#380 28 December 2007 - 3 January 2008 18 pages Rs 30 Weekly Internet Poll # 380 Q. If elections aren’t held in Chait, whose fault will it be? Will 2008 be any different? Total votes: 6,279 Weekly Internet Poll # 381. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q.Will elections happen this time? JANUARY 2007 FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL The tarai ignites. UNMIN begins Kathmandu dithers on the madhes. Gaur massacre. The June date for First anniversary of the April work in cantonments. People wait for the peace dividend elections looks doubtful. Uprising marked by continued that never arrives. political deadlock. MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST Gas, water, electricity shortages Support for monarchy at all time YCL excesses intensify, Maoists Maoist plenum puts pressure on highlight state incompetence. low. The Maoists aren’t much get unions to close down leaders to delay elections. popular either. newspapers. SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER Maoists walk out of government, EC gears up for polls again, but NC and Maoists still can’t find Maoists back in government, peace process in disarray. politicians get cold feet. a compromise. elections in April. Public skeptical. 2 EDITORIAL 28 DECEMBER 2007 - 3 JANUARY 2008 #380 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Editor: Kunda Dixit Design: Kiran Maharjan Director Sales and Marketing: Sunaina Shah marketing(at)himalmedia.com Circulation Manager: Samir Maharjan sales(at)himalmedia.com Subscription: subscription(at)himalmedia.com,5542525/535 The year of the madhes Hatiban, Godavari Road, Lalitpur editors(at)nepalitimes.com GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu 5543333-6, Fax: 5521013 www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 5547018 2007 transformed the tarai, Nepal will never be the same again PEACE TRAIN he last week of 2007 granted, commits political even as a bargaining chip as Nepali lefties have always had a flair for pompous rhetoric. marks the first suicide. Never again will Hridayesh Tripathi, Upendra Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Babu Ram Bhattarai insist on using a T anniversary of the onset Kathmandu be able to tell a Yadav and Rajendra Mahato paragraph to say what they can in one sentence. of madhesi protests. It was madhesi politician not to wear a have done in public in recent So we have a 23-point agreement among the seven parties in exactly a year ago that madhesi dhoti to parliament or speak in weeks and others do in private which the communists commit themselves, once again, to groups began to rally opinion his own language. conversations. constituent assembly elections. against the interim constitution All government departments If this is a struggle for Nepal has been declared a republic, but it will only take not addressing the issue of have been forced to at least appear rights, why is the madhesi formal effect sometime in the middle of next year after it is ratified federalism and an unfair sensitive about the need to leadership and civil society a by the constituent assembly. But the king is in his palace, still electoral system. include madhesis. Even the part of the conspiracy of silence paid a salary by taxpayers money. The mixed election system has been slightly modified as a insular mafia of international against the attack on pahadis in face-saving device for the Maoists, btu the essence of the earlier TARAI EYE organisations in the capital has the tarai? This breakdown of had to wake up. The World Bank social fabric must rank as arithmetic remains in place. The 23-point agreement is what is Prashant Jha already in the interim constitution and in previous accords. is adding a chapter to a major among the most unfortunate Let’s not go into why it took them so long. It’s like asking why study on exclusion in which aspects of the past year. does the sun set in the west. The important thing is that the peace The Nepalganj riots of they had originally forgotten all Where do the dalits fit in train which had stopped at a siding (not derailed as some cynics December 2007 exposed the about madhesis. vis-a-vis the movement, or is insisted in October when the Maoists left the government) is now state’s partisan handling of the But any Nepali who derisively the aim to replace one form of on the move again. Essentially, it was never a problem between issue and fuelled anger across dismisses a madhesi as “dhoti” discrimination with another? the leadership of the Maoists and the NC, it was a problem within the tarai, culminating into the can’t get away with it anymore. A How will madhesi leaders deal their parties between the hardliners and moderates. The radicals, movement. madhesi friend who lives in with the Tharus and Muslims of course, are still not satisfied. Janajatis have also gone along saying the elections are more One year later, the climate of