level elected authorities, thus wiping out the remaining bastion of democracy. As anyone can remember, the election was not held and the King usurped the powers, first ruling indirectly through the handpicked Prime Ministers and then directly as a full-fledged dictator.
The situation now seems heading towards similar developments, unless the political leaders try to steer the ship to a different course.
The most recent developments include Koirala’s declaration at Biratnagar that the country is already an 80-percent republic. However, the leftist parties including Maoists and UML are pressing for immediate declaration of a 100 percent republic. They clearly see that such a declaration right now would simply create more chaos, but that is what the leftists want as they also know that the shortest cut for leftist ascendancy on power is only through national chaos. Koirala too knows it clearly and seems to be trying to stall this, but time is slipping away from his hands, literally.
By not holding the Constituent Assembly election in June (by disrupting the house proceedings and thus holding the passage of election related laws), failing to revive the economy and ensuring peace and security, and fanning the differences within the eight-party coalition, the mainstream political parties are gradually getting distanced from the general people. Meanwhile division is growing within the political coalition as well as in the so-called Civil Society.
Krishna Pahadi, one of the main figures in the Society, declared the end of his association with the Society citing differences with Dr. Devendra Raj Pandey, who is regarded as the leader of the Society. Efforts to consolidate the ideologically similar political parties have not borne any concrete result. Koirala has not been able to unite the Deuba-led breakaway faction of the Nepali Congress (NC). In fact, the signs of unification in NC are more blurred with the passing days, no matter what the developments on the surface suggest. Same is the situation in the leftist camps – there is lot of noise of Maoist and UML forming a united leftist party accommodating the fringe groups, but everything is limited to noise only.
One important political development of the month is ADB’s declaration that it is not likely to renew its support to the Melamchi project when the tenure of the current agreement expires in a month or so. Sparked by Maoist minister Hisila Yami’s refusal to hand over the Kathmandu drinking water distribution business to a new company, this ADB withdrawal from Melamchi seems to be affecting other foreign assistance as well. Reports say, Japan too is withdrawing from Melamchi as well as from other big power projects in which it had promised help.
While the suspension of foreign assistance in big projects means loss of employment opportunities for the less skilled masses, the activities of Young Communist League (the new Maoist outfit) is doing different things that keeps the fear of the Maoists alive in the minds of the general people. It is believed that the League is manned by ex-guerillas while the new recruits of the Maoist army are kept inside the cantonments under the supervision and training of a few trained ex-guerillas. This Maoist strategy to remain prepared for taking up arms again seems to be paying them dividends. The government was forced to agree to pay a salary of Rs. 3,000 per month per person. The Maoists are now on an enlistment drive to increase the cadre base of the League. This may soon lead to a compulsion to make new cantonments and salary for the League cadres which may induce more of the unemployed youth to go under the Maoist fold.
“Nepali workers in
Malaysia will stabilise at 200,000”
 Ramasamy Veeran , Managing Director of Merchantrade Asia SDN BHD, the Malaysian partners of Laxmi Bank in remittance business from Malaysia , was in Kathmandu to plan further expansion. Excerpts from an interview:
Have there been any problems in expanding your Nepal business so far?
No. Everything has been going very smoothly. The Central Bank of Malaysia is creating the framework at this moment that will help our expansion. I guess in a couple of months they will be ready to come up with the framework and there should be no problem for us in opening new branches after that. The Malaysian government just liberalised the remittance business and we are the first to get the licence; there are three other players in the market. Laxmi Bank has managed payments of remittances to beneficiaries through a network of its branches and payout agents across the country remarkably well. Laxmi Bank's web-based software - eMT- is very effective and user friendly as well. We are extremely happy with our alliance with this bank.
Do you handle remittance flow to countries other than Nepal as well?
At this moment we handle remittance from Malaysia to Bangladesh too. We are also planning to start business in Vietnam this month. We will also start other corridors like the Philippines , India and Indonesia . The goal of Merchantrade is to provide remittance services to all the migrant workers in Malaysia . The highest number of migrant workers in Malaysia are from Indonesia . Nepal is at number 2. After that comes Bangladesh , India , Vietnam , the Philippines and Cambodia . Out of a population of about 25 million, Malaysia has 2.2 million migrant workers with legal work permits.
As we understand, your company is also in telecommunications business specially targeted at the Nepali community. Would you mind shedding light on how you do it?
At this moment, we have a big plan for providing telecom services to Nepali workers in Malaysia . We will reveal that very soon. Currently, we are the largest PCO player in Malaysia . We have calling cards and call back services and we are planning to launch something new for migrant workers. Malaysia has liberalised its telecom market. Merchantrade owns two licences: a domestic service provider and a network service provider which allows us to connect with 25 countries worldwide.
How has been the growth in the remittance business?
We have just started this business this year. But we will be the market leader for the Nepal corridor in due time and we have our own timeline for this. The growth every month is 25 per cent.
What is the future of Nepali workers in Malaysia ?
There is economic stability and market growth in Malaysia . So, the intake will still be there. In my estimation, the number of Nepali workers will be stabilised within the region of 200,000.
What qualities of the Nepali workers make them demanded in Malaysia ?
The government and employers of Malaysia are definitely happy with Nepali workers. Nepalis are very obedient and hardworking and these are two qualities that employers want for productivity.
What are you doing to attract the workers so that they prefer your service over hundi?
We are conducting education programmes to make people aware that hundi is a big risk even though the rates might be better. We are telling them that there is a remittance company to send your money back safely. We have over 10 Nepali staff working for us to communicate with our clients. We also celebrated the Nepali New Year with them. We have staff of other nationalities as well. Besides, our tie up with Laxmi Bank enables the remitters to avail of micro/small loans and other banking services in Nepal .
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