CHONG ZI LIANG

Wonder if Pushpa Kamal Dahal, sitting in Baluwatar and preparing for his China, visit has any clue about the rising frustrations of the people. The Maoists may have got three of the six seats in the by-elections, but that is not the real barometer. Ask people stuck inside buses for 24 hours because the government can't clear the week-long blockade of the country's main national highway by flood victims. Ask city-dwellers who have seen no respite from power and water shortages.

This coalition has spectacularly failed to deliver. There is no law and order, youth wings of ruling parties roam the streets and the police have no orders to intervene. Nepal can be a case for investigative studies by economists where inflation and deflation coexist simultaneously: prices go up even when demand slackens. Essential services have all but collapsed.

But, somehow or other, Nepalis cope. The only reason they're not revolting is because they have learnt through experience not to expect anything from their rulers, even from this band of former revolutionaries.

This does not mean the state has failed as Girija Prasad Koirala insinuates. The NC stalwart should talk less and prepare to reinvent the party by handing over to younger, more energetic leaders. That was the message from the loss of two assured seats in the by-elections last week.

Essential elements of state, the constitution, judiciary, legislature and executive, are functioning as they should. The Maoists have tried to muzzle the press, but the media still plays its adversarial role responsibly. In matters of resource mobilisation, the government is afflicted with problems of a plenty: it can't spend the money that it raises in taxes. That cash is useless in the bank.

Pessimism breeds desperation and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Maoists have severely weakened the state, maybe deliberately, but the Nepali people have the strength to weather this crisis. They are not even asking for the government to make things better, they just want the government not to make things any worse.