(Thanks to Surath for spurring me to write after some absence.)
The recent death of Girija Prashad Koirala and the subsequent sense of vacuum in Nepali politics brought to fore the innate problematic nature of our political culture: the system of patrimony.
Rishikesh Shaha in one of his political histories of Nepal, recounts how the the patrimonial elites have ruled the country through a politics of personal influence, proximity to the center of power, and informality. Shaha was describing the scene after the takeover of the country by King Mahendra on 1950 and subsequently as the Panchayati politics of chakadi and bribery flourished. The national politicians competed mightily to become closer to the palace, near the ear of the king, who in turn rewarded or punished public officials based on little more than his personal whim. This corruption of public power through informality extended from the king all the down to the local Panchayat leaders.
Of course, these features of informality and unchecked power of personality in the political realm are derived from the same cultural notions in the larger society. No wonder, the same modes of behavior has continued to this day, two decades after the fall of the Panchayat System. In every level of society we can find the similar disregard for laws and norms in favor of informality. Whoever occupies a formal position, commands the level of power and influence that his personality and circumstance accords. Thus, legitimacy of action is provided not by the position held, but the personality holding the position.
Hence, it is not a surprise to see the emerging disputes in the Nepali Congress Party in the wake of GPK's death. Despite Ashutosh Tiwari's posthumous prescriptions about how to ably manage succession in the future, one suspects the party leaders vying to fill Girija's position are hardly in a advice-taking mode. Rather, all three potential successors, Deuba, Paudel and Koirala, are acting as rational actors by trying to flout their personal influence and seek support of the party members through informal channels. If our society was run by rules and laws and not by men like GPK, there would no issues with succession, the members of the party would simply vote for the person they trusted to be their leader.
Nice thought!
ReplyDeleteThe after death deification of GPK left me wondering if Nepalese are nothing but a herd of sheep. It is a well known fact that GPK though a crucial leader of this country hasn't done anything impressive or anything that has made a exceptional contribution to our country. Instead he was involved in numerous scandals, and had a pivotal role in breeding corruption and paternalism in his party and the government. And yet, after his death, people almost made him a god. I wonder why they didn't established his idol in Pashupatinath...I was guessing they would do that....
You do every corrupt actions possible under the sun and yet people make a god out of you after death...what an incentive for other leaders to follow his footsteps!!
It was a great post! Keep writing!!
It's just the nature of people to only say good things after someone's death. But personally, I agree with you that Nepalis do it more than most other societies.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt, GPK was one of the handful of important historical figures of Nepali politics. Just the sheer length, 50 years, of his active involvement in politics makes him impossible to ignore. But as you point out, he was no saint. Actually, he was a pretty mediocre leader at crucial situations. I blame him most for dissolving the first Congress government after 1990. That decision cost the nation and the hard won democracy the most in terms of creating the culture of rotating governments and constant struggle for power among and within parties. GPK is responsible for the sorry state of our democracy in these last two decades.
So your image of how people acted as if they wanted to install GPK as the "Girijanath" at Pashupathi is so funny yet so sad.
Why is this? Why do we treat our dead with such uncritical, such effusive, such insanely undeserved level of respect? There may be many reasons. My own view is that such unthinking reaction is not only true after death. It starts during life.
The herd mentality of personality worship, the unquestioning acceptance of the authority figures, the absence of objective assessments of a person's actual performance is so pervasive when it comes to the living people in our society, that it is easy to see how the same bad habits only get magnified after a person's death.
So GPK's death is sad. But not just because of his passing. Nepali society's reaction is equally sad to watch.