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#346 27 April - 3 May 2007 16 pages Rs 30 BARBED COMMENT: Despite a year of ceasefire, the country is still crisscrossed by barbed wire and many Nepalis are trying to get on with their lives the best they can. Coils of fear See p4 KIRAN PANDAY Weekly Internet Poll # 346 Q. Are you optimistic about the outlook for the economy for the rest of the year? Total votes: 2,409 CAS Weekly Internet Poll # 347. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q. ADo you think people in Kathmandu have similar priorities and political views as those in other parts of the country? 2 EDITORIAL 27 APRIL - 3 MAY 2007 #346 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Editor: Kunda Dixit Executive Editor: Anagha Neelakantan Design: Kiran Maharjan Web: Rupendra Kayastha Director Sales and Marketing: Sunaina Shah [email protected] Circulation Manager: Samir Maharjan [email protected] Subscription: [email protected],5011628/29 Hatiban, Godavari Road, Lalitpur [email protected] GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu 5543333-6, Fax: 5521013 A new order www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 5547018 Use the smarts of the Nepali people year after the historic Jana a new, prosperous, democratic realisation of collective goals. A PUBLIC REPUBLIC Andolan II, the contours Nepal. First, the Maoists must The message from the Nepali Loktantra Day on Tuesday was supposed to be a celebration, but it A of a new political order indicate a true commitment to a people, who have not yet reaped warned us about the danger of replacing one form of dictatorship with are emerging in Nepal. pluralistic, multi-party political a peace dividend, is clear: another. The political parties and the system. A test will be how far the govern with us and for us, not Self-professed young communists hurled missiles at a speaker Maoists have made significant leadership can control the despite us. and tried to storm the stage. They nearly turned what was supposed progress towards ending the violence and extortion still The people want to be to be a commemoration of freedom into a farce. The Maoists are conflict. Political structures and carried out by the rank and file. partners in a system that clearly not yet ready to enter the arena of competitive politics. decision-making mechanisms Second, demands for recognises and relates to their Wanting all or nothing, preventing those with dissenting views have been created. There is a inclusion from communities concerns. This requires from expressing them and using the threat of violence to get their way proves this leopard hasn’t changed its spots. mobilised on the basis of group redefining the political system, Across the country, Maoist cadre are already on the campaign GUEST COLUMN identity must be channelled and radically restructuring the trail and their refrain is: “Vote for us in the election or else we will go Ashraf Ghani through a legitimate political relationship between citizens back to war.” In Hetauda this week, they threatened to burn down a process, not extra-legal means. and state. At the village level, media office for critical coverage. In Dailekh they harassed two This requires a two-way process Nepal has in many ways reversed reporters who had interviewed locals resisting Maoist intimidation. In timeframe for the transition and for communication and the tragedy of the commons. Bajhang, local warlords openly defy their own party policy. consensus on key reforms. A high management of expectations Impressive community micro- This is not the democracy that we struggled to restore. Nepal’s degree of trust has been between the nascent government hydroelectric power, forestry, and people power uprising last year wasn’t about replacing a royal established in this homegrown and the Nepali people. education programs demonstrate dictatorship with an obsolete brand of totalitarianism. The Maoists process between the prime Third, development, rule of the power of collective action. are now in government, but their MPs behave as if they have been minister and the Maoist law, and security of property are This energy and ingenuity needs dragooned to parliament just to shout slogans. Meanwhile, the Seven behave like traditional politicians with their leadership. essential to ensure the economic to be mobilised at the national opportunism and hypocrisy intact. The people gave them a second Given the complicated environment for investment and level. chance last year by installing them in power, but we see a familiar transitions precipitated by the job creation, which in turn It is important that leaders myopia and narrow-mindedness. It shouldn’t be politics as usual. The People’s Movement, and the size support political progress. within civil society, the business election is not about dominating the next government, but about and scope of Nepal’s problems, Fourth, elections for the community, and the government deciding the future governance structure of this country. the successes are