#197 21 - 27 May 2004 20 pages Rs 25 Girija Prasad Koirala Madhab Kumar Nepal Amik Sherchan Narayan Man Bijukche Bharat Bimal Yadab BJP OUT The kingsALL PICS: MIN BAJRACHARYAlack of trust in the Royal disregard parties lies at the crux of the KANAK MANI DIXIT standoff KIRAN PANDAY deep, personal distrust that the politicians ran the country to the Front)? asked Madhab Kumar was not set. At press time Thursday, going to head the next government. A King Gyanendra harbours ground after 1990. Nepal, seeking to call the bluff. rumours were rife on what the palace In the long run, will such excessive against politicians lies at the Is the king focussing on well- On Wednesday, the king did might do next, the majority opinion animosity allow King Gyanendra to root of the standoff between publicised malfeasance of a few to finally meet the leaders of the five- being that it would ignore the serve as facilitator between the parties Narayanhiti and the parties agitating tar the rank and file of the political party alliance but, while asking them five parties yet again in selecting a in times of crisis? That would have at Ratna Park. parties? Does one detect in this a trace to play their hand, as the principal prime minister. been the hope. l Suspicion holds the populace in of self-interest, the king having player, he chose not to show his The monarchical distaste for limbo even as the polity dips into a expressed his intention of being cards. He thanked them for coming political parties has short-term Editorial p2 tailspin: the economy, state activity constructive? Is there a fear that but a date for the next rendezvous ramifications with regard to who is Emergency surgery and development work lie in tatters. revival of parliament will wrest away The major road arteries are blocked, too much power? Kathmandu Valley and the business Whether there was failure of centres are cut off and the army and democracy under parliamentary rule Maoists prepare for a confrontation remains a matter for debate and not that will extend far beyond the the basis on which an unelected coming monsoon. entity can take decisions for the The political solution that could people. In the sliding scale of provide a nikaas with the insurgents, corruption and mal-governance, the which can only come from an all- politicians are asking where the party government coupled with the parties stand in relation to the three- revival of the parliament, seems to decade-long Panchayat system, as be remote as the king keeps the well as the 19 months of the kings parties at arms length. rule-by-nomination (during which The origin of the royal distrust period there has been no accounting is unclear, but it is obvious that King of public expenditure). Gyanendra regards the parties as If the king means what he says dens of venal politicians, both about seeking a prime minister corrupt and inept. This belief jives without corrupt associations, what with the conviction of certain does he have against me or, say, Amik sections of Kathmandu society, that Sherchan (of the United Peoples Weekly Internet Poll # 137 Q. Should King Gyanendra meet the five political leaders together? Total votes:1,975 Weekly Internet Poll # 138. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q. Whom would you trust the most as the next prime minister? 2 EDITORIAL 21 - 27 MAY 2004 #197 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Desk Editors: Trishna Gurung, Jemima Sherpa Design: Kiran Maharjan Web: Bhushan Shilpakar Advertising: Sunaina Shah [email protected] Subscription: Anil Karki, [email protected] Remembering Madan Bhandari 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 What would he have done? Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 01-5547018 EMERGENCY SURGERY ould Nepal of 2061 BS commitment to a progressive W have been any different agenda, and making it a had Dasdhunga not formidable political force, despite t has been nearly two weeks since the prime minister resigned and till press time no replacement has been found. happened? Maybe. the fact that those fanatically I On the whole, the great man wedded to Communist dogma The country limps along, trailing blood. A visitor to Nepal this week asked: who is in charge of your theory of history might not carry would term the transition country? We were stumped for an answer. The king seized much analytical weight since Khruschevite. He subscribed to power one-and-half years ago, we explained, and he has been socio-economic and political the notion that a genuine working through a list of recycled politicos. Every morning, we factors generally explain political revolution need not be violent. read another list of luminaries the king met the previous day. trajectories better. However, some Indeed, blood need not be There seems to be no sense of urgency to find a successor spilled liberally as if it is chaulani prime minister. So far, we have done without a legislature, GUEST COLUMN pani; without local bodies, without an elected executive and without a fundamental socio-political government. Wonder what else we can do without? AG Chhetri Meanwhile, the Maoists make full use of this confusion, changes can be achieved without bringing the entire country to a halt for weeks on end with charismatic figures play pivotal ditching basic manabiya MIN BAJRACHARYA blockades and forced strikes. The people have reached the limit roles in shaping the political sambedana if one can efficiently Nepal. He was the best thing to of what they can endure. It is time to end this uncertainty, and environments of their times. As mobilise public opinion in pursuit emerge out of the quasi-revolution rush the country into emergency surgery. the towering figure of Nepali of a noble cause. Bhandari had the of 2046. The king and the parties seem to agree that the first order of politics in the first few years of the requisite capabilities to do precisely Its not political, its business is to set up a multiparty interim government (they just post-2046 democratic era, Madan that. He possessed the halo of a emotional, said Rahul Gandhi in disagree on who should do the setting up) that commands the Bhandari played a pivotal role in crusader, the finesse of a statesman, a recent interview with Time. He stature to negotiate with the Maoists and persuade them to take shaping the contours of Nepali the oratorical prowess of Churchill, was referring to the bond he (more part in future polls. politics of the time. the pragmatic touch of a seasoned aptly, the Gandhi dynasty) shared Even for longterm rehabilitation, there is scant disagreement on the kind of polity we need. For a multiethnic, multireligious and CPN (UML) had the politician. Most importantly, he with the people of Amethi, his polyphonic country like ours, there is really no other way than Naxalite-inspired Jhapa Andolan displayed undying commitment to electoral constituency. The same political pluralism that provides representation to the diversity. as a part of its history. Engineering a more egalitarian and prosperous could be said of Bhandaris bond The mechanics of implementing pluralism is also clear: a federal its transformation to a social structure built on genuinely decentralised governance. democratic party was no mean It is in all our self-interests to support democracy at the local feat. Bhandari deserves praise for and national levels. There is no pluralism without democracy, and steering the UML to the there is no democracy without participation. It may sound like a mainstream, without cliché, but participation is also needed to make democracy deliver severing its development. In fact, we had seen that link very clearly in the mid-1990s as grassroots democracy empowered people across Nepal to demand basic services from their elected representatives. No matter how rousing their rhetoric, neither a dictator- ship of the right nor totalitarianism of the left can ensure a system inclusive enough to lift us out of poverty and war. Only by giving a voice and visibility to the marginalised and left-out and by including them in representative decision-making will we be able to craft a polity that addresses the inequities that are at the root of the conflict. There is a consensus on most of what we have said above. The disagreement is only about who should be in charge to see it through. But even on that, the answer is plain: the people should be in charge. Not an autocratic elite, not the military, not the extremists, not demagogues. Let’s use a scalpel, not an axe. L ETTERS BHIMLAL HIRACHAN murdered ruthlessly every day. and the killings of thousands of be brave and courageous, facing to know what we look like. What By murdering Bhimlal Hirachan Enough is enough. How long can others like them from Mechi to threats from both the security forces relevance does this have? We would (‘Good man’, #196), the Maoists the Maoists keep punishing Mahakali over the last eight years and the Maoists. We must recognise be more impressed if you asked what have destroyed the future of ordinary people with their have shown that the Maoist the sacrifices made by journalists our thoughts are, how we intend to Rasuwa district and its people. blockades and bandas? And, revolution is nothing but an excuse like Gyanendra Khadka. meet our objectives or what our next He was the only leader who finally, Girija Koirala and his ilk for sadistic bloodletting. They are Ganesh Bhusal, Biratnagar actions will be.