Kathmandu is probably a centre of excellence on one aspect (if not on others) – forming and changing the government. To my knowledge, there is hardly any other city in the world which has witnessed the new Millennium with the kind of transformation Kathmandu has undergone: the demolition of two hundred year old Monarchy, the ending of a civil war that killed sixteen thousand people, and the promulgation of a new constitution after six decades of political struggle demanding it, and all of these happening within a decade (2005-2015). So far so good – these are great, globally acclaimed political developments. But what about the rest of the country?
The other side of the coin
Kathmandu’s achievements and triumphant political accomplishments have posed an enormous cost to 25 million Nepalese who live outside of this turbulent city, whose population is about five million (although accurate data is lacking). The other side of the story is often missing in everyday discussion in Nepal and in the international commentary about Nepal. Obviously, many foreigners, and also quite a few locals in Kathmandu, are frustrated by the ‘dirty politics’, traffic jam and notorious air pollution. What is surprising is that most also miss out local realities of Nepal, often overshadowed by the dominant Kathmandu version of the country. With a notable exception, many of the Kathmandu based politicians find the city a safe haven for all kinds of political games which they play in the name of Nepal. Kathmandu emerges simultaneously as a haven and as a hell, and either way, reinforcing itself as a absolute power center of the new republic. As a result, Kathmandu has been able to to hide more fundamental problems facing the rest of the country.
Outside of Kathmandu
On 3 May 2016, when three of the most powerful political parties were playing yet another government changing game in Kathmandu, I happened to be in a smaller town of Dhulikhel, about thirty kilometres east of Kathmandu. A quick tour around this small city and a few interactions with Dhulikhel community made it all too clear to me that Kathmandu and non-Kathmandu parts of Nepal have very little in common, at least when it comes to the the way people engage in – or disengage from – political games. For sure, Dhulikhel and Kathmandu, although not too far apart, are vastly different in terms of the kind of game leaders play and the consequence these plays generate. You may think the difference is related to the size of the city, but in fact, it is the kind of leaders who inhabit these two urban centres, and the kind of culture underlying their socio-political behaviour.
Contrary to the incessant struggle for power that is a recurrent event in Kathmandu, Dhulikhel is resolute in its path to prosperity, by using politics as a basis of prosperity. Leaders here have indulged less on unwarranted political games, but have to a great extent used the power of politics into the development of town and its periphery. Bel Prasad Shrestha, a three term Mayor of this city, represents an example in the country of how local leaders, when empowered through election, can transform the society from below. Now, at the age of 78, Shrestha recalls how he spent his three elected tenures (totalling 15 years) as the Mayer, in the eighties and early nighties, to transform Dhulikhel from a community that did not have a single toilet, to a town of popular tourist attraction, now with the country’s best community managed water supply system, highly sought after University level education facility, and with one of the best community managed hospitals in South Asia. You may wonder what Kathmandu did in support: very little, and anything it did was a response to the assertive demand of Dhulikhel leaders.
Of course, Shrestha was not the sole local leader to deliver these spectacular results in this small city. In fact, Dhulikhel region is bestowed with a number of visionary and socially committed leaders, including the founding Vice-Chancellor of Kathmandu University Suresh R Sharma and his colleagues, all of whom worked at the level of local community (and not at the level where Kathmandu politicians operate), with a very strong sense of attachment to the locality in and around Dhulikhel, and with a sense of deep commitment to make the area a prosperous place. But their local engagement has clearly crossed the local boundaries, as their work is now recognised nationally and also in the region of South Asia.
As a result of local commitment and accomplishments, Dhulikhel has made itself a non-local and internationally reputed place. On the contrary, many of works of Kathmandu leaders is becoming increasingly local. The national – and in many situations – international politics that Kathmandu has played has little positive effect outside of Kathmandu. This is because the national politics in Kathmandu has become increasingly less relevant to people across the country. Contrary to this, the local work of Dhulikhel leaders has been recognised across the country and internationally – this is testified by the hundreds of students from India and other countries coming to study in Kathmandu University every year. Like Dhulikhel, there are many towns in Nepal that have performed well despite the lack of elected municipal government. The irony is that Kathmandu politicians keep electing themselves every four years, while they actively suspend the space for local democracy – it is already over 15 years since the last local government election was held.
