Nepal: Common Minimum Program Of Coalition Government

Nepal: Common Minimum Program Of Coalition Government

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

Spokesman for the government holding the portfolio of ministry of information and communication Dr Minendra Rijal read out the 145-point common minimum program of the coalition government of NC and CPN-UML, 13-point code of conduct for the ministers including the prime minister, and 10-point method of running the administration to the reporters at the meeting hall of the National Planning Commission on Tuesday, March 18, 2014. In his introductory note, the spokesman said that the coalition government was formed with the objective of crafting a new constitution, and of institutionalizing Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal for a lasting peace, political stability, and for the transformation of economy and the society.

Common Minimum Program

A. Political

1. The government would give full support (to the constituent assembly) for crafting a new constitution within a year.

Comments: Since the political campaigns before the elections to the constituent assembly (CA) held on November 19, 2013, political leaders had been saying that they would craft a new constitution within a year. However, even after four months of the elections, nothing had happened. The CA had just discussed the rules and regulations of the CA on March 19, 2014, and finally passed them on March 21, 2014.

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala had said that he would build an environment within a year for crafting a new constitution. Senior leader of CPN-UML Madhav Nepal also had said that the political parties had four years to craft a new constitution. So, the faith of the people in what the political leaders had been saying had been eroding drastically.

2. Holding necessary consultation with the political parties, the government would set the date for the elections to the local governments for the period until local structures (provinces and local governments) would not be set up following the federalism.

Comments: The country needed a new constitution not the local elections that could wait another year or more, as it had been waiting for the last 16 years. Local elections should be held only after local structures means the structures of provinces and local governments were agreed on, following a new constitution.

3. The remaining peace process would be completed building a consensus on it as soon as possible. A bill on setting up a commission on disappeared people, and a truth and reconciliation commission would be prepared for ensuring justice to all. Continuous dialogue would be held with the political parties in and out of the constituent assembly to build a consensus on crafting a new constitution, strengthening democracy, and on the basic elements of the national wellbeing.

Comments: Rather than working on completing the peace process, Home Minister Bamdev Gautam had been smartly hunting the Maoists cadres charging them with the crimes committed during the people’s war pushing the UCPN-Maoist and CPN-Maoist to come closer to fight for the common cause of liberating the Maoist cadres, and for demanding the setting up of the commissions on disappeared people, and truth and reconciliation immediately to take up the issues of disappearances and other issues.

Leaders of NC and CPN-UML might hold dialogues with other political parties for building a consensus on a new constitution but they surely would go for the two-thirds majority votes to settle the issues of the federalism, structures of provinces and local governments, and a system of governance for denying the demands of the ethnic people, Madheshi, women and underprivileged people for inclusiveness and proportional representation in the State agencies.

B. Good Governance, Peace And Security

7. The administration would be made result-oriented making it responsible and accountable to the people following the principles of the transparency in running the administration, and following the values of the good governance and the rule of law.

Comments: The administration had never been accountable to the people. If the past history of the NC and CPN-UML governments were any guide to the future then the transparency of running the administration had been that these parties amassing huge wealth at the cost of the nation. Paying rent to any minister had been the regular practice. Ministers including the prime minister had set aside the good governance and the rule of law. They had been champions of misusing the state treasury. For example, Prime Minister Madhav Nepal had reintroduced the subsidy on fertilizers costing the nation Rs 2 billions at that time. The subsidy on fertilizers had been increasing every year. It had reached Rs 6 billions last year. The donor community in Nepal had made tremendous efforts on stopping the subsidy on fertilizers in the past, as the subsidy did not work for the poor farmers but it benefited the well-off farmers, and it caused corruption in the administration.

18. The security agency would be strengthened to ensure peace and security, and to ensure the rule of law and to end the impunity.

Comments: NC had the youth organization called ‘tarundal’ similar to the Youth Force of the CPN-UML. These two forces often competed with each other and even confronted violently for securing the State job contracts for their favorites. A case in point was the fighting of these two forces in the Chitwan jail ultimately causing the death of the local leader of the ‘tarundal’ at the Gangalal Cardio Hospital in Kathmandu. Both the forces were in the jail for criminal activities in Chitwan. NC leaders successfully forced Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai to declare the dead man the martyr and pay his family one million rupees. How could the people believe in the government of the same parties ending impunity enjoyed by the political cadres?

