#194 30 April - 6 May 2004 20 pages Rs 25 Spectator sport As bystanders watched from the sidewalk, anti-king demonstrators set fire to a government vehicle at Bagh Bazar on Sunday while the media magnified the image. The anti-‘regression’ protests has dragged on for a month and in that period, dozens of government vehicles were set on fire and street railings were uprooted to be used as barricades. Government spokesman, Kamal Thapa, says the arsonists are Maoists who infiltrated the movement. The political parties deny this. The protests appear to be having some effect: King Gyanendra began meetings with political figures, but the parties have refused to meet the king until the ban on protests are lifted. Weekly Internet Poll # 134 Q. Does the anti-regression agitation by the parties have popular support? MIN BAJRACHARYA Editorial p2 Mayday, mayday Total votes:1,558 Bihari K Shrestha p2 Weekly Internet Poll # 135. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Divided donors Q. Is it ethical for journalists to join the anti- Donors as kingmakers king agitation on the streets? Its not just Nepalis who are not united Seira Tamang p7 Business as unusual NAVIN SINGH KHADKA statement said. The donors didnt UN resident representative say whether they would proceed Matthew Kahane. We have nothing Interview p7 festering rift among Nepals with the meeting if such a move more to say. Jorg Frieden, SDC A main donors threatens to wasnt forthcoming. While it looks like the bilaterals A little give and take p8 become an open split over Jorg Frieden, director of Swiss are using their aid leverage to get the whether or not next weeks Nepal Development Cooperation is in palace and parties to patch up, Strings attached p8 Development Forum (NDF) should favour of postponement: Given multilateral agencies are maintaining go ahead as scheduled. developments in the country in the a guarded silence. The meeting The government is determined While multilaterals like the last few weeks, the delay will also is being organised by the to go ahead with the meeting. World Bank and ADB are said to give us an opportunity to prepare in government, said World Banks Finance Minister Prakash Chandra favour the present schedule for the a better way for the meeting. Rajib Upadhyaya. Nepal is a Lohani dismissed a donor boycott: meeting, bilaterals led by the Norwegian Ambassador Ingrid shareholder of the bank, therefore There is no need to politicise this Norwegians and Danes have Ofstad said bilateral donors preferred we will have to follow the meeting. adopted a different position. the postponement if there is a move governments decision. With their call for postponement, In a statement on Wednesday, a for a representative government. European donors have expressed the parties have put the donors group of 11 donors said the meeting But a decision has to be taken at concern over the derailment of the in a spot. More so, because the could be delayed if the parties meet the earliest because our officials will democratic process and the futility government is organising the meeting the king on a common prime begin to arrive in Kathmandu after of aid in a conflict situation. Sources this time. Technically, it is difficult ministerial candidate by Friday. If the weekend, she added. said the 11 includes Norway, for the donors to do what we want, this were to happen, we would The UN was among donors Denmark, Finland, Canada, Britain, admitted former Finance Minister prefer to postpone the NDF that discussed the conditional the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ram Sharan Mahat, but the pending the formation of the postponement of the meet. The Germany, France, Canada and government will have to face the representative government, the group has put out a statement, said the EC. political issues donors will raise. l 2 EDITORIAL 30 APRIL - 6 MAY 2004 #194 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] Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Lalitpur Donors as kingmakers GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: 01-5543333-6, Fax: 01-5521013 [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 01-5547018 They could broker a truce between the palace and the parties MAYDAY, MAYDAY he latest spectacle in the the five party agitation, has lately manifold achievements of the iven the situation the country is in, it is perhaps fitting that the T political drama in Nepal is joined the fray, the RPP is reported multiparty regime to argue their G Nepal Development Forum should be held during the week that the the donor community to have decided to take to the partisan agenda. King Gyanendra, country’s political crisis is coming to a head. Economic apparently asking the agitating streets to oust their own prime himself, while being seen to want development can only happen through true decentralisation and inclusive parties to name their prime minister. Both are worried they to listen to the parties, remains democratic governance. It is therefore natural that Nepal’s donor minister. As if they have the might lose out ministerial berths in largely unmoved. consortium wants to use aid as a leverage for a return to democratic norms. Our two giant neighbours and America have a strategic interest in an all-party government. The western powers have made Nepal, but it is the Europeans and the multilaterals who take the lead in As the student wings followed multiparty democracy and human influencing development policy. Before he left, US ambassador Michael GUEST COLUMN their parent parties with anti- rights the basis for their aid to Malinowski dared the Europeans to “put their money where their mouth is”. Bihari K Shrestha monarchy sloganeering, the Maoists Nepal and tended to favour the They seem to have taken his advice, but not in the way he meant it—some expressed their solidarity, so they parties. India, which wields the of them want to use the NDF to announce that they will put a moratorium on aid until the king retracts October Fourth and restores democracy. wherewithal to have the king too could ride the wave of biggest influence and has helped The political crisis in Kathmandu and the insurgency has brought nominate that candidate. This is republicanism. Some professional militarily in the anti-Maoist development to a grinding halt, and there is growing conviction among an ominous development. organisations, most of them overtly campaign, is also publicly Nepal’s main donors that there is no point pouring in more money until The tri-polar war of nerves aligned with the parties, have also committed to support parties, democracy is restored as a prelude to a new peace process. Sensing the between the king, political parties joined the stir. While the print although its intentions are donor mood, this week the political parties formally asked the consortium and the Maoists is deadlocked. media have found it fashionable to generally viewed with suspicion. As to postpone the NDF, but they seem to have miscalculated because the meeting is going ahead. While the Nepali Congress (D), toe the democratic line of the outside pressure increases, the king At the heart of this debate is the question: which comes first awed by the apparent tenacity of parties, some prominent therefore may have to capitulate. development or peace? It is a chicken-or-egg riddle. The Europeans argue journalists have even invented But public opinion is still with that there can be no development the king, people are sceptical of without peace. True, but the only long- political parties for having term antidote to conflict is develop- ment. (An aid moratorium will have the preoccupied themselves with same effect as the trade embargo on Burma— corruption and bringing the ultimately the Burmese people have suffered while country to its knees. Despite the junta rules merrily on.) democracy the people could do A warning on aid stoppage can only be a stick to prod the king nothing in the past 13 years to to restore democracy for his own good. Internal displacement, absence of prevent the sustained plunder by basic services, the withdrawal of government and the erosion in education threaten to reverse all the development gains of the past decades. The the parties, other than silently need for effective aid is greater than ever before. harbouring their discontent. The challenge is to find a mechanism to deliver these services in a Umpteen phases of agitation conflict situation—not just as emergency relief, but also to revive the against regression have now lasted networks for delivery even if it means working in Maoist areas. The military more than a year, yet the three- and the Maoists may have problems with this, but they must be persuaded that the Nepali people have suffered enough. If they can’t agree on a decade old Panchayat regime peace process, then the least they can do is to allow the people access to collapsed in less than two months education, health and development. in 1990 when the people Aid abuse and dependency are partly the reasons we are in the mess spontaneously stormed the streets we are in, so aid by itself can’t be a solution. This means the fundamentals of Kathmandu. of aid have to change. We need aid that assists the peace process and in By his wish to be heard and the long-term furthers social justice. It is the responsibility of not just Nepalis but also the international community to work towards restoring a not just seen, the king has decided representative government committed to resolving the conflict through to champion and redefine the role negotiation.