KATHMANDU, June 21: A report by an international organization says Nepal continues to remain as one of the fragile states in the world due to political brinkmanship, uneven development, poor judiciary and weak media and civil society among others, and was susceptible to collapse.
Failed States Index 2012, an annual ranking of 178 nations prepared by the Fund for Peace, put Nepal at the bottom 27th position for the second consecutive year since 2011.
The index gave Nepal an aggregate score of 93, which however, is slightly better than 93.7 in 2011. With this score Nepal falls in ´alert´ zone, which includes countries such as North Korea, Myanmar, Syria, Sierra Leone and two South Asian countries, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
The score was based on the country´s level of stability and the pressure it faced and was tallied on various social and economic data collected between January and December of 2011.
The report shows Nepal secured the worst score of 9 in addressing group grievances, which indicates the country is one of the world´s worst when it comes to ensuring security in case tension and violence arise between groups. Nepal´s best score, among 12 different political, social and economic indicators was 5.6 in the category of human flight - an indicator which shows the country´s vulnerability to brain drain that can create vacuum of human capital.
Among others, Nepal´s global standing in human rights situation was also poor, with the country securing 8.2. The country scored the same marks in the category called ´factionalized elites´, which shows Nepali leaders often engage in deadlock and brinksmanship for political gain, undermining the social contract. It is the same with uneven development, in which Nepal scored 8.4.
These poor scores are warning that problems are festering and is pushing the country to the verge of collapse. Although the report acknowledged no country was immune from shocks and pressures, it says countries with strong state institutions based on the rule of law and democracy can manage such pressures better.
This sadly is not the case in Nepal as the report says the country´s leadership, military, police, civil service and civil society are all “weak”. Surprisingly, the report has also classified Nepal´s media as “weak” and judiciary as “poor”.
“Nepal´s biggest problem is that it just can´t seem to form a government,” said Foreign Policy magazine that published the report.
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