On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
Presently, we are experiencing the dark side of democracy in Nepal. All kind of dirty games is taking place in the name of “democracy”, “offensive move”, and “loktantra”. On the other hand, voters, who are regarded as “supreme people” by the constitution, have been heavily squeezed from the government and local bodies from all sides. The general public is compelled to pay a heavy tax to the government and the local bodies. In general, we pay tax to get back the government services. In Nepal, it is different. We pay tax to feed the political leaders who are concerned for making money for themselves, taking care of their family members and relatives and working as the agent of brokers by rewarding them with an attractive amount of commission and also rewarding them with lucrative projects by deceiving the government and motherland.
When the ruling Nepal Communist Party by enjoying an almost two-thirds majority, formed a strong government, due to the dispute on sharing power and enjoying more share than others, the party has been split into three factions. Now, they are in a fight to finish against each other.
Prime Minister and chairman of the UML, K.P. Sharma Oli is trying his best to save his government and seeking a non-communist partner, whereas, Maoist Center chairman Pushpakamal Dahal is trying his best to topple down PM Oli led government by developing an alliance among the Nepali Congress and Janata Samajbadi Party, third and fourth parties respectively in the Parliament. Dahal is in search of a prime minister’s candidate who can topple down PM Oli.
The enmity between UML chairman Oli faction and Madhav Nepal faction in the UML has reached at the stage that they are unable to find a point of negotiation.
The political leaders are fighting against each other just to stick to power, not for the betterment of the country and the citizens!
All the leaders fighting against each other and trying to become the prime minister are of the age of around 70s. In fact, this is the age to get retirement but those power greedy leaders are trying to hang on to power until their last breath.
Look at the political system in Bhutan. Political leaders should get compulsory retirement after crossing a certain age. They must hold a Graduation degree to be qualified for becoming a political leader. They cannot repeat in one post more than two times. After all, political leaders should regard politics as a social service, not a profession. These are the reasons why unhealthy competition doesn’t exist in Bhutan.
In Nepal, particularly talking about the present rule, those political actors feel that they are above the law of the nation and they are performing as the people elected autocrats.
Nepal’s democracy has been derailed since the 1989 people’s movement. If the political leaders disobey discipline, if they encourage corruption, nepotism, favouritism, sycophancy, etc, a democracy cannot flourish. If the organs constituted for investigation on corruption and abuse of authority are defunct and they are unable to catch big fishes, a democracy cannot sustain.
Equally, voters should be responsible while selecting and electing their representatives. When we vote for a candidate based on the pocket money offered by the candidates and meat and rice two times offered by them, we cannot expect an honest people’s representative.
Nepali democracy has become a lucrative business without investment. Work for the commission agents so that they will invest during elections. After being elected as the people’s representatives, again, work for the commission agents so that they will get money from such agents regularly. One doesn’t need to go to the school and universities to become a leader, rather, he should be ready to become an agent of those commission agents.
Nepali democracy has become synonymous with money gambling. Spend money during the election and ensure victory, this is the formula for the candidate. After being elected, the candidate starts to earn money even ensuring the amount for the next election. In this way, not only those corrupt people get space in politics, people having serious criminal background are dominating politics. The reality is that if we cannot stop such practices, democracy cannot flourish.
Therefore, the first thing we need to do is to end these political perversions. We cannot end such a practice by adopting the present constitution which is solely imposed by the vested interests groups abroad. Therefore, this is the time to rewrite a new constitution by scrapping the present constitution imposed by those foreign elements who are aimed at destroying Nepal’s social, cultural and religious values. Needless to repeat that we don’t want federalism, secularism and republicanism, the foreigners’ agendas!
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