The connivance of major political parties to keep the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) toothless for the fear that many of them might fall into its dragnet indicates that corruption is prevalent across party lines too and that there is little political will to tackle it.
The prime minister admitting his helplessness in this case brings little solace to the people who have to bribe public officials to get just about anything done—from getting a driving license from the Department of Transport to clearing their lands of age-old disputes in public courts. So yes, any initiative to deal with it is no mean task.
But the question is: If the head of the government keeps ‘compromising’ on his promises on corruption and good governance (and he has already faced considerable flak for his attempt to undercut the rule of law by pardoning hardcore criminals), is there no limit to this compromise? Can all excesses be brushed away as compulsions imposed by coalition politics?
Bhattarai has also cited a week Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for his failure to take on corruption. It is true that there is a perception among bureaucrats that the PMO is a ‘dumping ground’ for the inept. But aren’t the PMO’s occupants, past and present, themselves to blame for this state of affairs? Why has the prime minister’s (and by extension the PMO’s) authority weakened to a degree that government employees feel comfortable to ignore his directives?
The common perception, whatever the degree of truth in it, is that corruption in Nepal starts right at the top. When everybody’s hand is muddy, who is to point a finger at the guilty? Those in the lower rungs of the government unsurprisingly have, in time, learned to conveniently ignore executive directives.
Issues like peace process and constitution making, though they undoubtedly make for hot topics for conversation, are a hard sell to many Nepalis who are still deprived of even basic necessities like electricity and clean drinking water. Nor are their lives any safer when even the convicted murders can attend the national legislature.
The prime minster and his government will do well to understand that a sense of security, timely delivery of essential services and clean governance are perhaps as important, if not more, to the common folks as the peace process and constitution making processes which seem to be dragging on and on and on without an end in sight.
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