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Finance Minister Bhattarai’s Vision for Nepal
On Wednesday, Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) of the Nepali embassy, Kali Prasad Pokhrel, traveled via train to and from Philadelphia with Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav. Back in Washington DC, Nepali Ambassador to the United States, Dr. Suresh Chandra Chalise, and other embassy staff prepared for the arrival of Finance Minister, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, who was to attend the annual meeting of the board of governors of the World Bank.
It was barely 10AM on a warm Thursday morning here in Washington DC but DCM Pokharel's day was already a busy one. He marched out of his 2131 Leroy Place office to prepare for the Foreign Minister's departure to Nepal, after which Pokhrel was to accompany the Finance Minister to The Elliott School of International Affairs, where Dr. Bhattarai was scheduled to speak at a public engagement at 11:30AM.
At the venue, several of the organizers were waiting by the main entrance. Among them was Chitra Tiwari, an old friend of the CPN (Maoist), who sometimes wrote op-eds for the conservative Washington Times. A little past 11AM, DCM Pokhrel called to confirm the venue and the event's schedule, and to inform that the Finance Minister might be a little late—thankfully, he arrived sooner than expected.
The Marxist:
During the introduction at the event, moderator Deepa M. Ollapally, Associate Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the Elliot School, mentioned the Minister's book, The Nature of Underdevelopment and Regional Structure of Nepal. For whatever reason, she didn't mention the subtitle, "A Marxist Analysis." No matter. The Minister made clear where he comes from and where he sees the world headed: "Our ultimate goal is Communism," he said. "I don't want to be dishonest," he added.
Unlike the Prime Minister's populist, moderate stands during his engagements only two weeks ago in New York, the Finance Minister didn't shy away from his party's ideological roots while in DC. "Our goal is socialism," he repeated on numerous occasions during the program, and said that socialism was also a global inevitability, invoking Marx and Mao several times. "Mao used to say masses are the creator of history," he started by way of explaining how he imagined achieving the goals set in Nepal's fiscal plan for 2009. "It is realistically ambitious if we can mobilize the masses, if we can create jobs within the country," he went on. To achieve the goal, he said, Nepal would first have to go through an industrial revolution. He seemed to have no qualms about passing off the responsibility of welcoming socialism in Nepal to future generations if they should so desire. For him, the prioritized goal is to usher in an industrial revolution.
The Minister is not oblivious to how the world views his party's ideology, that perhaps it is not taken seriously. But while the Prime Minister had explained in New York that the party's guiding principle was Prachandapath—an updated concoction of Marxism, Leninism, and Maoism, tailored to suit Nepal's needs—the Finance Minister, in all his ideological references, never mentioned that path by name. He emphasized Maoism and Marxism, describing the latter as "historical science." During an interview I conducted with Dr. Bhattarai after the event, he responded to recent news from Nepal about deepening ideological differences within his party by saying, "This reporting on the dispute within the party is highly exaggerated. In a Communist party we always have very fruitful and positive discussions on ideological issues," he explained. "As for this hardliner, moderate Marxists, that is not true… Basically we are Marxists, but we are not dogmatic Marxists… We want to develop the science of Marxism." Making what may be an indirect reference to Prachandapath, he added, "We are very practical and realistic Marxists who want to bring out real change in society."
On the Economy:
When asked what he thought was the engine that has been driving Nepal's economy, he said, "I don't see any engine driving the economy… I would say that the economy has been in deep stagnation for the last 50 years. The average growth is hardly 2-3%. We have to first come out of that stagnation…. That's why in this current budget we made massive investment in physical and social infrastructure so that it will give impetuous to higher growth. Apart from that remittances, tourism are sectors driving Nepal's economy… until we modernize agriculture we cannot have sustainable development."
On the matter of America's current economic crisis, he casually explained it as a result of "inherent crisis of imperialist economy, or the monopoly capitalist economy, it goes through various cycles… In Nepal we haven't reached that stage of higher level of capitalistic development. Our economy is basically a feudal economy and we want to do away with the feudal system and establish a primary stage of industrial capitalism. So we won't have that much of an impact of this global crisis. But some impact will be there since in the present day all the economies are interlinked."
When asked about what role organizations such as the Asian Development Bank or the World Bank have in shaping Nepal's policies, he responded, "They are playing a very significant role in development of Nepal and in the future also I see them playing a major role but ultimately we have to go for self-reliance. We'll have to develop our own financial system… definitely they have influence and for sometime they'll have influence. But we will try to channelize the investment of those funds in the priority sectors defined by the government… We have our interest of development and they have their interest of making investment. We'll have to find a balance." At the event at the Elliot School and during the interview, he explained that his fiscal plan is a progressive one that will help to empower Nepal economically so that we do not have to continue to depend on outsiders.
"10,000 Megawatts in 10 years"
Much like the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister had done during their recent trips to the United States, the Finance Minister emphasized on the importance of inviting investors to build large-scale hydro power projects to generate electricity. "10,000 megawatts in 10 years," he proudly declared. But when asked, the Finance Minister expressed his unfamiliarity with the International Panel for Climate Change's report published in Spring 2006 that declares Nepal's rivers are endangered because the glaciers that feed the river system are receding exceptionally fast—implying that Nepal's rivers, in the next 20-30 years, could witness floods followed by increasingly erratic patterns.
Asked about the impact that big hydro projects have had historically, he said "We shouldn't give undue importance to rumors that big projects will lead to ecological degradation. We have certain rules and regulations, which should be adhered to. If we do that even the bigger plants in the future won't damage our environment." On the topic of IPCC's report, he went on to say, "If you permit me to use some ideological persuasions, because of this private grid and private investors, they haven't paid due attention to environmental protections and honoring the measure put forward by various governments. That's why it leads to environment problem in major countries. In our case that danger would be there but our government is very conscious of this and while inviting foreign investors in these big projects we'll set some certain rules of protecting environment factors. If it's properly honored I don't think this problem will arise. We have to be very conscious of this and take corrective measures in the inception."
