#205 16 - 22 July 2004 20 pages Rs 25 Weekly Internet Poll # 145 Q. Should the government declare a unilateral ceasefire? War or Total votes:888 Weekly Internet Poll # 146. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q. Should elected local bodies be reinstated? peace? Adhikari tries to combine defence and development in the new budget NAVIN SINGH KHADKA eputy Prime Minister and would have to be raised, but did Finance Minister Bharat not say by how much. The army D Mohan Adhikari has had to wants a 30 percent increase for work, somewhat literally, on a war new recruitment and weapons. footing to prepare for Fridays Even though only three- budget announcement. quarters of the last development Appointed only two weeks ago, budget was actually spent, alloca- the 68-year-old minister (pictured, tions are being raised from Rs 41 right) needed to bring himself up- billion to Rs 47 billion this year. to-date with state finance, accom- Donors want a cap on development modate the interests of coalition expenditure unless there is partners and still be true to his disbursement. UML party platform. The finance minister has been Adhikari has already been working on a strategy he calls mocked for toning down his position Participatory Community Based on slashing the military and royal Projects to increase development palace budgets. When his party was spending by giving grants to village agitating on the streets those were bodies. But the plan is great slogans, but things seem to controversial because some believe change once in government. the money allocated for grassroots Senior sources in the Finance service delivery could fall into Ministry told us privately that Maoist hands. Adhikari has come under pressure But Adhikari is not worried from Prime Minister Deuba, who about this, holds the royal palace affairs and saying, We Editorial p2 defence portfolios, not to touch the want to use We aint seen two allocations. this budget as nothing yet UML central committee mem- a confidence bers grilled Adhikari earlier this building measure to build trust week for not being more assertive. with the Maoists. In last years budget, security ex- Other members of the coali- penses stood at Rs 13.5 billion and tion are sharply opposed to the nearly Rs 330 million was set aside money falling into Maoist hands. for the palace. The increase in the Science and Technology Minister military budget has been justified Balaram Ghartimagar of the RPP on the grounds that it is still within said the idea was absurd. We three percent of the GDP. havent discussed it, so how can The governments mid-term such an idea be implemented, he evaluation of last years budget had asked. stated that security expenses continued p8 KIRAN PANDAY 2 EDITORIAL 16 - 22 JULY 2004 #205 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Desk Editor: Jemima Sherpa Design: Kiran Maharjan Web: Bhushan Shilpakar Advertising: Sunaina Shah [email protected] Subscription: Anil Karki, [email protected] Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Lalitpur Mandated legitimacy GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: 01-5543333-6, Fax: 01-5521013 [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 01-5547018 How much freedom are we willing to forego today to ensure WE AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET future Nepalis have the full spectrum of liberties? very monsoon, television screens and column inches of newspapers n the opposite page, CK of the certainty fostered by are flooded with news of floods. Our region is in an area of either Lal contended two weeks GUEST COLUMN dictatorial strongmen, it is a E too much water in the monsoon, or too little during the dry season. O ago that Deuba holds office direct by-product of a number of Dipta Shah Sometimes, like this year, this paradox of penury and plenty is at the pleasure of the king (The factors, the ineptitude and lack of concurrent. While the eastern half of Nepal is reeling under floods, the lure of legitimacy, #203), and and justice. culpability of past, legitimately western side is in the grip of a serious drought. elected officials, being the most Ever the since the Himalayan mountains started forming after the gives his audience a lesson on the Without doubt, American Indian plate bulldozed under the Eurasian landmass 60 million years evolution of American foreign foreign policy has transformed in prominent. Lals assertion that ago, the rising terrain acted as a rain trap. Prehistoric monsoon rains policy, alluding to regime response to the threat of competence and cleanliness lashed the young mountains as they rose, depositing vast sediments on sponsors looking for peace and terrorism. And in the process of arent attributes that determine the Tethys Sea, ultimately filling it up to form what is today the Indo- stability