Pages
Topic Discussion I
Politics of Hard Choices
Political Transition and Economic Restructuring
Room 3
(7 of 13 pages)
We have to normalize the exercise of the political activity in order to carry
out economical reforms. In order to face the challenges facing every country, although the situation may vary from
one region to another but if every case we are dealing with a context that is submitted to globalization of the
economy. I can think of specific cases and regions and talk about the… in space. The countries in the south bank
of the Mediterranean area are faced with a challenge that is to participate in a zone of free trade in the Europe
space declared by Europe to the year 2010 and then they have to upgrade the level of their economy. I remember
within my party and with our allies we did go through the evaluation of economic adjustments that my country went
through from 1983 to 1993 and the conclusion was that even in order to implement some of the major programs of
structural adjustments we need to have political and administrative reforms. How can you carry economical reform
in a society which does not respond to any economical international standard where fiscality is not respected where
the administration is not soundly managed where the judiciary system has some failures and this is why we think
that in order to carry economical reforms we need first to start with a democratic transition. Talking about democratic
transition we do believe that the content of the transition does depend on the specific condition of the country.
We are here, 13 countries, in emerging democracy and we do believe the situation varies from one country to another
because of specific conditions of restorative era.
I'm always inclined to say that mastering of political transition depends to some extent on the art of negotiation
in order to reach a consensus. A consensus among the political actors, a consensus which translates and expresses
the maturation of the political class which means in a democratic transition things needs to be seen but in a transitional
period. Transitional marvel which we could not get today we will make sure to gather the condition to get it tomorrow
but the process is evolving and irreversible. This is why in my country the opposition which is now in the government
most of the parties the former opposition and my party contributed to the independence of the country and did not
take power in government only after 37 years of opposition. In 1993 after the election there was a proposition
to have constructual after government consensus but within the political class and under the leadership of his
Majesty King Hassan II it was judged to proceed to political and institutional reforms before going to alternatives.
We did profit from these reforms which led to the fact that now the government is run by a former leader of opposition.
Just to make the link between politics and the economy, now our government is facing some very hard choices at
the economical level, like the review of the policy of subsidies for the sugar, for the basic products, and we
are sure that even the former governments were aware of the need to make such decisions but they did not make them
because they were unpopular decisions. Now the government which benefits from the credibility of the population
is making fast decisions in order to reorganize the system of subsidies and to re-adjust and implement economic
reforms. To reach consensus between economic efficiency and social equity.
Pashupali Rana: We had a majority government for three and a half years and we have had nine years of democracy.
We have had a parliament for four years. Fundamentally there should be no problem. If there is a majority government
it should be able to carry out whatever policies are required. But as we examine what happened in Nepal we find
that there are much more serious factors going on. Whatever the government does the fundamental requirement for
a government to operate, whether in economical reforms or in political reforms is that fundamentally there must
be competence. Good government, whatever you like to call it. Over time what has happened in our system is that
the bureaucracy in these pasts nine years has made it increasingly particizan because appointments are made not
on the basis of merit but on the basis of party loyalty. As a result bureaucracy is no longer neutral. It has leadings
towards certain parties and the fundamental efficiency of the bureaucracy is considerably diminished. As a result
what happens is the competence of the government becomes increasingly dependent on the competent of ministers.
Unfortunately the majority party has not been very good at producing efficient ministers. As a result the real
challenge is going to be whether there is adequate government in the next five years.
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