UPDATE ON MEET OF RULING PARTIES Kathmandu, 29 Oct.: The ruling coalition is discussing the budget as government will face a financial crunch after mid- November with only the passage of a partial annual budget. Strategy towards opposition and the political crisis are also being reviewed. Election or reinstatement of the constituent assembly are being reviewed as the party leading the government prefers reinstatement Madeshbadi parties are pushing elections. nnnn CPN MAOIST CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETS Kathmandu, 29 Oct.: CPN Maoist. central committee chaired by Mohan:Baidhaya meets Monday. The party that split from the UCPN Maoist leading the government on ideological and personal differences between leaders is discussing a general convention being held 5 January 2013 in the capital. Baidhaya is presenting a report on convention preparation. nnnn NOT SO GOOD PICTURE OF NEPAL BUSINESS ETHICS Kathmandu, 29 Oct.: Doing business in Nepal is not easy. Moreover, the country has not made any attempts to conduct reforms to make things business friendly. This is what the Doing Business Index ( DBI ) 2013 has said. What is unfortunate is that Nepal made impressive gains in the DBI 2012, but has slid back in the latest DBI Rankings, The Kathmandu Post reports. As Nepal prepares for Investment Year in 2013, the DBI 2013 has come as an eye-opener for the country and its policymakers as it is one of the major tools for international investors to gauge the business environment before making investment decisions. Economists and private sector leaders said the business environment was much more alarming than what the DBI 2013 has projected. The prime minister’s economic advisor Rameshore Khanal said that the environment for doing business in the country was worse than shown in the DBI . “Potential investors are forced to pay bribes at the Department of Industry and the Office of the Company Registrar,” said Khanal, “When the very entry point is corrupt, how will one be interested in putting money in this country?” The bribery scandal involving the then Labour Minister Kumar Belbase shows corruption still thrives at the top level. Belbase was caught on video demanding Rs 250,000 each from overseas employment agencies to get registered. Earlier this year, the then Minister of State for Information and Communications had allegedly demanded money from a leading GSM mobile operator in return for a permission to import microwave frequency equipment. With the country going through a protracted political transition, the private sector said there has been increasing demand for money from the political class. Many in the private sector term the Belbase episode as the ‘fallout’ of the transition. “It is not easy to get our job done at many government agencies,” said a businessman. “Many political parties have split in the last three years. With uncertainty over their political career, party leaders use their energy to amass money through whatever means,” said another businessman. “As the number of political parties increases, the financial burden (donations) has also increased.” According to Khanal, bureaucratic hassles and administrative complexities are greater problems for investors than political or policy instability. “Unless these issues are addressed, forget the success of Nepal Investment Year (NIY). It will be hard to complete the investment year,” Khanal added. The DBI -2013 shows investors have to go through lengthy administrative and procedural process while starting businesses, registering property, paying taxes, exporting and importing goods. Industrialist Ravi Bhakta Shrestha agreed with Khanal. According to Shrestha, lawlessness and undisciplined bureaucracy have been disappointing for local and foreign investors. “There is no problem at the higher bureaucratic levels, but at the lower levels, the situation is worst when it comes to corruption,” said Shrestha. Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) President Suraj Vaidya said one of the biggest threats for investors was political uncertainty. “No investor can invest in a project in such an unpredictable environment,” said Baidya. The lack of strong governance at the local level is another problem that has hit the private sector hard. Surya Nepal, one of the country’s leading FMCG companies, is currently struggling to complete its new factory in Tanahun, the reason for the delay being regular obstructions by local hooligans. “It will certainly take one more year than our schedule to complete the unit,” said Ravi KC, corporate vice-president of Surya Nepal. He added that unlike in the past when they were troubled by demands for political donations, the industrial sector is now being harassed by local hooligans. “They are not politically motivated, but they have been receiving protection from all the political parties,” said KC. “So there is no protective body for us to lodge our complaint, and we are compelled to fulfil all their demands.” Nnnn DETAILED DESIGN OF MID-HILL HIGHWAY PROJECT Kathmandu, 29 Oct.: The government is preparing the detailed engineering design of 247-km roads in three sectors of the eastern part of the Mid-Hill Highway. As per plan, the design will be readied within the current fiscal year for blacktopping of the roads, The Kathmandu Post reports. With the completion of track opening of the eastern section of the Mid-Hill Highway last fiscal year, the Department of Roads now targets to speed up works on blacktopping the tracks. The department said it would come up with the detailed engineering design report for blacktopping of the roads in three sectors — Ganeshchowk-Chiyo Bhanjyang (60 km), Jorsal-Tamor-Sakranti-Maglung (99 km), and Bhojpur-Diktel (88 km). “We are planning to start blacktopping of these sections in the next fiscal year based on the size of the budget provided by the government,” said Bala Ram Mishra, project manager of the Mid-Hill Highway Project, Eastern Sector. He said the consultant to be hired soon would prepare the detailed design report and also prepare contract documents for selection of contractors. About a month ago, the department had invited expression of interest for the detailed design. The consultant will review the existing road track, carry out a detailed engineering survey and prepare contract documents. Mid-Hill Highway is one of the top-priority infrastructure projects of the government. However, it had not been progressing at anticipated pace due to problems such as lack of resource. The government had targeted to complete the entire tack opening job (1,776 km) and blacktopping of 70-km track in the last fiscal year. Last year, 50 km stretch was upgraded to gravel standard against the target of 55 km. According to the Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management, there is still 30 km track to be opened in the Western sector and a contract has been signed for the blacktopping of 20km track in the Ghurmi-Khurkot section (60 km) in the eastern sector. The project work did not move effectively due to contractors complaining about irregularities in the blacktopping tender called last year for the Ghurmi-Khurkot section and land acquisition issue in the Western sector. Mishra said they would call a tender for the blacktopping of another 20 km stretch of Ghurmi-Khurkot section after a month. “Lack of recourses due to announcement of one-third budget has also put us in difficulty to smoothly continue the blacktopping work,” he added. Nnnn INTERVIEW COUNTRY CAN’T RUN ON POWER GAMES ALONE Kiyoko Ogura, a Japanese journalist based in Nepal since 1993, has written several books and contributed to academic journals on the Maoist insurgency and Nepal’s political spectrum. She reported from the Maoist ‘base areas’ of Rolpa and Rukum during the insurgency and is the author of Kathmandu Spring: The People’s Movement of 1990 and Dissolving the Nepali Monarchy [Nepal Ousei Kaitai, in Japanese]. . The Post’s Dewan Rai and Gyanu Adhikari met with Ogura to discuss the stalemate in Nepali politics and a way out. How do you see contemporary Nepali politics? Today’s Nepali politics is the politics of three parties, the Maoists, Nepali Congress and UML, although the Madhesi parties are in the picture too. The three major powers came to the forefront through movements (Andolans). This generation of leaders are all Andolankaris, including, of course, the Maoists. What we see after 1990 is that all parties are good at fighting an enemy and they fight hard to defeat that enemy but none of them have policies on how to build a nation. Whenever there’s a problem, they hit the streets to protest, including even those in the ruling coalition. Why do the parties see alternatives in Andolans only? Why not utilise constitutional means? It’s because this generation of leaders all come from Andolan-based political parties. Perhaps there will be a change when a younger generation comes to power. To hit the street and protest as soon as there’s a problem is destructive. They don’t know how to be constructive. I see that in the Maoists as well. After a 10 year movement, they were able to get rid of the monarchy. But they haven’t shown vision for what to do next. Andolan-based politics makes it possible to devise long-term policies about how to get state power, but doesn’t allow long-term plans for state building. As a result, politics becomes reactionary. The only concern after attaining state power is how to retain positions of power. How strongly does this tendency appear in the Maoists? I talked to many Maoist politicians after they started their People’s War in 1996. They had plans for 10 to 20 years to attain power through a policy of a protracted People’s War. Look at them now. They don’t have plans for state building and play extremely short-term politics. How so? An example is the five-point agreement of May 15 (Jestha 2), but Prachandaji turned it down immediately because Madhesi and Janajati members of the Constituent Assembly opposed it. He thought perhaps he could benefit personally from going back on the agreement. All parties react to various immediate events, especially the Maoists, and change their stances. They don’t have strong policies and directions. PM Baburam talks a lot about “leapfrogging” into a middle-income country. Do you think it is all rhetoric? I haven’t seen that in his behaviour. Perhaps he has detailed policies but I haven’t seen them in his actions. The larger issue is that all actions are extremely dependent on personal pursuits for power. This applies to the crisis that arose during Girija Prasad Koirala’s time as well. In every turning point, big and small, power games come into play. Should we even expect anything from politicians except power games? I don’t think it’s the norm everywhere. A country can’t run on power games alone. Take Baburam Bhattarai for example. He declared elections for November 22 and that date is approaching. It is certain that there won’t be elections then. At least in Japan, when a PM can’t accomplish something he’s publicly declared, he resigns. Are you saying he’s morally obligated to resign? If he can’t hold elections on the date he declared, it becomes a moral issue, at least in Japan. I don’t know what moral standards are in Nepal. Going back to the background of the three major