Friday, May 27, 2005

Rumor Has It The King Is About To Make A Major Move


"Yo hallai halla ko desh ho." Bhupi Sherchan.

Rumor has it the king is about to make a major move on par with 2/1. It can not be in the direction of more autocracy, since he has consistently gone in the direction of democracy since the end of April. So my guess would be it would be good news. But I can't tell exactly what.
He could go ahead and declare the parliament revived and basically agree to the idea that a Constituent Assembly is the only political meeting point for the three political forces in the country.

I still wonder, how exactly will the parliament be revived? Will he use Article 127? And if he will use Article 127, will the parliament stand to be dissolved by him at any moment thereafter? Or what? And if a parliament revived using Article 127 is okay, why is an all-party government formed by the same article not okay?

Could the king go for an interim government like his elder brother did in 1990 in response to the movement then? One can only wonder. I can think of a few options the king has, but there is no telling what exactly he will do. But my guess is whatever it is, it will be a change for the better.

I personally think the political parties should be able to offer an iron clad guarantee for the continuation of the monarchy to get full democracy in return. That could be a meeting point.

Personally I think the proposal I made to the king on May 3 is the best of all options.
It preserves the monarchy, it goes about nine steps ahead of every political party in the country in terms of offering the goods to the people, it totally steals the political and social thunder of the Maoists, something no gun can do, and leaves them the option to become a peaceful party or become irrelevant, just like that, evaporate off, it makes corruption near impossible, it puts Nepal on the political cutting edge. I can totally imagine American progressives pointing their fingers in Nepal's direction, green with envy, and asking out aloud as to why they can not have something as wonderful also in America. I can imagine the CPI and the CPI (M) totally coming around to the concept of total, transparent democracy in India and launching a non-BJP, non-Congress Third Front, immediately. I can imagine the Chinese saying they continue to denouce the western democracies, but that they actually like the Nepali version. The king of Nepal becomes the Samrat of Asia. Alexander and Napoleon used physical force. But conquest today is done with ideas, over the Internet. Plus, we no longer live in an era of emperors conquering physical territory with brute force. We live in an era where the competition is to see as to who can design the best political and social infrastructures so as to best serve the individual. It is about the individual. This is science we are talking about.

This would be a good use of Article 127. The only good use.

Actually I don't think you have to use anything in the 1990 constitution to form an interim government. You just go ahead and form it.

In The News

    • Reconciliation In Coming Weeks Kantipur ..... US Ambassador to Nepal, James F Moriarty ..... "I hope in the coming weeks we will see an attempt [by the king] to reach out to the political parties, and, if there is such an attempt, I hope the parties will respond." ..... "Whatever change comes, it should be something that the palace and the political parties should be comfortable with." ..... "If you are going to have a reconciliation in this country, both the sides - the palace and the parties - will have to be ready for some give and take." ..... "When Cristina Rocca was here she welcomed the fact that the parties were working together, but we need to see both the sides move forward from there and we hope that the parties' common agenda becomes a tool for negotiating with the government." ...... the king has publicly stated that he believed that restoration of the House would be unconstitutional. "So, it might be difficult to negotiate around that issue, but if that is possible, we welcome it." ...... "Last week was horrible - there were police beating up the Maoist victims, people were getting rearrested in the courts and the government took a series of dumb steps." .... there has been some progress, especially in terms of the release of detainees and the restoration of civil rights. "But there has to be a progress in reaching out to the political parties, and that is the key." ...... Feb 1, said Moriarty, was a setback to the international community's perspective on Nepal because many started to think if the main problem in Nepal was the insurgency or the king. ...... "we have been carefully saying that the goal here is to try and get as many Maoists back into the mainstream as soon as possible." ...... First, that there should be unity among the legitimate political forces in the country. Second, the whole international community should tell the Maoists that they are not going to take over power in Nepal and that the former was not going to allow that to happen...... Finally, the Maoists have to be convinced that they are not going to win militarily and that they have to come back and negotiate seriously....... "I believe that if the palace and the parties don't work together there is a good chance of the Maoists ending up taking over power. Whether that is through military means, through negotiations or terrorism I don't know. But frankly, if everybody screws up, the Maoists are going to win." ..... "While there are two issues tied to it: First, domestic political developments…we want to see clearly the civil liberties coming back and an end to arbitrary use of power and we also want to see the reconciliation process." He, however quickly added, "That sounds cut and dried but it's not because of the other consideration, which is the military balance…which makes us nervous." ...... our twin goals (the path back to democracy and ensuring that the Maoist don't takeover) ..... "If we get very nervous about the Maoist progress, then that will be a factor we will consider." ..... "Are we nervous? Yes. But it is hard to say if we are nervous enough." ..... That's a long way from saying that we look at Nepal through Indian eyes. I have a tremendous ego and I wouldn't be here if I thought that was the case and we would close down our embassy...... if he believed in different versions of democracy, he said the ability of people to elect and change their government, free press, and independent judiciary were all pretty standard...... "We are not believers in different sorts of democracy for different sorts of people because that has always been used to disguise paternalism and authoritarianism"

    • Iran And Nepal: Both Need Freedom Of All Kinds United We Blog Iran is a country being ruled by Islamic fundamentalists. Nepal is a country being ruled by royalist fundamentalists....... (Iran has arrested over 20 bloggers over the last year.) Iranian bloggers who have been released have reported being the victims of torture......

