#456 19 - 25 June 2009 16 pages Rs 30 Weekly Internet Poll # 456 Q. Which of these phrases best describe your current feeling about the delay in government formation? Total votes: 3,521 Weekly Internet Poll # 456. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q. Cabinet expansion still stuck. Your comment: HIGH AND DRY: Ama Dablam towers above the Imja Valley in Khumbu last week as rainless pre-monsoon weeks offered spectacular views. ALEX TREADWAY and a deteriorating law and on Saturday is seen as significant order situation, Rawal has his as New Delhi tries to use its work cut out. leverage to end the prolonged Fresh start NC-nominated CA member political deadlock over Nilambar Acharya says he is government formation. Menon is ne month after being However, ministers appointed encouraged because this is a expected to urge elected prime minister by without portfolios two weeks ago civilian cabinet with members the Madhesi EDITORIAL p2 O parliament, Madhav finally got their assignments that believe in democracy. parties to join a Kumar Nepal was still not able with the UML’s Bhim Rawal at “There is no one in it with consensus Civilian parties to complete his cabinet the helm of guns,” he told Nepali Times. government. His expansion despite the induction the key Maoist CA member Hari visit may also have a bearing on of 10 new ministers on Home Roka is not so positive: “They the Maoist Politburo meeting Wednesday. Ministry. are all people who have lost where a hardline faction Nepal has still not been able Analysts elections, so they are advocating confrontation is to convince the MJF, TMLP and say with accountable to their parties and facing a more pragmatic, SP to join. The reason: the not to the people.” but beleaguered, party disagreement about who should problems of The visit by Indian Foreign leadership. get plum ministries. rising crime Secretary Shiva Shankar Menon Dewan Rai 2 EDITORIAL 19 - 25 JUNE 2009 #456 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Editor: Kunda Dixit CEO: Ashutosh Tiwari Design: Kiran Maharjan DGM Sales and Marketing: Sambhu Guragain [email protected] Marketing Manager: Subhash Kumar Asst. Manager: Arjun Karki Circulation: Prakash Raut Hatiban, Godavari Road, Lalitpur GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu 5250333/845 Fax: 5251013 Squeeze the middle [email protected] Printed at Jagadamba Press 5250017-19 www.nepalitimes.com History is repeating itself, but not as a farce he present political mood Contexts differ but examine only in a calibrated manner to CIVILIAN PARTIES is eerily similar to pre- the similarities with the present. increase their bargaining power. Confused by the political wrangling and back-stabbing? T October 2002 and pre- While the electorate delivered a Both realise that the only way Frustrated and cynical about the political leadership? Let’s try to February 2005, with the ultra- verdict in favour of left forces, out of the impasse is to make up simplify it for you. The political forces in this country can be left and ultra-right feeding on the centre is being run from a with India and other parties. narrowed down to just two types: ones that believe in violence as each other. definite right orientation. But they have to deal with a political tool, and the others that don’t. The political parties were still Madhav Nepal is the face but the Kirans, Gajurels and Biplabs Using that criteria, it is pretty clear which side peace-loving running show in principle then. has to report to multiple within the party. These Nepalis are on. In last month’s regime change the party that But everyone knew that Sher masters. Those who helped divisions are for real. One leader believes in the supremacy of the gun was replaced by a coalition Bahadur Deuba’s governments cobble together this government from the dogmatic faction of civilian parties. The Maoist self-admitted strategy of grabbing (after the dissolution of the (from the president to army recently said that he would the national army to complete their agenda of total state capture was foiled. Which is why they are again on the warpath. parliament as well as the one in chief) already have differences like to see the parties go They seem to have no qualms about stirring the hornet’s nest alliance with UML, and the with the PM. No one knows with the army. of ethnic unrest, they have no misgivings about punishing the who’s the real boss. Their aim is to deepen the There is a concerted effort by polarisation, monopolise the people with impromptu shutdowns like the one they throttled PLAIN SPEAKING Kathmandu with on Monday. previous benefactors to discredit opposition space, create urban A banda is terrorism pure and simple. It is invoked and Prashant Jha an already fragile government. unrest, and attempt a power implemented by