By L.D. Pulami
For how long can an impoverished country like Nepal bear the heavy burdens of corruption and mismanagement of the different laws that are actually meant to develop the nation and work for the welfare of the common people?
The irresponsible political leaders are quite aware of how the country is in a serious crisis at present, and also how the common people are facing different types of difficulties just to exist.
But these individuals who claim to be ‘representatives’ of the citizens, seem least bothered by such things and are making full efforts only to get to power or earn more money through legal or illegal means. These sorts of accusations of the wayward ways of the political leaders are being made not only by the media but also by analysts and other learned individuals who are closely observing the performance of the political parties in the Parliament.
The most alarming factor is also the division among the people on party lines. This situation has been more aggravated by the corrupt leaders and also by the direct interference of foreign powers who are willing to spend huge amounts of money not for the welfare of the Nepalis, but to get their own vested interests fulfilled.
One young blogger has explicitly revealed how the powerful and rich nations are using the poorer and weak nations as a playground to play their dirty games. He has shown as proof, different reports published in some respected journals in which it has been made clear that money given as grants and aid by countries like the United States and Great Britain are usually spent in their own countries through different agencies set up by them and only a paltry sum reaches the impoverished citizens for whom the funds have been allotted. Much money from such funds is also used for the high-paying salaries of the so-called ‘experts’ and also their lavish lifestyle which they enjoy in the countries where they have been posted and whose people actually need assistance. Even respected organizations like USAID of the US and DIVID of the United Kingdom are engaged in such acts, the part-time journalist has said.
This is alarming news for the people of the countries which need help for development works, availability of their basic needs and also access in different sectors like health, education and social security among others.
This writer has said time and again why the intervention of outside powers in the internal affairs of smaller and poorer nations has not brought any good developments for them. But one must also remember that many local personalities are also involved in selling the nation through a network of NGOs and are pocketing huge amounts for their efforts in destroying the sovereignty of their own country. There are political leaders, security personnel, and intellectual, who like to call themselves frontline leaders of the so-called ‘civil society’ and not to forget the influential media, of being involved in this dirty game of selling the nation for personal gains.
These very fellows say nothing and are deafeningly quiet when many other more serious scams and scandals take place in the country and the government engages only in staying on in power or spouting slogans with which they think they can fool the naïve people as they have always done.
We will come to this issue of how the citizens are hoodwinked by the political parties and the media as well, but let us also delve into the subject of the major scams in which political parties, bureaucrats, top-level officers in different security agencies and one media tycoon Kailash Sirohiya to be precise, who likes to call himself a champion of democracy now called ‘loktantra’ and also a staunch supporter of a ‘free media’, when actually he has done nothing except earn unimaginable amounts of money by using his media outlets to intimidate people in different sectors just like a social ‘blackmailer’ which he has been accused of being by many.
Right now this dodgy person has started a verbal duel with the current deputy prime minister and powerful home minister, Rabi Lamochhane, whom his outlets have been accusing of being involved in embezzling the savings of depositors in different cooperatives. In the eyes of most people, especially those who don’t take any sides, both these ambitious and crooked persons are not chaste or innocent at all, and both have been involved in different corrupt activities, which has not been beneficial at all for the nation or the people.
Sirohiya has been accused of being a ‘blackmailer’ by many individuals including former finance minister Janardan Sharma and also by current home minister Rabi Lamichhane. Similarly, in the case of Lamichhane, who himself has not been cleared of the accusations against him of being involved in the cooperatives scam in which billions of rupees have been embezzled by crooked individuals, it is like the adage which says, the ‘kettle calling the pot black’.
It is sad that the leaders of the major parties are still engaged in a tussle for power, while the people are suffering from different types of difficulties, including the present incidents of floods and landslides which have taken a heavy toll right in the beginning of the rainy season. Controversial home minister Lamichhane, who had formed a special task force to deal with this problem, had prematurely boasted that the government was fully prepared to minimize such disasters and also carry out relief works in a planned manner, has now fallen flat with the tragedies which the whole nation has had to witness right in the beginning of this Monsoon season, and which has further dented the image of the government in the minds of the people. Moreover, it is not helping matters in gaining the confidence of the people in any way, with top leaders, including prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and other ministers, only being engaged in routine functions and always parroting some slogans, such as the in attacks against the ‘hard-won loktantra’ and such activities of the ‘regressive’ forces, also being obstacles while trying to create a ‘better Nepal’ for the citizens. But they never mention what they are doing about how this difficult task can be accomplished when the decision makers are busy only in a bitter struggle either to get to power or cling on to it no matter what happens to the nation.
The manner in which all the parties are involved in such shameless acts in corruption cases and also in outfoxing each other within their own parties is not contributing to raising the image of the leaders, while the people have been compelled to watch such activities from the sidelines.
It is a bitter fact that such events have taken place many times in the political history of this nation, especially after political parties sprung up through protests and even violent uprisings but have only brought more owes to Nepal instead of peace and prosperity. Time should tell which type of dangers the present political developments will bring to the nation and the people in the difficult days ahead, which can easily be predicted by any person who has been witnessing such activities of top-level leaders and others in powerful positions, whether in the government or the private sector. All these helpless people can do is pray, even in the present messy situation of confusion, and wish for the distant looking better times.
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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