#220 5 - 11 November 2004 20 pages Rs 25 SILVER LINING: An uplifting Kathmandu Valley sunset on Wednesday was not reflected on the political horizon. p10-11 Birds of a feather Weekly Internet Poll # 160 Q. Which US presidential candidate would be better for the world? Total votes:1,202 Weekly Internet Poll # 161. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q. Should the pre-2002 parliament be reinstated? KUNDA DIXIT ANALYSIS by PUSKAR GAUTAM he recent escalation of T Maoist rhetoric over an impending Indian invasion is being followed up Tunnel vision with frenzied tunnel-digging throughout the country, Nepals Maoists are literally going underground ostensibly to thwart Indian air raids. to spread revolution in the region The tunnels are symbolic of the rebel leaderships change of In their analysis, poverty, Even so, the Nepali com- mechanism and phases of the focus towards external enemies: ethnic exclusion, and rades are taking advantage of poll process. And it wont be US imperialism and Indian topography make the Himalayan continuing political disarray in life-or-death for the Maoists if expansionism. The leadership arc ideal for a trans-boundary Kathmandu and see an opening polls do happen, they will not and cadre are at present busy in revolution in which guerrillas in the Deuba governments push try to launch unnecessarily military and political training, can move freely across borders. for elections by April 2005. They costly offensives during it. and believe their strategic They want to convert the ethno- expect an election will further Deuba is obviously laying the offensive within Nepal will not separatist agenda of militants in polarise the parties and split the groundwork for elections with be successful unless the the Indian northeast to fight a anti-regression alliance. Those the TADO ordinance and external intervention is ad- united class war. Maoist for polls will be seen to be in the rampant militarisation. He often dressed. activities have escalated in royal camp, while those cites Kashmir and Afghanistan: There appears to be greater western Bangladesh this year boycotting will be labelled pro- if elections can be held there coordination than ever before and a new Maoist party has been Maoist. If the Girija Congress with sufficient troop strength it between the Nepali Maoists, formed in Bhutan. The goal boycotts polls, its cadre may can be held here too. international partners and seems to be an umbrella group defect en masse to Deuba. But the bottom line is that Indian Maoist groups. After a called a South Asian There is some logic in the peoples war in Nepal is meeting in Calcutta last month, Federation including Deubas argument that he has to now not just Nepals headache, Indian Maoists and their South militancies throughout the go for elections because talks are but of India and other countries Asian comrades coordinated region. Nepals Maoist not possible. It is doubtful if in the region as well. l strategy and mooted the concept revolution is therefore now part elections will be free and fair, of a Himalayan Revolutionary of a regional strategy and turnout will be low. A Zone from Kashmir, through coordinated with international bloodbath is not inevitable, it Editorial p2 Nepal, Bhutan and into Assam. revolutionaries. will depend on the nature, Unconstitutional Day 2 EDITORIAL 5 - 11 NOVEMBER 2004 #220 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Desk Editor: Abha Eli Phoboo Design: Kiran Maharjan Web: Bhushan Shilpakar Advertising: Sunaina Shah [email protected] Subscription: Anil Karki, [email protected] Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Lalitpur GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal An unpatriotic act Tel: 01-5543333-6, Fax: 01-5521013 [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 01-5547018 TADO will foster more impunity UNCONSTITUTIONAL DAY he renewal of a fundamental level, the military or is not suspicious aside, as reformulated Terrorist and has no real legal basis with preventive detention this onday is Constitution Day and a holiday. But most T Disruptive Activities which to detain civilians. means that no crime needs to M Nepalis will mark it as a day of national mourning. The (Control and Punishment) TADO allows the army to make have been committed. Yet they constitution has been in life support for three years now. Ordinance 2004 (TADO) has arrests but detention and are now to be held for up to a It is clinically dead. Once described by its own framers as the “best in the world”, the raised concern. The clause that prosecution falls under the year without trial. It is 1990 Constitution was a document that emerged from the provides for detention without State Case Act which empowers important to remember that