Nepal: Corruption and challenges for Mitigation

Shyam Prasad Adhikari

Former Secretary, Government of Nepal/Development Anthropologist

No subject of national interest ,perhaps, has been so widely talked about, written, spoken, discussed, debated and conversed than the subject of corruption in Nepal. Nepal has been ranked as one of the poorest, corrupt and badly governed countries on world’s map to-day. For these sad ranking , political leaders and politicians are held responsible. Political party leaders’ who came to power always  tried in getting glued to their chairs by hook and crook and amass unlimited  fortune(s) for their posterities ,regardless of people’s interest and country’s betterment. No Prime Minister(s) and Minister(s),save a few could establish credibility of their leaderships in the country. Corruption to-day, is eating into the vitals of our political and civil life. No leaders of our political parties heeded to create a new order of equality, genuine democracy and moral values within the democratic framework as had been pinned hopes and expectations by the mass of people in the country. It is, now, eroding people’s faith and exhausting their proverbial patience for enjoyment of fruits of democracy as cherished by them after the last two Janaandolans.

The present Prime Minister, Dr.Babu Ram Bhattarai, a highly qualified person, to whom people relied that he would do some miracle for development of our country, unfortunately, miserably failed to do anything good for people and our country. His bad luck who now, is reduced to a rank of a care-taker PM, stands and walks on others crutches{Madhesi Morcha and some minor parties}and is also defamed as giving patronage to some corrupt colleagues of his cabinet, seemed as if he was going to wage a big war against corruption in the country. He gave his first gesture by discarding an expensive government car allotted to the Prime Minister by opting to ride a less expensive vehicle called Mustang, made in Nepal. People in general took this first gesture as a drama and laughed at it as "a penny wise and pound foolish" act of our learned Prime Minister. All thought that his colleagues in the cabinet would follow his foot-prints but it did not happen so. People simply laughed out at the first austerity episode of our learned Prime Minister BRB. Genuine Nepalese in general are very much used to such political episodes of our politicians and Prime Minister(s) and take it as a ritual which must be performed by every Prime Minister coming to the power corridors. People today simply laugh and disdain to listen to plausible utterances of Prime Minister and politicians on corruption. All politicians are alike and proven as laughing-stocks in the eyes of people. Sensible people now openly talk and discuss about our learned Prime Minister Babu Ram Bhattarai because of his past one year’s non- performing record that he is simply a man of speech, not of action. He himself confessed just the other day on ABC TV- channel by addressing a gathering wherein he stated ,"If I have not done good things for the country, I have done nothing bad for the country either."We must appreciate our care-taker Prime Minister, Babu Ram Bhattarai for his candid statement for all to know openly on E-media.

It is clear that political clap trapping speeches and charismatic sloganeering simply don’t help in controlling corruption so endemic in our country. Multiple socio-cultural factors and national realities have to be considered as challenges to minimizing corruption in the country. One could only hope ,although not believe, to see how our Prime Ministers and politicians can resolve and mitigate corruption, amidst myriad political and socio-cultural problems and the challenges existing in Nepalese societies?

Socio-cultural factors play important role in Nepal’s multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual societies. Socio-cultural factors such a traditional values or beliefs and even superstitions contribute a great deal in shaping life and behavioral pattern of Nepalese people. Religion is another contributing factor in creating high and low morale in the people in practicing their respective religions and tradition. In the words of an eminent Nepalese sociologist-turned politician late Dr. Mohammed Mohasin, "Even god is compelled to be corrupt in our society and culture. Be it Hindus, Muslims or even Christians, all gods and deities are made corrupt by their blind-followers. A Hindu goes to temple and makes promises{Bhakals}for having a son, a Muslim vows{Manauti}for prosperity and a Christian ,perhaps, prays for blessings for long life and heaven hereafter. All of these votaries and followers of different religions and gods have one thing in common ,which is to offer to their gods something either in the form of sweets, clothes and money anticipating if their coveted dreams are fulfilled, they would comply with offerings in future. Gods are, after all, gods who simply don’t need anything from their votaries, then why must they go to temples, monasteries, mosques and churches with offerings?Is not it corrupting gods? These are nothing but a form of corruption through Chakari to gods so ingrained in our minds and in our socio-cultural structure of the Nepalese societies which is solely based on the return aspect of investment…"

It is clearly seen in our daily worships and rituals that we manifest more selfishness within us than pure devotion to gods. It is whether offerings to gods or giving gifts and donations to politicians or bureaucratic bosses, the underlying objective is to get personal gains and substantial return. The political, bureaucratic and all economic corruptions are the by-products of Chakari culture which has come to be recognized as a legacy of Chakari cultural heritage in Nepalese socio-cultural structure even today. There is partiality even in worshipping of gods and goddesses in Nepal’s socio-religious cultural patterns. The popular saying in Nepalese society," people get warmth only near a burning fire," is quite justified by this saying. Like worshipping powerful gods, people worship[perform Chakari]powerful people for personal favors or gains. This atitude, mind-set and value system breeds corruption in our Societies.

