No government in recent memory has been able to perform this most basic duty: govern. Most have resorted to rank appeasement in the name of compromise and flexibility.
Restoring people’s confidence in the government that works should be Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal’s primary goal and responsibility. A government that can be flexible when there is need and act tough when the situation demands. There is a difference between flexibility and appeasement but successive governments have gone out of their ways to appease those who violate laws and resort to criminals acts.
I recall some cartoons that appeared a few weeks after the first ceasefire was agreed by the then Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government of the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in July 2001.
One of those went like this: Some Maoist cadres are seen traveling with weapons. The police on the scene refuse to intervene. Why? Because the government ordered its forces not to do anything that will “harm the peace process”.
Madhav Kumar Nepal will be tested severely; both by his allies and foes. The signs are already there: schools have been shut down; highways will follow suit soon. Can the prime minister act?
We have moved one full circle since then. But the situation is eerily same; in fact, much more complex. If the Maoists were pure murderous rebels who replied to any abuses from the state forces (there were aplenty and some very gross) with blatant abuses of their own, they are now a legitimate party that happens to be the largest bloc in the Constituent Assembly cum Legislature-Parliament controlling nearly 40 percent of the seats.
And what did we hear Maoist deputy leader in the parliament say on Saturday when Speaker Subas Nembang told the Maoist lawmakers that he could not allow the controversial motion against President Dr Ram Baran Yadav based on legal and constitutional provisions.
“This will harm the peace process,” Narayan Kaji Shrestha told the journalists after the meeting in which the speaker conveyed his decision. We have been hearing it since August 2001.
So what options are there for consensus-seeking prime minister? He can choose to do what Girija Prasad Koirala, Deuba, Lokendra Bahadur Chand, Surya Bahadur Thapa and Pushpa Kamal Dahal (all prime ministers between 2001 and 2009) have done so far when it comes to maintaining law and order, ending impunity and establishing rule of law: NOTHING. Or he can choose to ACT.
History has offered Nepal who epitomizes ‘many a slip between cup and lip’. He can also shut those hypocrites off who cite his losses in two places in the CA elections but keep conspicuous silence about Ram Raja Prasad Singh party’s dismal performance and Bam Dev Gautam’s loss in the same election. Both weren’t ‘loser’ enough perhaps to become Maoist presidential candidate (Singh) and deputy prime minister and home minister (Gautam).
Ah, the home minister. Krishna Prasad Sitaula of Nepali Congress and Gautam of Nepal’s Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) will surely rank as two of the weakest and ineffectual home ministers that this country has had since the post-1990 Jana Andolan.
While Sitaula was dubbed “Maoist home minister” for condoning nearly every single act of violence by the Maoists, Gautam was too close to the Maoists to allow the police to enforce law and order. Both also miserably failed to control criminal gangs in the Tarai who masquerade as political outfits.
Police chiefs and chief district officers in eastern and central Nepal have confided with journalists and human rights activists the pressure from the political masters in the capital when it comes to arresting the criminals who resort to extortion, kidnapping and murder. Even those who are arrested are released when party leaders visit police stations and district administration offices to free “our party member”. No party is a holy cow in this.
Madhav Nepal should reverse this evil practice. The police force has been a battered lot right since Maoist insurgency days. The government mustn’t allow the sorry state of policing to continue further. Even the most basic enforcement of law and order has been absent for far too long now. But can Nepal be bold enough?
As I wrote above, this is a golden opportunity for MKN to prove his mettle and wipe out the stigma of gracing the top executive post despite losing elections from two places.
His task has been cut out. There will be concerted and co-ordinated attempts not to let his government function, especially from the Maoists. Given the Nepali Congress’ known dislike to anything that is communist, they will see their benefit more in keeping quiet than standing alongside Nepal in confronting the Maoists. With Jhala Nath Khanal clearly one unhappy man, the support from Nepal’s own party will not be total.
He will be tested severely and his testing has already begun. The Maoist-affiliated teachers union has already shut down schools; factories and mills will be next target from the plum Salikram Jammakattel brigade; highways will frequently be shut and extortion will become more naked and rampant. Laxman Tharu will soon announce his nationwide protest. Limbuwan, Khumbuwan and sundry other mushrooming groups in the east have been waiting for the right time and it has come.
I ask myself why should Madhav Nepal act when his predecessors could not or did not? Why should he buck the trend? If for nothing else, Nepal should be guided by the incentive of shaking off the stigma of election losses. He has desperately sought this post. It is now his. It’s time to live his dream of leading a functioning government.
damakant@myrepublica.com
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