No slogans but outcomes
‘Local Dhulikhel’ and ‘National Kathmandu’ are different also in terms of leaders’ commitment to community life. This small town of Dhulikhel – with about twenty thousand people – further demonstrates how local leadership can, contrary to the ‘dirty’ Kathmandu politics that has defamed the whole of Nepal, stand out in delivering results. At a time when the dirty politics in Kathmandu spreads across the media, I was so pleased to find myself visiting Dhulikhel and observing Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel Hospital (which is also a part of Kathmandu University), and a very popular drinking water treatment plant. These three services of Dhulikhel, which Bel Prasad highlights as three pillars of environment and development he prioritised during his tenure, exemplifies the best form of achievement local level politics have ever realised in the past three decades in the country. What’s more, the leaders have also upheld a culture of self reliance. A few months back, when I met the Vice Chancellor of the university (himself of Dhulikhel origin), I was astonished to find a elegantly simple office room in which he was sitting in, with floors covered by traditional mat made up of rice straw, all of which clearly showing his values of self-reliance and respect for the local tradition.
More importantly, Bel Prasad as Dhulikhel leader demonstrates the finest ways in which local leaders in Nepal have defied the pessimistic signals of Kathmandu (when it signalled to share the culture of dirty politics), and thus have charted their path to prosperity. He was working within a difficult political context – mainly within the Panchayat politics directly steered by the Monarchy – to do something relevant, concrete and useful to the society. While Kathmandu based national leaders destabilised the country, Bel Prasad and his team did all possible to bring stability and progress in Dhulikhel. The Kathmandu politicians went to Delhi many times for medical cases as trivial as diarrhoea (many Nepalese know how politicians disguise their political visits as medical), during the transitional period, Bel Prasad and Suresh Sharma created their own community based hospital in Dhulikhel.
Local towns and villages are doing their best when the national politics is in crisis. On the contrary, an amazing reward Kathmandu leaders offered to Dhulikhel is – suspension of local democracy (as local governments are devoid of elected local officials for the past eighteen years). The Kathmandu leaders not only suspended Dhulikhel local government; they also interfered with Dhulikhel’s legitimate (in the sense that it was Dhulikhel community that set it up) right to elect leaders for various innovative community institutions which its founders created. On the contrary, Kathmandu politicians allegedly pressurised Suresh Sharma to quit the University leadership a couple of years ago, another serious insult to an aspiring Dhulikhel which has set examples for the entire country.
No ‘local’ gain after the ‘national’ constitution
After Bel Prasad, no mayor has been elected. The country ran into Maoist War, and it has been put on hold by the Kathmandu based politicians, as they say they are federalizing the country. I am not against federalism – which is also a process of bringing government closer to people. What I am against is the tendency to impose governance structure from the top, without giving local leaders an opportunity to democratically exercise their rights. For more than fifteen years, local governments have been run by centrally appointed officials, as no representatives have been elected. With the promulgation of the new constitution, there was some hope that, in the spirit of the new constitution itself, the Kathmandu leaders will prioritise the agenda of local government reform and then hold the election as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Kathmandu leaders’ only priority is to win the power game in the city, undermining the local foundation of democracy.
The consequence of Kathmandu’s killing of the local democratic space is vast and stretches deep into the future of Nepal. Nepalese society is facing a serious damage. The rehabilitation work after the earthquake has been stalled. National government agencies and international organization are finding it difficult to organise rehabilitation works at the local level in the absence of elected local governments. Basic services like health and education have been left with the ‘invisible hands of the market’, with vital services going out of the reach of the poor. In the absence of local level planning, fertile lands are being converted into concrete jungles by unregulated real estate developers.
The question then is – when will the Kathmandu based elites wake up to recognise the limit of what they are doing and the consequences of what they are not doing. The future of Nepal, to a large extent, resides on whether and when Kathmandu elites are able to envision Dhulikhel-like images of over 200 municipalities across the country, and more importantly, when they agree to transfer the hijacked political power back to these municipalities across the country. Are there planners, action researchers and policy analysts who can show the way?
“Views expressed here are personal and not associated with any affiliated organisations”.
Available at http://hemantojha.com/2016/05/20/nepal-democracy-in-crisis-a-tale-of-kathmandu-and-dhulikhel/
