Nepali Times Nation Nepali Times 3 Editorial 20 - 26 December 2002 20 - 26 December 2002
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#124 20 - 26 December 2002 16 pages Rs 25 BHAGIRATH YOGI ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ rivatisation sounds great in Going to the dogs P theory. But Nepal’s experi- ence with handing over sick state-owned enterprises to private business has not Cold war guaranteed recovery. In fact, controversial privatisation deals There is really nothing to destroy here in Humla. over the past decade have reeked of malpractice. Many public enterprises are now so far gone, there are no buyers, and the trend is towards MIN BAJRACHARYA liquidation. Soon after being appointed finance minister two months ago, Badri Prasad Shrestha unveiled his Economic Privatisation is at the crossroads. Reform Program which included the privatisation of eight on the anvil for privatisation. The carry off a torturous sale of the state-owned enterprises this most time consuming has been the National Tea Development fiscal year. handover of Butwal Power Corporation. Ministry officials say they are Company (See box, p7). Privatisation of non- fast-tracking proposals put in the “We have given top priority to performing state-owned deep freezer by previous Butwal Power Company,” finance enterprises is high up on the governments. But many of these secretary Bhanu Prasad Acharya economic reform agenda being enterprises are so sick that there told us. The cabinet is expected to pushed by bilateral and multilat- are no private-sector takers and decide late Thursday on a eral donors and lenders. In its will likely be put out their misery. Norwegian-funded compensation 1999-2001 Country Assistance The government has already package following the Maoist Strategy (CAS), The World Bank decided to liquidate Nepal Coal, damage of the Jhimruk powerplant tied the bank’s future lending Cottage Industrial and Handicraft that is delaying the process. with privatisation. The govern- In remote Humla, its too cold to fight, but not too cold to destroy health posts, close schools and extort money. Emporium and Hetauda Textiles, After identifying seven ailing ment’s privatisation plans are government sources told us. public enterprises for privatisation also linked to the IMF-backed KAPIL TAMOT in SIMIKOT restore peace, without that everything is futile. But five others, including in 1997, the government has only Poverty Reduction and Growth ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ abita Lama used to run a string of health Simikot airfield (seen in picture, above) will Himal Cement, Hetauda Cement, managed to split the Agriculture Facility (PRGF). posts in Nepals most remote and harsh remain a lifeline for food until the road is com- Birgunj Sugar, Bhaktapur Brick Inputs Corporation into two continued p7 B regions, providing free medical care to pleted. Subsidised rice is flown into Simikot from and Tiles and Butwal Power are separate private companies, and ð women and children. Surkhet and Nepalganj after the Maoists destroyed After her clinics in Torpa was destroyed six bridges over the Karnali. The Maoists have set up a months ago by Maoists, villagers tried to talk them checkpoint on the main southbound trail from into leaving health posts alone. But they destroyed Humla, and take a tax of Rs 3 from every traveller. the clinic in Albang too. They told us they Tourists bound for Mansarovar have to pay $100. dont want any NGOs here, they want to destroy Villagers need a visa to go south. Locals need everything built by the government and have a papers from both the Maoists and the district republic, Babita Lama told us. Now we have to administration to go anywhere. take our sick to Muchu or Simikot. Ironically, the food situation is not so bad It was Humlas remoteness that had saved the because the conflict has driven away so many district from the worst effects of the insurgency, but people. Southern Humla is depopulating fast, there that doesnt seem to be a protection any longer. are few young men left. Many of them had offered Maoists are even travelling across the border into to enlist in the security forces. The Maoists were Tibet to buy winter clothes and food, and Chinese going to come after us, so we offered to join the border guards at Taklalot now examine the elbows police or army, one young Humli in Nepalganj told of Nepalis. If they are rough and scratched, they us. They didnt take us, so we decided to get out. are taken for Maoists and refused entry. A 200-strong police force is stationed near the We used to be neglected by Kathmandu even airport. The army unit has set up a base on Rani in normal times, now it is much worse, says Jivan Ban, a strategic ridge above the main bazar. But at Shahi, the elected ex-chairman of the Humla DDC. 10,500 ft, it is bitterly cold and windy here for the Development has come to a halt. Even Humlas soldiers. <orget about protecting