8/17/2019 Contentious development

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legal eagle

ECONOMICS06 THE HIMALAYAN TIMESS U N Y , APRIL 21 , 2013PERSPECTIVES

Ananta Raj LuitelKathmandu

Arecent report byForum for Women,Law and Development(FWLD) shows six per

cent of the total populationare stateless — withoutcitizenship certifi-cates. In a countrypopulated by 26.49million people, 4.3million statelesspeople hints at atotal mockery of democracy.

The FWLD re-port shows thatthe situation of stateless-

ness is not only confined topeople living in the Terairegion but even those in thehilly and mountain regionas also suffering the samefate.Manang has the lowestnumber of persons lack-ing citizenship certificates(3,220) while its total popu-lation is not more than10,000.Kathmandu districthas the highest number of persons (215,767) lackingcitizenships, as the popula-tion in Kathmandu crosses1.7 million.

Citizenship certificate isnot only related to one’sidentity as a citizen of thecountry. It is also linkedwith one’s right to job,health, education and statefacilities. A large section of the populace lacking thiscard is an indication of them being deprived of allthe rights guaranteed by

the state.As per Article 9 of the In-

terim Constitution, anyperson who was born in theterritory of Nepal and hasbeen permanently residingin Nepal shall acquirecitizenship of Nepal bybirth. A person is also able

to acquire Nepalicitizenship byshowing proof of Nepali descent.

The issue of procuring citizen-ship is, still rid-dled with chal-l enges. Fo r i n-stance, a woman of

foreign nationality who

marries a citizen of Nepal acquires naturalisedcitizenship. However, seri-ous debates ensure shoulda man of foreign national-ity marry a Nepali woman.These matters need to bedealt with seriousnessand urgency so that therights of all Nepalis canbe ensured.

“The FWLD report high-lights the need to dosomething concrete in re-gard to providing citizen-ship certificates to genuinepersons so that theirdemocratic rights aresafeguarded,” NeelkanthaUpreti,chief election com-missioner told THT

Perspectives . “We shouldbring reforms in our sys-tem by keeping this data inmind, as no citizen shouldbe deprived of their votingrights,”Upreti added.

State ofstatelessness

LACK OF CITIZENSHIPS MAY DEPRIVEA LARGE NUMBER OF PEOPLEOF THEIR VOTING RIGHTS

Siddharth PoddarSingapore

The pursuit of economic

development can often becontentious an d tricky,ironically more so in the

developing world. This isbecause the number of stake-holders (or those concernedand willing to make somenoise anyway) is greater indeveloping countries.

It is due to a dual effect. Onone hand, minority groupswith no access to resources orwealth have until now not hadany outlet to voice theirgrievances in the public do-main or an effective platformfrom which to seek theirrights, but that has changeddramatically. The prolifera-tion of sensationalist 24-hournews channels has at leastplayed a hand in ensuring thatissues confronted by minor-ities and indigenous groupsare now brought into ourliving rooms and stare us inthe face. Prior to this reach of

the news media, these weremerely abstract concerns.

On the other hand, in-creased incomes and in-

creased levels of educationhave led to increased levels of awareness in the developingcountries. This has givenshape to a boisterous civilsociety that is sometimeswell-informed but never shiesaway from pinpointing some-thing or someone to criticise.This civil society is loud,animated, laps up any atten-tion it can get and sometimescraves for it.

This has meant that deci-sion-making in many con-tentious development issues

— especially those thatpurportedly pit the ‘powerfulstate’ or the ‘evil multination-al’ against the ‘haplessindividual’ — is not sole pre-serve of the government. Noris a bilateral agreement be-tween an investor and the gov-ernment sufficient. Other in-terested stakeholders includeenvironmental groups and

those petitioning for rights of local inhabitants who stand tolose their livelihoods and wayof life as a result of the pro-posed activity or investment.

Often,a belligerent civil so-ciety can be overly critical of any proposed investment by amultinational. Sometimes itcan also appear rather foolishin the process. However, all of that notwithstanding, its pres-ence and actions ensure thereis greater awareness of issues,and prevents governmentsfrom acting unilat erally.

In the week gone by,this wasin evidence in India where theSupreme Court disallowed

Vedanta Resources frommining for bauxite from theNiyamgiri Hills in easternIndia till the Dongria Kondhtribe, which lives in thosehills, agrees to let it do so. Thetribe holds the Niyamgirihills as sacred and has voicedits opinions against theproposed mining plans, argu-ing the mines would rob themof the ir way of l if e anddestroy their religious andcultural traditions.

