#288 3 - 9 March 2006 16 pages Rs 30 Growing up in a war KASHISH DAS SHRESTHA
FOUR YEARS OLDER: Last week, this young Maoist teenager in Budagaun in Rolpa (left) displayed one of the socket bombs in his backpack to a visiting journalist. Four years ago, he was only 14 (NT #124).
TOM FARRELL Donors divided s the conflict shows signs of nearing a climax in the coming month, Nepal’s major donors are embroiled in a row among themselves A and with the government over new aid that could be seen as support for an autocratic regime. Most bilateral donors have frozen aid since the king’s February coup and say they will not add new aid until he restores democracy. They argue the king’s move has made it more difficult to find a political solution to the insurgency. However, multilateral lenders like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank argue that the Nepali people should not be punished for the king’s power grab and say they are mandated to continue supporting infrastructure and development projects. The long-simmering row has now broken out in the open. Meanwhile, the royal regime itself has locked horns with Switzerland and Britain over their new $5 million project to support democracy and human rights. Under pressure from its intelligence services, the government is threatening to scrap the project which it calls a ploy to channel money to opposition political parties. Full coverage p4
Weekly Internet Poll # 288 Q... Do you agree with US Ambassador James Moriarty’s recent comments about the Maoists? Total votes:6,245
Weekly Internet Poll # 289. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q... Is Nepal being left behind by the rise in living standards in the rest of South Asia? 2 EDITORIAL 3 - 9 MARCH 2006 #288
Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Desk Editor: Marty Logan Design: Kiran Maharjan Web: Bhushan Shilpakar Vicepresident Corporate Affairs: Sneh Sayami Advertising: Sambhu Guragain [email protected] Subscription: [email protected] Hatiban, Godavari Road, Lalitpur [email protected], GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu Tel: 5543333-6, Fax: 5521013 www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 5547018 What intervention? Fashionable anti-Americanism finally meets reality he word ‘intervention’ has many flavours. We look to two months pay from this same AS IF THERE IS NO TOMORROW lost all meaning in Nepal’s history and the weight of cohort on their return from duty. There may be no military victory to this conflict. But there is certain T current political landscape. evidence since 1996 and a Despite endless double-speak, to be economic defeat. The Maoists consider Ambassador complete lack of connectivity debate and intellectual inquiry Revenue is down, the bottom has fallen out of tourism, even Moriarty’s recent skepticism of the between what that the and a respect for logic, so remittances are faltering. The Indians are putting the squeeze but 12-point agreement as yet another Maoists say and their actions necessary for democracy, are alien raising fuel prices won’t be enough to pay them for the backlog. If it example of an ongoing pattern of as our compass. concepts in their culture. wasn’t for remittances and the fixed exchange rate with the Indian American imperial intervention. First, one of the core elements Ambassador Moriarty’s rupee we wouldn’t even have to wait till June for this country to The political parties welcome of Marxist ideology bears position offers clarity not seen in go bankrupt. Indian facilitation of democracy repeating even when volumes the 12-point agreement or in the Public frustration will rise this summer with inflation in the on Indian soil as diplomatic have been written on this subject. generally naive deportment of the double digits due to the recent diesel price hike, the combined The end-game is the defeat and parties or intellectual leaders in effects of a disappointing monsoon and an unprecedented five- GUEST COLUMN control of state army. Altruism adding the Maoists to the month drought that has turned Central Nepal into a dust bowl. And Pravin Rana isn’t the underlying motive nor alliance. Security in the villages, then we have power cuts the likes of which Nepalis didn’t see even are the Maoists interested in as he further points out, is a in the worst days of the Panchayat. But Nepal’s city-dwellers are an making a prospective national critical issue and one barometer apathetic lot and they’ll probably sit tight till the worst is over on or goodwill yet consider those that army more transparent, of success against this around 6 April—Comrade Prachanda’s D-Day. question the naiveté of this subordinate to civilian insurgency. But even if public anger isn’t boiling over yet, the bureaucracy agreement as ‘foreigners who leadership and representative Inability to speak parlour is seething. There is outrage at the arbitrary heavy handedness of (even as the RNA’s recruits and English isn’t the problem with royal nominees. Which