NC, MAOISTS SEEK SUPPPORT OF SMALL PARTIES

MAOISTS, NC SEEK SUPPORT OF SMALL PARTIES UPDATE

Kathmandu, 20 Aug.: Main opposition Saturday sought support from small parties in parliament at a meeting with their representatives
Sher Bahadur Deuba is the consensus candidate of the party and he’s pitted against Second Maoist Vice-chairman Dr. Baburam Bhattarai.
UML and a front of five Madeshbadi parties haven’t announced support for any aspirant to succeed Caretaker Jhalanath Khanal who resigned one week ago as Maoists withdrew support to him after propelling him to power in February.
The front and UML aren’t putting up their candidates against Deuba or Bhattarai.while saying they’ll support a consensus candidate to complete a peace process and draft a constitution.
Maoists also held separate talks with 11 small parties.
“There was agreement on a national consensus government for which an environment should be created,” Third Maoist Vice-chairman Narayan Kazi Shrestha said.
Only 26 hours remain for parties to assembly a consensus government.
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OPINION

POLITICAL DESTINY AND CURST BY STEALTH

Kathmandu, 20 Aug.: Regardless of how things turn out after the resignation of Prime Minister Jhal Nath Khanal over the weekend, this much is clear. Politicians can keep their word.
Okay, Khanal broke his self-imposed deadline by a day. Against the general record of our politicos, does that really count against him?, Maila Baje writes in Nepali Netbook
If you think so, look at the element of the story. This was the first time – at least in Maila Baje’s recollection – that a significant segment of the political establishment had implored a prime minister not to resign.
Our quest to national newness has opened up political novelties. Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned as premier in 2009 without anyone of consequence ever having demanded it. Madhav Kumar Nepal became the longest-serving caretaker premier in Nepal (and almost in the world) despite having extended the constituent assembly in exchange for what everyone had understood was his immediate resignation.
Nepali Congress leader Ram Chandra Poudel, that valiant soldier who claimed to have contested all those ridiculous rounds of balloting just to save democracy, is battling to keep his seat as parliamentary party leader of the Nepali Congress.
With the big and small parties all mired in internal conflict – some at multiple levels – the constituent assembly has become the proverbial tiger that everyone needs to keep riding. So Nepalis must brace for another extension to keep the chasing the dream of … nobody knows what.
But, then, are we really in charge? We keep hearing advice from certain foreign corners about the need for new elections. Successive elections for an assembly to write a new constitution were something proposed in these columns in the past – but only to the extent of emphasizing the absurdity with the absurd. That serious stakeholders could contemplate such a thing is scary, so say the least.
Yet other foreign quarters – including those who vociferously pressed the idea of radical change in the not too distant past – have become votaries of the status quo. Some worry that any vacuum might let Nepal regain its Hindu character and thus check the spread of the Good News. Others fear for the gains in sexuality a deeply conservative society has achieved.
When a Nepali starts talking seriously about the possibility of the existence of water on Mars – and is taken seriously – you can be pretty sure how badly those who have been using Nepal as a laboratory for far too long are going nuts.
Each day we discover that on the other side of the Himalayas lays a richer treasure trove of resources. (Actually that’s what Tibet in Chinese signifies.) But on this side, we are supposed to believe we are barren just because a guy called Toni Hagen said so many, many years ago. Elsewhere technology has helped to trace what was hitherto deemed untraceable. Yet we are expected to forget Hagen’s time and context and mull deeper into that sati’s-curse line. (Who exactly was the hapless lady and what were here precise words, anyone?)
Pardon the rambling, but it seemed like a good way to spend time before we discover the true story behind Prime Minister Khanal’s resignation – as well as appointment.
Regardless of how things turn out after the resignation of Prime Minister Jhal Nath Khanal over the weekend, this much is clear. Politicians can keep their word.
Okay, Khanal broke his self-imposed deadline by a day. Against the general record of our politicos, does that really count against him?
If you think so, look at the element of the story. This was the first time – at least in Maila Baje’s recollection – that a significant segment of the political establishment had implored a prime minister not to resign.
Our quest to national newness has opened up political novelties. Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned as premier in 2009 without anyone of consequence ever having demanded it. Madhav Kumar Nepal became the longest-serving caretaker premier in Nepal (and almost in the world) despite having extended the constituent assembly in exchange for what everyone had understood was his immediate resignation.
Nepali Congress leader Ram Chandra Poudel, that valiant soldier who claimed to have contested all those ridiculous rounds of balloting just to save democracy, is battling to keep his seat as parliamentary party leader of the Nepali Congress.
With the big and small parties all mired in internal conflict – some at multiple levels – the constituent assembly has become the proverbial tiger that everyone needs to keep riding. So Nepalis must brace for another extension to keep the chasing the dream of … nobody knows what.
But, then, are we really in charge? We keep hearing advice from certain foreign corners about the need for new elections. Successive elections for an assembly to write a new constitution were something proposed in these columns in the past – but only to the extent of emphasizing the absurdity with the absurd. That serious stakeholders could contemplate such a thing is scary, so say the least.
Yet other foreign quarters – including those who vociferously pressed the idea of radical change in the not too distant past – have become votaries of the status quo. Some worry that any vacuum might let Nepal regain its Hindu character and thus check the spread of the Good News. Others fear for the gains in sexuality a deeply conservative society has achieved.
When a Nepali starts talking seriously about the possibility of the existence of water on Mars – and is taken seriously – you can be pretty sure how badly those who have been using Nepal as a laboratory for far too long are going nuts.
Each day we discover that on the other side of the Himalayas lays a richer treasure trove of resources. (Actually that’s what Tibet in Chinese signifies.) But on this side, we are supposed to believe we are barren just because a guy called Toni Hagen said so many, many years ago. Elsewhere technology has helped to trace what was hitherto deemed untraceable. Yet we are expected to forget Hagen’s time and context and mull deeper into that sati’s-curse line. (Who exactly was the hapless lady and what were here precise words, anyone?)
Pardon the rambling, but it seemed like a good way to spend time before we discover the true story behind Prime Minister Khanal’s resignation – as well as appointment.
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CALM BEFORE A STORM

