#305 7 - 13 July 2006 16 pages Rs 30 Great expectation Can next week’s budget turn the peace dividend into development? World Cup p 13 Weekly Internet Poll # 305 Q... Which among these is your favourite team in the 2006 Football World Cup? Total votes: 9,257 Weekly Internet Poll # 306. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q... Should Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala now resign and make way for a successor? SHYAM TEKWANI KUNDA DIXIT priority areas from the improve disbursement. Prime percent between expenditure government and a strategy to Minister Girija Koirala’s health is plans and actual spending and in wo months after parliament improve disbursement. also a factor. His presentation to fiscal 2005-2006 this is expected was restored and the palace Mahat shows visible parliament of the government’s to cross 35 percent. “There is T sidelined, the seven party impatience with this talk: “We pre-budget plans and programs, a really no point adding more alliance is working to transform have an urgent liquidity crisis ritual that used to be carried out money unless we can spend it,” the economy just like it and we need them to put their by the king, has been postponed one ministry official told us. transformed politics. money where their mouth is for till Sunday. Scared off by radical Maoist But as Finance Minister Ram budgetary support.” “It is almost immaterial to rhetoric, Sharan Mahat prepares to deliver Despite wanting to reward which specific programs the new investment Editorial p2 the budget to parliament on 11 Nepal for restoring democracy, budget will allocate its resources, is also at a Beyond Koirala July he is faced with formidable donors are still wary about what as long as they meet some standstill. Budget challenges: a huge revenue the Maoist role will be when they significant needs,” says World It is Binit Sharma, shortfall, a government distracted join the interim government. Bank Nepal representative, Ken urgently Ken Ohashi p4-5 by keeping the peace process on They also don’t seem convinced Ohashi, “It is, however, needed to track, Maoist warnings that they that just pouring in more money absolutely essential that what is address electricity generation want to have a say in budget will help. promised is delivered.” shortfalls which NEA estimates priorities and hesitant donors. “I’m not sure a big increase in (See p 4-5) will mean up to eight hour per Mahat knows the people’s the budget is necessarily what we The government was day loadshedding every winter for expectations are high and wants a are looking for,” one senior donor reportedly working on an at least the next six years. big budget that can dramatically representative told us, “We want ambitious Rs 200 billion budget The two big projects that can improve services and create jobs. to be convinced that the money but has been forced to scale it be completed fastest are Upper SUBSCRIBERS “We need the money to show can be spent properly.” down to about Rs 120 billion. Karnali and Upper Tama Kosi but Did your paper arrive on time this we can do it,” Mahat told a pre- The government is so caught Revenue has fallen below Rs 80 both are stuck morning? If not, call our budget conference on Tuesday. up in trying to bring the Maoists billion and most of the rest must because of Complaints Hotline 9841405820 Nepal’s donors all say money is into the mainstream that it hasn’t come from foreign aid. There has government and talk to Radhe Shyam. not a problem, they want a list of had time to think about how to been a chronic shortfall of 20 indecision. z 2 EDITORIAL 7 - 13 JULY 2006 #305 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Desk Editor: Marty Logan Design: Kiran Maharjan Web: Bhushan Shilpakar Vicepresident Corporate Affairs: Sneh Sayami Advertising: Sambhu Guragain [email protected] Subscription: [email protected] Hatiban, Godavari Road, Lalitpur [email protected], GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu Tel: 5543333-6, Fax: 5521013 www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 5547018 Favoured victims Men continue to appoint men to power his is a critical period in are said to make up half the lower seen around the negotiating table. BEYOND KOIRALA the history of Nepal when Maoist rank and file, 30 percent Resolutions in favour of social Even those who love to hate Girija Prasad Koirala grudgingly admit T decisions being made now of the guerrillas are women and and gender inclusion alone are that he has been the only party leader who stuck to his guns after will determine the future course the central committee is 10 obviously insufficient, it is the King Gyanendra embarked on his creeping coup in October 2002. of the country. percent female. It would seem implementation that counts. Sher Bahadur Deuba, Surya Bahadur Thapa, Lokendra Bahadur But neither the negotiating that the Maoists excelled where But from what we have seen, Chand and even Madhab Kumar Nepal all succumbed to the king’s lethal charm. This won Koirala political stature, which is why the team of the government nor of the the government and other the marginalised will continue to seven parties chose him to lead the post-April government. But the Maoists have women in them. political parties had failed in be excluded from negotiations, prime minister’s health is deteriorating and he has now been Besides two token women, there including and empowering treaty-making, interim advised complete rest for at least two weeks. are no females in the 31-member women. governments, post-conflict The man is 84 and is on oxygen. He used to chain smoke, his Ceasefire and Code of Conduct However, patterns of reconstruction, planning and lung is malfunctioning and he has prostate problems. He was too ill representation in post-conflict policy-making. Above all, men to take the oath of office in April, too ill to attend parliament’s GUEST COLUMN rebuilding shows continued will continue to appoint men to historic post-reinstatement session and now too ill to deliver the all Bina Pradhan domination by the same upper power and largely it will be the important pre-budget speech in parliament. His illness is not just a caste men within the Maoist men who set the post-conflict and concern for family and friends but also for his party, the governing movement. About the seven party reconstruction agenda even in the alliance, the Maoists and the country. National Monitoring Committee alliance, the less said the better. new Nepal. Because he is so central to the unity of the alliance, Koirala’s health is a national concern. The palace problem has been sorted and the Interim Constitution They pulled down the only Experiences of women and out for now, but the parties next need to negotiate a peace, ease the Drafting Committee. The decision woman speaker despite her men in Nepal’s conflict have been Maoists into mainstream politics and forge a new Nepal from the to include women in the competence in conducting the different, as elsewhere. While the ruins of our recent violent and dictatorial past. These tasks require constitution committee has been house in the most difficult of entire nation has suffered, the robust and visionary leadership. left pending even though drafting times. All evidence and trends impact on women and men, For much of his life, what Koirala lacked in the vision has started. show that Dalits and women will particularly concerning access to department he made up for with tireless championing of Despite the rhetoric of continue to be ‘favoured victims’ power and decision-making, is the democratic cause. Though many still blame him for the drastic inclusiveness it is clear the of the new regime whoever comes unequal. slide after 1990, he has by now atoned for those sins by forging a political leaders and the Maoists to power. Besides being victims, in workable alliance with the Maoists and then rallying the democratic are set in their old ways as they The 8-point agreement of 16 response to the conflict situation forces to victory against royal rule. His long life has been amply prepare for a ‘new Nepal’. High July between the seven parties women have stepped outside their rewarded with four prime ministerships in 15 years. But now it’s time to think of a future beyond Koirala. Although caste men representing only and the Maoists has serious traditional roles. They have joined the alternatives at the top of the alliance are limited, there is a crop about 16 percent of the implications for the future the armed forces, political of leaders who can rise to the occasion. Within the NC a governing population are deciding the approach to decision-making as organisations and peace collective must be formed before cronies use the prime future for the entire well as on the promises of an movements, as well as taken over minister’s power in his name and hotheads population, including inclusive democracy. The extra- traditionally male occupations hijack the agneda. women who have different democratic process through and responsibilities for the Whoever emerges as leader, needs, constraints and which parties and Maoist leaders protection and maintenance of the search must begin priorities. agreed on the eight points, their families. The women’s role immediately. One Principles of human ignoring the peace talk team, in economic and agricultural needn’t be overly rights and democracy are monitoring committee and all production has expanded. worried about held high in the aftermath other major stakeholders, After the crisis, however, the the question: after Girija of dictatorship and conflict undermines and endangers the same patriarchal values and who? This .