KATHMANDU, MAY 10

Earlier today, the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party decided to endorse Sushil Thapa – who had previously announced to run for the Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, independently – as a candidate for the city's top post. The Himalayan Times Online talked to Thapa regarding the sudden change in strategy and asked him about his vision, strategies and policies for the betterment of KMC.

Excerpts:

For around 30 years, you worked in the field of quality care, your specialisation being management competence. Was it your experience that led to the decision of running for Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City? Or are there any other factors, or motives?

Yes, my 30 years in quality care and management did have a major role in my decision to run as the Mayor of Kathmandu. I have worked to make myself and all the corporations I have worked for, with, and created, successful. I was not innately good at it so I had to understand the different processes and dynamics that are involved in making a corporation successful. It is not like in the movies. It is a laborious job that you do not start out enjoying but as you get into it and understand the intricacies you start to appreciate it and sometimes even enjoy it.

The one thing that is constant and guaranteed is that if you have a clear and honest plan, and you execute the process properly, the overall system you create and the results you get are just beautiful and extremely rewarding. Some call this system and result magical and wonderful, but that is a lack of planning and process. I am not very humble or shy about leadership skills in the corporate system, especially in healthcare, but I do realize that I am a complete newcomer in the political sphere.

Speaking about other factors, my interest in politics was always mixed. While I wanted to get involved in it, I did not want to deal with policymakers and the slow malaise of the Nepali parliamentary systems of the past. This changed in some ways during the earthquake when I first saw the ineffectiveness of the executive branch of our government, from top to bottom. I realized it is not right to stay away from politics when I know I can at least help in the execution part of the government. Then after, the declaration of Nepal as a federal nation further spurred my interest because now Nepal could finally be managed at the local and state levels. The cumbersome and unplanned actions of the centre could now be replaced with the nimble and well planned local governments and their executives. This was the hope but during the recent pandemic, most of the local governments were not able to effectively and logically exercise their powers to help their constituents. This was because of a lack of planning and setting up systems that can act, instead we went from a central reactive government to a locally reactive, and many a time inactive, government.

Viewing this inaction and sometimes reaction, and the level of competence in the field of candidates. I finally decided to approach a fellow planner and systems specialist Rinku Shrestha to jointly run as the Mayor and Deputy-Mayor of Kathmandu to give something back to our beloved city.

You had initially decided to run independently and now the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party has fielded you as their candidate. What led to this sudden change?

I would like to clarify this misunderstanding of my fault in clearly communicating this. I am not running as a candidate for the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party or any party for that matter. The Loktantrik Samajwadi Party has decided to endorse me and Rinku because they have not fielded their own candidates for the two posts. They decided within their ranks that it would be a tragedy to waste their votes in the upcoming elections. With that in mind, they did their research on all the candidates and their agendas and plans. After much deliberation, they finally decided that our agenda and plans were the best and then they approached us and only recently endorsed us.

I would like to make our position clear about what an independent candidate is. An independent candidate has their own agenda and plans that are not based on any party directive. This does not mean we are averse to other candidates, independent and party liners, advice and suggestions.

We believe Kathmandu is a corporation, and my job as the Mayor/CEO of Kathmandu is to implement the best plans and systems in Kathmandu. I have met all the other relevant candidates and openly told them that they are welcome to approach me with their suggestions and advice because after the elections we are all citizens of Kathmandu working for the betterment of Kathmandu and not the self.

How do you align your vision with the party's vision? Was adaptability -- since the news was so sudden -- an issue?

I align with two aspects of their vision. Kathmandu is more important than any candidate and no vote should go to waste.

'I cannot write poetry but I can make detailed and effective systems plans. I cannot give political speeches that take to from tears to laughter but I can implement the plans. I cannot get 100K likes on my social media posts, but I can hire the right people and get my plan and systems to fruition. I do not look at Trump and Kanye for inspiration, but instead at Kul Man Ghising and Mahabir Pun.'

In your opinion, what sets you apart from the other candidates? Why should the people of Kathmandu metropolis vote you in as their mayor?

I am going to go a bit blunt on this. I am the only one in the field that has experience in managing anything close to a city/corporation like Kathmandu. I also know who to hire and consult to make sure the work gets done. I have already asked another professional with 30 years of experience in managing and implementing systems to run with me as the deputy. A city like Kathmandu needs people like Kul Man Ghising and since he is not running, I had to run to avoid five more years of malaise. If the people of Kathmandu want entertainment, I am not their candidate. If the people of Kathmandu want real and sustainable change for good, then I am their candidate. If Kathmandu was a company and the people of Kathmandu were their investors, who would they select as its CEO? The funny guy, the child of a friend, the cool guy, or the competent person? If you want competence, they vote for me and Rinku Shrestha!

