The centre cannot hold - Nepali Times

Publisher\'s Note
The centre cannot hold

FROM ISSUE #518 (03 SEPT 2010 - 09 SEPT 2010) | TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Things fall apart when the centre doesn't hold. The prolonged political uncertainty in Kathmandu is having an impact across all sectors of the economy, and in the everyday lives of citizens.

The long queues for jobs in the army or police, the teeming passport seekers, the throngs at Korean language test centres and at the departure gate at the airport all indicate heightened public exasperation and disenchantment.

Politicians, whose inability to agree on forming a stable new government are the cause of all this, ignore this mass disaffection at their own peril. Someday they will reap the whirlwind. The only political forces that benefit are those that thrive on chaos and anarchy.

Even if it is only for their own self-preservation and well-being, the democratic parties that believe in non-violent change and pluralism should work together and curb short-term greed and ambition. If they don't stop fighting now, there will be nothing to fight over.

History is replete with example of demagogues and dictators who were propelled to power not by their ruthlessness, but by the fecklessness of moderate adherents of an open society, whose greed blinded them from seeing what was coming.

There has always been mismanagement in Nepal. We have come to take it as a given that governments will be ineffective and corrupt. Budgets, if passed, are seldom spent. Garbage has been piling up on Kathmandu streets for decades, especially since 1990. State-run corporations have all been bled dry. There have always been kleptocrats in the bureaucracy, and there has always been dacoitry in politics. But never has the level of malgovernance, corruption and apathy among our rulers been as visible and blatant as it is today.

The rubbish on the streets is symptomatic of the rot. The inability of the state to cope indicates the level of statelessness. Floods are ravaging the land from Mahakali to Mai Khola, but there hasn't been a coordinated state response. A CDO inspecting floods from a helicopter in Kanchanpur makes the news, not the fact that boulder mafias were quarrying the flood-control embankment.

In this issue we have an investigative report on how Nepali workers are not just being exploited, but are bought and sold like slaves. The victims are Nepali, the traffickers are Nepali. There is no point blaming the Libyans or the Macau authorities for this modern-day form of slavery in which the state is complicit.

This is what happens when society and the nation are without leadership. Crooks of all hues crawl out from holes in the ground to pick at the bones of what is left.

It is when the state goes into freefall that we have to be most vigilant to prevent the rise of strong-arm dictators who promise to set things right, and restore order. If that does happen, the blame will then fall squarely on the leaders who today call themselves 'democratic'.

READ ALSO:
Lifeline
Trafficking labour, JB PUN MAGAR and BABURAM BISWOKARMA
Nitty-gritty politicking, PRASHANT JHA
Meddling in the media, CK LAL
Singing of sorrow, INDU NEPAL
If the cap fits, ASHUTOSH TIWARI

1. Rajaram
Anayaka binasyanti ,,
Nasyanti bahu nayakah.
One(Nation) without a Leader(Statesman) is bound to fail;
Also( nation) with too many leaders will( certainly ) collapse.

Posted on: 03 SEPT 2010 | 1:44 PM NST

2. jange
The long queues for jobs in the army or police, the teeming passport seekers, the throngs at Korean language test centres and at the departure gate at the airport all indicate heightened public exasperation and disenchantment.

This is the result of more than a decade of Maoist mayhem. As the NT says the Maoists are indeed the only party representing change.

It is when the state goes into freefall that we have to be most vigilant to prevent the rise of strong-arm dictators who promise to set things right, and restore order. If that does happen, the blame will then fall squarely on the leaders who today call themselves 'democratic'.

And maybe just a teeny weeny bit of blame for publications like the NT who hailed the Maoists as harbingers of change.

As they say- Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.