The gram sabhas of two of the affected districts havebeen given three months bythe Supreme Court to offertheir views on the proposed

mining project to theministry of environmentand forests for review, af-ter which a final decisionwill be made in anothertwo months. The courtmade it clear that thetribe’s right to worshipits deity has to be ‘pre-served and protected’ and

that the tribe’s viewsmust be considered.

In the circumstances, itis a reasonable judgment,for it does not place anoutright ban on miningactivities in the area andbrings the tribe into the

decision process. Vedanta, if it is to have any chance toaccess the abundant bauxitein the area, needs to allay thefears of the tribe. The entireprocess will likely be messyand long-drawn, but i toffers all stakeholders withthe chance to walk away withsomething and can lay thebasis for a project on moresecure foundations.

(The author specialises in the political economy of South and

Southeast Asia and is a co-founder of StoneBench Research and

Communications. He can be reached at

siddharth@stonebenchasia.com)

Contentiousdevelopment

CHALLENGES IN OFFERING ALL STAKEHOLDERS WITHTHE CHANCE TO WALK AWAY WITH SOMETHING

burning bright

Sandip NepalKathamndu

World economic giantshave been momentarilyprinting more currencyday-after-day just for the

sake of ‘economic recovery’.From the largest economy of theworld, the US, single currencybloc, Euro Zone or the land of the rising sun, Japan — all ma-

jor economies are severely exer-cising monetary stimulus pack-ages citing economic degrada-tion. The US, on one hand, viaQuantitative Easing-three (QE-3), has been spurring liquidityinto the market in the form of

bonds and treasury buy backs,while Japan, has set an inflationtarget of two per cent tobe attained by twoyears and alreadystarted extensive

monetary stimulus packages tostimulate the economy.

Japan and the US, being majorreciprocal trading partners,command and influence manyeconomic sectors of correspond-ing nations. Under such criticaltrade scenarios, where a slighteconomic reform by one nationaffects the trading scenario of another, monetary and fiscalpolicies and re-structuring areconsidered to be of great impor-tance. As the US has been con-stantly exercising QE-3 to cutback on the unemployment rate,obviously keeping track of infla-tion, the greenback has beenkept at a lower index. Similarly,as the third round of the USstimulus affected Japanesetrade, with the commencementof stimulus regime recently,Japan has made the Yen an ex-port-friendly currency.

Although both nations — theUS and Japan — have been goingthrough expansionary economic

measures, if scrutinised scrupu-lously, these regimes could ex-hibit an outlook of a currencywar between these core globaleconomies. The rationale is fair-ly simple, make export cheaperand import dearer. As every sto-ry has two sides, the ongoingmonetary measures in differenteconomies around the world byfar bypasses variables like un-employment, inflation, and in-terest rates, et cetera , but alsomanoeuvre the balance of tradepositions.

It is always beneficial to un-derstand global economic dy-namics, but analysis and assess-ment of economic variables and

cross-variable effects also needto be understood broadly. In thisage of global competition

and economic suprema-cy, we, the general peo-

ple, ought to be cautious and sci-entific enough to grasp the glob-al economic instances and logi-cally identify cause-and-effectrelationship of such economicstance.

For the time being, the mostlikely economic reforms, assought, could be supportive orexpansionary monetary and fis-cal policies by the Chinese econ-omy, obviously, to improve, ex-pand, and create economic mul-tiplier-effect in the domesticeconomy! Time will tell howthese economies accommodatetheir monetary policies and re-forms, taking into account thecross-currency valuation andtrading regimes.

(The author is the assistant man-ager at the research and development department of Mercantile Exchange Nepal Limited. He can be contacted

through r&d@mexnepal.com)

All for currencyG-20 backs offReuters

Washington

Finance leaders of theGroup of 20 (G-20)economies on Fridayedged away from along-running drive to-

ward government austerityin rich nations, rejectingidea of setting hard targetsfor reducing national debtin a sign of worries oversluggish global recovery.

The G-20 club of ad-vanced and emergingeconomies also said it

would be watching for neg-ative effects from massivemonetary stimulus, such asJapan’s — a nod to con-cerns of developing na-tions that those policiesrisk flooding theireconomies with hot capitaland driving up their cur-rencies.

Russian Finance Minis-ter, Anton Siluanov said ata news conference that offi-cials from the G-20 nationsbelieved overall debt reduc-tion was more importantthan specific figures. “Weagreed that these would besoft parameters, thesewould be some kind of strategic objectives andgoals which might beamended or adjusted, de-pending on the specific sit-uations in the nationaleconomies,” he said. Rus-sia — this year’s G-20 chair

— had hoped to secu re anagreement on setting fixedtargets for reducing debt byG-20 leaders meet in St Pe-tersburg in September.

