Nepali Times.Z 2 EDITORIAL 23 - 29 OCTOBER 2009 #473
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#473 23 - 29 October 2009 16 pages Rs 30 Hu cares? PRAKASH DAHAL t a time when India- Beijing, which was happy timing. reassure bothpowers on political China relations are with the way the Maoists cracked We don’t know what China’s unity in Nepal, rather than try to A returning to near-Cold down on pro-Tibet activities message was, but sources say use one to irritate the other. What War levels, the Maoists have while they were in power, seems Beijing underlined the need for Dahal’s visit seems to have done been trying to play Nepal’s two to be only too happy to play stability in Nepal and Premier Hu is made the Indians even more giant neighbours against each along. Dahal’s visit to China last was worried about the growing paranoid, and to conclude that other. Having concluded that week, during which he also met political drift in Kathmandu. If the Maoists can’t be trusted. Delhi masterminded its briefly with Premier Hu Jintao India and This downfall from government May, was either perfect, or disastrous, China are PLAIN SPEAKING Prashant Jha p2 picture of Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal shadow- Unstable stability the two Dahal has been cosying up to boxing, and shaking China. that seems to be what is hands in Jinan on 16 October was happening, then it may be better taken by Dahal’s son Prakash and for Nepali leaders to try to is exclusive to Nepali Times.z 2 EDITORIAL 23 - 29 OCTOBER 2009 #473 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Editor: Kunda Dixit Desk Editor: Rabi Thapa CEO: Ashutosh Tiwari Design: Kiran Maharjan DGM Sales and Marketing: Sambhu Guragain [email protected] Marketing Manager: Subhash Kumar Asst. Manager: Arjun Karki Hatiban, Godavari Road, Lalitpur Fax: 5251013 [email protected] GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu 5250333/845 www.nepalitimes.com Unstable stability Printed at Jagadamba Press 5250017-19 Nepal’s political future is locked into India’s dilemmas onvincing the Indians of Kashmir’. Delhi has already given not address the root issues of DEMONSTRATING DEMOCRACY the need to help salvage the go-ahead to Dalai Lama to justice, displacement and tribal The current debate on the kind of federalism the new constitution C the Nepali peace process is visit Arunachal, and has now exploitation, and will only lead should incorporate doesn’t take into account Nepal’s experience getting harder. This is because of decided not to issue workvisas to to ‘collateral damage’, impose with decentralised development in the 1990s. The devolution of reasons both internal to Nepal, unskilled Chinese workers. development models that people political power to elected local councils was beginning to deliver and the broader context in which Analysts have offered various do not want, and alienate them services to the grassroots. While governance at the national level Delhi has to make certain explanations for the stand-off. even more. floundered, village and district councils proved accountability was fundamental decisions. Whatever the reason, this is not Across the board, however, a the key. The Indian state today is about to descend into a conflict. common refrain has been, “Why This success was itself based on Nepal’s tradition of community facing two big issues that will Both powers recognise the don’t our Maoists imitate the management of water and forests by local groups – a system that has been historically undervalued by successive central have long-lasting consequences incentives for cooperation. The Nepali Maoists? Look, they gave governments. Modern governance structures choked these for its own stability and for two Prime Ministers meet in up violence and participated in practices, and community groups were, and remain, largely Nepal. Thailand soon. Foreign office elections.” Ironically, even BJP forgotten. spokespersons are already toning leaders – who opposed our peace Until now. The Nobel prize in economics awarded to Elinor down the rhetoric. India and process – have been making these Ostrom last week brought much-needed recognition to the PLAIN SPEAKING China just signed an MOU on arguments. exemplary work of communities. Ostrom’s research demonstrates Prashant Jha climate change. Trade is The Indian establishment that goods like water, which can be fairly inexpensively rationed, skyrocketing. could see the utility of getting may be better managed collectively within communities than if But the trust deficit has the Nepali Maoists back into the privatised. It echoes, indeed draws inspiration from, Nepal’s own The first is the growing sharply increased. power structure to project them experience with community initiatives. And it validates grassroots tension with China. Strategic Right in the middle of this, as a ‘role model’ to their Indian democracy in the country and the region at a time when it has become fashionable to be cynical about it. Democracy isn’t just fair, circles are agog with speculation with