Dr. Bhattarai's fiscal plan proposes removing the requirement of a license for hydro projects of 3 megawatts or less. When pressed about whether that was essentially deregulating the industry and decreasing the government's oversight, the Minister patiently explained that the decision to do so in the fiscal plan was to produce conducive environment for investors and speed up that industry's growth.
"We have a target of double digit growth in the next three years," he said, explaining that Nepal needs to catch up with the rest of the world. A fast track to industrialization, however, has historically been damaging to environmental conservation, and there is a clear sense of haste in the way the cornerstone of this government's development agenda, big hydro projects, is being pushed ahead. When asked what the government's stand on the environment was, the Prime Minister had hastily replied that hydro projects were part of the environment conservation efforts by the government, which, to say the least, is questionable logic, coming from big proponents of big hydro. The uncertainty with which the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and the Finance Minister have addressed the long-term impacts of such projects or the issues of climate change and its impact on Nepal's river system only suggests that they, unfortunately, may not have deep knowledge about these issues, or at least that they presently do not have access to expertise on the matter.
About two weeks ago the Prime Minister evoked late American President John F. Kennedy for his Nepali audience by recalling the quote 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.' In Washington DC the Finance Minister called on NRNs to be part of the 'foreign investment' that will reignite Nepal's economy. As a bait, both of them told their respective audiences that the government is working on making dual citizenship—a long dream of many NRNs—a reality. But the frankness with which the Finance Minster addressed his party's agenda leaves no questions as to whether or not the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) still holds on to its ideologies dearly. Though the version the party's Chairman, Prime Minister Dahal, presented was unsurprisingly glossy, the question many Nepalis here in the Untied States are concerned with is less what they say and more what they do and how these actions will impact the future of Nepal. The truth is, Nepali college students and working professionals alike are indeed keenly interested in doing what they can for their country. Though the level of cynicism in Nepali politics has lessened, and many in the diaspora are now pandering to the new leadership, many remain wary about the future of their country and those who are at its helm. "We must forget about the past and move on with the future," the Finance Minister said at the Elliot School. Easier said than done, some in the audience later murmured, particularly in regard to the lives lost during years of conflict.
Both at the Elliot School and during an almost half-an-hour-long conversation with Samudaya, the Finance Minister was forthright to the best of his ability when answering questions. While the Prime Minister had used wit and quick-thinking in his answers (to the crowd's delight), the Finance Minister was more somber in tone, seemed sincere, and offered answers that were more policy-driven. At the Elliot School, he seemed alive when unscripted but seemed almost bored when reading from his prepared speech. On numerous occasions he demonstrated his grasp of socio-economic issues by spontaneously citing statistics. For the sake of non-Nepalis in the audience, he often paused his speech to cite examples that helped clarify the points he was making, such as the need to display sensitivity when a newly secular government is tasked to handle a diverse array of traditions and religious cultures.
The Finance Minister addressed a public event hosted by the Nepali community in the DC/Virginia area in Arlington, Virginia, on Sunday, October 12, 2008. On October 14, he will fly to Boston and speak at Harvard University in an event co-hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He will then immediately fly back to DC to catch a flight back to Nepal the same day.
The full interview with Finance Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai will be available our podcast In Conversation on www.Samudaya.org this week.
Comments
Dear #1: Get real…. its not like he did not know what America was like prior to this
An Excerpt from my post:
At a time, when inflation in Nepal has already crossed 13 percent, it’d be in the interest of the Maoists themselves if they focused on economic agenda, and, at least for the time being, forget their “revolutionary” political rhetoric.
The Maoist Mecca-land China’s experimentations prove that poverty alleviation and economic transformation through foreign investment requires pragmatic rather than dogmatic approach.
Dr. Bhattarai
What America, the global boss and neighborhood giant China are doing ? Observe them and synthesize the way forward for Nepal and act locally means target the Nepalese people and think globally.
When Dr. Bhattarai, our finance minister was in official visit to the USA, another Bhattarai had been killed there. The dead body of Ashok Bhattarai was looking for some supports from Nepalese Government to be sent to Nepal for final ritual.
The finance minister Bhattarai could do nothing even to send the dead body of Mr. A. Bhattarai, how could he change the living standard of millions of Nepalese!
All these seems quite nonsense in this context!
do you know harrison who die
Dr. Saheb, happy New year. It is surprising for me and the people of Nepal that you couldn’t show even a single gesture to improve the condition of Nepal as finance minister. It is astonishing that your education and personality have become satire for the 21 century who advocate violence and one party communist Totalitarian. People want to see you as the leader of the country but not only the YCL vigilantes. People want to see your democratic, non violence and progressive personality but how? Is it possible to address the people’s aspiration from your side? can you wash the blood of innocent people from your face? Can you stop the barbarous YCL activities and let the people free from their atrocities?
We understand the history is the ridding horse of the winner. Unless you give up the YCL path your capacity can’t be used to change the country.Yes of course you are academic and energetic but you are sank in the dirty pond of ideology as well.You have reached on the throne but not won yet. Most humbly we suggest you to get ride of the totalitarian communist atrocities and democratize yourself and your party as well. If so happen you will really win and make the history.Its up to you. Good luck.
Well Wisher,
Dilli Dhakal Sydney.
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Now after seeing America - it’s wide boulevards, it’s open discussions and it’s worldly discourse, the self-claimed Marxist may just change his mind. Even if not, it’ll surely cast big doubt in his mind of the propaganda that his type of ideologues have been perpetrating for all this time.