Kupondole reports that he used who often want to assert an important for now. Madhesi militant factions have denoucned it, pessimism that engulfs to look down and walk away independent identity and are but the Forum will take part. The rightwing RJP and RPP dubbed Kathmandu is contagious, and when abused. Today, there are no skeptical of exclusivist the deal undemocratic. China, India and UNMIN cautiously disillusionment is widespread. more insults. If this is happening rhetoric? welcomed the new agreement. The scepticism is understandable But from the perspective of the in the capital, where madhesis Do the madhesi activists because by their past behaviours the seven parties give us no madhes, 2007 has been are relatively insecure, think want a quick election so they reason to trust them this time. transformative. Nepal is not the about their level of confidence in can fight for rights within the Polls have been postponed twice. This time, if they fail to same country anymore. Nepal the tarai. elected assembly? Or do they have elections by April, the leaders don’t just lose face, they lose can never be described anymore A lot more needs to be done. want certain pre-conditions all legitimacy. as just a country of mountains, The state needs to be transformed fulfilled before polls? How can Still, from now till April there are three spoilers. Monarchists even in a tourist brochure. Any in systemic terms and redefining there possibly be immediate will try their damnedest to not allow elections to happen, an escalation in madesh violence would be a problem, and the wild party that ignores madhesi who a Nepali is will be a long proportionate inclusion of followers of the Maoists will have to be defanged. sentiments cannot remain a process. But an irreversible madhesis in state structures? Is The YCL has harmed the prospects of its own parent party in national entity for long. Any process of political and social the Madhes as one federal unit elections, but the risk is that their excesses will be used by the politician, who thinks he can change is underway that will from east to west viable or even hard right to wreck elections. Together, the six-party alliance and take the madhesi vote for alter the relationship between the desirable? Why are moderate Maoists must finally prove they state and madhesis, between hill- leaders winking at the armed are capable of governing. origin people and groups and abetting the A government that can’t madhesis, and among criminalisation of politics? ensure supply of essential madhesis themselves. And why are madhesi leaders commodities, arrange But precisely fighting over the share of a cake garbage disposal in the because of the enormity that doesn’t even exist yet? capital, guarantee freedom of movement and can’t of this change, the Last week’s editorial in this check crime is susceptible madhesi political paper called 2007 the ‘lost year’. to sabotage by society’s leadership and society The description is apt in many malcontents. at large needs to sit respects: a myopic political Nepalis don’t want to back and answer some class, a peace process that hear any more speeches. difficult questions. Is appears to be in permanent The leaders must see the end goal a crisis, no polls, no elections as a chance to secessionist movement or development. But if there is mend ways and improve their a struggle for rights within one achievement for which this tarnished reputation among the Nepal? If it is the latter, year will be remembered, it will public. madhesi leaders need to stop be because the madhesis found throwing the independence card their voice. BILASH RAI Happy new Nepal This is the end of a year, and the end of an era ome years rush past so fast that before cancellation of constituent assembly of a CPN (Monarchist). Chitra Bahadur KC but the airport remained as decrepit and you know it, it’s gone. Events this year elections twice within 2007. The 6+1 of the People’s Front opposes not just corrupt as ever. Nepal Airlines was S unfolded in agonising slow motion. parties have finally committed themselves republicanism but federalism as well. The grounded by corruption and Militant YCL cadre made their debut in to elections by April next year. NC’s own Chiranjibi Wagley, Gobinda Raj mismanagement. open politics with a spate of extortions, Despite widespread clamour for his Joshi, Khum Bahadur Khadka and Taranath Highway travel in Nepal was so abductions, ransom demands and other crown, Gyanendra continued his search for Rana Bhat came out openly to support a uncertain that a businessman from strong-arm methods of intimidation. a cultural role. Girija Prasad Koirala tried ‘constitutional monarchy’. Everyone, even Biratnagar flew to Kathmandu to travel to his best to establish the idea of ceremonial monarchists, are entitled to their views in Janakapur for his cousin’s marriage because monarchy and ended up becoming a ritual a democracy.