Making the right noises

23 March 2014

A month since its formation, and four months after the election, the government has finally outlined its objectives for constitution-writing and governance. While the agenda set by the government seems impressive, it is naturally not likely that most of the objectives will be met.

Some of the key points are in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) only because it would be wrong for them to not be there. For instance, the government has stated that it will look to end load-shedding in three years. Other ambitious targets have been mentioned, which will also likely not be achieved anytime soon.

However, the setting of the agenda for the government is still a start, and that is good news. These may only be baby steps, but for a country with no functioning government for more than a year now, these are steps in the right direction.

The government aims to get the constitution drafted within a year and to announce dates to local elections at the earliest. While the former is essential, this column believes time and resources should not be wasted on local elections at the moment. It is a question of priority. In order to conduct local elections, the government must get other stakeholders on board, and this will be a time-consuming exercise. This column does not believe the government has the bandwidth to take on the challenges of constitution writing and the conducting of local elections simultaneously.

Nepal will be better served if the government, for the moment, solely focused on getting all stakeholders on board for the new constitution. There are enough challenges as it is, and there is no need to welcome another set. Moreover, the expenditure on the elections may prove to be wasteful because we do not know what form of state or governance the new constitution is going to give us. Local elections should be made to wait until after the constitution is ready.

That notwithstanding, some of the other aspects of the CMP are particularly encouraging. This is the first time a Nepalese government has laid out a code of conduct for its own ministers — one that aims to make governance smooth. The government has also undertaken to reduce wasteful government expenditure and to adopt a zero tolerance policy towards corruption. Whether this happens or not is another matter, but at least there is an acknowledgement of what is going wrong and what the electorate is unhappy about. The government is saying it wants to be more accountable to the public, and in a country where the lack of accountability has been frustrating, this is at least heartening.

One of the things the government wants to do, for instance, is to curb unnecessary domestic and foreign visits by ministers, bureaucrats and other government officials. This is another good step taken by the government, for it at least shows that the cabinet understands the rationale for austerity and the benefits it brings.

These are minor and fairly obvious aspirations of any government, some would argue. But in the context of Nepal, where there has been an absolute breakdown of trust in government over the last five years, these statements are a breath of fresh air. Sure, the CMP is over-ambitious. But ambition stems from desire, and the desire to improve can be no bad thing.

(This appeared as a column in The Himalayan Times on 23 March 2014)