On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
Monkeys never construct their house, rather they are to destroy the already constructed houses, it is a popular saying in Nepali. Like monkeys, our leaders are not found committed to constructing the nation. However, they are more concerned about improving their personal life, their family’s living standard, and then their relatives living standard by exploiting the government coffer when they are in power.
The leaders are entertaining us by displaying the monkey-fight. The fight in the UML has reached an extreme level. A section of leaders became successful to topple down their own party’s government, which is an odd incident in a parliamentary democracy.
This monkey culture has been flourished enormously in the country since we adopted the multiparty system in 1989. They are always fighting for grasping power either in the party they belong to or in the government.
Maybe, the Westminster model of democracy has been successfully functioning in the Western countries but in Nepal, it has become totally failed. Maybe, the Westminster model could have become successful here but the agents deployed by the Westerners are more responsible for making the system dysfunctional. Viewing the present anomalies, anarchism, and political chaos, this scribe thinks that the Western countries would already have imposed economic blockades and restrictions against Nepal if there was another type of political system or say partyless Panchayat system. As the present system is in the interests of the Westerners, the Americans have kept Nepal in a green zone on the issue of accountability and transparency of the government. In the MCC grant project, the Americans have given a pass mark to Nepal especially on transparency and accountability, however, Transparency International has alarmed Nepal’s negative performance.
If there was a partyless Panchayat system in the country and such anomalies existed, we could have already experienced different restrictions and economic blockades against Nepal by the Westerners. Today, even watching the huge summit of anomalies, anarchism, corruption, misuse of power and laws by the political leaders, the Westerners have closed their eyes.
A democracy can sustain only if the leaders maintain social discipline, if they are bound by social ethics, morale and if they are committed to sacrificing for the nation. Democracy can sustain if the court is impartial, the anti-corruption body is independent and strong and the political leaders respect the rule of law. We cannot find these characters in the Nepali democracy. We know, politics has become the platform for those corrupt people. We know, the leaders are corrupt but we cannot displace them with our votes. Again and again, they have been elected by the people and they have been empowered in the government.
The government and the power are the only mission of the political leaders. To achieve these goals, they are engaged in conspiracy, groupism and fighting against each other groups in the party. The Nepal Communist Party was collapsed due to the tussle between its leaders K.P. Sharma Oli and Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda on the issue of power-sharing. The present tussle in the UML is not in the interests of the party but the interests of the two leaders Oli and Madhav Nepal. We can see a similar scenario in the Nepali Congress, Janata Samajbadi Party and also in the Rastriya Prajatantra Party. In Western countries, we can rarely see a split of the political parties. Of course, the leaders carry different opinions and different ideologies, however, they value people’s mandate, referendum and obey the decision of the majority. In the United Kingdom, when the debate on whether to stay in the European Union or to quit the Union took place, the government immediately decided to conduct a referendum on the issue. When the referendum verdict was for quitting the Union, the prime minister and party chair immediately tendered resignation on the moral ground and disappeared from the politics. Those, who were backing the agenda of quitting the Union came to the power.
In Nepali politics, the very Westerners are encouraging their Nepali agents to oppose a referendum on the issues in serious debate. When individuals demand a referendum on federalism, secularism and republicanism, the foreign agents start lauding against those individuals alleging the formers as being the regressive elements, rightist elements, status quoist, etc.
It is an open secret that republicanism, federalism and secularism were imposed by the European Union against the wish of the majority of the Nepali people. Therefore, the Westerns are afraid of the removal of federalism, secularism, and republicanism if conducted a referendum on these issues. The Westerners have used a group of civil society members, a group of media persons, and a section of political leaders for defending the system imposed by them. Therefore, they are maintaining silence when the very corrupt people are defaming the Westminster model of democracy in Nepal!
As the wrong people have dominated politics, the nation is heading in the wrong direction.
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