By D.M. Thapa
That the country is in shambles, politically and economically, is already there. But worse is the fact that the political leaders who shout hoarse about the sovereignty of the people and their right to live a better life are not uttering a single word though many days have passed since the holding of the last election for the House of Representatives (HOR).
Influential international organizations like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and also economic experts have already warned of a sharp downturn of the economy in most parts of the world and worse, and worse which will not diminish shortly as well. Nepal, a Least Developed Country, is already reeling due to many economic problems, besides the steep inflation rate which is largely affecting the middle class and the lower level of society, has been further rattled by the warning that the remittance that is virtually the ‘bloodline’ of the country’s economy, is also going to shrink dramatically as the very countries which provided working opportunities for the Nepalese are themselves also sure to be affected by the international economic downturn.
Right now, many people are finding it very hard to make daily ends meet and the alarming rate of inflation is going to directly hit the kitchen of most Nepalese first in the future. Experts say that the situation is going to be so bad in the days to come, that many Nepalese may not have enough food to eat two square meals per day. This is something unheard of in the Nepal of the past, which was well sufficient in its agricultural products and thus everyone could eat even if frugally.
Even businessmen and small-time industrialists are facing problems in paying the interests of the banks from which they have taken loans to run their businesses. Only a small group of people are making money from banks by using the public shareholders’ money, say some knowledgeable people.
Almost like the Western countries talking about peace in places like Ukraine, the Korean Peninsula and the Asia Pacific region, while they themselves are providing many arms and sophisticated weapons as well as huge funds, our politicians always say they put the interests of the people first but they are mostly busy only in breaking and forming alliances and trying their best to get to power, like right at present for example. Add to this the greed of the leaders, the bureaucrats, the security people and hordes of others and it will be easier to see why this country is in shambles.
For the past one month or so, the political parties have been busy separating or making alliances and virtually all the parties and their leaders are fully engaged only in the presidential election alone, which they themselves consider only a ceremonial post and which only ‘rubber stamps’ the decisions of the government or the Parliament. But it is strange what charm they have seen in this post recently. It surely is not the perks a President or even an ex-president gets, but it surely is for political reasons, from which a president should actually remain very aloof. A president is the president of all the people and not only one party or the other, but our wise politicians think otherwise. Specially at this tricky moment when another newly formed alliance has made an agreement to ‘share’ the post of Prime Minister among the three major parties and they have already named the future chief executives of the nation. Just the fact that an economically troubled country like Nepal has seen three governments within a short time span of just about four months tells its own story.
One another issue this author would like to raise is when we actually should be following a strict regimen of austerity, why are the perks of politicians and other top-level officials being increased lavishly! No one is saying that the monthly payment of the civil servants should be cut down or pension should be done away with, like the international banking institution may force Nepal to do someday if worse comes to worsen but at the same time we are also not for increasing the costs of the government. For example, on the same day we got to read about Nepal being pushed to the ‘Gray List’, just one List’ step above the ‘Black List’, we also read of how the homes of the former presidents were being refurbished at a huge cost and how they were also going to receive many other perks beyond the imagination of the public.
The term ‘Gray List’ may sound obscure and innocent now, but if Nepal is put on this list, it would mean it will not receive huge foreign loans, grants and other help and this could be from international agencies like the World Bank, IMF, ADB and friendly foreign countries, which are mostly powers who work under the guidance of the United States, which could be a terrible blow for the Nepali economy which depends heavily on such grants and loans.
At such a delicate time in Nepal, other problems too have surfaced. The first is a proposal to build a Buddhist University in Uppullo Mustang, a place that borders Nepal and the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China and also the order of the Supreme Court to open a case against the atrocities and killing by the Maoists during the armed rebellion they started and the commander of which was Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the present prime minister.
First, Uppullo Mustang is an area which even only a handful of outsiders, including those from Nepal, have visited. It has been reported that the population of that place is only about thirteen thousand, but the Indians are willing to spend Rs. 70 crores or seven hundred million for the university. That is the reason why there were many voices raised about this plan and eventually, the government here backed out. This would be like playing with the security concerns of another giant of a country, a dangerous thing, which is also the only other neighbor of Nepal.
Similarly, talk is still brewing about how the Supreme Court order could badly hit the Maoist leadership and the first target would be Pushpa Kamal Dahal. In a virtually frightened reaction, the Maoist leaders who have gone their own separate ways got back together quickly and reiterated the need for all of them to stand together. The Maoists may not be afraid of other political powers or even the security forces in the country, but they fear hearing the names of the International Human Rights Commission and the International Court.
So a part of the political game may be over with the holding of the presidential election, but like warned by a former communist prime minister, many other political games will follow before the picture gets clear in the developments in Nepal.
And sadly for the people, with instability, constant non-cooperation of foreigners and constant changes, the already battered economy will not become stronger, but go from bad to worse in the future.
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