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Is Oli A Patriot?
Oli-led Government-40: Is Oli A Patriot?
Siddhi B Ranjitkar
Oli missed to be a patriot by his own deeds. Some people write and speak that Prime Minister KP Oli is facing the no-confidence vote in the parliament despite being so patriotic and successful but the reality is different. He is neither a patriot nor a successful prime minister. He could have done a lot for the benefits of the people but he did not do so as his predecessors but he never missed contributing millions if not billions to his pets, as did his predecessors. He missed the opportunity of the fast economic development and he is responsible for the 0.77% GDP growth, as did his immediate predecessor Sushil Koirala. Oli has made himself a political laughingstock staying on in power even after he lost the support of the Maoist-center believing the constitutional experts’ advice that he could stay on as a prime minister until January 2018, as the constitution has no provision for appointing a new prime minister after the no-confidence vote is passed in the parliament not thinking about whether a new prime minister could be appointed if the prime minister dies.
Oli and his immediate predecessor Sushil Koirala are responsible for almost the negative growth of GDP in the fiscal year 2015 (2072). The GDP growth of 0.77% has been due to the quakes in April 2015 and then the Indian blockade on Nepal for six months. Both are the facts but not for the so low economic growth. It would be higher if both the prime ministers in question had performed their duties in the interest of the country and for the benefits of the people. Unfortunately, they did not, and the sufferers have been the Nepalese people.
Oli’s immediate predecessor: former Prime Minister Sushil Koirala was responsible for not doing enough to mitigate the devastating results of the quakes in April 2015. He could have turn the misfortune of quakes into the fortunes if he were to do as any normal ruler of any country would have done in such a disaster situation. If he had distributed the millions if not billions of NPR he received as donations from the national and international donors for the relief of the quake victims but what he did was he distributed NPR 15,000 to each family of the quake victims as against the demands of the CPN-UML leaders: partners in his coalition government for NPR 50,000 if not 25,000 to each family of the quake victims. Thereafter, Koirala did not distribute any amount keeping the huge donations in the Prime Minster’s Disaster Relief Fund idle. If he had released a few billions of NPR to the quake victims that money would have heated up the economy, and the quake victims would not need to stay on in the makeshift shelters even today, and the economic growth would have been higher. However, Koirala had been very generous to distribute millions of NPR to his party leaders and cadres before leaving office.
KP Oli became prime minister standing on the coalition of 13 political parties in October 2015. The quake victims have been in the temporary shelters for almost six months by that time. They neither could have any jobs nor they had any money to rebuild their fallen houses during the massive quakes that hit the central Nepal. At that time, Madheshi leaders had been already on the border to stop any Nepal-bound supply trucks. That virtually stopped any economic activities in Nepal.
What Koirala did not do Oli could have done but Oli turned out to be worse than Koirala. He appointed his man to the executive officer of the National Rehabilitation Authority (NRA) but he did not do anything to rehabilitate any family and structures destroyed by the quakes. His CPN-UML party has stalled the appointment of any person to an executive officer of NRA for nine months while Koirala was a prime minister believing Koirala would installed his person rather than the person of the CPN-UML’s choice as an executive officer.
Oli took the president to Rani Pokhari in Kathmandu and in the rural area to lay the foundation stones for rebuilding the Rani Pokhari and a house of a quake victim respectively. Oli himself went to lay foundation stones for rebuilding a temple in Bugmati in the Laitpur district and in a rural area, too. Even after so many months of laying foundations stones by the dignitaries, nothing has happened to those temples and the houses supposed to be rebuilt immediately. Is it not a shame on the president not to mention the prime minister that nothing has happened to those foundation stones they have laid with so much of fanfares with so much of cost of the helicopter rides and other hospitality expenses? Today: July 20, 2016, according to the news titled “First installment to all house owners by Dashain” in the “gorkhapatra” of today, NRA executive officer Sushil Gywali has said that the quake victims would receive the grant amount for building their houses before Dashain means in October. It is another way of telling the quake victims that they are not going to receive any amount as long as Oli is in office.
Oli is so generous he has been releasing the money in his command to his favorites in millions. How he could be a patriot if he were to do everything possible for his family and favorites keeping aside millions of quake victims because they had voted some other party rather than his. Oli has been another Koirala that has wasted every opportunity of serving the people and making the country prosperous. How could such a man be a patriot?