25. The government would have a zero tolerance for corruption. The government would strengthen the National Vigilant Center, and mobilize it to alleviate the irregularities and the abuse of authority, and the corruption at various State agencies. The government would give necessary support to the Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (for combating corruption).

Comments: If the government were serious to stop corruption where the money would come from for the political parties to hold mass rallies, protest rallies, demonstrations and certainly for elections, too? Everybody knew that the ministers were corrupt. They took commissions on the major contracts they awarded. Even the sister organizations of the political parties had been engaged in receiving the commissions from the job contracts. Everybody knew that the governments of the NC and the CPN-UML had openly sought rents from the customers in the past.

The man called Sushil Koirala having only three mobiles (cell phones) according to his property statement made public recently heads the current government. Somebody must be paying for the expenses required for maintaining the life of Mr. Koirala and keeping him in the politics if his assets were only three mobiles.

We could hope that Mr. Koirala would not carry three suitcases full of cash when he would check out of the official residence of prime minister. NC leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai checked in the official residence of prime minister with a single suitcase with few personal belongings in it but he checked out with a suitcase full of cash, as he boasted.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala collected at least Rs 20 millions from anybody willing to join his cabinet. I could hope that Prime Minister Sushil Koirala would not do the same thing.

Some NC members of the legislature had already complained about Prime Minister Sushil Koirala not making any concrete decisions even after a month and a half of taking the office.

27. In view of the benefits of the consumers, the government would break up the illegal syndicates of the providers of services and basic needs goods, and create an environment conducive to an open competition among them.

Comments: Even the vegetable vendors had formed a cartel to set the prices of vegetables, and sell at that prices otherwise let the vegetables rot. A recent news had it that the members of the syndicate of the bus service providers in the Beni area had stopped even the vehicles carrying tourists, and forced the tourists to offload and then load on the buses belonging to the syndicate causing the tourists to pay extra fares to their destinations and back. The business community had been complaining about the cartel of the truck transporters causing the high prices for the transportation of goods. The government had either been unable to break up the cartels or the ministers had been enjoying receiving money from such cartels.

31. Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) would be developed as a professional business organization improving its management. Private sector would be allowed to do the business in supplying petroleum products for smooth supply of petroleum products, and for developing the competitive capability of the NOC.

Comments: This was not the first time, the government of NC had made such a commitment but the government had never kept such a commitment in the past. We could hope that that the government of Sushil Koirala would keep the commitment.

The government committed to clean up the NOC, and let it compete with the private sector for smooth supply of petroleum products. However, the chance of the current government doing such things was slim, as NOC had been one of many sources of drawing cash from, for the ministers including the prime minister.

The government ministers had used NOC as a means to draw cash in the past. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala also the president of the NC made the chronic shortage of petroleum products from 2006 to 2008. Obviously, he was making money from causing the shortage of petroleum products.

NOC had been providing the political leaders, and former ministers with petroleum products gratis. The burden of the free distribution of petroleum products, the cost of the irregularities in the management of the NOC, and ministers making money from the NOC had been on the consumers.

C. Economic, Financial and Structural Development and Natural Resources

33. A bill on keeping the budget preparation and implementation away from the politics, on presenting the budget on the date set for it every year, and on the budget management and accountability would be prepared and enforced.

Comments: If the current government could keep the politics away from the budget it would be highly commendable but so far none of the previous governments had been able to do so, and none of the budgets had been free from the politics.

Each member of the legislature had been receiving one million rupees for the development activities in her/his constituency. Speaking at the legislature, CPN-UML leader Surendra Pandey has demanded to make it two million rupees, according to the news in the ‘gorkhapatra’ of March 22, 2014. Some members of the legislature had been so smart that they made the bills of the development activities without doing anything, and then they pocketed at least one million rupees. They wanted to make it two million rupees. Thus, the distribution of the money to the members of the legislature had encouraged them to indulge in corruption.

The distribution of the money to the members of the legislature had been unfair to the politicians out of the legislature, as the sitting members had the advantage of the money and of being able to boast development activities to the voters at their respective constituencies with the taxpayers’ money whereas the politicians anticipating to fight the next elections would have neither the money nor the development activities.

All political parties tried to influence the budget to get the maximum possible benefits for them and their cadres. A large sum of the money from the regular and development budgets was leaked out to keep the political cadres at work. Proper use of budget for development had been minimal due to the misuse of the budget.

