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Singapore is a no-nonsense coun­try. I know that because I lived there for three years. It has also been called a ‘fine’ country: you get a fine if you drop litter, jaywalk, bring in chewing gum, and a host of other, seemingly petty things.So what was everyone thinking in Singapore this past week as it hosted the Kim-Trump summit? I watched some of the scenes of Kim Jong-un’s first meeting with the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong. A lot of genuine smiles, handshakes and the definite sense of brotherhood and equality. It may take some time yet for the full implications of the later Kim-Trump summit to be clear, but it certainly got me thinking.

I was also thinking of a friend of mine, Pinocchio, that little wooden puppet who came to life. Pinoc­chio was a naughty little boy and, like other little boys, a bit hard to handle. And, as we all know, Pinocchio had a nose that would grow and grow when he told a lie. Pinocchio was Italian, but what if he lived in Wonderland, aka, no, not Singapore (although you are forgiven for thinking that this week), but Kathmandu…

Once upon a time, after a partic­ularly bad beating from his father, Pinocchio decided to run away from his village to Wonderland where he heard the streets were paved. Not with gold. Just paved. Sneaking onto the roof of a bus, Pinocchio encountered a group of older boys. Where are you heading and how old are you, they asked? Fifteen, replied Pinocchio, and his nose grew. So Pinocchio found his way into the company of youths who lived in Wonderland and showed him around. Pinocchio was impressed with the tall buildings and the fact that everyone looked like they were hurrying towards important busi­ness. And look at all these shiny cars and motorbikes—why, everyone must be rich! That night Pinocchio slept in a shop doorway in Thamel. Next morning he was shown how to approach those strange people known as ‘tourists’; who he took for that magical being, an ‘American’. Hungry, said Pinocchio to the ‘Amer­ican’. His nose grew, but just a little.

As time went on, Pinocchio won­dered how people did business in Wonderland when it seemed quite obvious that all parties had growing noses. How was anything achieved? How did contracts get drawn up and kept, given the number of large noses in the room? Wandering into a bank one day, Pinocchio noticed loans being handed out on the condition of being repaid. No one seemed to notice the large noses in the room. Later he stopped to listen to a politician, standing on a raised platform, making promises that made Pinocchio think that maybe he was not such a naughty boy after all. Perhaps at the time of speaking the nose was just a little larger than normal, thought Pinocchio, but two or three years down the road when the promise was still not fulfilled, he noticed the nose dominated the conversation. Pinocchio shopped where he saw shopkeepers with small noses, ate in restaurants run by small nosed people, and tried to be friends only with people who also had small noses.

But then, a strange thing hap­pened: Pinocchio became aware that his nose no longer grew as much. He noticed that people who came to the city from overseas (those ‘Amer­icans’) or from other parts of the country, now had noses bigger than his! Somehow they had become part of Wonderland and accepting of all Wonderland had to offer. They had forgotten what it was like not to have a long nose and were mistrusting of those who did not have noses similar to theirs. They had simply become Romans, while in Rome.

The constitution, the main law of this country, sets out rules and standards to run our gov­ernment. Any law or decision that contradicts the constitution should technically be immediately rejected. In democracies, broadly speaking, we are taught that no one is above the constitution. Depending on public demand and sentiments, the constitution may be amended but any government which tries to undermine the con­stitutional spirit without amend­ment raises serious questions. If we minutely examine the working style of Oli government, the constitu­tion is seemingly being undermined time and again. However, this gov­ernment has been enjoying public confidence and will continue to do so for at least a few more months, in the hope that it will begin to rectify its mistakes and reaffirm its commitment to our constitu­tional values and spirit.

We are in a crucial phase of consti­tution implementation and it is now or never insofar as implementation of the core tenets of the constitu­tion are concerned. Federalism is one of the major achievements of this constitution. The mecha­nism to distribute resources is the backbone of federalism, deter­mining the rise or fall of our federal structure. No doubt, in tune with the aspirations of KP Sharma Oli and his government, we want to see a prosperous Nepal. We want to ensure the success of federalism. But, ironi­cally, the Oli government is already breaching the constitution in run­ning the government.

For instance, the government’s budget and policies and programs for the fiscal year 2018/19 completely undermine the potential role of the National Natural Resources and Fis­cal Commission (NNRFC, Part 26, and The Constitution of Nepal), a constitutional body that is central to shaping the budget, policies and programs. Without giving the com­mission full shape, the government does not have the constitutional mandate to announce the federal government’s budget, policies and programs. The government sneakily took a short cut by declaring the formation of the commission, but without full membership, impor­tantly without apolitical appointed expert members.

