Humour

The Red-Free Marketers

July 18, 2011

By Madan Lamsal

Nepali politics is dominated by the Lefts of all coloursâ€”ultras, moderates, pluralists, totalitarians, monarchists and anarchists. Despite so much of material and communication influx of global scale, what is left here that so many Lefts still rampage on red carpet of Nepali politics?

The world knows that any Left government takes control of everything. It rules, sets up and operates manufacturing as well as service industries. In a nutshell, it functions with an iron fist. Only in totally free-market economy, governmentâ€™s role is limited to that of an impartial referee.

But in Nepal, we have the left governments in series but nothing sort of communist or socialist control is felt here. To be honest, every single Nepali doesnâ€™t have even a slightest feel of having a government in the country. In that sense, our Left governments are more liberal than the governments of any renowned free-market economy. You can call it pure Nepali brand of â€˜The red free marketersâ€™ of Nepal.

Therefore, instead of demanding this and that from the government, why donâ€™t Nepalis understand that in a free market economy, the government does nothing â€“ it is just like the scarecrow in the rice field. Government, you know, is not an individual â€“ neither human nor animal. So it has no face. Thus it is intangible thing and it often remains like an abstract art. Since it is not a person, it doesnâ€™t have any sense. Therefore, it is nonsense, you can say. Why donâ€™t the people try to understand that they canâ€™t expect sensible things from a nonsense entity?

People donâ€™t understand that the governments represent the interests of the premium classes only, who are quite satisfied with the system under which they reap enormous benefits regardless of the state of the economy. In difficult times, such as now, the government protects the rich and powerful and casts all the risk and cost onto the publicâ€™s shoulders. Because, in market economy, the government just wants other citizens also to compete to follow the riches.

People keep on complaining just because they are utterly lazy to take optimum benefit from the free-for-all and free-for-everything market. When there is no presence of government at all, as we fortunately have it now, it is easier to do everything. Take example of our trade unions. No worker needs to work once you are a member of it, because nobody dares to cut your salary for being absent from the â€˜productionâ€™ activity. If the union is affiliated to bigger political party, itâ€™s all the more better.

Some might argue that trade unions are anti-thesis to the free market economy. But it is not so in Nepal. In fact, unions here are the main trump card of every pro-free-market political outfit here. Whenever there is a foreign donor delegation, the head of such outfit, which often may be in the government too, would relentlessly vow to uphold the fair competition, free market and ensured private property rights. In the next round, there is Union orientation, encouraging them to vigorously protest the capitalist classes and exploitation, and promising them un-infringed union rights. So the laxity in implementing them, to report in the next donor meet, is invariably attributed to the protest of the unions. You got to understand this not as the paradox but as the own home-grown typical character of red-free-market.

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