Public expectations

People expect some more and difference in governance and delivery of public service from the new government led by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal under a fresh political alliance with leftist and emerging parties. Although the specific reason the alliance with Nepali Congress was changed in 14 months despite pledge to continue it for a complete parliament session could be discussed in different ways, Singha Durbar’s goal to serve Nepalis best cannot be questioned. The PM should have changed the team this time to make his government more effective and performing. The current alliance should also have understood the spirit and it would function accordingly as time goes by. This is an optimistic way of interpreting the change of government at this time. The first opportunity to translate that spirit into reality would be the budget for the next fiscal year and another important document containing the programmes and policies of the government in future. All the problems facing Nepalis at present should in one way or another be addressed appropriately through the documents. If they fail to do so, people will not get what they expect. Because of this all the ministers – new and experienced – should work hard this time to give people the impression that government functions, government can function and will function all the time being conscious of good governance and appropriate way of ensuring delivery of public services to all Nepalis in 7 provinces and 77 districts. Members of Cabinet this time should not pass time speechifying or directing their juniors all the time and making their presence felt in the online media- visual or audio. They should make their presence felt in the actual area where service should be delivered. People’s mandate of the last election was for governance and delivery of service which they have missed for long. The government does not have the luxury of passing the buck in this regard; it cannot blame party politics for failure to perform. Neither can it blame lack of financial resources to deliver service properly. Whatever resources are available should be utilized for offering people a sense of good governance and a working modality of delivery of public services. That will be instrumental in restoring people’s trust in political leaders and government. That will also comfortably explain why the team of government was changed at this point of time.