is why the chief secretary had to appease don’t understand the situation the civil service with promises of raises and perks. The anger is in Nepal’. senior officers are becoming ever the parties. Their demonstrated strongest among those looking after finance and audit as officials Our intelligentsia, mainstream more diverse and professional). failings in running parliament, have watched aghast at the open plunder of the national exchequer. media, some rights groups who are The Maoist goal rather is to shutting down commerce and According to a cover story in this week’s edition of our sister increasingly demonstrating wield the very power of the state educational institutions through paper, Himal Khabarpatrika, a staggering Rs 50 billion as been paid themselves as ideologues of the in the name of the proletariat, bandas, failures to deal out from state coffers to fund purchases of royal limousines, first order rather than with predictable disastrous effectively with the Maoists, and organising royal weddings, handing stashes of cash to loyal royals dispassionate analysts, consider results. Such ‘people’s liberation now an obsessive indulgence in and large mysterious payoffs to the Home and Defence Ministries. A ambassadors who express armies’ have more blood on their viewing the 237 years of rule as detailed list of dates and amounts paid shows billions transferred opinions contrary to their own as hands than all of the kings since the root cause of everything from budget account heads to Contingency and Miscellaneous and being out of touch with the the earliest civilisations. weigh heavily on their then slipped across. ‘people’. Yet, they have almost a Second, the Maoists have credibility. On the week when victims of the Myaglung fire were sent back religious belief in any third-party shredded the fabric of Nepali No one is asking for a empty handed in January 2003 because of “lack of budget” a sum of willing to broker peace. society since they took up arms groveling apology–just actions Rs 130.5 million from a disaster relief budgetline was transferred to With so many hegemons in 1996. Everyone hates that demonstrate that they can another account and then sent to the palace. Rs 70.9 million from around, intervention comes in feudalism, poverty and lead and compromise and make the ‘Integrated Development’ account was moved to oppression and when the Maoists the right choices. The choices Miscellaneous over a period of four days last first began their movement, we faced by leaders and statesmen, month. In July 2002, Rs 20 million was transferred all scratched our heads and especially in such times, are with unusual haste from a standard budgetline to a thought that maybe they were always among bad, worse and contingency account within four days of the national justified in bringing to attention much worse. Exigencies in such budget being passed and then used to purchase of the state of affairs in the villages. situations favour practical two bullteproof Jaguars. But their sudden and massive solutions. Utopia is not an We can perhaps understand the Home Minister attempts at re-engineering have making fungible transfers for intelligence-gathering option. The choice, though during times of insurgency but other opaque, brought more misery than anyone difficult, should be obvious arbitrary and unaccountable transfers since 2002 of bargained for. and it entails reconciliation with an amount equal to the annual development budget Despite all their rhetoric the current government (and is systematic ransacking of the treasury on a against royal and imperial armies vice versa). breathtaking scale. An even more damning and autocracies, theirs has not So let us not dismiss the indictment is that the leadership of the poltiical turned out to be an army of ambassador or his statements parties were in key ministeries for some of liberation. They do not leave free with the tired ‘imperial that period. people in the wake of their Americans’, ‘Americans are the Had there been a parliament, the Public battles but even more oppressed, terrorists’, ‘Americans support Accounts Committee would have provided oversight destitute, displaced and dictators’, ‘they’re in it for the and no one would have dared do this, not even the terrorised victims. They say they oil’ rhetoric. And let us place the palace. But without democratic safeguards, and the bleed for the Nepali that is faced word intervention in proper country in the hands of shadowy powerbrokers, it is with the tough demands of context and reason and recognise plunder as if there was no tomorrow. working as a servant in the genuine diplomatic goodwill Middle East, while they extort when we see it. z
