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What RSP can learn from past majority governments?
After almost two decades of mili-juli sarkars and the loot-tantra instead of loktantra, Nepali voters have finally decided to hand over the solo pilot role to the RSP to take this country to greater heights. If they can focus on governance, transparency, and accountability, they will likely leave no room for any other party to govern us for the coming decades.
I hope Balen and his cabinet members will not be in a hurry to prove their point. Yes, we want to get rid of corruption but do it gently and slowly so that the corrupt bureaucracy will not fight back violently. You don't have to prove anything by sprinting like Usain Bolt in the first 100 days. This is not a movie and 100 days house-full shows doesn't matter when you already have the mandate to govern for five years without having to hook up with other political parties.
The Nepali Congress had the majority in 1991 and instead of doing what is right, they just went on a 'corruption' binge, enriching their cadres and loyal byaparis by selling of our public enterprises and taking a cut from all the government contracts and doling out government jobs to their cadres and cousins.
By 1994, the government fell because Sheroo darling and his 35 friends decided to not back their own government. The UML did a 9-month stint with the help of fringe parties but then the NC came back to power with the help of the same fringe parties and Sheroo became our PM.
We know that the RSP government will not be engaged in corruption. Well, there might be a few bad apples, since a ton of disgruntled hacks from other political parties have won from the RSP banner, so Balen has to be careful with these kind of people.
The same old shady byaparis who run this country by evading taxes, grabbing public land and bribing politicians and civil servants, will try their best to tempt the RSP government with boras and boras of cash like they did with Prachanda and his crew when they suddenly showed up in Kathmandu, not from the jungle but from Noida back in 2006.
The Maoists were on cloud nine when they became the largest party in 2008 but they thought they were given the public mandate to get rid of the then Nepal Army Chief and make us a North Korea, whereas we voted for them to give us a new inclusive constitution. So, the RSP can learn from this as well. Focus on your core agenda and not petty stuff. Corrupt folks will face the music but don't scare them all right away. We do need their ill-gotten wealth back to our treasury, don't we?
The Mao-badis turned into Khao-badis and in almost two decades, from the largest party crowd in town, they have dwindled down to just two guys winning their seats. Prachanda won from Rukum and Barsha Man Pun from Rolpa and these two were the biggest boras of cash collectors during their days in power. The money came from manpower companies, construction companies that made their dough from government contracts and all other shady byaparis and commission agents dealing with our bank notes, passports, IDs and telecom equipment, and more.
So there will be our 'mafia' byaparis who will once again try to shower the RSP with illegal gifts so that they can continue to run their show and make illegal profits. Balen and his cabinet members will have to be careful with our shady mafia cartels.
The best move is not to listen to our old school byaparis who talk about bringing this policy and that to create a better environment for their businesses. They are the ones who have evaded taxes for so long and have become so powerful in this land that they control nearly all of our economy, while consumers are not getting a fair price or product, and their employees are paid exploitative wages.
The only way to shut them off is to ensure transparency when it comes to taxes. No more under-invoicing, no more bribing customs wallahs at the border or the airport, no more fake VAT bills, no more public land grabbing. All that is required is to come up with new laws that punish tax violators like they do in the US. We need our own 'IRS' and make it a powerful body with no political interference. The current Finance Minister should head this new agency.
The next thing is to make our CIAA (what a funny name), our anti-corruption watchdog, an autonomous, powerful agency only answerable to God. Okay, that is going a little too far but I guess you get my point. The CIAA has to have enough power to investigate anyone, be it the PM or the President or even the Nepal Army, when it comes to corruption.
On paper, the CIAA is a powerful body but in reality, it has become a tool to blackmail government employees and politicians on the other side. And the commissioners of this body should not be former civil servants but independent folks not affiliated to any political parties.
So far, the CIAA has been used to go after low-level government employees while the old politicians are given clean chits. This happens when politicians send their loyalists to such organizations. And it's also time to change the name because it sounds like a rehab group for former CIA agents. Maybe Anti-Corruption Agency, ACA will do.
The Balen government must not bolt out the door from day one like Usain Bolt. This is not a 100m dash and there is no medal. Take it as a marathon, maybe running the Boston Marathon, think like the African runners. Timing is everything. Start slowly, then maintain a consistent pace and save all your energy for the final push or else you will hit the wall in 100 days and every disgruntled Ram and Shyam and the old media, fake byaparis and cadres from the defeated ones will rise up and try to sabotage everything.