The government needed to improve the current budgeting and implementing system particularly for the development projects if the government were to expedite the implementation and completion of development projects. The need for preparing budget for the projects every year had been one of the main reasons for the delay in completing the development projects, and for not being able to use the development budget. The release of the budget and authorization of using the budgets had taken considerable time at least three months after the budget was passed by the legislature every year. The need was for once the government approved certain projects, then, the government should set aside the total sum of the money required for the projects, and then the government should authorize the concerned project management to use them without the need for following the budget process every year.

34. An ‘Infrastructure Development Fund’ would be set up for depositing the unused budget allocated from the State revenue every year. This fund would be used for the roads, irrigation and energy projects as an additional funding as required by them.

Comments: Saving the budget every year sounded like a ‘joke’, as every year the government had to borrow money from the central bank or sell bonds to the banks and the public to meet the budget deficit. Saving the budget would be possible only when the management could not implement the development projects. In such a case, why the budget should not be brought forward for the next year to be used by the same projects rather than depositing the unused budget in a new ‘fund’ to be set up, and then giving the money to the three major infrastructures?

59. To minimize the increasing load shedding (power outage), all available alternatives would be used, and the power outage would be ended within three years.

Comments: The Minster for Energy had ordered to explore the possibility of setting up coal-fired generators. The minister knew that coal was not available in Nepal but she wanted to see if coal-fired generators could be installed.

Nepal Electricity Authority had projected that the power outage could be ended only after seven years, as all of the hydropower stations under construction were on the runoff of rivers. So, power production from them would be minimal during the dry season.

The current power shortage had been caused by the administration of NC particularly of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala not building a single hydropower station either in the private sector or in the public sector during the last twenty years.

79. Safe aviation would be ensured improving the aviation systems in the coming six months.

Comments: The European Union (EU) black listed the Nepalese airlines, and the Nepalese sky as unsafe, and the EU advised its citizens not to use the Nepalese airlines. Nepalese aircrafts fly very low to save the fuel making them accident-prone. Nepalese aviation companies forced the pilots to fly even during the bad weather conditions.

D. Social Transformation and Improvement

96. An additional social security allowance would be provided to senior citizens, single women, widows, disabled and ethnic people becoming extinct. An arrangement would be made and strengthened to make payments of such an allowance through a banking system.

Comments: Senior citizens have been demanding to increase the social security allowance the government had been paying from Rs 500 to Rs 3,000 per month, as Rs 500 per month has not been enough even for having a cup of tea. A good cup of tea cost Rs 20.

Taking care of the senior citizens would make a great difference in the population control. Currently, senior citizens have to rely on their sons for livelihood. So, people tended to have a son even after having five or six daughters. If senior citizens would have two good square meals a day under a not leaking roof, majority of Nepalis might not opt for a son even though some might for the religious purpose, as some people still believe in only a son lighting the funeral pyre of dead parents would ensure them a heavenly abode.

97. Rights to live honorably would be ensured for every citizen ending all sorts of discrimination prevailing in the society.

Comments: Periodically, I read a news item in the State-run newspaper ‘gorkhapatra’ in Nepali describing the people belonging to the historically untouchable caste got beaten up for attempting to draw water from the public well. I also read news items: daughters-in-law were beaten up or tortured or even murdered for not bringing sufficient dowry.

Caste discrimination and giving and taking dowry had been punishable by laws but the local administration often had closed its eyes not to see such criminal acts, and let such social evils prevail in the rural areas particularly in the terai area. If the government were really sincere to its commitment to end such social evils, the government needed to punish the local administration and the police that did not register such cases not to mention taking actions.

99. Top priority would be given to making available drinking water to every citizen.

Comments: In 1990, NC Leader also Interim Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai said that his government would bring water from the Melamchi River to Kathmandu, and even wash the streets of Kathmandu. Probably, he would have done so but the poor fellow could not stay on in power. Thereafter, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and his government had been after commissions for awarding contracts; as a result, the Melamchi Project did not take off for the last 30 years. Consequently, Kathmanduites have had once a week water supply for three hours.

116. An arrangement would be made to award academic certificates to the medical students only after completing mandatory service at the rural health institutions. Medical professionals would be allowed to go to foreign countries only after serving in the country for a minimum period.

Comments: Spokesman Dr Rijal failed in stating whether these conditions were applicable to the State-sponsored medical students only or to all the students. The State statistics had it that almost 5,000 medical doctors were produced in Nepal, and a half of them leave Nepal for foreign countries.