instilling the fear of physical harm, by whoever Isolated and hounded by grab. The revival of parallel calls for it. The streets of Kathmandu on Monday was a preview Lokendra Bahadur-Surya Bahadur other parties in capital politics, governments in Surket and of the kind of society the Stalinists want in Nepal: blocking interregnum) were masks. the Maoists have gone back to Bajura, hitting out at rivals in ambulances, forcing the sick to walk, detaining a cardiac Narayanhiti and Bhadrakali were their old violent ways out in the Kalikot stems from this surgeon and setting fire to his vehicle, deflating the tyres of calling the shots. districts. The general sense is approach. bicyclists who dared pedal past their barricades and selectively attacking the independent media. A deep sense of foreboding that the present government Squeezing the middle The great pity is that this needn’t have been. With their prevailed. As soon as a won’t last very long: both ground is common to the aim convincing win in last year’s elections the Maoists had the government was formed, people because of the opposition from and orientation of both the ultra peoples’ support to engage in non-violent civilian politics. But were calculating how long it outside and contradictions left and the right-wingers who they chose to retain their militant avatar, their wartime use of would last. The democratic space within. Even cabinet ministers are powerful in the present threats, intimidation and killings. The call for integration of two in the districts had shrunk with admit this is a “stopgap dispensation. Erstwhile armies leaves out the more important component of the guerrilla the army colonel and Maoist arrangement”. royalists, hardliners in the force: the YCL which roams the country sowing terror. commissar setting the terms and Within a few months, as army, NC and UML Unfortunately, the civilian parties are exhibiting the same agenda. The war escalated. There protests escalate and the conservatives have always felt greedy, selfish, short-sighted opportunism that they showed in was a hankering for a ‘strongman’ government is seen to have that the last few years was the mid-1990s. It’s been nearly a month, and the prime minister to see the country through, even failed, there will be a growing “unnatural”, that another doesn’t yet have a functioning government. They have shown no capacity to learn from mistakes and understand the gravity of as democratic aspirations were clamour for an alternative. A top onslaught on the Maoists is what is at stake here. This has hurt efforts to democratise the growing on the ground. businessman told us this week: both necessary and desirable, Maoists, and has emboldened hardliners. If these are our At a time when the rest of the “These parties are useless. We and the time is now ripe. guardians of civilian politics, they don’t need enemies. country was moving left with the will finally need the army, and What can pull things back? But the onus lies with the Maoists to prove their commitment Maoist transformation, the president playing a more The Maoists have to practice to non-violent multi-party democracy by disbanding the YCL and Kathmandu turned right with the active role to control things.” peaceful oppositional politics all other militant groups, abide by the laws of the land. They must king’s takeover. This disconnect The fall of this government, and reassure other parties of stop using deceit, stoking pseudo-nationalism and fanning the led to the regime’s downfall. whenever it happens, will be a their commitment to democracy. flames of ethnic conflict. critical moment. Will it mean a Parties have to realise that the renegotiation with the Maoists, army is not their natural ally their re-entry into government, and they will be left nowhere and movement on contentious when the democratic space issues? Or will it be followed by shrinks. The military must an even more rightward shift in recognise that it may become the polity, with the military more powerful in the short- taking an assertive role? term, but the present route will Going by the trend, the latter discredit them and hamper their is more likely. And Maoist institutional development as a actions will only help push us modern army. towards that. And India must temper the Pushpa Kamal Dahal and rightward drift, for that can only Baburam Bhattarai have learnt lead to conflict. Delhi will not the limits of their power after be able to escape the the army chief episode. They consequences of an unstable and want to escalate protests but anarchic Nepal. KIRAN PANDAY LLL ETTERS CLOSE TO THE EDGE days of British India is to irritate the Delhi that we are in now. In your haste to do away suspected kidnappers to death in the I was thoroughly depressed reading Durbar and invite its wrath.