either a perfect, or comrades. Or it may feel that it’s good economics. about whether the global system disastrous, sense of timing, their utility is now over. The role Ostrom goes further, saying that the more democratic a can accommodate two rising Mr Pushpa Kamal Dahal went off model argument has been made community initiative is internally (the more of a say resource users powers simultaneously and to China. We do not know what but the Naxalites, in any case, are have in the rules by which they are used) the more successful it is peacefully – especially when Beijing told him – to behave, be not buying it. Nepali Maoists are likely to be. The implications can be revolutionary: it means caste- they have fought a bitter war, flexible and finish the peace already over-ground, and can be obsessed villagers will have to stomach their reservations and share contested borders, and process or to agitate and take on kept trapped in the process cooperate with the lower castes to buy into proven community compete for resources and power. India with Chinese support. But without offering them real power. forestry or irrigation programs. The past fortnight has seen what the visit has done is prove Against this national and Nepal’s 40-year experience with community forestry bears this Beijing ratchet up the rhetoric on to sections in Delhi that the regional backdrop, Delhi has to out, having done much to restore canopy cover and address poverty Man Mohan Singh’s Arunachal Maoists cannot be trusted. answer two questions. and discrimination. It now accounts for 40 per cent of forestry activities in the country, and plans are afoot to ensure its benefits visit. Uncharacteristically, India The second challenge for Can it live with a Maoist- are spread more equitably. Community forestry also showed what a hit back, asking China to stay India is ‘Operation Green Hunt’, a dominated power structure in blunder the nationalisation of forests in the 1960s was, and how away from ‘Pakistan-occupied massive security offensive spread Nepal – even though they have quickly villages bounced back once ownership was across central and eastern not undergone the prescribed transferred to grassroots groups. India against the ‘course correction’, continue to To be sure, not everything has gone smoothly. Communist Party of India court China, maintain an all- Bureaucrats who can score a tidy commission by (Maoist). Paramilitary troops embracing party structure, and privatising public resources are trying to assert control. with heavy weaponry are stick to their ideological line? And despite the social changes they’ve wrought, being deployed with the And can it live with a radically communities are still dominated by the local elite. The support of Air Force different Nepali state – where government will have to step in as regulator. In an email helicopters. There are plans political elites may not be as this week, Ostrom told us: “When democratic national regimes recognise the rights of local peoples to self- to launch coordinated pliable to Indian concerns, where organise, their rights are usually better protected. Due, attacks to recover the forest multiple ‘autonomous’ provinces however, to the earlier academic and policy known as Abuj-Marh, which exist that may embarrass India, presumption that ‘the’ government needs to handle serves as a base area for the for instance by declaring the caste most problems related to common-pool resources, Maoists, and then move into system a human rights abuse even democratic regimes have failed to recognise the other districts in from a UN platform? rights to self-organise at a local or regional level.” Chhattisgarh. The idea is to All options are on the table But however we qualify these successes, it’s hard ‘clear areas of Maoists, assert but it would be a surprise if the to deny an important lesson they teach us about state control, and begin answer to either question were democracy. Democracy has paid off in community development work’. ‘yes’. For security establishments, initiatives only because they’ve been imaginatively The government’s plan the prospect of ‘controlled designed and the incentives worked out in ways that factor in human frailties and psychology. is opposed by instability’ in familiar settings And the lesson of the Nepal experience is that anthropologists, activists usually outweighs the risks of grassroots democracy isn’t just theory, it works and even some security the unknown. Nepal’s political beautifully in practice. specialists. They point out future is locked in precisely that that a military offensive will dilemma. LLL ETTERS THE GREAT HIMALAYAN TRAIL Kathmandu, and on this global warming’s JAZZMANDU To my knowledge, this is not a first (‘The website: http:// effects, like Great review of Jazzmandu! (‘Let them Great Himalayan Trail’, #472). A French digitalhimalaya.com/ accelerated glacial hear jazz’, #472). But I’m also glad company sponsored a similar trip back in collections/journals/ melt and its effects on you’ve brought attention to the jazz 1986/87.