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www.nepalitimes.com #169 7 - 13 November 2003 16 pages Rs 25 nickname Demolition Man. NARESH○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ NEWAR n top of Dharara, Kathmandus As soon as he was nominated mayor Mayor Keshab Sthapit by the Thapa government last month, suddenly gets dizzy looking Sthapit was back to where he had left off, down at his city. pulling down the petrol pump at I cant stand heights, he says, but Bhotahity to make way for a park. This Oovercomes vertigo to show us from this is my city. Lets see wholl stop me, he vantage point some of his plans to make says with characteristic bravado. And, Nepals capital more liveable. His hands except for those whose houses were Mayor Sthapit, overcome slice through the crisp morning air to directly in his bulldozers path, most by vertigo, sits at the point out the Bishnumati corridor, the Kathmanduites are happy to at last see parapet of Dharara. Dhobikhola diversion, plans to a public official who actually makes gentrify Asan, to relocate the bus-stop things happen. and turn Bagh Bazar into a high-rise To be sure, most of Sthapits plans are commercial centre. grandiose, like his project to raze Bagh Bazar and build highrise office blocks, buy Asans bahals to renovate them and turn the area into an IT centre, make a My city. 50km garden along the Ring Road or When the going build a megamall on Tinkune. Critics call gets tough, Mayor him a megalomaniac. Sthapit gets going. I dont just demolish things, says Keshab Sthapit is a man in a hurry the mayor, besides, you have to and wants to be known as a mayor who sometimes destroy to rebuild. It is clear this is a mellower mayor than last time. gets things done. InThe a country Marsyangdi where and most politicians areTrisuli talkers, meet Sthapit the The macho talk is still there, but Sthapit delivers. And he willKali literally Gandaki bulldoze to form seems to be undergoing a spiritual through the city tothe beautify Narayani in this makeover: he is meditating, learning the intersections, broadenaerial boulevards photograph. or Gandhian philosophy of non-violence create parks. And you better not be in his and even taking lessons to do the way. No wonder, during his first tenure fearsome Kal Bhairab dance. MIN BAJRACHARYA as mayor, Sthapit earned himself the continued ð p15 Heating up again ired of waiting for the palace to respond to their demands, political parties are once more on the warpath. They are organising demonstrations symbolically on Constitution Day on Sunday, 9 November. They say they want to remind extremists of the left and right that “there is still a constitution in this country”. The five parties (Nepali Congress, UML, People’s Front Nepal,T Nepal Workers and Peasants’ Party and Nepal Sadbhabana Party) which oppose the king’s takeover last October say they have already agreed on the next phase of their agitation which will include the government’s appointment of officials for local bodies. “There has already been an agreement on the protest programs,” says the UML’s Rajendra Pandey. “Soon we will work out days and timing.” The parties had eased the last phase of their campaign, which they had said would be “decisive”, after pressure from Kathmandu-based envoys and assurances that the king may accede to their demands which include reinstatement of parliament. But the rift between the parties and the palace seems to be as wide as ever, at a time when the Maoist insurgency is intensifying. Weekly Internet Poll # 109 Q. Do you agree with the Rastra Bank blacklisting big loan defaulters? Total votes:1,134 Weekly Internet Poll # 110. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q. Are you generally optimistic or pessimistic about Nepals future? ENJOY Every Friday The Sumptuous Barbecue Dinner at our illuminated Courtyard and Garden For Vegetarians Special Sish Kebabs and many more. For Reservation: 552 1810 7 - 13 NOVEMBER 2003 2 EDITORIAL NEPALI TIMES #169 Nepali Times is published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit STATE OF THE STATE by CK LAL Desk Editor: Trishna Gurung, Design: Kiran Maharjan Webmaster: Bhushan Shilpakar [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Advertising: Sunaina Shah [email protected] Subscription: Anil Karki [email protected] Sales: Sudan Bista [email protected] Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Lalitpur GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: 01-5543333/ 5523845 Fax: 01-5521013 Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hattiban: 01-5547018/17 ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Its○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ time to rethink strategy in the seething tarai. OY ON A SWING TheSUGA, Mahottari -Its beentarai a year since off farmers havetinderbox moved