Belligerent attitude of political parties dismayed many Nepalese

January 14, 2004
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-World Bank, Nepal Office

Kathmandu: The Nepal based Country Office of the World Bank has said that poor-governance, the issue of the ever escalating Maoists insurgency, continuing constitutional crisis and recorded failure in economic development have made Nepal a vulnerable state.

The WB further says that poverty in Nepal is generally a rural phenomenon and that rural poverty incidence stood to the tune of 44% compared to about 23% in the urban areas. Likewise, according to the WB, there have been significant ethnic and caste-based disparities in what is recognized as a largely pluralistic society with diverse ethnic, caste, and linguistic and religious communities.

“Broad linkages have been identified between caste and poverty, and caste and human development levels, and there are some clear messages: most of the Dalit population is disadvantaged; and there are striking caste and ethnicity based disparities in education”, the WB report “Nepal, Country Assistance Strategy” released last week maintains.

The report however does admit that there has been growing disappointment with the political and development processes that have failed to meet the aspirations of the people which had been raised after the reinstatement of a multi-party democracy in 1990.

In saying so, the WB implies that those who were at the helm of affairs of the state after 1990 could not deliver. This is significant in the sense that WB apparently wishes to send signals to the Nepali leaders that they haven’t delivered to the people as they promised in the beginning of the 1990.

Analysing the past one and a half year politics of the country, the WB says that “a political impasse has developed between the major political parties and the interim governments, and by association, the King who appointed them and that the increasingly belligerent attitude of the major political parties has dismayed many Nepalese, there is a risk that this will lead to wide-spread civil disorder and distract the administration”.

If the situation goes as per the prediction of the WB, in that scenario, adds the Bank, even the reform minded technocrats would find it difficult to get cabinet decisions on further reforms and to keep the civil service focused on improving public services.

According to the Bank, the challenges that Nepal is facing in taking up the reform process forward were formidable. The cost of a failure, says the Bank, is nothing short of widespread internal conflict, likely resulting in the breakdown of the development process.

Some tips to the government: adopt multi-dimensional approaches to tackle the situation of security, politics and that of development; let the grassroots people feel the impact of development; bureaucracy’s effectiveness needed; be innovative in working with the NGOs and the private sector engaged in development processes; the level of support will henceforth depend on the performance.