By D.M. Thapa
Despite the much hue and cry made of how the recent election has produced fresh young politicians and also parties, the fact remains that the major parties still at the helm have the same old leaders who have been ruling the nation almost on a turn-by-turn basis at regular intervals for more than three decades.
Many are putting forth questions on what will happen now with no party gaining even a simple majority. Many quiet people who normally like to stay behind the scene had been asking such questions many months in advance before the elections were held. They had already understood the perils the country was about to face expecting such election results with no party being a dominant force. This the so-called experts and intellectuals never realized, only going by what leaders and the media said.
With corrupt and visionless leaders, the political scenario looked even worse. Naturally, when the political scenario becomes chaotic, all other sectors suffer too. Most top-level leaders and also businessmen have already put their ‘eggs’ in ‘safer baskets’ and they are least worried about the fate of Nepal as they can fly away when there is even an iota of a really dangerous situation prevailing in the country.
But even if they have employment here, many others have no such extravagant cash in hand to invest in property or other businesses in different countries, including those in India. And fleeing just like the Americans did from Vietnam in the Seventies and Afghanistan recently.
Meanwhile, thousands have been forced to leave the country daily just to make some money for their families and themselves. Even top-level government officials agree that if it wasn’t for the remittance sent back home by such Nepali workers working in the most adverse conditions, both weather-wise and work-wise, the government would not have enough budget to meet even its regular expenditures. With the uncertainty of salaries and a cut down in pensions, the country would be up in arms. But when you can’t pay your debts, these would be the first options suggested by lending institutions and foreign powers.
It is a sad story that thousand of Nepalese youths have been compelled to go abroad just to get jobs, no matter what, and take care of their family. There were heart-wrenching stories told by individuals who were being seen going abroad when the majority of the people were enjoying the biggest festival of Nepal in Dasain. It was the same story in the second biggest festival of Tihar when sisters showered their blessings on their brothers and the same stories could again be heard during the present election time as well. The reason the majority of the youths going to foreign land said, “when there are no opportunities in your own country which is ruled by corrupt people and where nepotism is rife, we have no option but to seek outside work, no matter how heavy our heart is”. This is really a tragic situation for our country and what is worse is that the policymakers, from politicians to administrators don’t seem to care at all about the condition of the people who are finding it hard to make day-to-day ends meet.
Now to come back to the political situation in the country, there is nothing much to cheer about, though some new faces and parties have come to the fore. We don’t have to go far to see what happened in Nepal after there was a hung parliament after the general election of November 1994 decided on by the late Girija Prasad Koirala. It is ill to speak anything bad about people who have already died, but some mistakes such individuals have made that affected the whole nation cannot be forgotten. But none of our fire-brand political leaders or civil society ‘henchmen’ and intellectuals has been able to say anything about some dastardly mistakes of late Koirala, whereas they spring forward in lambasting any other political leaders who may have changed sides or even the kings who had nothing but the welfare of the nation in their minds.
It may be recalled that the late Ganesh Man Singh, the then ‘commander’ of the political parties had predicted that the Nepali Congress would rule the nation for the next 25 years after the party won a simple majority in the very first multiparty general election of 1991. But lat Girija dissolved the Parliament and opted for snap polls before the party even ended its term of ruling the country for five years.
After the 1994 elections, there was even more chaos when no single party could gain a majority. That is when we saw the nation going through one of its worst phases, perhaps which is responsible even for the present political, economic and social mess the country is seeing now.
From unabashed corruption to political horse trading to the institutionalisation of all things wrong even service-providing organizations started during this time, In fact, even the violent Maoist “war” began during this period and the nation saw violence and destruction as it had never seen before in its history.
Maybe we won’t see such Nepali-against-Nepali violence again, but with Nepal being wide open for micro-level foreign interference because of weak governments, which everyone has predicted will be formed in the coming days, the situation could be worse and Nepal could be another hot spot of the world like many other countries in Africa, Central and South America and now even in Ukraine a former state of the then powerful Soviet Union. It will be a real challenge for the political parties to ward off such problems, no matter who is in power, the traditional old forces or the newer faces who have come with idealistic visions which may not be suitable for outsiders.
Very few people have dared to say this, but even as they pass on their wisdom on which individual may be the prime minister, they rarely mention the capabilities and the vision of such a person who will try and shape up a new Nepal.
The worrying thing is, not only does the attitude of the politicians, bureaucrats, security personnel and the whole society has to change, but we don’t see such a thing happening soon and it would be foolish to also expect a such change in a hurry. This process is like the effort of a huge ocean liner trying to make a complete U-turn while travelling at full speed in the open ocean with little control over itself.
Here also, more than new faces, new parties or even new constitutions, society has to firmly deny corrupt practices, nepotism and cronyism to see real change. For now, all we can do is hope something good will come out even if the political results have been bad for most.
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