to the district population of 5,000, nobody has even a B s we are dragged down this vortex of violence, we have been forced to the last Chhath column, and a lot has headquarter. Even VDC secretaries and distant relative serving in the army. Most shed our innocence. We were a country about which many have easily changed for the worse. rural extension workers refuse to army patrols that visit the village cant talk generalised about the generosity, tolerance and benevolence of its In this farming region, the volatility of visit their assigned villages for fear of facing to villagers in the local language. Here, inhabitants. Nepalis were always quick to smile, bare our souls, say what we the grain market is now overshadowed by insurgents and their compulsory war tax. forces of the ruler and his subjects have meant. Now there is only suspicion and fear. When we do restore peace, we don’t the fear of Maobadi extortion. Earlier the In Ninety Three, a novel about the very little in common and even less to Aknow how long it will take before we regain the traits that were once a part of our boys used to come around and be satisfied pathos of French Revolution, Victor Hugo share. On top of that, there is the history national character. with a few sacks of rice, some dal or says that mountain insurgents fight for of grievances that have piled up since the But what makes us hopeful is when we come across people like the anony- temporary shelter for some days in the ideals while it is prejudice that propels Rana regime through the Panchayat years. mous Nepali who dropped by the office last week to offer to sponsor the education village school. Now, they demand cash forest-based rebels into taking up arms. In This erupts into open tension on the of Reshma Singkhawal and her sister after reading our article ‘Keep kids out of it’ payment. Hugos overpowering prose, this difference smallest of misunderstandings. (#167). Nepal has been brutalised, but the inherent humanity and compassion of In the cash-starved economy of tarai arises because the one has to deal with It is also the month of Ramadan for Nepalis still shines through. Despite the level of violence, what is surprising is the villages, the dread of Maobadi cadre with precipices, the other with quagmires; the Muslim Nepalis. Believers who observe lack of bitterness and revenge among victims. Up the hill from the police station near Pokhara in which seven policemen and civilians were killed in a Maoist attack two receipt books is so great that many better- one is the man of torrents and foaming Roja usually get up in the morning for weeks ago, we recently came across this boy on a streams, the other of stagnant puddles Sahari, the pre-dawn meal that heralds the swing to remind us of our dear Nepal of not so long where pestilence lurks; the one has his day of fasting. Naturally, there is some ago. A Nepal that will swing back once this is all over. head in blue sky, the other in thicket; the commotion in Muslim neighbourhoods. There is one country in the world which says it has one is on a summit, the other in a This attracts the attention of a security no need of an army: Costa Rica. Its pacifist constitution shadow. Not many Maobadis of the patrol. An indiscrete remark from a soldier has barred the setting up of an armed force, and Costa Nepali hills measure up to Hugo's ideals, that Muslims cant have the freedoms of Rica is a peaceful and prosperous country in a region but every rebel that you encounter these the last 12 years silences the entire of intense turmoil. Its president for many years, Oscar days in the tarai confirms his community. At evening Iftar, the social Arias, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for finding generalisation about the brutal nature of conversation acquires political overtones a settlement in Central America based on the insurgency in the plains. as family members compare notes about Contadora Plan. Mountainous terrain is ideal for hit the barbarity of the Maoists and the As our own country sinks into a Latin America- and run guerrilla tactics, and a small group cruelty of the military. style quagmire of insurgency, vigilantism, disappear- of dedicated fighters can make a Security checks along the east-west ances and human rights violations, it is useful to disproportionate impact. But the tarai is highway are doing nothing to make remember Arias' words. Things may not be as bad in made for more conventional warfare. God travellers sympathetic to the government. Nepal as El Salvador in the 1980s, but we are getting is indeed on the side of the bigger army in Motorcyclists, bus passengers and there. Negotiations take time and try our patience, Arias the battlefields of the flatlands. Having commuters face needless humiliation and said, but they are the only way to resolve conflicts.