Private students had to pay almost five million rupees for the tuition only for studying MBBS (Bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery). If the government were to bar them from going abroad, they would never recover their investment made in studying MBBS, as the State salaries were so nominal.

125. National highways, academic and industrial institutions, and large development project areas would be made free from shutdowns.

Comments: The government had to be strong to stop anybody calling shutdowns of the highways, academic and industrial institutions, and project areas. So far, none of the previous governments had been capable to stop shutdowns. Academic and industrial institutional vehicles, private vehicles, and even the State-owned vehicles did not run on the roads during the shutdowns for fear of getting damaged, as the government had not been accountable to the damages done to the private and even the public assets.

128. Loans would be easily and smoothly provided to the youths for going foreign employments. Youths would have to pay back such loans from their remittances. Loans also for running businesses of their skills would be made available to the youth returnees with skills.

Comments: About seven million Nepalese youths have been working in foreign countries; and the remittances they sent home had been 25% of the Goss Domestic Product (GDP) in the last year, according to the State statistics.

Youths had to sell their property for taking foreign jobs. If the government were to provide the youths going abroad for jobs with loans then many more youths might be able to take foreign jobs. However, whether the government would keep its commitment remained to be seen.

E. International Relations, National Security and Non-resident Nepalis

139. Maintaining the sovereignty, integrity and independence, Nepal would adopt the foreign policy based on the principles of the world peace and international law, ‘pancahsil,’ non-alignment, and the UN charter.

Comments: Nepal had hardly followed the UN charter. For example, the Tibetan refugees residing Nepal had been denied to put up a peaceful demonstration against the Chinese occupation of Tibet, and to hold elections to a Tibetan government in exile. The government had been harassing the Tibetans passing through Nepal to visit Dalai Lama in Dharmashala in India. The Nepalese government had failed in giving identity cards to the recent Tibetan refugees in Nepal following the UN charter.

140. In view of the broad national interest, Nepal would build and strengthen the bilateral relations with the neighboring countries and other friendly countries based on the mutual benefits, and sovereign equality.

Comments: The Nepalese foreign policy had been to play off one neighboring country against another to get the maximum benefits in the past. India had built 400 Km of the East West Highway from Kakarbhita to Janakpur to keep the Chinese away from the border areas when King Mahendra signed off an agreement with China on building a portion of the East West Highway in the early 1960s. Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru sent a special envoy to Kathmandu for persuading King Mahendra to annul the agreement on the Chinese building a portion of the East West Highway instead Indian building it gratis.

141. The national security policy would be adopted in coordination with the foreign policy.

Comments: Concerning the security policy, Nepal had to buy arms, and ammunition from India or to get the approval of India for buying the defense equipment or vehicles or aircrafts and so on from the third countries following the Nepal-India Friendship Treaty of 1950. The irony was that the Nepalese politicians had been making loud voices for revising the treaty but they could not do anything even when India was ready to do so.

142. For making the economic diplomacy result-oriented, among other things, the government would make additional efforts on making non-resident Nepalis participate in the Nepalese development process.

Comments: The government had to give the non-resident Nepalis the advantage of staying on in Nepal for a longer period than the government currently permitted if the government were serious to involve the non-resident Nepalis in the development of Nepal. India had made the provision for issuing visa to non-resident Indians for ten years but the non-resident Nepalis had to renew every year or so in Nepal.

Code of conduct for ministers including the prime minister

9. Don’t get involve in unnecessary, meaningless and expensive travel programs. Don’t take any costly gifts and financial benefits from anybody. Follow the principle of austerity.

Comments: If the ministers including the prime minister were to follow the ninth clause of the code of conduct, the ministers would be the poorest people among the Nepalis. Salaries of ministers were not sufficient even for serving tea to their political cadres. How could ministers including the prime minister with three mobile (cell) phones manage to keep the large number of cadres around them?

Method of running the administration

6. None of the ministers should publicly criticize another minister.

Comments: Did not lose the ministers the rights to the freedom of speech if the sixth clause were to enforce?

7. None of the ministers should use the means, and other resources of the ministry and the State agencies under the ministry abusing the authority. Discrimination, nepotism, favoritism, and ‘chakadi’ means apple-polishing should be strongly discouraged.

Comments: If the ministers including the prime ministers were not to use the resources of State-owned companies such as Nepal Electricity Authority, and Nepal Oil Corporation that had billions of rupees worth of assets then the ministers would be saints rather than the regular humans of the mundane world.
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