Why? Because most of the old politicians, and even civil servants from the 1990s will be in jail and Nepal will need a mega-prison to house not hundreds but a few hundred thousands of corrupt ones and those who have been milking the system since the 1990s will unite and try to fight back.
And when it comes to generating revenue for the government, Balen just has to focus on making sure that there is no more tax evasion in our land, be it the gharbetis or big byaparis or TikTok stars or our celebrities making tons of dough from concerts overseas or even the panipuri wallah or the barber or anyone who makes any income.
We all have to pay our taxes honestly, and taxes are the only revenue for our government, which has been left broke for the past 35 years and saddled with US$ 20 billion or more in debt. And figure out a way to get some rebates for those making less than Rs 600,000 a year but all income has to be taxed first.
According to my sources at KGB (Kukhruachor Guptachar Bivag), we lose more than US$ 2 billion dollars every year from tax evasion and bribes and other illegal acts. If we can close all the loopholes and make everything digital and transparent, it will be difficult for our government employees to ask for Rs 2,000 bribes from common citizens and Rs 2 million from byaparis.
Most of the government services should be managed online to ensure that common folks have less physical face-to-face interaction with the civil servants, unless it is for verification purposes like for citizenship and stuff. If you have all the documents ready then upload it online, let the government staff approve it and get your stuff online and pay the fees online and well, the fewer the offline dealings, the less corruption, isn't it?
And what about all the past sins from 1991? All corruption scandals must be investigated but not in the first 100 days. The old media and so-called political analysts will make it seem as if the first '100 days' is all that matters. No, it doesn't!
Don't go breaking and trashing down the corrupt system on the first day. If you do that, most of our big business houses will shut down and run away to Dubai. Well, not Dubai for now but most of them have already laundered billions of Rupees abroad and most of them have their tourist visas already stamped and they have no problem flying abroad. And our corrupt civil servants and their trade unions will also fight back since most of them are affiliated to the old defeated political parties.
Maybe, offer a 90% tax on all illegal wealth, some kind of amnesty to the shady ones, because at the end of the day, our treasury needs the dough. Most of our corrupt ones, be it civil servants or shady business wallahs already have PR or green card or even foreign citizenship. When it gets too hot, they will run away.
Remember, you don't have to sleep with the enemy to stay in power now like the ones we witnessed in the past two decades. You have won 75% of the FPTP seats and overall, almost a two-thirds majority. The corrupt system will try to create division among the RSP members. The defeated ones and the corrupt bureaucracy and byaparis can survive or breathe again if there is a break-up but I really don't think Amresh or some other former Congressi or UML who are now RSP MPs have enough friends to do what Sheroo did with Girija in 1994.
So, do not start fighting with each other. You have more than 1,800 days until the next election. Take it easy, focus on the necessities first when it comes to the public. We want affordable healthcare, education and dal bhat tarkari. The private schools and hospitals and transport entrepreneurs will fight back but do not go rushing in to fight these mafias all at once.
Start slowly, give them time to adjust and make sure they follow all the rules in the book, taxes are not evaded, all accounts are transparent and not hidden and make sure that school fees, hospital fees and our domestic airlines and bus tickets are reasonable.
Yes, a business has to make a profit, but not 'through the roof' extortion-type profit by evading taxes, creating monopolies, and fleecing the consumers. And for those selling adulterated food products or even expired ones, a few lakhs fine doesn't cut it. Either make him or her eat the whole truck of the same hazardous product or a decade-long hard labor digging roads in the hilly regions.
Hope our 'mafia' byaparis who have been ruining this country will also come to their senses and realise that you don't have to have your syndicate or be affiliated with political parties and bribe hakims and netas to make your profits. If the government is fair, then in the long run, the 'mafia' raj will disappear and then honest, ethical and law-abiding business wallahs can survive in this country and still make a profit, pay fair wages and not evade taxes.
It's high time the government stepped in and ensured fair pricing when it comes to vegetables and grains so that our farmers will get their fair price and end the rule of 'dalals' who control the market and make all the profits. We don't need much. We have survived on our own for the past 35 years, but if we could pay reasonable fees to our schools and hospitals and get affordable food products, then we will have a few Rupees left to save for rainy days.
We expect an honest and ethical government from RSP. And we also expect the same from our businesses, our civil servants, our judiciary, our police and all of us, the common citizens as well. May God bless Balen and his fellow cabinet members. May God bless Nepal and all of us.
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