There are two political heavyweights and an independent candidate that has created a lot of buzzes this time around in the KMC local elections. Do you feel you have the right strategies in place so that people will factor you in against these options? How so?

In the political and entertainment field I am no match for the heavyweights in the field. You are right to assume that but are we looking for an executive. In federalism, you know that power is divided between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. The mayor of Kathmandu is purely an executive position. I cannot write poetry but I can make detailed and effective systems plans. I cannot give political speeches that take to from tears to laughter but I can implement the plans. I cannot get 100K likes on my social media posts, but I can hire the right people and get my plan and systems to fruition. I do not look at Trump and Kanye for inspiration, but instead at Kul Man Ghising and Mahabir Pun.

Do you think independent candidates will be able to work with the existing bureaucratic structure, so as to yield definitive results?

Yes, most definitely yes. Is it going to be easy? No, most likely not, but we still have to and can do it. We have to bring transparency and accountability from the very top to the bottom. We have to engage with the different levels of bureaucracy not as the antagonists to the systems but the integral parts of it. There is always a push back to change and accountability after years of apathy. This plan is to fully dig into my years of experience dealing with unhealthy systems, and use all the professionals and professional networks to help me run this city. While I am running for mayor, I will be enfranchising all the capable people to come work with me to make this city well planned and wonderful again. I stress again because this was once a planned and functioning city and we will restore it to its old glory.

How will you bring your past experiences to the socio-cultural-economic and political benefits of the people of KMC?

Socio-culturally, we want to make Kathmandu vibrant again. We want to revitalize the cultural and historic heritage of this once glorious city. Kathmandu for the longest time was the magical Shangri-La, we can and we have to raise Kathmandu back to its previous status.

Economically, Kathmandu is missing out on being one of the top 10, if not the best, destinations in the world. Kathmandu does not lack any cultural, architectural, historic, or romantic experience. Kathmandu has been before and it again is one of the top tourist destinations in the world.

Kathmandu's pollution is not just limited to our physical environment but also our political environment. We need to create the political will and engagement from all demographics that make Kathmandu. Kathmandu has to be transparent and drastically increase civic engagement. This is not easy but it is doable and critical. For example, Kul Man Ghising's work with NEA was not easy and needed a lot of hard systemic changes but the change was critically needed.

According to you, what are the three major issues faced by Kathmandu denizens in their day-to-day lives? What solutions can you bring to the table to address the same?

We have one more to make it four that we have identified as the major issues faced by the denizens of Kathmandu. It is further detailed in our manifesto.

1. Service & Security

2. Environment

3. Development & Business

4. Culture & Heritage

What is your take on the current state of the transportation options available in the city? Do you have any plans that will address the affordability, safety and sustainability aspects of public transportation?

Kathmandu is in a dire need of an effective and managed mass transit system. This is not limited to the over expensive solutions like metro rail and monorail. There are other innovative solutions like rapid transit electric bus systems for major routes and smaller vehicles for inner routes. We also need our mass transit to function into the later hours of the day for safety and especially women's safety.

We also need effective traffic management to ensure bottlenecks and clog points and identified and managed accordingly

We need our roads to be better maintained and built.

We need more lights on the road and more stoplights to have central management of traffic.

We need to educate our residents and traffic management personnel.

We need more parks but we also need more parking for cars. We have to think innovatively. We don't always need a build-out, we can build up too.

We want to make sure the residents of Kathmandu spend most of their time at home, work, in parks, and less waiting in traffic.

City leaders hardly engage with or include citizens while making decisions for them. Do you think residents should be involved in the decision-making process?

The canned and boring answer is yes but the only answer is yes. The citizens of Kathmandu meet their leaders usually in 5 years. Ghar dailo bhayo, elections bhayo, ani gayab bhayo. We cannot do this disappearing act and expect the residents to get involved and it is quintessential that they do.

Working in the health sector for 30 plus years has taught me something that has become invaluable to me while running my companies. Requirements collection and analysis are critical to understanding the system. In a company we talk to our clients and workers to understand what are their wants and needs, and then only can we deliver the best product. We will not stop our interactions with the residents after the campaign is over. Regular interactions are critical to feel the nerve of the city and keep it healthy.

Finally, could you list at least two policies that would put Kathmandu on a firm financial footing?

Revitalize tourism in Kathmandu. We were a Shangri-La and now we have Kathmandu residents looking to other cities and nations for a time out. Kathmandu can become the grand Shangri-La it was once was by investing in not just restoring but maintaining our historic and cultural architecture and identity while not ignoring the needs of a modern and relevant world city.

Kathmandu needs to better negotiate how the revenue generated by Kathmandu in taxes is shared with the central government.

Kathmandu needs to restructure its tax system to make sure it is not cumbersome and too high but at the same time, we need to bring all businesses that operate in Kathmandu within the tax system.

The last but most important is to make sure every policy and action is easy to understand, transparent, and fully accountable.