By D.M. Thapa
There are many urgent needs for the people now and the general folks are wallowing in misery. But does this make our politicians, planners or bureaucrats any more sympathetic towards the plight of the people? A definite NO!
From the largest parties to the smaller parties and many factions specially with bigger parties, they are just waiting their turn to grab hold of the reigns of the country, no matter what the plight of the people.
This may sound repetitive, but there are really many demands of the general people in the nation now. Forget things like clean drinking water, good roads, access to good healthcare and a good environment of security, the most worrying things are the steadily worsening economy and the shortcomings in such a basic thing as access to good education. But these things which directly affect the life of the people seem to be of least concern to the policymakers and planners. The law and order situation is equally bad and the people have no faith in the police force. The Nepal Army has no one to fight with, they just do some regular exercise, hold meetings and perform during festivals and when a high-level visiting dignitary arrives. The Armed Police are also the same, the government has given them the task of protecting the border areas, but they just don’t have enough manpower or sophisticated instruments to deal with the rest of the two super military powers that Nepal has as neighbours. The worst part is the men don’t seem to have the will to do anything about the encroachment of Nepali land, specially by India and they cannot say one word to China, perhaps due to the language problem and the huge military presence that the country has in even more sensitive places than Nepal. When China is fighting the sole military superpower of the world, the United States, Nepal is only strategically important, otherwise, for China, Nepal is like a ‘small change’.
But to come back to our own country, it is only entangled in political infighting, closing its eyes to the open interference of outside powers and making Nepal a playground, where all can play, though the stakes as the winner are high. From the religiously fought battles, though with kid gloves, to the rich natural resources Nepal possesses, every foreign power seems interested to need its share. From funding flooding in through different INGOs to the direct presence of high-level officials, Nepal has had to bear it all, and ironically this is when the people are finding it difficult to make two ends meet each day.
The only sector where we have made some breakthroughs is electricity. Though this does not mean that we have access to electricity in every village, still, it is stunning how this city (Kathmandu) was suffering from a whopping eighteen hours of load-shedding, something unheard of in most parts of the world, to now electricity being provided virtually night and day and people are breathing a huge sigh of relief. But in everything else, from the functioning of the economy to market prices, availability of goods, a secure environment to convicted individuals getting scot-free, everything has gone from bad to worse.
Yet, our political parties are fully engaged in power grabbing only, swindling the nation of huge funds in the name of different projects and bickering over any and every issue. Right now, though the post of the President is only a ceremonial one, there is a virtual battle among the three major parties in Parliament on who should get the post. Why? Why have the demands of the post gone up so magically? You can hear experts and ordinary people talking about this issue in every media outlet. Perhaps because of some bold moves made by the President in the past several months, the interest of the parties has been roused to get the President on its side and use the President to its advantage in tricky situations. Not long ago there was a time when no one from the major parties wanted to be the President. If the people remember, it was a former ‘terrorist’ leader, who was virtually guaranteed to be the President, but due to the inability of the then powerful party, the CPN (Maoists), which had just emerged from the jungles from where it had carried out a ten-year-old armed rebellion, Singh was sidelined and a mediocre leader of the Nepali Congress Dr Ram Baran Yadav became the first President of a republic Nepal. Ram Baran except for declaring the Constitution, virtually did nothing. Oh, but do not forget, he took more than ten million rupees from the government coffers for his treatment. Such funds many others also took, while the people silently paid their taxes and watched their money being spent on the perks and facilities of the politicians. Instead of spending huge amounts of money abroad, why do not the policymakers think of building a regional standard hospital so that our ailing leaders don’t have to go abroad and spend hefty amounts and at the same time ordinary folks can have the same level of treatment as the VIPs?
There are many, many ‘imbalances’ which not only drain the government coffer but also show a big gulf between the so-called important persons and the general people. From virtually all ministers enjoying at least some guards to even retired police and army men enjoying men who should be on duty being used like private servants. Few seem to realize that all these funds for the ‘freebies’ enjoyed by the once-upon-a-time VIPs, come through taxes which all pay, including those who are enjoying such facilities themselves.
Yes, we can have big projects, give more facilities to the VIPs, build huge roads and steadily build other needs of the nation, but first, we will have to look after the people who are reeling under different burdens. Only if the burden of the people is made light, all other so-called outward appearances will be hollow and only act like the flashing lights of the escort vehicles of important people, which turns and off while not providing any real light.
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