I apologize for starting on a defensive note. But any accusations of my surrender of integrity, or financial enrichment arising from this blog post is a purely fictional i.e. I have not been paid to write what I have written.
Having said that, let’s get on with the question at hand: Do we blame the Government (Nepali) more than necessary? And by Government I don’t mean this government or any governments prior to this one. I mean the institution of Government.
Reading the newspaper today, I wasn't a least bit surprised to find at least 3 different groups threatening agitation against the Government if its demands were not fulfilled–their words not mine. And this is not new; three groups threating agitation within hours of each other is simply a snapshot of larger problem.
The already rotting political (dis)order in Nepal is challenged day in and day out by groups that “demand” and “threaten”. No one wants to sit down and debate what these demands are, what the consequences of these demands might be, and why the government should fulfill them. For example, yesterday the Private and Boarding Schools' Association of Nepal(PABSON) handed out a 20-day ultimatum to the government to fulfil its five-point demand to scrap the 1% education tax, saying the “one percent education service tax has only added economic burden to the parents' woes and maintained that it was against the government commitment to free education.” O wait a minute now, let’s think about that for a moment. So PABSON does not want private schools, to pay a 1 % tax because of the "government’s commitment to free education". O really, but what about the often humongous fees PABSON schools charges its students? Where will that money go?
Further, “PABSON has also demanded its representation in every committee formed by the Ministry of Education (MoE), Department of Education, District Education Offices and other government bodies.” lol. Why on earth would the government agree to a set up in which PABSON can hold the education system hostage when it feels like? I pick on PABSON because it was recently in the news, but a host of organizations have been known to do the same. Anti-Government agitation always gets the people excited, doesn't it?
Our distrust of the government is often legitimate. But just because the Government is "the Government" does not make it wrong in everything it does. Let’s look at the Government’s actions on a case by case bases rather than passing a sweeping judgment on its incompetence.
The fear of reasonable dialogue falling on deaf ears has such a grip on everyone that the only option left is “demand” and “threaten”. And while this interest group menaces the government for this, another group is pestering the government for an opposite that.
And what is the government limited by political will, resources and priorities. Should the government be addressing the needs of the Christian community threatening agitation if government does not grant them land, or should it be concerned about the Chinese, or the threats of Madhesi parties blocking the budget, or should it be concerned about locals disrupting hydropower plant development, or the problem with army integration, or the concerns of the indigenous people, or working out the constitution?
Is it true that Nepal politician’s lacks accountability? Yes. Is it true that governance in Nepal is weak? Yes. Is it true that our politicians suffer from the acute lack of competence? yes, most of them ( lets give them the benefit of doubt). Is it true that the bureaucracy is laden with dead weight and red tapism? Yes. Is it true that we elected our representatives? Yes. Is it true that we need to change the way our Government works? Yes. Yes. Yes. But is senseless demand making and threats the only real way forward?
The major failure of the Nepali civil society, judicial system and the Government is the failure to create space for dialogue. A national obsession of a zero-sum game has taken over us. An either or mentality. In these years of crisis there is an tacit fear that if things do not before the constitution is written, it is all over! The golden opportunity to turn the tide will forever be missed. Are these fears legitimate? Only the future will tell. But by acting on these fears through a tactic that destroys the present we ensure that the future is bleak.
1 comment:
I agree with you to some extent. It is the lack of accountability and incompetance of a government that drive smaller groups to give ultimatums to a "legitimate" government (what ever that is supposed to mean). Yet, when all fractions fight for pieces of the governments authority over education, economy etc on grounds that are almost always conflicting, it is not only the incompetance of the government that gets highlighted, but the inability of a democratic society and its fractional groups to propogate necessary change in a meaningfull way. This is not to say that dialog and sensible debate will always bring about necessary change that will meet demands, yet to understand that abandoning this process altogether and resorting to threats and agitation would not bring about any long lasting change either; and if the change is brought in by threats and agitation, then one needs to be reminded that the threats and agitation must continue to sustain the change, and that in turn is also dysfunctional.This post should be renamed " In defence of all dysfuctional govenrments that are elected by an incompetant people".
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