Business MPs

Three businesspersons made a happy news in July 2001 by entering the Upper House of the parliament as MPs with truly business credentials arousing a sense of pride across the country’s business community.

Though examples can be found of people with business interests becoming MPs in Nepal, the tendency in the past (whether during the Panchayat period or after the restoration of democracy) was to project oneself as a

politician or social worker rather than a businessperson after or before becoming an MP. But this time, the three new MPs do not feel shy at identifying themselves as businesspersons.

As two of them are appointed by His Majesty the King and one elected on the ticket of the main opposition party, it may not be easy for them to form a strong parliamentary lobby for the business sector. Still, Laxmi Das Manandhar, Dr. Roop Jyoti and Mrs. Yankila Sherpa think that they can put forward effective suggestions to the government from the parliamentary floor.

"I hope I can be instrumental in making the economic environment in Nepal such that an honest businessperson can carry on with his or her business without any harassment or unnecessary fear from any government agency or officer", said Dr. Jyoti, one of the two recent nominees of the King.

And that is perhaps the main immediate concern of the community, leaving aside the sectoral and industrial problems. Once the private sector is able to create a dignified image for itself, many of the problems will be resolved automatically. "But it has to be kept in mind that I am a nominated member without any affiliation to any political party in a multiparty constitutional monarchy", cautions the Harvard MBA, who also holds MPA degree and a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from the same university.

As a scion of one of the oldest business houses still active in the business and industry of Nepal, Dr. Jyoti is MD or vice-chairman of a number of business establishments. But recently he has been concentrating more on teaching Vipassana meditation and is a Trustee of Nepal Vipassana Centre. He is also trying to develop a way to use this ancient Buddhist meditation into a tool for effective personnel management. He had also run the election for the post of Pradhan Panch (equivalent to mayor today) of Kathmandu city during Panchayat period but had lost.

But Manandhar, on the other hand, does not feel the same limitation as Dr. Jyoti does, and he thinks that it is because he is in the opposition camp, as he won the seat contesting the election on a ticket from the main opposition party-Communist Party of Nepal United Marxist-Leminist (CPN-UML). "I was free to express my feelings", he recalls his first participation in the parliamentary debate. "Had I been in the Treasury Bench I could not have criticised the government’s programs and budget so frankly", he points out and argues that it will be easier to offer more constructive suggestions from the Opposition Bench than from the Treasury Bench. A member of the Board of Directors of Salt Trading Corporation (STC) ever since it was founded 37 years ago, Manandhar is one of the few truly elders in the House of Elders,

as the Upper House is also called. In addition to being the Director in a number of companies in which STC has shareholding, he has business interests in cold storage, readymade garments and hosiery.

But Sherpa, another royal nominee, is in a distinctly different situation. Representing simultaneously the women entrepreneurs and tourism industry, more particularly the mountain tourism, Sherpa also happens to be the only sitting MP from the Sherpa community - a fact she preferred to highlight by attending the parliamentary proceeding wearing the traditional dress of Sherpa women. Therefore, as she moans, she is being kept busy meeting people from her community who have started approaching her in growing numbers, after she became an MP, for her advice and help to solve their personal, and sometimes social, problems.

Like Dr. Jyoti, Sherpa too is quick to express her gratitude to His Majesty the King for selecting her for the honour and thus according importance to the sectors she represents. And while expressing pride at her being a women entrepreneur involved in tourism sector for the last two decades, she does not forget to add that she is also a ‘social worker’.

Sherpa holds a BA and a postgraduate degree in Education from Tribhuvan University and headed Trekking Agents Association of Nepal (TAAN) as its President for two consecutive terms (1992-1996), a fact she feels very proud about, particularly because, as she puts it, TAAN’s 99% members are male entrepreneurs. She started her career as a school teacher and later worked in one of the premier travel agencies for 11 years before finally starting her own trekking agency in 1989.

While royal nomination of business persons as MP may be one aspect of the recent developments, the businesspersons themselves are trying more these days to enter the parliament as can be seen by the example of Manandhar. One more businessman, Shankar Lal Kedia, nearly became an MP this year. He contested the election for a seat in the upper house as an independent candidate, but lost. Ram Krishna Tamrakar, who has been a minister in several occasions, and is a sitting MP, of the lower house is another example of businessmen being in the parliament.

To say whether these developments really indicate the beginning of a trend of businesspersons entering politics, is still going to be premature. But looking at the response shown by the business community it seems to be a welcome development.

By New Business Age Reporter 

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