On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
After completing a trip to New York followed by a week-long trip to China, Prime Minister Pushpakamal Dahal arrived home on Saturday, 30 September.
The executive chief of the country spent 15 days abroad as if he had no business at home. Be that as it may, his presence at the UNGA and the visit to China were important, nevertheless, he should have returned home after the issuance of the joint press note by Nepal and China together. Also, carrying a large team on his leisure trip to Mount Kailash and Mansarovar was an unnecessary burden on the national treasurer.
Despite the expectation of PM Dahal, China didn’t hesitate to give full honour to the Prime Minister of Nepal, which was not personal to PM Dahal. The Chinese side showed the gesture that Nepal can utilize the Chinese support for the infrastructural development of Nepal. China is always giving the message that the political system, political stability and continuation of the previous government works by successive governments are the main pillars for economic prosperity and development of the nation. A prosperous economy is vital for safeguarding the sovereignty and independence of a nation. Whether our Prime Minister visiting China understood this message or not, we are not sure.
Hinting towards the present leadership, PM Dahal’s “people’s war” time colleague and former prime minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai remarked on his “X” account, “(Emperor) Nero was playing the flute while Rome was burning!”
Bhattarai further explained that the country is passing through an economic crisis/recession. Except for the remittance sent by Nepali labourers abroad, other economic indicators are negative and moving towards a reverse direction. The problem is not normal by nature. The continuous incline on the foreign trade deficit; continuous incline on the debt burden; rampant corruption, slump on the production side, skyrocketing market price, flee away of human resources, and of late, the capital flight trend has also been witnessed. The market, which was expected to become active during the Dasain festival is slumping.
“In such a situation, why is serious discussion on the economy lacking? Why is the government unable to intervene in the market? Why the attitude of “medicine after the death”?”, Bhattarai has questioned.
Bhattarai has raised genuine issues. Indeed, we have been hinting at such a ruined economic situation for decades. Indeed, the present situation has not occurred. Since the nation adopted a liberal economy and started to dispose of key industries, the politicos converted the government undertakings as the employment recruitment center, since the politicos started practising organized, planned and policy-level corruption.
Of course, Bhattarai and his “people’s war” colleague Pushpakamal Dahal “Prachanda” are equally responsible for destroying the economic base of the country by demolishing the infrastructure of the country, moreover, killing above 17 thousand innocent people on the “mission destroy Nepal” sponsored by India.
Whether Bhattarai is aware or not the Western policy is to destabilize the economy of the less developed nations and the Indians, who experienced colonial rule for centuries, initiating the same policy the Western hegemony towards small neighbouring countries. Creating political instability and unstable economy are their policies adopted towards the less-developed countries.
Why the USA intended to contain China, it is clear that the latter country is emerging as the number one economy within some years. The American economy is likely to face a crisis. The US dollar is losing its domination in the global economy.
Our politicians are running behind the Western propaganda against China-initiated BRI and the debt trap. Note, the Western concept is to keep poor countries permanently poor and exploit their natural resources continuously, on the other hand, the Chinese concept is building a multi-polar world order by supporting underdeveloped countries for their infrastructural development. The Chinese concept is that one country alone cannot remain rich among the crowd of poor countries, therefore, the neighbouring countries should also become rich. For the consumption of the products of the rich countries, the purchasing power of other countries should be increased, this is the Chinese mindset.
The question is whether we rely on grant support and avoid infrastructural development or think about utilizing foreign debt for infrastructural development.
Indeed, as remarked by Bhattarai, the discussion should be held on the ongoing economic crisis along with a discussion on the present political system imposed on us by the West.
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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