By D.M. Thapa Whether some people like it or not, we have to give a honeymoon period to the newly elected member of the local bodies. They deserve it. This is because people have had to deal with corrupt junior government officials who took over the task of heading local bodies. Many tall promises have been made by all candidates, including the winning ones, but what they can do when their bigger leaders have not been able to fulfill any of their commitments, we will have to wait and see. Till the time of writing this piece, it seems the three big parties, the CPN (UML), Nepali Congress and the Maoists will again rule the roost. But the question still remains whether the second phase of local elections can be held or not. Bringing the Madhesi parties to take part in the election seems to be a Herculean task and even the wickedly cunning Pushpa Kamal Dahal seems to have no idea on what to do, though he is the Prime Minister. The likes of leaders like SherBahadurDeuba are nowhere near him in playing political games. But the Madesh based parties probably have a better coach and even wily Dahal has been flummoxed by them Late Girija Prasad Koirala had made the mistake of signing many agreements, including several with the Madhes based parties and now the country and countrymen are suffering due to his lack of vision. But if Girija was a bad politician, Deuba is much worse, so what can we say about him. Other leaders are also not much better, though UML’s KP Oli has shown signs of being a visionary politician. The biggest tragedy for the nation was that lateGirija and his daughter SujataKoiral were very corrupt as well and like them the majority of politicians from all the parties were also corrupt. This destroyed the rosy dreams the people had about life and a democratic Nepal. The dream virtually became a nightmare when the Maoists joined mainstream politics by becoming a legitimate party, though Girija took credit for accomplishing this task, and corruption became even more open and widespread. For the last ten years after the so called second people’s uprising, there has been rampant corruption and nobody says anything about it. Just to get a government job or promotion a lot of money change hands. One can imagine how much money was spent in an individual becomes the chief of the Nepal Police. It is almost same while being ambassadors, nobody talks about. This may be harping too many times about the shortcomings of the media, both print and broadcast, but their silence on such issues is almost deafening. The so called mainstream media talk of how they are bold and free, then media leaders shout hoarse about media freedom, but they do not talk of the corruption at high places, the dirty games being played by political parties, corruption in the media organizations themselves and direct foreign interference in Nepal. They have called the present local election as historical, but the new fiscal budget that has to be presented within a fortnight and the second phase of election are equally important and it will require much skill within the government to handle or accomplish these tasks. But all ordinary folks can only hope that the country will be politically stable, the media non-biased, there will be little foreign interference in Nepalese affairs and the budget and next election will really bring peace and unity among all.