What’s he thinking?

PM Koirala's Jakarta visit

When Prime Minister Sushil Koirala left for Indonesia on Monday, some questioned, only half in jest, if he had mistaken his destination: surely, he should have been to Jajarkot, not Jakarta. The purpose of his three-day visit is to take part in the Asian-African Summit on April 22-23 and a commemorative event in Bandung in Western Indonesia the following day.

The skeptics have a point. However important the events in Indonesia, they pale in comparison to the catastrophe unfolding in Jajarkot: 25 people have already died of swine flu and up to a thousand more are in critical condition. But instead of overseeing their treatment and working to halt the spread of the potentially-deadly disease, the prime minister chose to fly out of the country. This suggests two things. First, PM Koirala is insensitive to the suffering of his countrymen, and second, he has surrounded himself with self-serving advisors who are completely out of tune with the public mood. Neither prospect is reassuring for Nepalis who have handed the country's leadership to Sushil Koirala at such a difficult time.

Koirala's Indonesia trip is strange because it is international practice for heads of state to cut short their foreign sojourns in the event of an emergency back home. In case of an unfolding emergency, they cancel their foreign trip. But despite widespread criticism of his planned visit to Indonesia, PM Koirala decided to go in any case. Seriously, what was he thinking? Even as swine flu has claimed dozens of lives and still threatens to get out of hand, the prime minister visited affected regions not once. His untimely Indonesia visit also puts paid to speculation that he couldn't visit Jajarkot because of his poor health. In contrast, in the same day that Koirala flew to Jakarta, Dr Govinda KC reached Jajarkot with emergency medicine for those affected, even though his doctors had advised him against going as he is still recuperating from his recent hunger strike. The prime minister, like Dr KC, is known for his Spartan lifestyle. But their contrasting reactions to the Jajarkot swine flu epidemic is indicative of how the two are worlds apart in their sensitivity to the pressing concerns of people.

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, as we have repeatedly noted in this space, has shown himself to be an extremely weak leader who is afraid of making hard decisions and, as it increasingly appears, who is out of tune with the suffering of his countrymen. Without the prime minister's initiative, the constitutional process has been stuck for over three months.

Corruption is inching up. The law and order situation in the Tarai belt is getting dicey. We could go on and on about the failures of the Koirala government. But whatever his other shortcomings, people generally saw him as a selfless and almost saintly—if a little bumbling—leader. But his lack of concern for Jajarkot victims now made us question even his moral compass, his supposed political strength. Fickle editorial writers taking a moral high might sound a touch condescending. But PM Koirala deserves every bit of the flak he is getting—and some more.