A government which is appar­ently determined to transform the country’s destiny must first learn to abide by the constitution and set higher standards for its own working style. We see two faces of this government. On the one hand, this government is not respectful of the constitution, and on the other, it’s engaged in an aggressive cam­paign to prove it’s the only gov­ernment we have had working for prosperity and equity. It’s unclear which facet of the administration represents its true color.

The issue of the fiscal commission may seem trivial but let’s exam­ine what the commission actu­ally is and the implications of not having a fully functional one before the budget. In the absence of the House of Representatives Reg­ulations, the government made excuses for not forming the com­mission. In fact, the regulations were endorsed after the budget was announced, which is also not in line with the constitution.

Now, with the endorsement of the regulations for both the National Assembly and the House of Repre­sentatives, the first moral task of this government is to form the fiscal commission and start rectifying the mistake it made by first announcing the budget.

The fiscal commission is instru­mental in shaping the future of federalism. While appointing its chairperson and members, the government must rise above party interests. Otherwise, we can already predict the failure of federalism due to fiscal imbalances.

In fact, the majority of fiscal tasks in the federal set up are guided by the commission and we know well that the success—or failure—of fed­eralism lies in how resources are allocated. The work of the com­mission includes important roles such as determining the detailed basis and modality for the distri­bution of revenues between fed­eral, state and local governments from the federal consolidated fund; making recommendations about equalization grants to the state and local governments out of the federal consolidated fund; determining a detailed basis and modality for the distribution of revenues between the state and the local governments; recommending measures to meet expenditures of the federal, state and local governments; reforming revenue collection; and more (For detailed work list, please see Part 26 of the Constitution).

It’s strange why such an important commission is still in the shadows. Even opposition parties did not bother to raise this issue in parlia­ment and sat quietly and obediently as the budget was passed. Even if it is water under the bridge, the formation of this commission must be this government’s priority in line with its constitutional, procedural and moral obligations.

Action Drama

KAALA

CAST: Rajinikanth, Nana Patekar, Huma Quereshi, Easwari Rao

DIRECTION: Pa. Ranjith

It’s magical to witness how the 67-year-old superstar Rajinikanth still manages to emit the same gusto and whistle-worthy swag­ger that’s been instrumental in establishing his god-like celebrity status for decades. At its best, his latest ‘Kaala’ packs in Rajinikanth’s trademark coolness and explosive action to provide staple entertain­ment for the aficionados of South Indian action cinema. But most of the time the film feels like a machinegun trying to fire magic bullets at tricky issues like caste, religion and poverty. Kaala (Rajinikanth) is a celebrated Godfather-like figure living in the slums of Mumbai’s Dharavi. The tension builds even as Kaala and the locals want nothing more than basic facilities like education, healthcare and sanitation from the govern­ment. However, his main adversary, the corrupt politician Hari (Nana Patekar), gangs up with builders and real estate agents to demol­ish the slum and put up high-rise buildings. (Sounds familiar?) The story then develops into a classic moral tale of good versus bad where Kaala inspires a mutiny among the slum dwellers against the crony cap­italist in Hari.

The storyline where one man with heroic abilities rouses an entire com­munity has been done do death in countless Hindi and South Indian films. Of many, Shankar’s ‘Nayak’ and Mahesh Babu-starrer ‘Sriman­thudu’ come to mind immediately. In Kaala, Director Pa. Ranjith cooks up the same stew but with added leftist philosophy in the mix.

Kaala is a dalit and perhaps a com­munist to boot. The blending of these attributes with Rajinikanth’s larger-than-life heroism gives the film an earthly sentimentality, some­thing unusual in a masala flick. Also there are many instances where the director playfully subverts mythical representation of good and evil. Here the good Kaala deliberately puts on black, the devil’s color, while the conniving Hari dons crisp white clothing.

But with a run time of almost three hours, Kaala loses focus from its central plot of Kaala’s political struggle several times. It moves at a tedious pace, with many side characters and plotlines. Kaala’s banter with his rebellious activist son and his flirtatious digs at his wife (Easwari Rao) are the sweetest scenes in the film. But the long flash­back and unnecessarily stretched romantic track of Kaala and his childhood ex-lover (Huma Quereshi) are unconvincing.

