www.nepalitimes.com #152 4 - 10 July 2003 18 pages Rs 25 KUNDA DIXIT ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ hen Surya Bahadur Thapa became prime minister a month ago, most people heaved a sigh of relief. WHere was a wily manipulator who could use the executive powers bestowed on him by the king to lead the charge, and yank the politics out of the quagmire. It’s Nothing moves looking more and more like the old horse is running out of steam. “Because no one is in charge, anyone can be in charge.” To be sure, the odds are stacked against Thapa: there ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ is the whole question of his legitimacy, the NC-UML ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ alliance sees him as a pretender, the Maoists barely trust dissension from the KP Oli camp, which is now in open But it doesn’t. After the abuse they have hurled at the him. And then there is the daily list of damage control mutiny. Oliji is stirring things up and now wants a party king and his prime minister, there is no way the parties chores: street protests, school strikes, transport strikes, convention, barely six months after the last one. It is hard to can now join the government. The only way is to lure oil tanker stoppages. see where this is headed other than an open split because defectors in. But there are doubts if such a government “Nothing moves, things are at a complete standstill, Madhab Kumar Nepal still commands the internal party can be sustainable in the longterm. “Everyone is just there is no government,” says a senior bureaucrat who has votes. But MKN is being blamed by some in his party for sitting it out,” explained one party insider. “This is a seen governments come and go, but nothing like what his failure to achieve premiership after getting so close. dangerous situation. Because no one is in charge, anyone prevails today. By washing its linen in public, the UML has frayed the can be in charge.” Hence the paranoia about outside Thapa’s check list was to first try and get the political five party alliance. The immediate effect is seen in the strong interference on the one hand, and groups like student parties on board by promising them a reinstatement of lobby within the Congress now wanting to go it alone. In unions who are exploiting the uncertainty to force parliament, then crafting a multi-partisan approach to the the family, Shailaja Acharya doesn’t seem to agree with closures on the other. MIN BAJRACHARYA Maoist talks, and once they agreed, announce a date for anything her uncle GP Koirala does, and says so publicly And now, with the prime minister busy with his Stumbling bloc: Earlier this week, the five agitating elections. He is stuck at Step One. His obstacles are many, every chance she gets. Girijababu, for his part, doesn’t seem daughter’s wedding and the whole country gearing up parties began a relay hunger strike against the royal but the most nagging is also nearest: the party president to care what anyone, least of all his own family says, and is for marathon celebrations of King Gyanendra’s birthday move and started a signature campaign calling for the Pashupati Rana’s faction feels left out. launching ever-bolder broadsides against the king. next week, no one is expecting a dramatic clearing of the disclosure of all royal assets. But things are changing. The UML is torn by All this should make Surya Bahadur Thapa’s job easy. political air any time soon. t Weekly Internet Poll # 92 Q. If the Maoists laid down their arms and took part in elections, who would you vote for? Total votes:2,902 Q. Rate the issues raised by the agitating parties. Welcome to Patan Museum Café Opening from1030 – 1930 hrs 2 EDITORIAL 4 - 10 JULY 2003 NEPALI TIMES #152 Nepali Times is published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit STATE OF THE STATE by CK LAL Desk Editor: Trishna Gurung, Design: Kiran Maharjan Webmaster: Bhushan Shilpakar [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: 01-5543333/ 5523845 Fax: 01-5521013 Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hattiban: 01-5547018/17 Region d’être A unity of command could help govern the capital valley as an effective administrative unit. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ UNLOCK THE COUNTRY he race to beat the budget freeze has civic amenities because citizens were better development, and supervise projects to once again taken over the streets of aware of their rights and responsibilities. increase their effectiveness. The three here may be a truce, but this country is living under the shadow of the TKathmandu. Agencies of different Since the rulers themselves took personal DDCs, five municipalities and scores of gun. In every sphere of life, there is the unspoken fear of violence: in the municipal services are vying with each other interest in civic affairs, service delivery was VDCs in the valley have their roles, but a Textortion rackets where the credo is pay-or-else, in the forced entry of to dig up roads in the middle of the more effectively coordinated. In contrast, unity of command must be created if the hooligans into schools to lock them up, in revolutionary taxes that teachers, civil monsoon with a zeal seldom seen at any city life in our times seems to sway with the capital valley is to be governed as one servants and businesses are forced to pay all across the country. other time except during SAARC Summits. whims of several little tyrants at the controls effective administrative unit. There is also the overt violence: the continuing harsh intimidation of ordinary The gaping hole in front of the finance of the service infrastructure, often working A powerful regional bureaucrat can people by security forces, the abductions, torture and, lately, new killings by the ministry shown in this paper last week is not at cross purposes. remind us of the Anchaladhish of yore who Maoists. In large parts of the country there are two administrations, two tax an oddity. Similar craters have erupted all Today, it needs a letter to a local daily reigned over the zone under his command collectors, two justice systems, two armies, two governments. How else do you across town. Men at work: digging and then from a resident southeast Asian ambassador as the crown’s direct representative. explain a 20-year-old Maoist in Dailekh forcing a man old enough to be his father covering up. Their reason is that the budget to get the Maharajganj road repaved. However, the office of the regional to do sit-ups right ouside the district police post because he was caught drinking was released too late to do anything about it. Most city dwellers have no water supply, commissioner need not be as autocratic. alcohol? Elsewhere the justice is just as summary, but harsher. This The same excuse, however, doesn’t hold sewers overflow, the rivers have died, and With certain precautions, it can be made a Talibanesque face of Nepal is keeping the population cowed in terror despite for the annual power shutdown caused by tankers supplying turbid water at exorbitant democratic institution addressing the needs the truce, it has wiped out the slim hope everyone had for a return to a the Machendranath Rath procession. Its prices do a roaring business. But there are no of administrative decentralisation. semblance of peace. route is fixed, the duration is known in street protests. If freedom is when people can To make the office of commissioner The spreading anarchy is not readily apparent in Kathmandu, where new advance, and the date of pulling the speak and democracy is when the government answerable to people’s representatives, a townhouses are recording brisk sales, new motorcycle shops are opening daily, juggernaut is common knowledge. Yet, year listens, then we don’t have either. regional council can be set up through a and the queue for mobile phones in Jawalakhel gets longer every week. But after year, the Nepal Electricity Authority The state is now just a necessary evil, one simple constitutional amendment requiring even in the capital, we get a glimpse of a new culture of anarchy and violence shuts down power supply citing the Rath. If that has absolved itself of all public two-third’s majority of the lower house of that grips the land as vehicle drivers are nearly lynched over minor traffic the procession is so regular, what has the responsibilities: security, health, education and parliament. It can be formed without accidents, there are shootouts in broad daylight in New Road, and school electricity agency done to spare its clients physical infrastructure. There are several causes undermining the primacy of local principals are murdered in their homes. Something has changed in Nepal, and from the annual ordeal? behind this deplorable state of civic affairs, the government units if it is to be composed of dramatically. We are living in a different sort of country now, and we may as well The route, the schedule and the main one being a lack of coordination between the representatives of VDCs, municipalities, get used to it. If and when the peace talks resume, and it leads to some sort of operation of the Machendranath procession different agencies involved in service delivery. and DDCs in the valley. normalcy, we have to learn to live with the legacy of this jungle raj. is better organised than the modern services There is an urgent need for someone who dares A regional commissioner made The insurgency and the brutal attempt to suppress it have brought the (electricity, traffic, pedestrian, shopping) to say: “The buck stops here.” answerable to a body of indirectly elected country to the brink of ruin, but it has also brought out all the festering social, that it disrupts.