the headquar- highly effective food-for-work program has ters, one of them grumbled. We are just trying slowed. Some 35 km of a vital road from the not to freeze to death. Chinese border to Simikot is only half-finished The security forces rarely go on patrol, but because dynamite isnt allowed. when they do, the villagers cower. On the road The Chinese have offered to build two bridges from Limi, one man huddled inside a dark tea shop in Hilsa and Muchu. If only our own government whispers: In the daytime, the soldiers come and was as supportive, Humla would be transformed, beat us up, and at night the Maoists do the same. Shahi told us. But the most important thing is to Two teachers from Simikot were kidnapped and killed a few days before Dasain. Simikot resident, 29-year-old Juna Buda, was killed for not paying extortion money. Ex-MP Chakra Bahadur Shahi and VDC chairman Padam Lama had their houses Weekly Internet Poll # 64 looted. Jivan Shahis home has been attacked Q. Who is to blame for the SAARC Summit being postponed? twice. Most schools are closed. The government school in Simikot is open, but the teachers there dare not make the children sing the national anthem. We take classes, but our heart is not in it, we just live from one day to the next, says one teacher. There has never been anything here worth destroying. An autonomous Karnali Authority to oversee development and administration could bring hope. Total votes: 1,087 But Kathmandu has only paid lip-service to the Weekly Internet Poll # 65. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com idea. With a resigned air, Jivan Shahi tells us: If Q. What should be the future shape of our constitution? the donors push it, it could still happen. t 2 NEPALI TIMES NATION NEPALI TIMES 3 EDITORIAL 20 - 26 DECEMBER 2002 20 - 26 DECEMBER 2002 Nepali Times is published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit STATE OF THE STATE by CK LAL OPINION by DHAWAL SJB RANA Design: Kiran Maharjan [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Advertising: Sunaina Shah [email protected] Subscription: Anil Karki [email protected] Sales: Sudan Bista [email protected] Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Lalitpur GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: 01-543333-7, Fax: 01-521013 Musharrafship Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hattiban: 01-547018/17 Think nationally, act locally THE ROOTS O WRATH Dictatorship is too crude, self-regulation of dissent is the way to go. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ t is readily apparent to many of us that this revolution is a dead-end street. It eports in the Panipokhari-friendly press impossible, to ensure human rights when rights by the government. The Maoists are only completing the process of I may not yet be evident to the Maoist leadership, or even if it is, maybe the indicate that Christina Rocca expressed the country is being governed by a non- Donor agencies preaching human rights hawks call the shots. The military-monarchy combine, on the other hand, is R her concerns about the instances of representative executive. to suitably attentive activists in Kathmandu are dismantling grassroots democracy that Sher waiting for new hardware so it can start a decisive offensive that it hopes will break human rights violations in Nepal during her Its not just the executive functions, engaged in a fail-safe gameyou cant go Bahadur Deuba started. the back of the rebel movement. visit here last week. even legislation seems to have fallen prey wrong when you are converting the already- Positions have hardened so much that neither side cares too much for talks at Nepals ruling class knows that the to what has come to be termed the converted. But these sermons have very little ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ present. The feelings of war-weary Nepalis doesn’t seem to count. The people don’t see contradiction between what you preach and Musharrafship of present-day Nepal. relevance at the grassroots where neither the had their roots in the short-sighted policies of ensuring accountability. either side winning, all they know is that they will lose in a war they never wanted but is what you practice is an inalienable part of Named after a neighbouring general who Maoist militia nor the security forces are under Kathmandu, and the rules they forced on local The Deuba move not to renew the term of being waged in their name. power politics. So its quite unlikely that pioneered the concept, Musharrafship is a any obligation to exercise restraint. councils to prevent true devolution. local bodies even though there was a constitu- Ultimately, the revolutionaries will need a face-saving way out of this as much as the anyone at the Bhadrakali headquarters of the form of veiled dictatorship where a By repeatedly stressing the Great <or example, the centre placed an tional provision to extend the term by a year government does.