Whether a government is a failure or a success largely depends on where you belong. It's more than a perspective issue.
If you belong to a comfortable class with connection with government machineries and bureaucracy, government failure may be a non-issue for you. This class was not affected by the Indian economic blockade and the anarchy in Madhesh. Fuel was no problem for them: It could be bought with enough money. Scarcity of essential goods did not matter: They were only a phone call away. And if you happened to be a member of mafia-black marketer nexus, this, again, was a non-issue because there was abundance of essential goods and fuel for you. Since government ministers too are a part of the nexus, they have a point when they rule out government failure.If you didn't have to skip meals because of unavailability of cooking gas, if you didn't have to walk miles from home to office during the worst days of economic blockade, if your children did not have to miss school because they are studying abroad, most likely you would also join the chorus with government ministers.
The reason most politicians take government and governance for granted is they (more so if they are part of the government) do not have to suffer what people suffer. Things are running as usual, people are going to work, buses are moving. Everything is in place. Why do you complain? They reason. Affluence often keeps you away from sufferings on the ground.
Politicians change rhetoric in no time. The person who is a vocal critic of the government today becomes all praise for it the moment he joins it. What they say and do, therefore, have to be judged on face value sometimes. It was in May 2014. Sushil Koirala's government was in place for only four months. I was interviewing RPP-N leader Kamal Thapa (now Deputy and Foreign Minister) for Republica. He flatly rejected the presence of the government. "Is there the government at all?" He asked. "If you describe ministers taking ride in flag-studded cars in the streets as the mark of government presence, maybe there is one. But if you talk about performance in delivery and governance, it's like the country does not have a government," he asserted. For commoners, struggling middleclass, wage earners and laborers, governments in Nepal have not been better than what Thapa said in 2014.
But if you ask him to comment on KP Oli government, this is not what he will most likely say. You will have to approach somebody from main opposition or agitating Madheshi parties to get that response.
Why do governments fail in Nepal? Why can't any prime minister leave an impact during his term? (For an overview of how government heads fail on day-to-day governance, see my previous article "Story of failure," Republica, Jan 30). Politicians are not always credible authority to offer credible answers to these questions. So I turned to personalities who have observed government functioning in various capacities. Their response not only reinforces pervasive pessimism about governance but could also provide interesting insights.
"There are two main factors behind why a government cannot work," said Prateek Pradhan, former editor-in-chief of Nagarik daily who also briefly served as press advisor of former Prime Minister Sushil Koirala. When they are outside government, politicians make getting there their only goal, he explained. "Once they are there they have no clue what they should do. Making fast bucks, building a house in Kathmandu and securing family's future becomes top priorities. Governance is the last thing on their mind. "
Politicians and top bureaucrats vindicate such claims through their actions. They are those who live in sumptuous houses, ride expensive cars and educate their children abroad. No wonder they are also among the most corrupt people, according to various reports. But political unaccountability and corruption is only one part of the problem, failure on political front is complemented by bureaucracy, Pradhan argues. "The role of Nepali bureaucracy is limited to signing documents and approving plans that it cannot formulate by itself. Plans and programs for Nepali bureaucracy are made by foreign consultants who are often unaware of ground realities."
It's troubling that we are being governed by bureaucracy which, in turn, is governed by policies somebody else frames.
Former Chief Secretary of Government of Nepal, Leelamani Paudyal, seconds Pradhan's first claim. "The first thing politicians do while in power is secure their future through foul means. They take undue advantage of their position," he told me recently. But for him bureaucracy is a sacrificial lamb of political malfunctioning. "If bureaucrats do not work as politicians wish, they are rendered bhumikabihin (role less)," Paudyal explained. But why do bureaucrats not assert themselves and resist political pressure? "Some of them do," Paudyal argues, "but the problem starts right there when they confront many interest groups. Ultimately, assertive bureaucrats are either sidelined or demoted."
Paudyal also points to foreign meddling as a factor behind government failure. "Political actors make connection with foreign powers a ladder to reach power. They promise to work as foreigners want them to. Thus our governments look like our own but in essence they are controlled by foreign elements." What if the government defies foreign elements? "Such governments are toppled," Paudyal said unhesitatingly.
To what extent foreign meddling contributes to failure of government is a subject for a separate treatise but our own experiences prove there is something to it. Governments that have tried to defy India's pressures have not lasted for more than nine months in Nepal. You can say so about governments led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Jhalanath Khanal. India's hand in frequent government changes in post-1990 politics has been established.
"There is a fundamental problem with structure of our political parties," argues Sanjeev Pokharel, an anthropologist, political analyst and blogger. "Look at our political parties. There is no transparency of funds, democratic process is almost nil. People's voice does not count, nor does meritocracy," he told me over the phone recently. "As is the party so is the government."
Police is the strongest authority in creating a semblance of governance by maintaining law and order. But police in Nepal is often accused of being corrupt and abetting crimes of different types. I asked a senior police officer of celebrated eminence (not named on request) why police cannot be assertive enough. "It's hard to distinguish politicians from criminals and criminals from politicians in Nepal," he said. "Then there is entrenched nexus of money, muscle, mafia and political power before us which is hard for police alone to dismantle."
When political parties come to power, he added, they force police officers to obey their illegitimate orders. "Those who resist are transferred immediately."
He shared with me an experience that sounds like a disgrace on entire political class. "The smugglers operating in the border region are all affiliated to political parties. Arrest one of them and you start getting orders from political authorities for their release within minutes." He confided that officers who want to maintain law and order face perverse politicians every step of the way.
The reasons behind government failure include—but are not limited to—what above four personalities have to say. The role of the government as an institution has been limited to formulating policies it cannot implement, making promises it cannot fulfill and selling hopes that cannot be materialized. Government ministers and bureaucrats seem to do nothing but misuse public funds.
Hurdles seem invincible. Any attempt to overcome them risks ending up in failure. We look headed towards a bottomless pit of misrule and bad governance.
"But this is resignation," the police officer alerts me. "There are honest men in every sector, in police, in bureaucracy, in politics and media. You should not give up. Keep writing about malfeasance and exposing the black sheep."
Truly, it is such spirit that keeps hope alive.
mahabirpaudyal@gmail.com
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