#252 17 - 23 June 2005 16 pages Rs 30 NARESH NEWAR hutan's celebration of its UN-sanctioned concept of A Gross National Happiness in Canada next week will coincide with World Refugee Day on 20 Bamboo curtain June. It will have to answer for the misery of nearly 110,000 Bhutani refugees in Nepal. Bhutani refugees wait for their fate to be decided Canada is one of the western countries pushing a new formula to resolve the refugee crisis with third country resettlement. Under the proposal, Photo Feature p8-9 once EXILE Bhutan takes back a proportion of refugees, a majority will be ‘locally integrated’ in Nepal and the rest will be given citizenship by some western governments. There is compassion fatigue after 15 years, and also concern that frustration among refugees in camps in eastern Nepal could easily be exploited by extremists. Hence the hurry to find a quick solution. Continued p4 Weekly Internet Poll # 252 Q. Is the continued crackdown on the media by the state justified? Total votes:549 Weekly Internet Poll # 253. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q... Is it now time for the Maoists to give up violence and join the political mainstream? ISSN 1814-2613 ASHOK R SHAKYA 2 EDITORIAL 17 - 23 JUNE 2005 #252 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Desk Editor: Abha Eli Phoboo, Aarti Basnyat 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 Tel: 01-5543333-6, Fax: 01-5521013 [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 01-5547018 Ironies abound The twilight zone of Nepali politics is full of paradoxes TRIAL AND TERROR here is a limit to which you verdict. Ditto for journalists. This is like letting the fox guard Past cruelty is always eclipsed by headlines of more recent brutality. can bend logic. Take this They are demanding the right to the chicken coop. Indian media Time blunts the jagged edges of pain. We have to keep reminding T example: When a leader is free expression. What we do not report that officials who have ourselves of the horrific new year massacre of villagers in appointed twice as prime see are signs of greater objectivity labelled the Maoists as terrorists Nawalparasi by Maoists hunting vigilantes, the murder of popular minister under certain situations and ethical responsibility in are facilitating a dialogue with preacher Pandit Narayan Prasad Pokhrel last month, the recent abductions of children and teachers in Kaski, Dadeldhura and Dang. prevailing in the country it is journalism. With the media’s political leaders. This is Memories of these atrocities were pushed aside by news of the considered constitutional. Under rights come responsibilities. beginning to look like a love deliberate and pre-meditated terrorist attack on civilians in Madi and the same set of conditions when All this, of course, doesn’t triangle. Kabhre in the past week, the senseless murder of Campus Chief an anti-corruption body is absolve the state from blame. And So-called Indian experts on Ganeshman Palikhe in Pokhara and on Tuesday the slaughter of six formed to investigate corruption one of the most glaring and Nepal are given more importance family members of two policemen in Dhangadi that included a year- symbolic lapses is the way in Nepal than our own scholars. old baby. GUEST COLUMN Maoist victims are being treated, Their utterances have more There are signs the revolution is now using terror for terror’s Bijen Jonchhe allowing them to be politically influence on our political leaders sake. It has lost what remained of its social and political reform exploited. The government has than Nepali experts. What makes agenda and has degenerated into criminality. Even by the terrible cases and implicates this same not been able to refute, deny or a JNU professor or an ex-general standards of its own past cruelty these recent killings can only be person in a scam, the body as correct the negative press the from the Indian Army a ‘Nepal described as crimes against humanity. Yes, 12 armed soldiers in mufti were travelling in the Madi bus but anyone (especially the comrade well as the move to control country is receiving domestically expert’? Can we not learn to trust with his finger on the detonator trigger) could have seen from a mile corruption becomes and internationally. The ground ourselves on matters that concern away that the bus was piled high with civilians. unconstitutional. reality is far removed from what our destiny? Does a nation not An elderly Madi farmer said it for all of us Nepalis: “You can’t ask Prime Minister Deuba used appears in the media, yet the have the right to choose a polity forgiveness for something that is unpardonable.” Just as the Great his constitutional prerogative to authorities make no effort to set suitable to its own needs and Helmsman himself intended, support for the movement now comes dissolve the house in 2002, a the record straight. Why is the strengths? Must we blindly ape mainly from the barrel of the gun—it is no more a genuine espousal move validated by the Supreme state only talking to a handful of the west to please the west? of the cause of revolution. The political base of the cadre has eroded, Court. When the same person was sycophantic state media? There is And of our political the chain of command is in disarray and the leadership rift is showing charge-sheeted on corruption no point preaching to the leadership, the less said the fissures right down to the grassroots. charges his followers have taken converted. The government seems better. When their anti-king street To be fair, the comrades are in a dilemma. Moderate elements to the streets demanding to be dithering on the media agitation fails to ignite because of within the movement that now see the futility of further violence are incapable of braking or steering this runaway juggernaut. And there restoration of the house that he ordinance. Why is it hesitating? lack of political support they is every sign the hardliners are dominant. Indian and Nepali politi- himself dissolved. The RCCC sets the original bail rush off to India to cry on the cians tried in New Delhi last week to convince Maoist ideologues to The political parties oppose amount in the Melamchi case at shoulders of their mentors in join the mainstream through a constitutional compromise. But the the choice of the NHRC members Rs 570 million. A few months New Delhi. It is easy to see who comrades know that as soon as they put down their bombs, they will because their candidates have not later, the bail amount is reduced the political parties regard as be chased out of the villages. been included as they were in the to five million. Has the quantum their constituents. The biggest While we wait for the broader political agreement necessary for previous commission. Why of corruption suddenly shrunk? irony of all is the unseemly sight restarting the peace process, the Maoists would do well to reclaim should the NHRC be a bunch of India has been up to its neck of Nepali politicians acting like their political agenda by unilaterally announcing a moratorium on use political appointees? in the region’s crises: Sri Lanka, birds on a wire to fly off to New of landmines, booby traps, assassinations of unarmed civilians and Professionals such as lawyers Bangladesh, Bhutan. The Delhi to meet Indian officials. abductions of school children. For its part, the security forces could are expected to function without Americans and the Europeans Our idea of nationalism has respond with a reciprocal freeze on offensive action. You don’t need to agree on a ceasefire to begin such confidence-building measures. bias or prejudice. But legal have now given it the lead role in been limited to wearing the And whoever does it first attains the moral high ground. Such practitioners are taking political solving the situation in Nepal national dress, speaking our gestures will build the trust necessary to begin the more challenging issues to the streets even on even though New Delhi is language and boasting of the fact work of sustainable peace-building. But it needs visionaries. matters on which the Supreme implicated in destabilising that we have never been a British Court had previously given its activities here and elsewhere. colony. Is this all there is to it? z How about those who didn’t pass? requent felicitation syndrome is a It is the state’s responsibility to give those who didn’t make it another chance social disease. The more starved a F society is for achievers, the more system that isn’t designed for them in the felicitation ceremonies it holds. From the first place. The SLC Board has neither the neighbourhood kid who makes a robot to a intention nor the ability to evaluate mountaineer who climbs to the top for the individuals of vastly varying backgrounds 16th time, we really overdo the garlanding with different life-skills. and vermilion. The best fish-farmer from Saptari, the Given our collective addiction for ablest vegetable grower in Dhading, the adulation, all 83,747 students who passed most skilled carpenter of Doti and the SLC this year are being feted. Private sector most experienced mountain guide in Plus Two schools woo graduates, Manang may have all failed their distinction-holders are showered with exams. They have nothing in common scholarships, there are full-page ads from with the Bahun-Chhetri-Newar elite schools whose children overwhelmingly STATE OF THE STATE showing passed.