By P.R. Pradhan
Political leaders are complaining that elections have become very expensive and they are unable to manage the fund for election expenditure. NC leader Shashank Koirala publicly disclosed how much rupees he had spent to ensure his victory in the past three general elections. Likewise, UML leader Yuvraj Gyawali said that he had to return the election ticket to the party as he was unable to manage the election fund.
Within seven years of the endorsement of the present constitution, political leaders have started to express their dissatisfaction with the present system. Some of them are lauding proportional election or say casting a vote for the party instead of an individual candidate. But such an election can also be manipulated by the supreme leadership by nominating their wives, girlfriends and businessmen offering the highest amount of donation.
Look at the recent selection of ambassadors! Brother-in laws, former girlfriends, mothers-in-law, and other relatives have been selected. Besides, those, who offer cash in advance, popularly known as “pre-paid” commission, will be rewarded as the ambassador. In “loktantra” nothing is free of cost. To get such appointments, either one should be the close relative of the supreme leaders or pay money and get rewarded!
According to the constitution, the government can nominate those known to be experts in their field as a member of the National Assembly. We don’t know in which field Narayan Prasad Dahal has expertise but he has been nominated by the government as a member of the National Assembly. The only criteria that he holds are a cousin of Pushpakamal Dahal.
Above 17 thousand people sacrificed their lives during the bloody “people’s war” but the supreme leader of the “revolutionary” party has exploited the party by converting it into a family party.
The party distributed dreams to the innocent poor people and now the leadership is deceiving not only the party workers but also the nation as a whole.
The country’s economic health is deteriorating day by day. The second category of leaders are indicating system failure sometimes by saying that the election procedure has become expensive, sometime, they are saying to reduce the government expenditure, however, they are unable to speak about the real problem as they were solely responsible for adopting the problematic political system.
The real problem:
Federalism, secularism and republicanism, which have been introduced in the political mechanism adopted by the nation are the real problems. For reducing the government expenditure we need to change the present political structure. The government’s revenue cannot bear the expenses of the federal government and provincial governments with one President and seven provincial chiefs. Without scraping the present political structure, the government cannot reduce expenditure on the general sector. Without cutting down the general sector expenditure, the government cannot manage the fund for the capital investment. The three levels of government have imposed taxes on everything. It has made difficult the general public’s livelihood but the government is unable to give facilities to the citizens except for paying salary, allowances and other facilities to the elected people’s representatives. Moreover, the trend of employing advisors and experts has become a fashion. Along with the appointment of such advisors and experts, apart from the salary, vehicle and other facilities are also been provided to them. There is a federal parliament with a large number of MPs. Compared to the population and the size of the nation, the size of the parliament is very huge. Besides, there are seven province assemblies. Without scrapping such a white elephant model of loktantra, the nation cannot get relief.
If we cannot reduce the general sector expenditure, obviously, we are going to face the fate of Sri Lanka, sooner or later.
Minister’s claim:
Despite a prolonged liquidity crunch, a surprising decline in the foreign currency reserve, negative balance of payments, a widening gap in the trade deficit, and skyrocketing inflation, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has said that the country’s economy is okay and no threat to it.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, Sharma tried to justify his action for ousting the governor, who had warned the government about the deteriorating state of the economy.
Sharma said that the government’s decision to suspend the governor was appropriate and an investigation was initiated against the governor according to the law.
Minister Sharma said that there is a huge stock of reserve at the state treasury but he didn’t talk about the foreign currency reserve.
If the government holds a huge stock of currency reserve, why it has not cleared the pending bills submitted by the construction contractors, from which banks are facing a liquidity crunch!
Let’s hope, the Minister is aware that he needs foreign currency to import goods. The foreign currency reserve is sufficient for imports of goods only for six and a half months. If the Covid-19 pandemic will continue to hit the economy and also if the war between Russia and Ukraine will further escalate, it will be difficult for the country to manage foreign currency besides borrowing debt from the international financial institutions.
Let’s hope, such an adverse economic scenario may not appear, nevertheless, we cannot deny that the country’s economic health is not good.
When imports dominate exports by many folds, we cannot remain satisfied with the economy of the nation.
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