December 9, 2005

Development Nepal

Development and Stability

Books

Birendra B. Basnet shares his review of the  book by eminent  journalist  Kishore Nepal. Basnet is the Managing Director of Buddha Air.

 

Published 2005, 156 pages, Rs 300

 

“Under the shadow of violence” is the result of relentless pursuit of Kishore Nepal, who has traveled many thousands of miles throughout the Kingdom, talking with Nepalese from different walks of life and putting their views very bravely and in an unbiased way. This is the true spirit of journalism and must be lauded and taken as an example in the current scenario in Nepal. I think Mr. Nepal’s work, is first of its kind and the insight this book has brought out can be the starting point for all of us to understand the actual problems and think of a collective solution for our country.

 

I would like to thank him from my heart and on behalf of all the innocent Nepalese who are suffering unnecessarily due to this senseless violence, for bringing out this book.

 

Mr. Nepal has aptly summarized that the crux of the present violence is the traditionally undemocratic political mindset of the political leaders, who could not empower the local people. The views of the people in the different episodes of Mat-Avimat, as well as in this book clearly state that everyone wants their destiny in their own hands and not with the leaders at the Center.

 

Mr. Nepal has been able to effectively communicate the magnitude of senseless violence and torture of the poor innocent people of Nepal without any fault of theirs.  We can make a guess of the tens of thousands of internally displaced people and who have fled to India, surviving on a day-to-day basis, from this book. The treatment of the poor helpless people, their sufferings and losses of whatever little property and assets they had is heartrending.

 

Then, after reading this book we are forced to ask ourselves for the sake of our children and grandchildren - how much more do we need to suffer? Where do we go from here and what is the solution?

 

One can see some silver linings in this dark cloud. The Maoists have broken the biggest vicious circle of the country – Feudalism and this endless suffering and violence has definitely jolted us to think for solutions that were never looked into before.

 

This current crisis will definitely evolve a new generation of untainted leaders from the political parties. Firstly, they must evaluate and analyze what went wrong during the 12 years of democratic rule. Then, they must go in the midst of the people to understand the peoples’ needs and aspirations and their problems and worries.

 

The programs and strategies they will come up after understanding the peoples’ requirements must be meticulously planned and communicated so that they can win back the people’s confidence and the people will participate to achieve these goals, which ultimately is empowerment of the people. This is the only foreseeable solution from the present crisis.

 

I think the ultimate empowerment of the people is self-governance or decentralized governance. I don’t think I need to elaborate the mechanism of effective decentralization but in a nutshell it means collecting and spending the majority of taxes generated in that community for its benefit only.

 

Decentralization means making the local community responsible for all the local developments, commerce, public utilities and law and order, which means decentralization of judiciary and the civil police so that civil right is effectively ensured.

 

The success of decentralization is transparency and accountability, which follows when the proceedings of the local community is accessible to any member of that community at any given time.

 

When people know that they are paying and participating for their own benefits, they will be more involved and will be more than ready to defend and sacrifice to protect their rights, which is the basis of sound and mature democracy.

 

I think this is peoples’ participation, which the leaders that will now lead the Nepalese people must understand and execute.

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Under the Shadow of Violence by Kishore Nepal