significant. constituent assembly must be as jointly articulate a vision for the The seven parties and the Maoists find it politically expedient to Nepalis are in an open historic free and fair as possible, and be future that is both credible and have a universally reviled monarch as a whipping boy. But there is a moment in which they can shape the mechanism used to address actionable. This is a precondition limit to how long they can stoke populism and extravagant their own future. exclusion. If the parties field sets for the support of the republicanism to mask their insecurity and ineptitude. With this lot, However, the past year’s of candidates that will result in international donors and how is a republic going to be any different than a kingdom? accomplishments are under- an unrepresentative assembly, the partners who can assist in For all intents of purposes Nepal is already a republic even though the king tries to make his presence felt—most recently by appreciated or misunderstood potential for further unrest will making it a reality. Hesitation or getting his guards to play the royal anthem in Dakshinkali. It would be because of a failure of be extremely high. They must failure may freeze Nepal in a state best for all concerned if Gyanendra was cut, and cut cleanly. communication between the learn from the Maoists’ efforts to of stalled development or It is a foregone conclusion what the first sitting of the constituent political elite and the Nepali ensure that their candidates prolonged insecurity. The assembly will decide about the monarchy. Even if, by some miracle, people, and an unpredictable reflect Nepal’s diversity. collective will, determination, the throne is retained it will have no role, responsibility, or authority. political process. In a highly The security risk posed by the and resourcefulness of the Nepali So why flog a dead horse? politicised environment where cantonment of Maoist and people must be drawn upon to Instead, the Eight should demonstrate to the people the state rumour and innuendo substitute government troops must be work towards shared national exists, re-establish the rule of law, and allow Nepalis to finally for deliberation and discussion, a mitigated through a coherent, goals and to overcome the risks experience the peace dividend. perception of inefficient or unfair adequately funded reintegration that threaten progress to a new process has a high cost. The plan to ensure sustainable political order. The opportunity people’s impatience with the disarmament and demobilisation is too important, and the disconnect between Nepal’s efforts. Ex-combatants go back to consequences of failure too decision-makers and the arms again if they do not have the great. movement which brought them opportunities needed to become to power has begun to manifest productive members of society. Ashraf Ghani is former finance in violent actions, such as the A centrist consensus is minister of Afghanistan. He has madhesi uprisings. emerging predicated on the idea advised the governments of Significant risks must be of the state as an instrument for Sudan and Lebanon on peace- KIRAN PANDAY managed to create conditions for inclusive development and the building and state effectiveness. The price of radicalism The MJF has created a political vacuum it can’t fill any time soon JANAKPUR – Towards the end of the Rana various local, regional, national, and The structure of the NC in these frustrated technocrats, and ideological oligarchy, this religious town and its international forces at play. But there was districts does not in the least reflect the speculators. The Forum has created a surrounding areas emerged as a centre of seething anger. region’s changed political economy. political vacuum that it will not be able to fill oppositional politics. Kameshwar Yadav runs a posh shop Although agriculture continues to be the anytime soon. The Nepali Congress, which was selling televisions and refrigerators on tarai’s mainstay, a class of migrant The Tarai Uprising had such broad instrumental in mobilising the movement, Station Road. Like most shopkeepers, he workers—dismissed as ‘Malaysian- support precisely because its mission consolidated its position here through the detests bandas, doesn’t differentiate lahures’ by pahadi landlords—has emerged didn’t clash with party affiliations. That 60s. Since then, the larger Mahottari area— between his pahadi and madhesi and wants social respect commensurate situation has changed after the Mahottari, Dhanusha, Sarlahi—had been customers, and would stay away from with its economic muscle. The NC, the postponement of the constituent assembly the heartland of the party’s support base. politics if he could help it. But after the Tarai UML, the Maoists, the RPP, and even elections and the possibility that the MJF Uprising he has noticed changes the MJF Sadbhabana failed to notice that restless will emerge as an independent political STATE OF THE STATE has brought in his life.

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