By L.D. Pulami
The people are really confused about the way the political parties and their leaders are behaving while running the government or bettering the economic and social scenario. The media outlets are not contributing to resolving such political confusions with media outlets taking the side of one party or the other.
But one glaring factor which most people are now slowly understanding is that even the new parties and their young leaders are no better than the older generation of politicians and all of them are just joining hands to fool the people.
‘The people are also to be blamed for always casting their votes for crooked and non-functioning individuals of both the old and new parties’ many individuals can also be heard complaining about this.
No wonder the country is in such bad shape and besides political instability, there is also the problem of a weak economy and the sufferings of the common citizens, who are finding it hard to make just two ends meet on a daily basis, while the leaders and their close ones enjoy many luxuries and perks from the government coffers.
These days voices can be heard where people say that a poor country like Nepal just cannot afford to have so many provinces and elected leaders, who receive pay and other benefits from the government.
In fact, the political scenario in the country is so blurred that, even the shrewdest or most learned analysts, who are seen and heard in different media outlets cannot make any predictions while trying to make sense of the fragile conditions, the state of the government or the ever-weakening economy amidst the squabbling among the parties and the leaders. It is exactly like a vehicle out of control and the driver or in our case the drivers, not knowing where the vehicle will end up eventually, whether safely on the road, in the ditch or it will fall off a dangerous cliff.
The people feel that the politicians are only interested in power sharing, power-grabbing or some petty causes that in no way benefit the nation. But while fighting with each other, they cunningly try to divert the people’s attention by either blaming the former King for all the wrongs we are seeing now or by boasting about the developments they have brought, naturally with the active partition participation of the media.
The situation at present is so dismaying that it has become difficult to start from where the problems of the nation and the people have sprung up. But mostly to blame are the politicians, a handful of big businessmen, their middlemen and swindlers who cheat the people in different ways, be it by taking huge amounts of money to give naïve people hopes of job opportunities abroad with fat salaries in some or taking the savings of hard-working individuals who save money and get attractive interests.
While talking about the thousands of cooperatives all across the country that have cheated the people of their hard-earned savings, one just cannot leave alone the involvement of the sitting deputy prime minister and powerful home minister Ravi Lamichhane, in his involvement in a fraudulent deal while taking a whopping twenty million rupees loan from a cooperative without putting up any collateral. So, even this powerful young leader who heads an upstart party which surprisingly won many seats in the last general election, probably doesn’t know his own future. It is the same case with the present prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal who is unsure of when the rug will be pulled from underneath his feet and he will lose his top executive post.
When these top-level political leaders themselves are so unsure about their own future, what can we expect that they will do some good for the nation? Also, when talking about the uncertain future of the nation, any responsible person cannot forget the tremendous hardship of the common citizens and any type of future for job opportunities, education or plain labour works. It is not for nothing that we are seeing so many villages without any strong and able manpower and the fields that once made life at least ‘tolerable’ are now lying fallow, and the country importing virtually all the things needed for fulfilling the staple diet of the general populace. Almost two thousand Nepali youths are leaving the country on a daily basis just by air. Thousands of others cross the border by land. The most unfortunate thing is there are even skilled professionals leaving this country and also young people who want to study abroad and settle in whichever country they are in, specially, America, Australia or other countries in the West. It is only the unskilled youths who have no option but to work in harsh conditions, mainly in the Gulf countries or even Russia as we have seen in recent days.
It is not for nothing we are seeing such developments which have dismayed the majority of the people with the performance of the political leaders, but it is also due to the greed for money, and power, the people see. The lack of far-sightedness and vision has also contributed to bringing the nation to its present difficult situation politically, economically and socially as well. This can be felt from the poor voter turnout in the recent by-elections held in Ilam and Bajhang districts.
First, there definitely has to be political stability before any foreign investor becomes eager to invest in Nepal. This is not there, as many people, including foreign investors, know about. Trying to make smooth the investment process through an investment facilitation ordinance will also not give a boost to the confidence of the investors in the high promises made by the Nepalese side.
Even experts are of the opinion that Nepal is not fully prepared to receive as much foreign investments as it has aimed at. So all political parties must put aside petty differences to formulate a solid national policy regarding this important issue which would help tremendously towards the development of the country. But like said right in the beginning, the political confusion has to end and the leaders must concentrate on more important issues rather than be at the throat of one another, focused only on grabbing power.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect People’s Review’s editorial stance.
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