Posted on: 03 SEPT 2010 | 2:28 PM NST

3. Dg
"Even if it is only for their own self-preservationand well-being, the democratic parties that believe in non-violent change and pluralism should work together and curb short term greed and ambition.If they don't stop fighting now, there will be nothing to fight over."
This is the writing on the wall.
Democratic parties and democrats must now make united front. ; against
non-democratic forces advocating one party ruling system indirectly...
How long can we afford to beat about the bush.?
Mao himself said ,"First of all we should know who is our friend and who is our enemy in politics.'"
It is the weakness and ,callousness of the open society adherents that the other front that is one block strong.
Once they loose the battle, it will be like asking how the flame looked like after it extinguished in Alice's adventure
Democrats awake ,arise, don't sleep. This is the time to act..

Posted on: 03 SEPT 2010 | 2:50 PM NST

4. K. K. Sharma
No point in exhorting the Nepali " Democrats".

They will be proactive, only when they receive brains, money and logistics from their masters in Delhi..

Posted on: 03 SEPT 2010 | 12:18 AM NST

5. Budabaaje

"This is what happens when society and the nation are without leadership."

=> This is what happens when idiots like you bring in Maoist extremists into the "mainstream" using hollow claims of "peace", "democracy", "new Nepal" and all that crap!

Posted on: 03 SEPT 2010 | 4:37 AM NST

6. Slarti
There has always been mismanagement in Nepal. There is hardly any point in disagreeing with the statement of the obvious. However, it is important to point out that you are not doing a great job of defending an eminently defensible cause which is democracy. Your line of argument is more in-line with the adherents of absolutist religions such as communism. You must accept this path or their is eternal damnation - or death in communist lingo.

One has to appreciate the fact that every government in Nepal has been hobbled by critics who have no sense of proportion. Right from the first democratic government that took office the problem has always been the same - the opposition simply refused to debate the facts and policy to deal with the problems of this country.

Instead the focus has always been on rhetoric, raising the easiest complaints without fully understanding the need for such complaint and that solutions must come progressively and step by step. That it is entirely possible that what seems right at one moment may prove to be wrong as evidence is gathered to the contrary and for that there needs to be an environment which fosters independent, even if offensive, thinking.

To me, an an extraordinarily ordinary person with very little intelligence, seems to be the essence of democracy. The certainty that power will always be limited so that freedom to think and to believe is maximised for greater good.

If you take out this particular instance, I believe Nepali governance was an improvement established by its near neighbours in Tibet and in Bihar/UP duo underbelly of China and India, respectively.

The main issue which underpins this problem, of course, is socialism and acceptance of communism as part of politics which they are not. These two are macabre ideologies focussed on murdering people.

The adherents of these ideologies are like spoilt children who know that the best way to have their way is to whine there way to having it. Of course, after having their way, they realise that they want something else!! But they willfully ignore that they have already done the damage by diverting attention from the important issues.

Nepal will continue to suffer from these problems because 90% of her population are adherents of socialism and at least 36% wish to see a communist nation. (60% of the 60% of voters who exercised their franchise in the latest elections).

Let me also make a complain here. You have a great sense of humour, you are self depreciating which makes me believe that you are also reasonably humble, you run a fine paper which represents communist views of CK Lal and Prashant Jha. And yet, the articles on your paper appear to be half heartedly researched.

Notwithstanding, your (and most intelligent educated worlds) deep-seated hate for Hindu's and the Monarchy should not stop you from defending democracy at least!!

You get paid to do that, don't you? I have to come here to the cyber cafe to do it every Saturday, pay some money, and write things that obviously don't make any sense at all.

The reason I do this is because I am deeply offended by misstatement of facts and ideas in all newspapers.

Your qualities, and the opportunity you have to influence opinion should definitely make you better, or I will keep writing till the cows come home and it would not move anyone an inch.

My being a Royalist should not dilute my request which you must admit is fair. Please do a better job, if nothing, of at least defending democracy. It is the world's only chance.

Posted on: 04 SEPT 2010 | 12:27 PM NST

7. Arthur
So the main advocate for the "golden muddle" now recognizes that "the centre cannot hold". But who is the warning directed against?

