Same old story

This editorial published 20 years ago this week might as well have been written today. Party leaders too busy with power struggles just don’t have time for governance. Disillusioned and tired of these same hopeless leaders, there is some support even for reverting to monarchy. Excerpt from issue #239 18 – 24 March 2005:

It is no great secret that the political leadership had stagnated, lacked internal democracy, and exhibited a shameless inability to work together not just among parties but also within their own hierarchies. Too preoccupied with power struggles, they didn’t see how far astray they had gone. This allowed outsiders, especially after October 2002, to play politicos off against each other and manipulate them.

Their fecklessness undermined democracy, took the country to the brink and made February First 2005 desirable in the eyes of many. One just needs to remember the headlines from the past 10 years to realise how deeply the rot had set in: horse-trading and floor-crossing, boycotts of parliament, politicisation of the police and bureaucracy, the cynical undermining of the democratic process for short-term partisan gain. And all along, in the offing, was the ominous thunder of an approaching insurgency.

Everytime this country’s politics has come to a crossroad, the party leadership had the chance to look beyond petty concerns to the larger and enduring national interest. Sadly, they repeatedly mistook the cause for deeds, the process for outcome. It was as if, once elected, they didn’t have to show accountability. Adolescent democracies everywhere are rambunctious and noisy. The difference in Nepal was that politicians were not even fighting for seats at the dinner table, they were scrambling on the floor for crumbs.

For archived material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: nepalitimes.com