unprecedented upheaval of the People’s Movement. The hard right trial for up to a year has been the police, and not the army, to even criminals, those who have had lost its shady backdoor influence and was never happy about investigate up to a period of two actually committed crimes, are being sidelined. It has been plotting ever since to worm its way back . GUEST COLUMN months. allowed access to legal As it turned out, the post-1990 elected national leadership The recent disclosure to the recourse within 24 hours of Seira Tamang obliged by making a mess of democracy and relentlessly insulting courts by the army that it has arrest. the constitution. And when the comrades went underground in 1996, called a violation of the basic senior Maoists in detention is President of the Nepal Bar the ultra-right found common cause with a force that hated pluralism tenets of human rights, an critically important because it Association, Sambhu Thapa, as much as it did. autocratic provision enacted in is the first time it has publicly said this week that the Since then, our democratic constitution has been dismantled bit the absence of parliament acknowledged detaining provision for three-month by bit in front of our eyes by a feckless political leadership that couldn’t see beyond the tip of its nose, by Mandale remnants against the spirit of the people. A ruling in the detention without trial under desperate to ride again, by impatient rightwingers in the palace, and constitution and further militarys favor paves the way to the Public Security Act was by the Maoists who wanted a shortcut to end it all. However much they fostering a climate of impunity make the detentions legal and sufficient for the government to shed crocodile tears now, they all had a hand in its demise. among Nepali security forces. will undermine the role of the fight the insurgency. The To be sure, 1990 was an incomplete revolution. The constitution TADO in any of its avatars judiciary. necessity of denying people it spawned was not perfect, but no constitution is—they are supposed has always been condemned for TADO also enables the arrest basic legal rights in the name to evolve and mature. Some of the things the framers left the manner in which it has of people on suspicion alone. of security appears now to be a intentionally ambiguous were the role of the monarchy, the degree of granted the security forces The arbitrary and subjective given. its Hinduness and the army’s chain of command. sweeping powers. At a nature of deciding what/who is, It is not at all clear that the As in other constitutional monarchies, they left residual powers in the hands of the head of state with clauses like Article 127. But whatever its language, the preamble left no doubt about the spirit of the constitution: sovereignty rested with the people, the monarch was bound by constitutional norms. Deep down, this is what the present stalemate is all about: How much (or little) power the king should really have and who should command the army. And it doesn’t look like this is going to be resolved without a ruinous fight. This Constitution Day let’s ask ourselves: How much longer are we going to kill each other over something that could be resolved if leaders showed a little vision and statesmanship? In the village of Tatopani in Jumla, a wizened man who looked a lot older than his 50 years, was telling us recently about how his community is trapped between the Maoists and the army when he broke down and wept. Sobbing, he asked, “When will the king talk to the Maoists, when all of us are dead?” NEPALNEWS.COM L ETTERS NEPALS GUANTANAMO was dismissive of the Maoists: but wishes our own voters could cast throughout history, ‘ham-handed included in Pico Iyer’s latest book, The conflict in Nepal is “They’re not that big a threat. They ballots too. As was the case in the powers’ were wont to throw their Sun After Dark. Tibet is Nepal’s inexplicably neglected by the can create problems. They are 2000 election, Bush’s party is doing weight around. Ancient rulers in this next-door destination, leading to international media but two weeks quite capable of terrorising. That’s its corrupt best to disqualify or part of the world, too, specialised in the northern lights, and it is ago, UK telelvision viewers had for one of the reasons that sometimes intimidate hundreds of thousands of ‘bullying’ peaceful nations around assumed that Nepali tourism the first time full exposure to it. they create problems, otherwise African-American and Latino voters, them under various guises. Local entrepreneurs and captains of Potential tourists might not have they are on the run.” as well as Democratic Party voters in chauvinists do not miss an business and industries are aware of been encouraged.