If the feared dictatorship was from the military and royalists, why not say so? The endless pathetic bleating for dictatorship from rightist commentators here only highlights the complete absence of any rightist force strong enough to do more than bleat. The Nepal Army already knows it could not defeat the Maoists in civil war so the implicit demands that it take power again are simply childish. (Even more absurd when expressed as calls for "Presidential rule" from a President who is a complete non-entity).

More likely the "dictatorship" Kunda Dixit has in mind refers to the Maoists ruling alone instead of in coalition with parties opposed to change. With that concept of "dictatorship" it certainly makes sense to point out that the hatred of the corrupt anti-Maoist parties for each other and their greed for the spoils of office will only result in a larger Maoist victory at the next elections.

But even if they united in a single anti-Maoist party pledged to share the looting equitably among themselves, instead of competing with each other, is it still possible for their combined support to retain a majority after everyone has seen how the 22 party government performed in office?

What puzzles me is why not speak plainly?

If the publisher simply said the anti-Maoist parties need to stick together because fighting each other strengthens the Maoists, it would be an uncontroversial position supported by all the anti-Maoist readers of this anti-Maoist publication.

Throwing in a pretense that these parties are "democratic" and the Maoists are "dictatorial" adds nothing whatever.

My guess is that the answer to this puzzle is that being muddled is an essential principle for advocates of the "golden muddle". Speaking plainly would result in admitting that the anti-Maoists cannot unite for the same reason they cannot govern. They are hopelessly inept and corrupt.

Since Kunda Dixit knows the present hopeless ineptness and corruption cannot "hold" he also knows that the Maoists will end up ruling without a coalition restraining them. But that is what he calls "dictatorship".

Posted on: 06 SEPT 2010 | 4:57 PM NST

8. Rajaram
#7 Arthur
Japan was defeated in World War 2 and MacArthur was appointed the Seprepe Commander of the allies in Japan.He asked Prime Minister Shidehra toa new constitution..in place of Meiji Constitution. Shidehra with his reservation constituted a committte under Matsumoto Joji as Chairman to write the constitution. Dr.Joji's draft was not accepted by Mac Arthur. as unsatisfactory. He got a constitution finally prepared by the government section of the head-quarter to quickly draft a constitution ; it was done in by them in few weeks time. General MacArthur told the government that it was prepared by them and place before the people of Japan. The Emperor had to issue a decree. On October7,1946 the draft was passed by both the houses of Diet it is called Shova Constitution,and is effective till now.
So,for forms of government let fools contest;whatever is best administered is best.
Authorize Arthur to write Maoist Constitution for New Nepal; why not?
Democracy or Dictatorship let fools contest.To hell with them.
Nepalese deserve a MacArthur Constitution.

Posted on: 07 SEPT 2010 | 12:12 PM NST

9. Gole
#7
Democracy, but other alternatives are worst. may not be the best form of government it helps in achieving the collective aspirations of the nation and not of a few vested interests. It creates atmosphere of open society for discussion,debate so brings the best conclusions. It provides best platform for addressing the basic needs of the populace in terms of education, health and nutrition,shelter etc.
The best way to solve the problem of poverty is by creating jobs,not bu distributing existing wealth or poverty.Incentive is needed to create wealth.
Entrepreneurship creates jobs and weaslthnot government centrally controlled economy. Evenin China these days the onership of industries lies in the hand of the relatives and sons and daughters of the party bosses. ; and this is a hard reality. .This is a factand we should be aware about such system.

Posted on: 07 SEPT 2010 | 12:42 PM NST

10. Budabaaje
Re #8 and 9: Democracy, generally, is good. It's the way to go. Unfortunately, in Nepal, it has been hijacked by the 'bhasan-bhattaune' Bahuns in politics and chatterers in media. It's only been good for the politicians and journalists - as far as I can tell. Everyone else is sufferring, especially after 2006. So post-2006 democracy in Nepal has been of "vested interests" only. Gyanendra type democracy would have been far better for us!

Posted on: 07 SEPT 2010 | 3:52 AM NST