Sorry Dr. Ram Baran Yadav is no Gen. Pervez Musharraf
Sorry Dr. Ram Baran Yadav is no Gen. Pervez Musharraf
With due respect to Mr. Neupane and his advice as to the relevance of the Pakistan's 2005 earthquake experience to Nepal's situation, it has to be said that, despite many geographical similarities between the earthquake hit regions of the two countries, manmade differences abound in the two situations thus rendering Pakistani preparedness nonreplicable in our own case for the following reasons:
1. His Right Honorable President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, Dr. Ram Baran Yadav is no Gen. Pervez Musharraf, then President of Pakistan and vice versa. Dr. Yadav's position, according to our constitution, is "alankarik" that translates in English as "ornamental". So, earthquake or no earthquake, President Yadav functions by every letter of the national statute. Then, we also have a prime minister in Mr. Sushil Koirala and the less said the better about that functionary. But then, we also must acknowledge that he is after all the product of our democratic process, installed to lead a country that, despite its quarter century long history of democratic restoration, remains one of the poorest and least developed in the world, and is now more widely referred to as "desperately poor" by the international media in the recent earthquake reporting worldwide.
2. While Gen Musharraf had the temerity to keep the politicians, otherwise the disturbing and distorting elements in any situation
involving resources, off limit in earthquake relief and rehab in the Pakistan of 2005, our own quake and promise of aid amounting to trillions of rupees are seen as the godsend for our own parties and their politicians who are now beginning to fight among themselves, head over heels, in executing their intrinsic political dharma of bhagbanda. One has to be darn stupid to miss what promises to be an immense bonanza.
3. In Nepal, earthquake relief as many other issues of importance to people can always wait. The very first thing that needs to be sorted out is political power, for which now all major parties are banging-i..e putting-their heads together to see who would be the
fittest of them all to be the new PM and how big should be the cabinet so that there are enough hands to handle the gigantic task of
earthquake reconstruction. This decision has to be made in the context of the fact that Deuba and Babu Ram had both found out that half a hundred ministers are too few. Clearly, the Maoists specifically too should be on board so that they could mobilize their
very efficient youth wing, the YCL, to bring the relief and rehab support to just about every single household they are so familiar
with-and vice versa-in the countryside.
4. And as long as such fundamental issues are not sorted out, the people should not be bothered by the fact that the country has been without local bodies-which by legislation remain the main institution for managing disaster at the local level-for more than half the time of our "democratic restoration".
Because of these major differences, the lessons proffered by Mr. Neupane's example of 2005 Pakistan is simply not going to be applicable to our very particularistic democratic context in Nepal. This can as much be inferred also by the platitudinous comments made by the intelligentsia of Nepal-that in no way even obliquely suggest that
a. Maybe, the President of the Republic should take over the task of national reconstruction as he has done for rebuilding a subject of relatively lesser importance, the Churia restoration, compared to rebuilding the lives of the quake victims numbering in millions. Although this may be the only mechanism to keep the Nepali politicians-known mainly for their greed, corruptibility and lack of scruples-away from this historic challenge, nobody has even thought of it, for the simple possible reason that t hey themselves are as much of the members of the Nepal's feudal class who, by definition, are able to find modus Vivendi with whatever the power that be. It is part of their fashion that they must be seen as being in favour of "democracy", although our own version has been "the government of the corrupt, for the corrupt and by the corrupt".
b. That maybe, the security forces, mainly the army, that have so far done a very good job in the present quake should be given the
exclusive responsibility as in Pakistan of 2005 to manage relief and rehabilitation of the quake victims.
c. They are also not perturbed by the fact that what relief is being distributed at present, it has been lop-sided in that the people
living in the roadside and in more accessible places have benefitted the most, because, for the aid givers, the inaccessible areas are far too remote. The only way to make the relief and aid distribution universally accessible is to build and empower the victims themselves in the form of their own "user groups".
Bihari Krishna Shrestha