The mystery of the Great Helmsman has unravelled. He is no more the master strategist he was once believed to be. Without a determined Stalin and Basking in reflected glory disinterested Lloyd Johnson Mao too would have probably gone down in history as a failed warlord. In any case, China has The two chairmen are mirror images of each other so successfully drowned the memory of the last Chinese Emperor with Deng ipped off by incendiary interviews of the attention span of a tv journalist. Westerners do not fear Marxism capitalism that the People’s Republic Prachanda, the sky is dark again with There is no frontline here. A reporter is anymore. They have seen that it is refuses to even use the ‘M’ word. T media parachutists. They think as safe or unsafe in Libang as in Lajimpat, socialism and not capitalism, that Naxalite Charu Majumdar and Shining something is afoot but are astonished by an IED can go off with no warning ultimately collapses under the weight of Pathist Comrade Gonzalo have passed the raucous calm of Kathmandu in the Chipledhunga. All parties to the conflict its own contradictions. Marxism is now into history of revolutionary have-beens. nuptial season. Perplexed, they look think they have a higher calling and swear the fatalism of academia and fetishism of Unable to pigeonhole Nepal’s Maoists into towards local columnists for explanation. by the same constituency—the people. How intelligentsia. The elite worldview is that any known model of leftist radicalism, Nepal do you boil all this down for the Asia Briefs if a classless society is a historical therefore, conflict experts now like to is their newsbar? So the deadline reporter goes for inevitability, then we may wait for eternity. equate them with Pol Pot. No matter how STATE OF THE STATE stopover dath from an exotic dateline: body bags and It is the resurrection of Lenin’s ghost hard Prachanda tries to convince his C K Lal between sound bites of an obligatory my-encounter- in Asia and Africa that spooks the audience that he wants to be a statesman Baghdad with-a-Maoist. Europeans and Americans. Bolshevik like Gandhi or Ganeshman, the diplomatic and Bangkok. Most have neither time nor Journalists can get away with gross fervency lies buried under the rubble of community refuses to accord him patience for the intricacies of Nepali simplifications but donors and diplomats Berlin Wall. That is why the UML any status other than that of Brother politics. They want to be briefed about the have to sound a little more profound. They apparatchiks at Balkhu HQ in 2003 took Number One. Maoist rebellion in five minutes so that have to pretend that they can make head down the wall-mounted portraits of their Perhaps the easiest way to understand they can grab that flight to Nepalganj to see and tail of this mess. Since the Maoists five avatars (Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin a future Maoist republic is to picture it as the ‘frontline’. have been claiming Prachandpath is and Mao) when western envoys came the mirror image of monarchical The problem is that the conflict in Nepal synthesised Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, visiting. Threats of ‘or else’ was all it took democracy. The two chairmen are alike in is maddeningly complex even for an and Shining Path, conflict experts evaluate for the UML comrades to desert street their moods, methods and machinations. insider. It’s impossible to simplify the their rhetoric and activities from the prism of protests and join the royal cabinet of Sher Once we get rid of one, the other will insurgency or monarchist regression to suit these models of left extremism. Bahadur Deuba. automatically cease to exist. z 3 - 9 MARCH 2006 #288 3
LLL ETTERS
MORIARTY really care about Nepal while privileges of the high profile forum #287) comes with sense and about not being able to obtain I think we are giving a bit more others, like the US ambassador, of the Nepali Times, which we rational arguments. Having insurance but, sadly, closer to emphasis than necessary to have their own vested and short- guess is addressed to the ‘non- watched the movie, I could not the mark when he speaks of Ambassador Moriarty’s speech sighted interests at heart. upper crust’ as well. We will let even for a moment concur with the irresponsible tour operators and (‘Professor Moriarty strikes Ranjan Thapa, email the ‘shoe-string’ phrase go. Just idea of how they were trying to (mishandling) tourism being a again’, #287). First we should as the media, we also sometimes draw the analogy to Bhagat Singh missed opportunity. Our understand his desire for war Nepal’s political parties are provide fora for discussions. by showing what this actor was website’s central tenet is that, if against terror. For him it is easy like a pack of dogs. Right now they The address by Ambassador supposedly forced to draw upon the British negative travel to vouch for such a war because all claim to be working together but Moriarity in the venue and media (the violent path) to wipe off advice were not whimsical, why for the US war against terror is if the fate of the nation was back in reverberations are quite natural. society’s ill. However, to a then have they now removed against some foreigners in Iraq their hands, they’d turn on