    • Republicans Inside The Royal Palace Prateek Pradhan, Kantipur February 1 putsch ..catapulted undeserving people to the helm of power who are now prepared to go to any length to hang on to the power ..... these people are invoking extremist moves to force the parties to join a republican force ...... Tricky Giri, Khelkhud Shah, Chameleon Pandey and the like won't mind no matter how serious the crisis facing the country or the institution of monarchy is ...... The government has become totally dependent on the army now. Such a harmful trend does not only raise the ambition of the armed forces, but it also seriously hampers the effectiveness of the government...... they are working on nepalization of democracy...... they must be aware that any attempt to undermine people's rights to choose the government and rule the country through their representatives would further resent the constitutional forces and the people. And if so, the King will have no option but to rule the country by tightening the iron fists, whence they will be able to further savor the power....... The attempt is to widen the chasm between the pro-constitutional-monarchy political parties and the pro-multiparty-democracy King...... the ball is in the King's court to recognize and get rid of the pro-republic force occupying stronghold inside the Royal Palace.

    • Republicans Inside The Royal Palace United We Blog KGBs of Nepal ...Tricky Giri, Khelkud Shaha, and Chameleon Pandey ..... royalists with slave mindset are inciting the king to take such measures that will not ultimately harm the Nepali monarchy badly but also put it in a grave risk of extinction....... King Gyanendra’s Boys ...... these very KGBs are the ‘republicans’ in the royal palace that are trying to ruin the future of monarchy....... it is yet to be proven whether their moves are intentional or inadvertent, it is clear that they are helping the pro-republican force ...... It’s not new in Nepal for people to be more royalists than the king himself. The coterie of ultra royalists is trying to keep king in confusion and rule on their own in the name of king........ a “bunker regime" ...... KGBs or parasites or freeloaders ....... “they know that, once they are out of power, they will have to run away from the country. And some of them have already done so in the past.” ...... “Their aspirations will be fulfilled only if they continue to remain in power even in a fluid situation,” Pradhan says, “It simply does not cross their mind that the fluidity will eventually hit hard the longevity of the institution of monarchy.” ........ These parasites “won’t mind no matter how serious the crisis facing the country or the institution of monarchy is. The only intention of these leaders is to hang on to the power by hook or crook.” And they have proved this argument of Pradhan by doing all nonsense things over the last four months. “In a bid to strangle whatever remaining confidence the King and the political parties have in each other,” Pradhan writes, “these people are invoking extremist moves to force the parties to join a republican force rather than reconcile on constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy.” ..........the people inside the Royal Palace are doing their best to weaken the ideology supporting pro-constitutional monarchy within the political parties ......... The longer they keep Narahari Acharya, Lila Mani Pokharel and the like in detention, the stronger the republican voice will grow. The more they play cat-and-mouse game with the student leaders such as Gagan Thapa and Rajendra Rai, the louder their voice will be heard within and outside the political party. The harsher they become with human rights activists such as Krishna Pahadi, the greater will be the local and global influence. They know that unless they do not send the security forces inside the court to manhandle lawyers and journalists, most of these people would not think of the republic set up. ........... the involvement of army in the everyday chores of the country is like turning a tiger into a man-eater by letting them to taste human blood. ......... The choices are simple: safe future for monarchy by being constitutional or the republic system in Nepal. As Pradhan says, the ball is in the king’s court.

    • Visiting A Detention Center In Nepal United We Blog Bode, Bhaktapur ..... I was actually reluctantly accompanying my reporter friend and co-blogger Saroj to meet his detained brother Sudeep Sharma.The Agriculture Development Bank’s training center was transformed into an autocratic hell, thanks to Feb 1 Move...... Visibly sick and jaded Urmila told that she will be taken to Bir Hospital for medical check up tomorrow. Bal Krishna, in haste, dropped the Fanta bottle brought for her sister..... Rajendra Pande was a bit furious with the authority. He retorted: “Can’t a politician meet his relatives? Is it his crime to have such relatives?” He said he was there to visit his grandson Sudeep Silwal. An apologetic Assistant Sub Inspector sent for his grandson...... As the political crowd left the venue, a police grilled me asking why I was there.

    • Gagan Thapa Release, What About Others? United We Blog Gagan Thapa (waiving hand) vowed to fight for democracy and constituent assembly..... Yesterday, Supreme Court issued an order that said: “In fact, detainee Gagan Thapa hasn’t been released from the illegal detention as per the court order. That is against the fundamental objective of the constitution and the laws of the country.” ..... home minister Dan Bahadur Shai commented: “The court order didn’t specifically barred police from re-arresting Thapa. So police did no wrong re-arresting him.” ..... A free Gagan Thapa vowed to continue fighting for democracy in Nepal. “Now, our target is constituent assembly,” he said. “The movement should go ahead for that goal. We should do no compromise with the king. We should not listen to his sweet and phony talks about peace and democracy.” ...... arresting pro-democracy political activists will only weaken the regime.

    • Samrat Of Everybody's Heart United We Blog So, I also decided to visit the place to juxtapose the Samrat of my imagination with the Samrat of flesh and blood..... I at last saw Samrat of my heart ..... His characters are so life-like and speak the language of common people of Kathmandu...... Samrat got a Whiting Award in 2001 for his debut book Arresting God In Kathmandu, and his second book Guru of Love was an enormous success. His fans are curiously waiting for his third book that is getting published in a few months.
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