Prime Minister Oli could have used the Indian blockade on Nepal as an instrument to show his patriotic feeling but what he did was slept for six months until India lifted the blockade on its own. Nepalese people bravely faced the blockade and tolerated every hardship that had been the result of the blockade ultimately forcing Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi to lift the blockade without achieving his goal of amending the Nepalese constitution to suit his favorites: the Madheshi leaders of Nepal.
What Oli could do was to send an armed police or even the Nepal army to escort the Nepal-bound-supply trucks to different destinations. They could escort the fuel tankers to different large projects not to stop any ongoing work. Oli could even impose a state of emergency if he felt difficulty in using the armed police force and army to escort the supply trucks to Nepal. However, Oli not only did not do so but also even used the 1.2 million liters of petrol the northern neighbor had so graciously provided Nepal with, without any trace of its account. He even did not bother to mention where the petrol had gone who had received the payment for that.
Oli could have released the grant amount to the quake victims he did not do, and he could have escorted supply trucks to Nepal but that also he did not do causing a tremendous adverse impact on the Nepalese economy. Nobody including Modi and Madheshi leaders are responsible for such adverse economic impact on Nepal but only Oli and his predecessor Koirala have been.
Some people might ask whether the Nepalese prime ministers just mentioned responsible for the lowest possible GDP growth had no economic advisors. They had world-class economists for advising them at their office and at the National Planning Commission but the poor economists would rather keep quiet than giving some advices that would irritate the prime minister or put him in an inconvenient position. The result had been disastrous economic growth due to the quakes and the blockade the Nepalese had to face, and due to the not patriotic prime ministers such as Oli and Koirala.
Oli was a lucky person that did nothing to ease the blockade but reaped the harvest of being a patriot. Some people compared him with anybody they could think of for being so strong to stand up against the mighty southern neighbor but they either did not understand or simply disregarded that the Nepalese people stood up against the blockade not Oli.
Oli is neither a strong man nor a patriot but he is the man without having any moral obligations to the people. He had been keeping the quake victims in the do-it-yourselves shelters even after so many months of he becoming the prime minister. He had said that he would transfer them to community shelters before the monsoon set in. He did not ease the blockade but let the Nepalese people become sufferers for more than six months from the shortage of the basic needs. Is Oli a patriot or a strong man? Certainly not both but he is an opportunist that takes every possible benefit from the misfortunes of others.
Now, Oli is facing the non-confidence vote in the parliament. He is behaving as if he is a people’s leader that has the entire population behind him. He thinks that he can ignore every constitutional article that does not suit him and enforce whatever is in his favor. So, he is ignoring the no-confidence vote and running the business as usual.
When somebody questioned about the constitutional limit of the number of members of his cabinet to 25 including the prime minister at the Supreme Court of Nepal, Oli has said that his government is a transitional government so it does not need to follow the constitutional article that restricts the number of members of his council of ministers. The Supreme Court accepted it. He appointed six-deputy prime ministers and his cabinet has more than 40 members.
Now, Oli needs to exit honorably. The Attorney General has advised him to reply to the queries of the lawmakers at the time of deliberations on the no-confidence vote in the parliament, and then honorably resign. What he has been doing is consulting the so-called constitutional lawyers to advertise that his government can go on, as the constitution has no clear provision for forming a new government after the Oli government is removed by the no-confidence vote. One thing Oli needs to understand is lawyers can say anything anybody likes provided they get payment; another is nothing will be laughable than saying that no clear provision for forming a new government is available after Oli leaves office. In the most unlikely case but a case of one scenario is if the prime minister dies, then the constitution has a provision or not for making a new government, Oli needs to answer as a matured and experienced politician.
Oli has been saying so naively that the Speaker of the parliament needs to take the budget bills before the no-confidence vote. What is it? Once the government has been challenged to have the confidence vote it has to demonstrate that it has confidence of the majority of the lawmakers, and it is still the people’s government. Once it cannot prove it, it has not the right to say in office even for a minute. It is not a people’s government at all in the parliamentary system. So, no other issue can take up in the parliament without going into the no-confidence vote. That is it, Prime Minister Oli, like it or not.
If Oli has been a man of the moral sense he does not need to wait for the no-confidence vote in the parliament he needs to quit the office immediately after the Maoist-center has sent him a letter stating it has withdrawn the support for the government or he has to have the support of other lawmakers for making his government still is the majority government. That has not happen but he is claiming that his government will last until January 2018. Oli just want to be a political laughingstock than quitting office as honorably as possible. God bless Oli.
July 20, 2016
