DIWAKAR CHETTRI

There is nothing new to add to what we wrote last week, or the week before, about constitution-making and the peace process. It's still one step forward and two steps back. The NC and the Maoists are bargaining hard over the number of fighters and weapons, but the real obstacle is the triangular infighting within the Maoist party.

The refusal of the die-hards, and lately even Pushpa Kamal Dahal's supporters like Barsha Man Pun, to sign off on decommissioning the cantonments by the self-imposed 19 June deadline has stalled the process. The only person taking a pragmatic line seems to be Baburam Bhattarai and the younger leaders in the NC and UML, who say they can work well together in a national unity government as part of a package to resolve disagreements on sequencing demobilisation and meeting the constitution deadline. We believe them.

While all the spotlights are on the politics, few seem to have noticed that the economy has gone for a six. The liquidity crunch in the banking sector is now turning into a full-blown crisis that could end very disastrously, very soon. As Sanjib Subba, CEO of the National Banking Training Institute, argues on page 5, the alarm bells have been ringing for quite some time. The banking sector needs to regain the trust of the public, and for this the government has to bite the bullet, punish wrong-doers and protect the public's assets.

Among the reasons for the credit crisis is bad portfolio management, especially among financial institutions that have been allowed to sprout like mushrooms. They have not been monitored, and over-exposure to real estate lending has caused the bubble to burst. The prevalent culture of impunity, greed and political patronage is an explosive combination.

One other factor that fed the liquidity crisis is the political wrangling over the past two years that dried up government spending. Budgets have been delayed, or held hostage by one or other opposition party. This has brought development to a standstill, and shut off the cash supply. The effect can be seen in the economic, monetary and financial crises.

Our message to the politicians is: it's the economy, stupid. Be as corrupt as you want, fight tooth and nail among yourselves for power, but leave the budget alone. Gentlemen, by messing around with the economy you are sawing the legs off the chairs you are sitting on. By playing politics with the economy, you have undermined your own collective political future.

With the end of the conflict, our economy should have rebounded. There should have been investments, jobs should have been created. Even if our politics was a mess, there was no reason for the economy to collapse. It can still be fixed. Sounds like a cliché, but all it needs is for the thoroughly discredited party bosses to be a little less greedy and selfish. If they can't manage that, then it's time to pass the baton to those who can.

 
Read also:
Reinstating the state, ANURAG ACHARYA
Eight reasons why, SANJIB SUBBA
From Awesome to Awful, NGUTUP SHERPA