parties, do you see substantial difference among them? All three are Andolan-based parties, so we can talk about what they fought against. After the Andolans, a common nature emerges, which is the hunger for power at any cost. Basically, the Nepali Congress started as a party fighting for multi-party democracy. Going back to the Jhapa Andolan, the UML’s roots are in anti-feudalism, anti-Jamindar politics. As for the Maoists, one has to ask—why did they pick up guns? What was the motivation? I haven’t found an answer so far. I’ve been to Rolpa many times during and after the conflict, and I’ve asked myself why they started with Rolpa. Listening to people like Santosh Budha Magarji is like listening to something that’s been taught and rehearsed. Looking at Nepal’s history, was an armed movement necessary? I have no answers. But there appear to be two main causes: one was for social change, that is equality, and another was to end the monarchy. The reason many people supported the Maoists was for equality. What kind of equality? Many Dalits, women and Janajatis joined the movement for equality, by which I mean things like economic equality. There is also inequality between people living in Rolpa and Kathmandu. The Maoists were able to attract many with their slogans for equality. Now that Maoists have state power, do you think they have dropped the agenda of equality? If they did, they wouldn’t be Maoists, or communists. But they haven’t done anything to further the agenda of equality. Just look at Thabang. It looks different than during the insurgency. There’s a boarding school there now. It’s not that boarding schools are bad, but the communist Rolpa and Rolpa after the peace process are oceans apart. Can you explain how? Take Sulichaur for example. There was no sale of alcohol during the war—you could make it and consume it in your house but you couldn’t buy or sell it. Today, every shop in Sulichaur bazaar has imported whiskey. All the things that were banned by the Maoists for 10 years have gone back to the old ways—things like child marriage and alcohol. The social change the Maoists tried to bring didn’t materialise. Do you see any positive changes? The biggest change is improvement in women’s rights. I can’t say to what extent, but it’s a positive thing. I don’t know whether the situation of the Dalits has improved. What’s the evidence for improvement in women’s rights? On the basis of confidence. Still, women aren’t in high positions. But it has given many a lot of confidence. The female guerillas, for example, are very confident that they can do as well as men. You studied both the 1990 and 2006 movement. Can you tell us what the major differences between the two were? The 1990 movement was primarily based in Kathmandu and there was a huge participation from the Newar community, starting from Bhaktapur and moving to Kathmandu, Lalitpur and then Kirtipur. Janakpur and the Mithila samaj were also important. There were lots of old Nepali Congress leaders there like Bimalendraji. There was an Andolan in Biratnagar too. But overall, the 1990 movement was limited geographically. It was not a nationwide movement. The biggest difference in 2006 was the People’s War and the royal massacre in the background. During 2006, it was people from the districts, those who rent space in Kathmandu, which made the difference. It was a nationwide movement. So the scale was different. The slogans, too, changed. In the 1990, the demand was for multi-party democracy. In 2006, the movement was against the monarchy. Do you think social equality has increased after the Maoists joined the peace process? On the contrary, social equality has diminished. The rich are getting richer; the poor will never be able to rise up. Does that mean we should expect another movement for equality? Do you see the grounds for another movement? I don’t think economic disparity and difference are sufficient motivators to start another movement. A movement needs a political slogan. A movement against the rich—is that possible? I see smaller, localised movements, for example, that of Madhesis and Janajatis. But there won’t be a nationwide movement like in the past. That’s because the biggest political causes were multi-party system and republicanism. Even federalism, I don’t think, is everybody’s cause. How did federalism enter Nepali discourse? It wasn’t a Maoist agenda actually. In 2004, they divided the country into nine autonomous regions but it was to provide Janajati Adivasis more rights rather than to introduce a new state system. A communist can’t be jaatibadi. At that time, I didn’t even hear the word Sanghiyata [federalism] from the Maoists. The reason the present constitution has the word Sanghiyata is due to the Madhesi movement as well as that of Nefin [Federation of indigenous nationalities]. Do you see the possibility of the new Maoist party taking up arms again? They’ll certainly prepare for it. Even if they decide to do it, all I can say it is that it won’t be a nationwide movement like before. Finding a common cause like before won’t be easy. How do you see the political process moving forward? The reason the peace process has moved so far is because the Maoists have compromised a lot. You see it in the Army integration process as well. In fact, political consensus has meant Maoist compromise. If they hadn’t, the peace process would have been aborted and the CA dissolved much earlier. Looking at the behaviour of the three parties, the Nepali Congress and UML do not compromise much. Once again, the process will not move ahead without a Maoist compromise. Today, that means the resignation of Baburam Bhattarai. nnnn