Letter to Prime Minister– Dear Prime Minister we want your action, not only words

Prime Minister Oli addressing the nation on Sunday.

Dear Prime Minister,

Thank you very much for your address to the nation. You are still charming and you have the same command in your voice. While I was watching your speech in TV, I forgot that I have run out of cooking gas from the past month and have not been able to properly feed my two year old daughter and started dreaming of riding in a metro in Kathmandu and having power 24 hours a day. Reality hit me after I finished watching your speech and I did not have an answer when my daughter asked me to give her something to eat.

Dear Prime Minister, I was expecting that you would tell me when petrol will come to Kathmandu and when I will get cooking gas, but your address is something ‘heavier’ and maybe my dream is too little due to class difference. As you do not have power-cuts in the prime ministerial palace and you don’t need to worry about cooking gas, your thoughts are higher and broader than for a layman like me.

Dear Prime Minister, you seemed aware that Nepali people are reeling under acute shortage of goods and many many people have not been able to prepare food due to lack of cooking fuel. We Nepalese supported and celebrated your ascent to power with the hope that you will adopt some immediate measures to resolve the current problem as we were fed-up with the inaction of erstwhile Prime Minister Sushil Koirala but we have not felt any change with your presence except some nice speeches on nationality by you and your half dozen deputies and ministers. In fact, we were expecting that you will expedite the process of bringing fuel to the country and your action will be visible to the people. You brought some fuel from China, which is a positive move but if you compare the amount of fuel it is like a drop in the sea. My motorbike has not been able to get fuel for more than a month, so there is no difference for me whether you brought fuel from China or not. I was expecting fuel in the tank of my motorbike, not news that some more fuel is coming from China.

Dear Prime Minister, I become happy every day to hear your speeches in the television and seeing you receiving felicitation from the public and hosting or attending parties, but my expectation was that you would concentrate more time in resolving the issues dogging the country as we still have plenty of time to felicitate you. My daughter would be very happy to see your face when there is food in her stomach. Dear Prime Minister, you or your ministers brought a fantastic idea of selling firewood as an energy source and I brought firewood with much enthusiasm after queuing for hours but my landlord asked me to vacate his house rather than burning firewood.

Dear Prime Minister, you may be aware that the bureaucrats are not supporting your government in the idea of bringing fuel from China.  Recently, chief of Nepal Oil Corporation publicly announced the corporation will not be able to distribute fuel to public and the officials are not cooperating towards bringing fuel from the northern neighbor, but you failed to take action against them. In this context, how do/can I believe that all the popular programs announced by you will be implemented? I found some businessmen were creating artificial shortage in the market and charging high price for goods and I informed Hello Sarkar with the hope of some immediate corrective actions, but unfortunately your mechanism did not reach there. In this context, tell me Dear Prime Minister how we feel your presence except seeing your face in the television as the Chief of the Government.

Dear Prime Minister, you provided hope to the people by distributing the ‘dream’ of becoming self-sufficient by a year so do you have a magic stick that will resolve everything within a year? People like me are waiting for some practical answers like what the government is doing to reach a business deal with China for importing petroleum products, what are the government’s efforts for airlifting petroleum products from abroad and other such immediately relevant issues. Dear Prime Minister, we are losing our time and resources while standing in the long queues of petroleum products, so we require immediate action and resolve on these issues.

Dear Prime Minister, we believe you are different from other prime ministers and as you became Prime Minister at a most critical time, we need your action rather than speeches and dreams. Don’t give the hope that you will create a load-shedding free country within a year or creating environment for all the foreign job seekers to return to the country and be involved in jobs here, as you must be aware that the money sent by these foreign job seekers is giving life to national economy and also contributing to buying your luxuries.  Please tell us when the agreement with China will be finalized for bringing petroleum products for commercial purpose and when you will start repairing the road connecting China or when you will begin airlifting petroleum products from abroad as I need fuel to cook my dinner and can’t wait for years. We require immediate solutions and initiatives rather than lectures on becoming self-reliant in power, which, honestly speaking, no Nepali can say when this will happen.

Dear Prime Minister, the whole nation will remember you and your jumbo cabinet if you take some concrete action to bring some positive change in people’s lives. We have been seeing the dream of developing 82,000 Megawatt electricity even while we are bearing up to 16-hours of power cuts daily. Dear Prime Minister we have been paying tax regularly even though we do not feel the presence of government and feel almost stateless and we are still ready to pay whatever it costs for gasoline/petrol airlifted from abroad. So, dear Prime Minister start acting rather than talking and making high promises, we want to feel your real presence rather than seeing you in the television screen and being stuck in a traffic jam due to you going somewhere to deliver your heroic speeches.

Thank you very much for your speech and anticipating your positive action to resolve the problems the country is facing.

Sincerely Yours,

A Nepali National

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