UML ASKS VICE-CHAIRMAN ASHOK RAI TO REPORT TO PARTY IN ONE WEEK Kathmandu, 25 Aug.: UML has sought an explanation of Vice-chairman AshokRai on his latest activities and statements and ordered him to resume party work within one week, Kantipur reports. Chairman Jhalanath Khanal wrote to Rai on behalf of the secretariat.; Rai has been canvassing against a single ethnic federal unit adopted by the party. The disciplinary committee had earlier written to Rai and other dissenting leaders. nnnn 65 FIRMS GET RICE EXPORT PERMITS TO CHINA Kathmandu, 25 Aug.: The government has permitted 65 firms to export 10,000 tons of rice to China. Republica reports. It decided to open rice exports to China keeping in view the impressive surplus of cereal crops in Nepal and growing demand for rice in the northern neighbor. The Department of Commerce and Supply Management (DoSM) recently granted permission to those firms. They will export rice to China through Tatopani and Rasuwa customs. “We granted permission to exporters on first-come, first-serve basis, laying down condition that export must be completed within six months,” Narayan Prasad Bidari, director general of DoSM said. “A total of 31 firms have been permitted to export 5,090 tons of rice through Tatopani customs, and another 34 have been permitted to export 4910 through Rasuwa customs.” A total of 65 firms had registered expression of interest to export rice to China´s Tibet Autonomous Region through Rasuwa and Tatopani after the government lifted nearly four-year ban on rice exports a few months back. The government had banned rice exports at the height of global food crisis 2008 after India imposed restriction on exports of non-Basmati rice. The Ministry of Agricultural Development has estimated food surplus of about 880,000 tons, including 300,000 tons of rice, in 2011/12. The government had reported food surplus of 443,000 tons in 2010/11. Though the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS) had recommended the government to allow exports of up to 50,000 tons of rice, the cabinet had decided to limit exports at 10,000 tons. Nnnn RAPID RESPONSE TEAM DEPLOYED AT TIA TO CHECK IRREGULARITIES ‘Kathmandu, 25 Aug.: In a bid to crack down on "illegal settings" at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) rampant in the foreign employment sector, a rapid response team caught four persons travelling to Dubai on a 'visit visa' on suspicion of illegally going abroad for work, TheKathmanduPost reports. A meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( MoFA) on Friday formed the rapid response team that is led by Joint Home Secretary Shanker Prasad Koirala. The team has been asked take prompt action against the practice of illegally sending people abroad for work. Complaints lodged with various government agencies reveal that an 'unholy nexus' exists between government officials at the TIA and manpower agents. They use temporary visas to send people to various countries for work. Once in foreign lands, these people get stranded and the government is compelled to rescue them by paying millions of rupees. The members of the rapid response team include personnel from the Nepal Police, the Immigration Department and the Department of Foreign Employment. Talking about Friday's arrests, the Director General of Immigration, Suresh Adhikari, said, "We are investigating the matter. One was found holding a visit visa. That person later confessed that he was going to Dubai for employment." Adhikari said the four persons were stopped as, according to him, chances are high that such people are stranded once they land in foreign lands. "Those held (on Friday) for investigation did not have money with them," he said. Director General at the Department of Foreign Employment Purna Chandra Bhattarai, who is also a member of the team, said government employees having a hand in the fraudulent practice will also not be spared. Friday's meeting also formed another high-level panel led by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha to look into policy matters and recommend to the rapid response team action to be taken against wrongdoers. Nnnn PM ATTENDING UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION FOR SECOND TIME Kathmandu, 25 Aug.: Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has decided to attend the 67th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that begins on September 13 in New York, Anil Giri wriotes in The Kathmandu Post.. The PM will leave Kathmandu on September 22 and address the Assembly on September 30. He is expected to meet international political figures including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Nepal’s mission in New York is arranging Bhattarai’s bilateral meetings with heads of the state and governments at the UNGA. Officials claimed that PM’s attending the world event is a must as the UN was directly associated with Nepal’s peace process. “He needs to be there to convey to the rest of the world the reality about Nepal’s peace and constitution process and the importance of international support and cooperation to accomplish the tasks,” according to an informed source. According to an official privy to the developments, a small team, most probably of 10 delegates, will accompany the prime minister. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha will stay longer in New York to attend a meeting of the Saarc Council of Ministers on October 2. But we are in a dilemma, said a senior Foreign Ministry official. “If the present political stalemate continues and if the parties fail to agree on an ordinance to appoint the ambassador without parliamentary hearing, we will not have the permanent representative (PR) and ambassador to the UN when the PM is there. This is a matter of serious diplomatic negligence.” The post will be vacant from September 3 as the current Permanent Representative Gyan Chandra Acharya will join the UN as its Under Secretary General and High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Islands Developing States. Ban appointed Acharya to the post last week. A Cabinet meeting on Thursday accepted Acharya’s resignation as the PR effective from September 1. onsidering that Nepal is the global coordinator of the 48 Least Developed Countries, its long time association with United Nations peacekeeping operations and as a major troops-contributing nation. “We are concerned about the New York vacancy. Without an amendment to the current provision of parliamentary hearing, we cannot assign the job to anyone. We are seriously working on how to make a swift arrangement,” said Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha. The immediate impact would be seen during PM’s bilateral meetings. “The acting permanent resident will have access only to his/ her counterpart so it will be difficult to manage meetings amid protocol problems,” said the official. The UN has a mandatory provision that every PR should be designated at the ambassadorial level. According to the Interim Constitution, every constitutional and ambassadorial appointment should undergo a parliamentary hearing. About probable candidates, officials said that Foreign Secretary Durga Prasad Bhattarai would traditionally be the most eligible since he has served in New York as the Deputy Permanent Representative. If the government fails to appoint someone within the third week of September, Deputy Permanent Representa-tive Sewa Adhikari, who took charge some five months ago and is reasonably new to UN affairs, has to handle the affairs. “Diplomatically, a full-fledged permanent resident and ambassador is necessary when the prime minister visits such an important convention,” another official said. Nnnn OPINION Kathmandu, 25 Aug.: Leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), Bidya Bhandari last fortnight made a statement that her own comrades avoid endorsing not out of conviction but because of imbecility. Jhala Nath Khanal, Ishwar Pokharel, Madhav Nepal and, indeed, Khadga Prasad Oli turn mum the moment Prithvi Narayn Shah the Great’s name figures. Bhandari has called for declaring the Great monarch ‘nation –builder’. , Trival Vastavik writes in People’s Review. There is no dispute anywhere that Prithvi Narayan is the founder of Nepal, unified as he did numerous principalities that prevailed in the latter half of the 18th century. In the past, almost all politicians keen on being hailed as “senior leaders” extolled the contributions and virtues of the first monarch of unified Nepal. Today, they do not speak even when the nation-builder’s statues are broken or uprooted. The Maoists, who led a violent war for a decade that claimed more than 16,000 lives, initiated their unseemly acts. The terror thus created is such that the Nepali Congress and most other political parties have not been able to give their express opinions on the role of one of the heroes and builders of Nepal. Tthe so-called civil society leaders and “intellectuals” of various ideological orientations, too, have not dared to even make public their stand on Prithvi Narayan. History will not forgive them; sooner or later, the mischief makers will be exposed and condemned to infamy. In a refreshing and welcome contrast, Bhandari is not the type to be defeated by such circumstances. She speaks her mind loud and clear, making a poor sight her peers whose spineless attitude is shameful. This was no happenstance. Bold and original, she is rated as the most effective defense minister in Nepal’s history. Bhandari’s act and actions as the defense minister are admired in the Nepal Army. Had anyone else held the portfolio during the crucial period when she headed the ministry, things might have taken a drastically different course, with long-term implications. It is strange that retired army generals do not bring themselves to making due note of it in public, although they