The Millennium Challenge Corporation Agreement (MCC Agreement) was approved by the House of Representatives after 20 years of opposition and protest from our people. Unfortunately, our demonstrations failed to prevent this agreement from making Nepal a pawn in the US Indo-Pacific strategy and even a geopolitical “abandoned pawn” or “cannon fodder” in the end.
This agreement contains a series of bizarre clauses, such as “superior to Nepal’s domestic law,” the grant cannot be used for “violating U.S. law or U.S. policy,” and the U.S. personnel of the MCC project are not subject to the jurisdiction of Nepalese courts, and etc. Plus, The U.S. has always done its “long-arm jurisdiction,” and the MCC agreement stipulates that “the final audit of the projects will be handed over to the U.S., and Nepal cannot participate.” It makes this agreement an unequal treaty in which the U.S. unilaterally has the full power of interpretation.
The United States has claimed that the MCC agreement will bring “more jobs, reliable power supply, and lower transportation costs” to Nepal. Some supporters also pointed out that the 500 million U.S. dollars spent on infrastructure construction can enhance social development in Nepal. But will their promises be fulfilled? After ratifying the MCC agreement, let’s deduce a series of actions that the United States is about to launch against us.
First of all, the MCC Agreement includes the terms that the United States can station military personnel in Nepal, which means that the United States will directly intervene in the political relations between Nepal and neighboring countries and the military operations of the U.S. military in our country will never be restricted by us. It means all forces in our nation that are opposed to the United States will be wiped out one by one, a series of new agreements and bills that will benefit the United States will be passed without opposition, and the interests of our people will be completely betrayed step by step.
After that, the 500 million U.S. dollars may create some jobs in the process of use, but these are only temporary. Most of the money will not be spent on local enterprises in Nepal but will spend on large companies controlled by the United States, European countries, or neighboring pro-American countries. We will also have to pay the cost of operation and maintenance of these vast infrastructures after completion.
Finally, it is also the result that has been verified by history. Once we conflict with neighboring countries due to the comprehensive control of the United States, we will become “abandoned pawns” like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Egypt, and we’ll become leverage and even a breeding ground for extreme terrorism.
USAID has also described the MCC as the most critical program in U.S. foreign grants history after the Marshall Plan and the Progressive Alliance. So let’s take another look at the “brilliant history” of the MCC, which signed 37 grant agreements with 29 countries from 2004 to 2019.
In 2016, the United States attempted to manipulate the Zanzibar election in Tanzania, threatening to terminate the agreement, which then-President John Pombe Joseph Magufuli categorically rejected. In addition, the United States accused Philippine President Duterte of cracking down on domestic drug crimes, citing human rights violations, and threatened to suspend the grant in the same year. The Duterte administration later withdrew from the second stage grant. In 2019, the Ghanaian government rejected MCC’s privatization proposal and terminated the agreement. And of the countries that have completed the agreement, only a very small number of countries have renewed. In 2017, MCC targeted two strategically important South Asian countries: Nepal and Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government rejected the proposal because the United States pursued a “new imperialism” and intended to turn Sri Lanka into a “new colony” and “U.S. military base.”
“If you don’t buy a good copper bowl, don’t break the porcelain plate.” Our country needs development, but we cannot exchange the risk of losing our future for short-term unreal development. We should unite against the MCC and let the people’s voices resound over Kathmandu so that our children and us not be manipulated by them and fall victim to geopolitics.