Kathmandu, 20 Aug.: In the Sudan scandal involving more than 400 million rupees, at least 300 million rupees was pocketed by an array of police officials. Corrupt to the core is the description one would like to apply to this case. It just shows how deep and extensive corruption is in the republic of Nepal, Trikal Vastavik writes in People’s review.
In the course of investigations by a special court, those under a strong scanner were set on bail that generally amounts to millions each. One of the former IGPs was able to meet the bail amount of 150 million! How do salaried people and pensioners manage to accumulate wealth so much? And mind you, this is only the tip of the property they hold.
Some three dozen police officials and others are under investigation. But the eventual outcome will not be complete without investigating the ministers of the time. At least three home ministers came and went during the scandal-ridden period. None of them have been booked for questioning.
In Nepal, it is transparently clear, no file involving any sizeable amount of money and financial transaction gets through without the notice of the big boss. In a ministry, it is the minister who assumes the title and his subordinates are the mini-bosses. If the big fish get off the hook, it would be disappointing.
The agent supplying the goods for the police also paid the bail amount of 150 million rupees in a case where the entire goods supplied was worth only 100 million! Strange are the ways fate plays. It might not be fair that the agent should be so punished, given the ways things have always operated in this country. If quality were taken as a criterion only as an afterthought, thousands of others in various fields would be eligible for punitive actions.
The various infrastructure built by engineers, for instance, does not have to last for any specific period of time. Whether the materials used in a building or bridge meet the specifications and international standards is never scrutinized properly. There are no doubt rules and regulations to check discrepancies but the final verdict is always an approval because under-the-table money changes hands. Therefore, public buildings and bridges and roads begin crumbling much earlier than in other countries.
A retired civil servant, who held a senior position, confided to this author that “every” minister who took his ministry’s chair was interested in finding out “how much is there for me?” This might explain why political are able to live a life of comfort and hire the services of two or three helping hands described as “servants”.
The scarce resources at various ministries are being misused right and left. Misuse of the home ministry’s fund for the needy and destitute is a tradition that no government or opposition party wants scrapped. Enormous millions of rupees are distributed to party activists, cronies and relatives of politicians who are actually never the primary ones the fund was set up for. A senior official at the home ministry told this author that even MPs come up with ‘dummy’ recipients for the fund meant for the neediest.”
The Social Welfare Council funds are also misused accordingly. As a body Commission empowered to monitor and evaluate NGO activities, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) could have ample evidence to institute a serious probe into the Social Welfare Council’s activities and the office bearers concerned. But the CIAA looks the other way.
The late “santa” Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, when in the chair of the prime minister, at a public function in Birgunj, had said that bribery amounting to a few hundred rupees was o.k. That was more than 20 years ago. A wealthy chap once pleaded with Bhattarai, during the latter’s second term in office, that he be given a political appointment. In reply, Bhattarai in all seriousness said, “You are already a rich man. Why do you want such a job? Such appointments are only for making money.”
This author is of the opinion that almost all prime ministers in the past resorted to misuse of office and most of them made piles of money, perhaps with exceptions like Marich Man Singh Shrestha and Krishna Prasad Bhattarai. The late Girija Prasad Koirala’s several terms as prime minister broke all records for the wrong reasons. Even his party members, who used to show, at least exteriorly, great reverence to him when he ruled the Nepali Congress with an iron fist, now blame him for having led the party “in the present situation”.
It is true that gone are the days when the NC was the dominant party. It managed to emerge as a distant second largest grouping, behind the CPN (Maoist). Moreover, another leftist group, CPN (UML) is not far behind the country’s oldest party “that led all past democratic revolutions”. Being in power is considered the key to a gold mine. Parties and politicians that have been in power the longest, by an interesting coincidence, succeed in enriching themselves.
Politicians who used to travel in public transport earlier have now developed a taste for expensive cars, tall mansions, investments in corporate shares and so on. The riches are in the name of their spouses. If the CIAA were to confront, the most frequent answer would be that the wealth came as dowry from the wife’s side. These are also the ones who speak volumes against dowry system.
The situation is such that corruption is far deeper than what most people imagine. This is a country where one can literally get away with murder sooner or later, provided he has the right connection. Sooner if the moves are quick, a little later when political pardon ensures the release or cases are withdrawn.
Corruption in Nepal increased with each “democratic” revolution. The cause for which politicians raised rhetoric enthused people. Who does not want popular participation, good governance, right to work, job opportunities and, above all, a modern welfare scheme for meeting the basic needs of all age groups? It is the politicians at the forefront that have let the people down again and again and again.
There is not even an iota of hope for improvement for the next ten years and probably more. Things can only grow worse. Every government in the republic of Nepal served only as a lame duck team, hence the gross failure on all fronts, notably law and order.
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