each But by no stretch of majority of young blood this that lethal phase advising and Afghanistan. Few innocent other. To prove my point, they might seem appealing, which I ‘against all but essential travel people (actually several should be challenged to put forth fear most. No doubt this is far off to Nepal’? Is the situation here thousands so far) killed here and an interim government of their from reality and does not involve suddenly so improved or, more there doesn’t seem to matter to choice to guide the nation to creativity. I wonder why people likely, was the case for the the US. But here a single person peace. They will show their true have completely neglected the ’travel ban’ proven to be so killed on the either side is a colours by fighting amongst correct route of eliminating insufficient in the first place? Nepali and as CK Lal writes, a themselves, the same in-fighting society’s ills. Have we really The website also concerns itself Nepali will silently weep that let the murderous Maoists go abandoned our belief and with how the FCO paints such a whenever anyone dies in this from strength to strength. The conviction to resolve issues paranoid picture of the risks to meaningless conflict. Second, shocking part is how they have with opportune and discredit tourists here and about the what Moriarty says does not spun things around to make His violence? Isn’t it high time we possible re-imposition of the always have to be true. It is his Majesty the bad guy, when he’s the all believe in a system to cure negative travel advice for personal or may be his one man who can and will save and do away the dream of reasons no better than those government’s view and we just this nation. resorting to violence? that proved so unwarranted have to look into the claim of ‘Just another Nepali’, email journalistic ethics can Mr Lal label Anjan Pandey, email earlier. weapons of mass destruction in the Academy as rightist on this Niraj Shrestha, email Iraqi to see how off mark that In ‘Professor Moriairty strikes score. It is an infra dig of an TRAVEL ADVISORIES can be. Third, even if his US again’ (# 287), C K Lal writes: ‘The ‘advocate’ of free media as Mr Lal It’s helpfully provocative to have H AT RISK views are correct, we don’t have venue was Ganesh Man Singh to pen such irresponsible Marceau’s views (Letters, #287) in Your silence on the issue of the to follow that doctrine if it does Adhyan Pratisthan, a pseudo- comments. which he says: ‘The embassies security of people working in not suit us. Cuba has been doing academic body known for its right The Academy leaves upper don’t issue these advisories on a development is regrettable. If a pretty well ignoring the wing sympathies…the crust and hopefully ‘non-upper’ whim but as a last resort’. There newspaper such as yours does Americans. Let’s just remember Ambassadors’ address has proven crust readership of your paper to is now a website not raise this then who will? that if we had been able to keep to be a public relation coup staged infer what they may of Mr Lal on www.nepaltraveladvice.com Peoples’ lives are being put at our own house in order then we’d on a shoe string budget’. This his downright demeaning dedicated to this issue receiving risk but this could be reduced. not have to be listening to these Academy had embarked upon a allegations on the Academy. At scores of views of quite the From the Nepali people working lectures from foreign diplomat mission to continue the legacy least we don’t make value opposite persuasion, namely that in development: Help! and then make a such a big deal of Ganesh Man Singh to safeguard judgments for mileage. the western governments are Suman Panday, email out of it. democracy and sovereignty of Nabindra Raj Joshi President, indeed whimsical about how they Sagar Sharma, email the Nepalis to the best of its Ganesh Man Singh Academy judge the need for ’negative travel UNMASKED resources. Has Mr Lal ever visited advice’. No views such as M I’d grown so used to the masks. CK Lal’s piece on James the Academy or kept up to date KILLING MINISTERS Marceau’s have been posted Why has Kunda Dixit reverted Moriarty was interesting. It with its performance since its As always, Kanak Dixit’s outburst on the website so it is good to see back to wearing those seems that the US doesn’t really inception in 1995? The Academy in his Southasia Beat column from your newspaper that there is outrageous hats again? want a stable Nepal. With the end may not have similar access to (‘Why not to kill the minister’, debate on this issue. He is wrong Subodh, email of the Cold War, a unipolar system has emerged with Washington dictating most world affairs at will. However, China and India are rapidly emerging and will play a pivotal role in world affairs in coming decades. The US fears this change and what better way to foil the Asian giants’ growth and prosperity than by trying to destabilise the entire region using Nepal as a platform? Santosh Pokharel, Maine, USA