Perpetual lawlessness

The other day I was waiting for my family in a small parking area, west of Land Revenue Office (LRO) in Dillibazar, when a lavish jeep arrived and stopped blocking the passage of several cars, including my own. A man, who looked well off, stepped out of the jeep while talking on his cellphone, locked the vehicle and walked away. I thought, he had stepped out either to clear the passage or he had left the key to the parking attendant, but neither was the case. I had to wait for nearly two hours before he finally returned. Instead of apologizing, the man appeared aggressive and rude in response to my complaint. ‘Despite having taken the bribe to their heart’s content, these rascals (the clerks in the LRO) don’t do their job on time. My time has been wasted too, not only yours, so will you now shut up and go?’, was his response. He then started to check the bundle of land registration deeds he was carrying while coughing a volley of foul languages simultaneously.

Meanwhile, the parking attendant, who was nowhere in site during the whole time I was stranded, suddenly appeared asking me to pay Rs 30. As the normal parking fees are between Rs 10 to 15 per hour and I had willfully used the space for hardly 20 minutes (rest of the time I was locked against my will because he failed to hold the key of the obstructing jeep), I refused to pay the sum. When he insisted, I asked him to show the franchise to collect revenue from parking vehicles in public places. As he was an illegal operator, like most other operators in public parking, he could not produce any; yet he was ready to fight for the money. Only the presence of the onlookers who were taking delight in our discussions saved me from his attack. However, nobody showed any guts to say anything to the browbeating jeep owner. A typical neo rich who has made fortune from real estate deals, but one who is deprived of decent manners, good education and proper civic sense, he personified to me the lawlessness and chaos that has taken roots in this country since last five years.

Every big political change brings with it periods of socio-political and economic turmoil. It depends on the actors of the new regime whether or not and before how long the situation returns to normal. Political change of 1990 was no exception; however, with a new constitution and subsequent election in time, normalcy returned. The culture of anarchism promoted by opposition parties and ethno-lingual pressure groups too receded gradually as society rejected it and people hated disorder.

Unfortunately, lawlessness in post-2006 Nepal seems to head toward eternity owing to the protracted political transition and inept and irresponsible politicians. Poor people have no choice but to live with the chaos as lawlessness has now become part and parcel of their daily life. Any organized gang that has even the slightest of collective bargaining power can easily take the nation hostage, defying all norms of logic and law. For example, transporters’ syndicates- carrying both goods and passengers- apply their own rules with regard to operation and pricing of their products, totally ignoring the rules of the sovereign. Not to mention that their monopolistic cartels charge exorbitant prices for their poor and sub-standard services besides putting people in danger of serious accidents for the sake of profit.

Besides members of organized gangs and vested interest groups, anyone who has enough muscle-power, ability to bribe government officials and connections with powerful politicians can cheat, beat, loot, cause tort, kidnap or even kill people and go scot-free. Every now and then handful of local hooligans succeed in closing highways/roads or national development projects (like Melamchi drinking water project, Kathmandu-Hetauda fast track road etc) to pressurize the government to meet their demands of local and personal nature, which the lax government machinery quickly gives in. Every other month waste disposal of Kathmandu is halted for days as locals residing around the land-fill site close it to press for more donations and endowments; again a permissive government yields in no time.

People coercing others to enforce their call of strikes, shut-downs, closures and other acts of hooliganism are often cadres of political parties/ethno-lingual groups or are goons patronized by the latter which makes it difficult for the demoralized and politicized law and order authorities to act. It is mainly because of politician-criminal nexus that crimes are on the rise, in numbers and scale. Violence and intimidation, first instigated by the Maoists, then copied by Madhesis and other ethno-lingual activists to meet their political objectives, has now taken endemic proportions. Possession and use of firearms, almost non-existent till a decade before, is now commonplace. Newspapers are full with reports of kidnapping and extortions despite the fact that majority of such incidents go unreported for fear of retaliation. People simply have lost faith in police and politicians.

Lawlessness in post-2006 Nepal seems to head toward eternity owing to the protracted political transition and inept and irresponsible politicians. Poor people have no choice but to live with the chaos as lawlessness has now become part and parcel of their daily life.

Even a large number of national identity documents, such as citizenship certificates and passports (not to mention driving licenses) are fake (tailor-made to obtain a ‘Hong Kong ID’ or similar other status/facility), where the state machinery is either a silent spectator or an accomplice in itself. Advertisements that guarantee arrangement of (false) bank balance certificates appear openly in newspapers and FM radios. From banks, financial institutions (including the mushrooming ‘savings and cooperatives’) and capital markets that deal with public money to manpower agencies that send people abroad for employment to public utility businesses like health services and education to other areas of business and commerce, all operate with virtual impunity for their deadly wrongs. Interests of large but unorganized and often silent groups, like the consumers and people in general have no room in the ‘New Nepal’, only the interests of those who are powerful, vocal and organized enough to press their demands have.

Inept, selfish and misguided leaders, INGO funded ‘rights activists’ and ‘civil society leaders’ have demeaned democracy, making it messy and dysfunctional thus unable to provide anything either security or opportunity or service delivery, to the people. Even judiciary and the Ombudsman are marred in corruption. When the chief of anti-corruption body himself, evidently collaborating with the most corrupt of all bankers, ordered the arrest of the most honest regulator of commercial banks two years ago, on concocted charges of corruption, no political party including the ‘revolutionary’ Maoists tried to question him, let alone impeach in the floor of the Legislative Assembly, which they could have easily done had they wished to do so.

These days no tender calls for public works or supplies are bid or awarded in free, transparent and competitive manner; the whole bidding starting from the sale of tender document are captured by goons using knives, pistols and of course bribe. Seize or encroachments of public properties under political patronage have become accepted phenomena. The above are only a few examples; list of lawlessness is just endless. Therefore the people are extremely dissatisfied. King Gyanendra in 2005 cashed such dissatisfaction to seize power although he could not hold it for long because of his own foolishness. Will the leaders ever try to learn from history?

jeevan1952@hotmail.com