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Why are we surprised by our ministers' wealth?
The cadres of our old political parties are shocked to find out that most of the ministers in Balen's cabinet are not that poor. Even our old school media wallahs are now making it a big issue on the 100+ tolas of gold our PM has declared. Now they are questioning where their money came from. They were not shocked when Oli, Deuba and Prachanda disclose their wealth.
Most of our politicians from the 90s were broke when they showed up in Kathmandu. Well, they were busy hiding in their supporters' homes and eating their food while trying to fight the Panchayati system. When they finally got their chance to lead this country, they forgot about their own sacrifices and decided to loot the State, the people and everyone in sight to enrich their cousins, cadres and contractors.
Today, we see Prachanda and Oli driving around town in luxury SUVs worth a few Karods. Nobody seems to be surprised by how they managed to get those vehicles. What about Deuba? Well, the poor old man is in Hong Kong for now, the excuse is medical treatment. He has been going back and forth from Singapore to Hong Kong. I suspect more of getting financial advice on how to move some ill-gotten cash, rather than any medical advice.
Deuba and most of our old politicians used to show their spouses' assets and tell us that they were never poor. In the past 30+ years, our media, our so-called civil society leaders, and all of us never dared to question these crooks on how they accumulated wealth over the years.
Today, some of our media wallahs and old party jholeys are trying to question some of our ministers' wealth, especially, Sudan Gurung. It seems that the Home Minister is always the target because he seems to be busy going after the old politicians, civil servants and contractors. The old jholeys wonder how Sudan Gurung has so much land and stuff when he was busy leading a social service organization?
I think our media and old jholeys are still pissed that they will not be able to get government grants, funds, and jobs to sustain their livelihood for the next five years, and therefore can do nothing but whine about anything when it comes to our new government. The new ones in power are questioned left and right and even a small hiccup along the way becomes media fodder.
Does it matter if PM Balen has more than a Karod cash in his bank account? Does it matter if Sudan Gurung had hundreds of ropanis of ancestral land? The old jholeys tell us that there is a limit on how many ropanis of land you can own. Yes, we have land ceiling laws in place.
Well, leave it for the regulatory agencies to take action, or don't jump to a conclusion right away because the property may yet to be divided among his relatives. It might be like the Phewa Lake issue, where the media and old school jholeys questioned how Sudan Gurung could afford to buy 20 ropanis of land across the Taal and later, we found out that he had leased it for some business purposes which never really took off for some reason.
Yes, we must hold those in power accountable, but that doesn't mean we have to question their choice of clothes, vehicles, eating habits, or working styles, or their spouses or anything that does not concern any of us. We want our politicians and those heading ministries not to be corrupt and work for the good of the people and not the dalals who have been running this country for the past three decades and more.
A week ago, every media house and old school jholeys were asking for our ministers to disclose their sampati and we have gotten it now. Let us focus on our work and how to pay our bills on time and save some money for our future generation instead of gossiping about how much cash or tolas of gold or shares these new ministers seem to have accumulated even before they came to power.
We do hope and expect our new ones not to accumulate illegal wealth while in power, and they will be transparent in their work as well. A minister has already been shown the door by the Balen government over some kind of conflict of interest with his wife's appointment in some other government body. I feel sorry for the minister's spouse, who seems to be qualified for that position.
I think it's time we do not have any wife or husband of a sitting minister appointed to any of our government bodies, even if the appointment was made earlier. Even if the person is appointed based on his or her merits, it will still call for unwanted attention from the media and the old school jholeys and will give out a 'nepotism' flavor as well.
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