are keen to meet and speak on other issues as “experts.” Logically, Bhandari’s next task would be to convince her own communist colleagues like former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, UML President Jhala Nath Khanal and prime ministerial aspirant Khadga Prasad Oli, among others. Modnath Prashit, also a former minister, is the only prominent UML member who does not beat about the bush in hailing the great king for what he rightly deserves. The initiative to discredit Prithvi Narayan was taken by the Maoists and sections funded by overseas agencies bent on “secularism” and opening ways by any means for proselytizing. Coverts in such groups are hyperactive in provoking their benefactors for reassurances of blessings and generous funds. The main motive behind all this activity is, therefore, an open secret that is being challenged in recent months. The dominant among the so-called civil society leaders are associated with well-funded NGOs. Some are not remunerated but they are keen in netting important appointments, such as an election cabinet composed of “civil society” leaders. Others hope for foreign junkets and “recognition” and awards. They make it sure that they anything they say or do does not inadvertently affect adversely their funding agencies known as “partners.” Little surprise that some South Asian scholars have expressed their disgust over the manner in which civil society groups have been working, i.e. saying things that the funding agencies like to hear. Bhaskar Ghose, an Indian scribe, is against civil society dominating a democratically elected government and civil society leaders creating obstacles to governance. “Just how does a democratically elected government change overnight and dance to the whims of some people designated by the media as ‘civil society’?” In Nepal’s case, the pretences the civil society leaders hold are as transparent as their birthday suits. When civil society leaders are guided by the agendas and manifestos of political parties, they become charlatans. If people were to follow them, what are political parties for? The lazy sections of the news media have also made a habit of running after the very ones who took them and the rest of society through the garden path. Bit by bit, such developments have led Nepalis to where they are today, chewing anything political groups and their sister organizations pass on as “forward-looking, progressive and loktantrik” ideas and practices. Things have deteriorated to such pass that it seems we can chew anything, after all these years of chronic anarchy, growing poverty and unemployment, amid a culture of impunity that spares only those with the right political connections and patronage. The situation is underscored by also the fact that foreign heads of state and government are not keen to pay a visit to Kathmandu. Aware that their junior officials can raise and address issues of their vital interests, they are not going to spend their valuable time here. Their embassy personnel or junior ministers have been handling things and doing quite well to serve the interests of their governments. The visit by a foreign head of state or government is therefore an extremely rare event since the advent of loktantrik years. As a consequence, Nepal’s efforts to have its nominees on important UN bodies have failed roundly. The bid for a tenured seat at the Security Council suffered a humiliating defeat whereas even the panchayat years had scored scintillating successes on this score. Ridiculous efforts were made to have Girija Prasad Koirala awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, a move which met a mate that was predictable to most reasonable minds. See where we have been reduced to? If things were to develop in such manner, why bother maintaining so many embassies entailing high expenses borne by the taxpayers of the poorest country in South Asia? Anyone who points out the existing shortcomings, which plague the establishment, risks being dubbed as being away from “mainstream thoughts.” The Danes, the Finns, the Norwegians, the Swiss and their ilk have had a field day in Nepal pushing their agendas freely and often successfully without any care for the feelings of the majority of Nepali people. As a result, the mediocre running their units in Nepal are overrated because of the purse they dangle at a few “civil society leaders” they create and order in a chaotic country with anarchy ruling all over. (The writer can be reached at: trikalvastavik@yahoo.com) nnnn MEDIA GOOGLE “Chief Secretary Lila Mani Paudyal on Friday expressed concern over long-running trend of donors directly providing assistances to non-governmental organizations and other agencies by not informing their pledges to the national system or aligning them with national priority, and instructed the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to check such practices.” (Report in Republica, 25 Aug.) Nnnn