Rajinikanth and Nana Patekar are the film’s acting centerpiece. While Rajinikanth makes his energy felt in each frame, even in scenes where he keeps mum, Nana Patekar oozes a menacing appeal in his brooding and composed perfor­mance. In fact their one-to-one confrontational exchange of dia­logue are more fun than stylized action sequences where Rajinikanth flexes his muscles.

Kaala remains a surface level entertainer even though it harbors a deep ambition to impart a strong political message about haves and have-nots, religious and ethnic tol­erance. But Pa. Ranjith’s honest effort feel outdated and adds noth­ing unique to the social debates. His contribution can thus be taken as no more than lip service to the agenda of the poor.

As an action drama, Kaala has the typical Rajinikanth stamp. If you take the film a bit less seriously, then it will definitely whet your appetite for South Indian action cinema. But if you delve into the film’s sugar­coated political ideology then you might find it simplistic and silly.

Last week Shahidul Islam, Secretary General of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Eco­nomic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), met Nepal’s prime minister, the sub-regional grouping’s current chair, to firm up a date for the fifth BIMSTEC summit. The summit was supposed to be held in Nepal last year but wasn’t, as Nepal expressed its inability to host it—citing three different elections taking place in the country.As Nepal begins a period of sta­ble government after those elec­tions, it no longer has an excuse to defer this important summit. In fact, the current Nepali gov­ernment enjoys a very strong mandate at home, so it has an unprecedented opportunity to pursue win-win cooperation under all emerging bilateral and multilateral frameworks. Increas­ing engagement with China under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is definitely one avenue, but there is no reason Nepal should limit itself to one bloc. The lesson from the 2015 economic blockade, if anything, is that Nepal should diversify its trade, connectivity and engagements.

SAARC continues to be held hostage to India-Pakistan rival­ry and many in the region are increasingly looking toward new regional configuration as a vehicle for expediting regional integra­tion and achieving a degree of prosperity. But like SAARC, even BIMSTEC and BBIN have not been free from the typical South Asian malady: inserting politics where it does not belong. BIMSTEC, though it includes Thailand and Myanmar, is dominated by South Asian countries.

In its 21 years of existence, only three summits and one mini-sum­mit (BRICS-BIMSTEC Summit on the sidelines of BRICS Summit in Goa in 2016) have been held. Two of these were held in Thai­land and Myanmar, which means South Asia has hosted only one summit so far. Another issue with BIMSTEC is the lack of leader­ship. While technically the rotat­ing chairs would have to provide leadership, in reality, one or two countries with outsize influence or a bloc of smaller countries need to continuously push the engagement forward. In recent years, India has shown an interest in promoting BIMSTEC and BBIN as an alternative to SAARC and even as a way to counter the BRI, but New Delhi appears non-com­mittal at times.

Sectoral approach

BIMSTEC has a sector-driv­en approach and all member countries have technically been assigned as a sectoral lead. As of today, member states have signed on to 14 different sectors for cooperation, yet there has been very little progress. And it took 17 years for the member states to establish the permanent secretariat in Dhaka.

If this sectoral approach is to work, each sector needs to have its own secretariat, staff and funds to function. What BIMSTEC needs now is not more agreements but a clear implementation modality for the existing agreements. As the chair until the next summit, Nepal can influence the shap­ing of the agenda for the summit itself—which in turn can lead to a course correction in the tried and failed ways of the regional jambo­rees. For starters, Nepal should work with the Secretariat to put together a small preparatory team to work on the agenda for the next summit—which then could be floated among the BIMSTEC member countries. Even though Nepal will pass on the leader­ship to another member state, it can continue to work with other smaller countries to push the big­ger states to take initiatives as well as allocate resources.

How Nepal benefits?

Nepal and Bhutan stand to gain tremendously from BIMS­TEC, particularly on transport and connectivity. Their status as landlocked countries can become land-linked and water-linked if the full potential of this forum is exploited.

BIMSTEC Transport, Infrastruc­ture and Logistics Study conduct­ed with the ADB’s support has identified 167 projects at an esti­mated cost of US $ 45-50 billion to enhance connectivity in the region. This includes six projects in Nepal.

Prime Minister Oli has been widely mocked for saying that ships with Nepali flags would sail in the high seas. In fact, some of the items under discussion in BIM­STEC Transport Working Group include a draft Coastal Shipping Agreement. Combine this with the agreement to build inland waterways with India during Oli’s recent visit to the southern neighbor and his dream might just come true.

Nepal can also benefit from cooperation in other sectors such as energy, tourism and agricul­ture. The only question is whether Nepal is prepared to take advan­tage of the favorable environment at home and in the region—by tak­ing a proactive approach.