rather than democracy the war on terror, the US has the fate of a government is Gangetic plains. Earthquakes, flashfloods, cloudbursts and landslides are forged alliances with absolutely correct in the context the dynamic effects of the processes of the likes of of a semi-functional or even, mountain-building and erosion. They have dysfunctional democratic always been going on, and they always will. President As human habitation in the mountains Musharaff in environment such as Nepal. In and the plains downstream grew, we started Pakistan, Hamid any functional democracy these calling these seismic and water-induced Karzai in attributes serve as the hallmarks events ‘natural disasters’. The events may be Afghanistan and of credible candidacy. natural, but there is nothing natural about Iyad Allawi in Iraq. There is a payoff between the increasing loss of life. The death toll and All of these offer liberty and the promise of peace. displacement is a man-made disaster. They The question is, which comes happen because the landless have nowhere examples of to go and settle along vulnerable mandated first, the chicken or the egg? floodplains, expanding cities encroach on legitimism, and yet, Perhaps the more relevant rivers, highways cut the drainage basins and given the state of question is, how much liberty are expensive embankments designed to control geopolitical affairs, we willing to forego in the present floods make them worse. are indispensable to ensure that upcoming Just like earthquakes don’t kill people forms of generations are extended the full (poor housing and lack of preparedness do) governance. While spectrum of liberties in the floods won’t kill people unless we get in the future? What is the cost of way. Bangladeshis have learnt to live with these examples floods, in fact they are a vital part of the pose a complex Deubas premiership as a form of agricultural cycle as the flood-borne silt system of double mandated legitimism versus the replenish nutrients in their fields. standards and cost of daily riots, general strikes, It is the government’s duty to rush relief hypocrisy to some, or the potential benefits of a to the victims of this year’s flood in the they exemplify negotiated peace? eastern and central tarai and the drought in skillfully crafted, Lal extends an argument that the west. But what are we going to do this pecks at every possible flaw in year so the scale of the destruction is credible policy reduced next year? The monsoon season is initiatives to others. Deubas nomination as prime not the time to be worried about floods, by Lals implicit minister, but eludes every the time it starts raining it is already too late. suggestion of the US opportunity at referring to Nature is neutral, it is neither malevolent as a regime alternatives and purposely avoids nor benevolent. Floods are natural sponsor is not any reference to the immediate phenomena. We have to learn to live with uncommon. His past. Lal champions a brand of them by being smarter about where we live, legitimacy that can only come how we live, and not tampering with nature to play on make problems worse. The Ganga- reductionism by from the ballota virtual Bramhaputra basin includes at least five superimposing past impossibility considering the countries, including Nepal. Rivers do not outcomes on present security situation in respect manmade boundaries, and floods current trends Nepal. But does the inability to happen when someone, somewhere constricts however, is self- democratically endow legitimism their drainage to the sea. If we keep doing defeating. Nepals necessarily imply that the Nepali that, then we ain’t seen nothing yet. current situation is state remain without a not a consequence constitutionally mandated KRIPA JOSHI L ETTERS BAJRACHARYA November idle” as stated. The Poverty how high the chimney is, you have MARKET DRIVEN After reading the troubling story with Bajracharya’s name in mind. Alleviation Fund (PAF) is ready to oxides of sulfur and nitrogen in and Re: Ashutosh Tiwari’s Strictly about Purna Raj Bajracharya (‘I’ll S Thapa, email launch its program. around the kilns. Of course, you Business column (‘Imagine no free sue the US government’, #203) I PAF Secretariat, Chakupat can introduce new technologies, market’, #203). I am not sure what figured that although unfortu- JOYRIDE but to reduce the oxides you have Tiwari means by ‘market-friendly nately I can’t help him with legal Re: Kunda Dixit’s ‘Joyride’ (#204). BAD FUEL to use either fuel with less sulfur mechanisms into how we want matters, I can assure him that as This is to let your esteemed Reading Mudita Bajracharya’s or capture the acidic oxides during goods and services provided to a Nepali American, I will make readers know that the $15 million ‘Killer kilns’ (#202) I was surprised combustion.