The Chakari concept, more prominently entertained, practiced and flourished during Rana autocratic rule which according to Dor Bahadur Bist{A Nepali Anthropologist},virtually means, "To wait upon to serve ,to appear, or to seek favor or advantages for personal gains, from politicians, bureaucratic bosses and influential persons. Politicians and bureaucrats of today entertain and love this concept as a form of control to keep their potential rivals and opponents away from belligerent activities and as criterion for guiding loyalty and reliability of Chakrials{Sychophants}who generally are government officials, businessmen, persons aspiring for better opportunities, promotions, licenses and contracts. Anyone failing to be regular in Chakari is suspected to have turned disloyal and therefore, liable to lose promotion, better placement, business and other favors from political and bureaucratic boss. Performances and productivity of actual job is less important for civil servants than Chakari." The corruption was virtually institutinalized during Shah and Rana periods and handed down even to present democratic era in Nepal as a cultural heritage. More recently, a neo-Chakari concept has emerged enjoined by two more terms or adjectives such as  Chukli,{poisoning against rivals}and Chaplusi{using sugar-coated words to please bosses}which by combining together becomes a novel CHA-Chu-CHA concept and a new approach to please political and bureaucratic bosses who relish and entertain these beamingly. The Cha-Chu-Cha is recognized as a culture, as a sophisticated art, as a method and approach to woo high level bosses who not only like these but relish and promote these selfish ones. The concept is gaining more currency after the restoration of multi-party system and prevails even at the present time. The concept is gainful for both the parties in terms of exchange of mutual obligations leading to corruption eventually. It is a great source of bribery and other forms of corruptions in Nepal.

However, charismatic sloganeering and high sounding voices may be raised against eradicating corruption by politicians; it has remained as a big challenge. Ridden with the problems of poverty, illiteracy and backwardness, our society has been seriously affected by the scourge of corruption day by day. Amassing colossal amount of wealth and property and living in comforts and luxuries has become the major objective and dream of life for most Nepalese today. The politicians and bureaucrats earning money illegally at the expense of power and positions themselves are challenging directly to the institution established for the prevention of corruption. Although socio-cultural norms and values are invaluable assets of the Nepalese society, yet no concern for their conservation and promotion has been exhibited by the government. The society itself is not aggressive towards those having corrupt behavior and attitudes. Corruption and the corrupt people have become part and parcel of the society. Considering the status, attitude or thinking of the society, an apprehension appears to emerge that the Nepalese society is more aggressive towards the institution acting upon corruption than the corrupt people themselves. The politics of the country has become polluted. Criminalization in politics has pervaded the national scenario. The state of national politics has stood as a challenge for the prevention of corruption. The politics and administrative machinery of the country are themselves involved in corruption. Therefore, in our context, the activities of all people-whether politicians, social workers, intellectuals, administrators -have posed a serious challenge in the mitigation of corruption in the country. Moreover, misunderstanding, uncooperative attitudes, mutual distrust and tussle among constitutional bodies have also been considered as serious challenges. The very commonly observed uncooperative attitude between two different bodies ,unfair rivalry, the attitude of shirking from one’s own responsibilities etc; have stood as a great challenge in the domain of corruption control. Another big challenge is the prevalence of civic mentality of honoring corrupt people and concealing the criminals. On the whole, it can be said that a single institution or element is not the only factor for posing the challenges for the prevention of corruption factor are responsible for this social malady.

Finally, Nepal’s socio-cultural needs should be taken into consideration in attempting to control and minimize corruption, because Nepalese are unusual among the world’s elites in the extent of their patronage obligation to poorer people’s  and the strength of the moral pressure which they feel to fulfill them. The socio-cultural aspects of the so-called Nepalese traditional way of life such as ethnocentricity, primordial rather than functional association; the sanctification of customs, beliefs and practices ;the discouragement of individualism, the emphasis on authority by birth rather than merits; customary rather than contractual

obligation, supernaturalism; the unwillingness to accept personal responsibility for reform and development; and social rather than legal sanctions still are regarded and practiced in Nepalese multi-ethnic socio-cultural universe. These socio-cultural factors, if tackled carefully, may become more useful in attempting to control corruption and obtain politico-administrative improvement. Corruption as a social cancer disease in Nepalese socio-cultural setting can be only preventive and not curative. In considering the possibilities of reducing corruption in the public sector, a certain amount of socio-cultural engineering is equally necessary.

There is no panacea for eradicating corruption overnight. But there is definitely some preventive medicine and measures to minimizing and controlling the pains of this cancerous disease now that has become so endemic in Nepalese society. The preventive medicine is nothing but a common stake and concern on the part of government and people to fight this common enemy called corruption. Can this government mobilize itself to meet the formidable challenges, rising above the excessive selfishness and partisanship?

Exclusive for telegraphnepal.com

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Comments

  • Posted on - 2012-09-11    by     trilok
  • Your article is thought provoking based upon social and cultural norms and values of Nepalese society In fact the country is becoming poor and poor day by day and there is no bureaucracy None of Pm tried to setup some system in bureaucracy including well trained PM Dr BRB None of PM tried to eradicate corruption to some extent but every PM gave slogan that he would build Nepal as Singapore but Nepal is becoming Singaporean day by day.You are right when you say that let us minimize corruption to some extent but national leaders in fact they try to minimize this issue. TS
  • Posted on - 2012-09-08    by     Prof. Mohan Lohani
  • I read with interest Shyam Adhikari's latest article in Telegraphnepal and he has expressed his views in a very forthright manner .He has given a not flattering picture of the country which is 'poor,corrupt and badly governed'.He has also rightly observed that no political leader is willing to 'create a new order of equality,democracy and moral values within a democratic framework'.These values which inject new life and dynamism into a democratic order are woefully lacking.It is not easy to get rid of socio-cultural beliefs and traditions nor is it easy ,as he says rightly,to 'eradicate corruption overnight'.But what is important is our perseverance and sincere desire to clean up the society which has been tainted and weakened so much by corrupt practices at the cost of basic necessities of which the common people are deprived,thus creating disparity in social life.The cleaning up process must begin at the top.What is the use of apprehending an ordinary clerk on corruption charges if big shots go scot free. Mohan Lohani
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