But the United States andJapan have firmly opposedthe idea of committing tofixed debt-to-gross domes-tic product targets, withWashington trying to keepthe focus of the G-20 ongrowth.

“Quite frankly, the lan-guage could have beenstronger but it’s sufficientto move this forward,” said

Canadian Finance Minis-ter,Jim Flaherty.

WATCHING JAPAN

In a communiqué after atwo-day meeting, the G-20said it would be ‘mindful’of possible side effects fromextended periods of mone-tary stimulus, a phraseadded the insistence of South Korea to take into ac-count the concerns of emerging markets. “Mone-tary policy should bedirected toward domesticprice stability and continu-ing to support economic re-covery,” the statement said.

The economic policies of

Japanese Prime Minister,Shinzo Abe have weakened

the yen, but only as a by-product of stimulus gearedat pulling the country out of deflation, the country’s fi-nance minister said. “To saythat a cheap yen is our goalwill grossly miss the point,”Taro Aso told the Centre forStrategic and InternationalStudies in Washington. “Thebig D — deflation — is toodifficult and too persistent toget rid of. At the end of theday, a shrinking Japan canonly do harm to the world.”

The Bank of Japan (BoJ)is not alone in flooding itseconomy with cheap fundsto try to boost borrowing andspending. The US FederalReserve, the Bank of Eng-land and,to some extent, the

European Central Bank haveas well.

“Japan’s growth is goodfor India. Stagnation inJapan is not good for India.We want Japan to grow,”said Indian Finance Minis-ter, P Chidambaram, whospoke at the Peterson Insti-tute in Washington on Fri-day. Brazilian Finance Min-ister, Guido Mantega saidthat because of Japan’s longhistory of deflation, its stim-ulus efforts were ‘under-standable’, but he added thatthe G-20 must remain vigi-lant on exchange rates.

The G-20 leaders urged theEuro Zone to quickly movetoward a banking union in

order to help revive the re-gion’s economy. However,

Germany repeated its earli-er position that EuropeanUnion laws needed to bechanged before one of the el-ements of the bankingunion, a scheme for windingdown failing banks, can beintroduced — which is likelyto delay the process.

The struggles of theEuro Zone dominated G-20discussions, delegates said,as harsh austerity measureshave failed to lift the regionout of its economic slumber.The United States has beenpressing Europe to ease upon its budget cutting.

A senior US Treasury offi-cial, speaking to reporterson condition of anonymity,said that Cyprus’s bailout

showed Europe needs todo more to move towardsbanking union.

Discussions of the EuroZone will likely remainprominent on Saturday asglobal finance officialsgather again for a meeting of the International MonetaryFund’s (IMF’s) governingcommittee. “Stronger de-mand in Europe is critical toglobal growth. Weak domes-tic demand has undercuteuro area growth for sixconsecutive quarters andoutput continues to con-tract,” US Treasury Secre-tary, Jack Lew said in a state-ment prepared for deliveryto the IMF committee.

SOFT DEBT TARGETS

The drive toward govern-ment austerity has beenundercut by weakness ineconomies that took severemeasures to cut deficits,including Britain, which isheaded into its third reces-sion in the last five years.The US economy also showssome signs of strain thateconomists pin on belt-tightening in Washington.

Earlier this week, the IMFreduced its forecast forglobal growth and reiteratedits call for some Europeancountries to throttle backtheir austerity drives. Fitchcut its credit rating onBritain on Friday to double-A-plus, citing expectationsthat general governmentdebt will rise to 101 per centof GDP by 2015-16 due toweak growth.

In an interview withBBC television, IMF Chief,Christine Lagarde said nowmight be time for Britain toconsider relaxing its focuson austerity given the recentweakness in i ts economy.Russia’s Siluanov also said agreater amount of coordi-nation was needed with theIMF on global liquidity, withrecommendations expectedby next July.

G-20 ministers called onthe Financial StabilityBoard (FSB) to oversee workon reforms for short-term in-terest rate benchmarks suchas Libor in the aftermath of a global rate-rigging scandal.FSB was asked to reportback in July on its progress.

austerity drive, rejects hard debt cut targetsTHERE IS MORE THAN WHAT MEETS THE EYEIN ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGES

investo sansarSIGN OF WORRIES OVER A SLUGGISH GLOBAL RECOVERY