It will be disastrous to wait until the finale of political drama to address the economic problem in Nepal

By Shiva Gautam

Nepalese have stunned the world with their political maturity, persistence, resilience and will to take a very intricate political impasse head-on and move ahead.

It took a Nepali initiative and recipe to break the ice of a Nepali problem. Had the Nepalese followed the western and other countries’ friendly advice of ‘one size fits all’ approach to a complex political problem, there would not have been such a breakthrough. It was not as if the world was not supportive of democracy in Nepal, but rather than supporting Nepalese prescription, the world more or less wanted Nepalese to swallow its pills. The world tried to help but saw the problem through its own eyes, refusing to look from the Nepali people’s eyes, almost until the end when things were about to go out of control.

Once it saw the problem and a roadmap for a solution through Nepali perspectives, the international community also firmly stood behind the people. While the wheels of the political solutions are now in the motion, the economic problem needs immediate attention. It will be disastrous to wait until the finale of political drama to address the economic problem. The burden of economic movement lies on the economists, socialists, informed citizens, and policy makers, from the leaders of both the political parties and the Maoists.

It is a fact that hundreds of thousands people will not be marching on the street asking for an economic boom. Both the international community and its financial institutions, as well as domestic experts and financial institutions are likely to see the problem from non-Nepali eyes. So it becomes even a bigger problem to find a Nepali solution to the Nepali economic problem. At least in the case of political problem, there were people who believed and devised a unique Nepali roadmap that gave way to a new beginning.

“Lesson can be learnt from Argentina, a country whose economy was in ruins just five years ago and now it is rebounding with 7.5% growth rate. Argentineans claim that the recovery is not a miracle; they simply had an Argentinean solution to an Argentinean problem.”
A lesson can be learnt from Argentina, a country whose economy was in ruins just five years ago and now it is rebounding with 7.5% growth rate. Argentineans claim that the recovery is not a miracle; they simply had an Argentinean solution to an Argentinean problem. They rejected International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) prescription and followed their own recipes some of which go against prevailing economic thought. Although Argentina’s is not completely out of the woods, it certainly suggests that in countries like Nepal where economy is in shambles, an initial economic prescription may not come from modern text books but from careful observation of country specific problems. Once the economy moves forward then the readymade recipes by institutions like the IMF and World Bank may help set the economic pace at a higher gear. To give economic goal a priority, the government may set up an entity like Economic Council whose responsibility will be to address financial and economic issues with the urgency of a revolution. It may work in coordination with the exciting government apparatus (e.g. Banks, Planning Commission) which may help implement the Council’s prescription. Of course, such a council is not a replacement for the government’s economic and planning institution, but a temporary, slightly political entity consisting of experts and policy makers representing both political parties (SPA) and Maoists.

At a time when we are thinking to draft a new constitution through a constituent assembly (CA) to govern the country, it is high time a powerful body be created to sail through rapid economic growth and stability. The regimen, if we can come up, may also be integrated in the CA. The argument that political process and economic process should go hand in hand is a reasonable one. As in the political front, the process may need cooperation from the Maoists to expedite the economic recovery, and for an efficient delivery to the needy population. No matter what, the economic problem needs to be addressed sooner rather than later; if we wait until final political fix, then we may be where we started, since the economic problem is one of the geneses of the current problem in the country.

(The author is a faculty at the Harvard University. Please send your comments to [email protected] or [email protected] )

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