The King Is Intent On Visiting France And Russia

Like child abusers tell children, don't make me hit you. That is how the king talks of the political parties.

The 1990s democracy had many deficiencies and yes there was corruption, but it was far superior to the monarchy before and after. Far, far superior.

The king might not have massacred his elder brother for the throne in 2001, but he did disapprove of his elder brother's "giving in" to the 1990 democracy movement. He might pay lip service to democracy, but he does not understand it. His actions as king have shown he is an autocrat, a militarist. Birendra's softball approach to a mass movement was the politically more skillful move because it preserved the monarchy. Gyanendra's hardball approach will bring the monarchy to an end. Birendra's softball approach to the Maoist insurgency kept it in a few isolated districts. Gyanendra's hardball approach spread it to virtually all districts. The proof is in the pudding.

This guy does not know statecraft.

If the king is in power, and the solution to the country's problems is that the parties and the king talk to each other, but the talks are not taking place, then it is the king who is failing. Because he holds the seat of power. He is the one who has to take initiative.

Tulsi Giri Interview

I recently strongly criticized the parties for not taking the October 2, 2002 offer of forming an all party government. But as the person in power, the king is primarily responsible for that failure. He did not present himself well. He should have spent time selling the idea to the parties. Instead he threw it as a slap in the face of the parties. He soon started laying down conditions. He asked for a "clean" figure.

He should never have moved beyond the all party government idea. He should have worked on it until he sold it. He gets paid too well to have bungled that basic point.

He set Deuba for failure. A Prime Minister who does not command the army can not have looked into a military solution to the insurgency. A Prime Minister who could not have looked at the constituent assembly option could not have solved the insurgency through talks.

He set Chand for failure. Maybe he has grudges against Chand for Chand was the person who ensured a soft landing for multi-party democracy at the end of the Panchayat rule.

He should have sold the idea of an all party government to the parties. Otherwise he is way too overpaid and way too incompetent. If you can't even sell the idea of an all party government to a bunch of power hungry parties, what can you do? What else can you do?

He set Surya Bahadur Thapa for failure.

It is almost like he never forgave his family for taking the throne from his four year old self. He hired the people Birendra hired, then he hired people Mahendra hired. Then he hired himself.

He used Chand to vastly expand the royal budget. And then shunted him aside. Chand was given six months to prove his incompetence. If you helped end the Panchayat autocracy, how competent can you possibly be!

The army budget has gone through the roof.

This man is so detached from reality. Obviously he watches too much television. He thought he was going to declare a war on terror, and become George Bush's new best friend in South Asia. How far fetched was his fantassy!

His best option right now is to take a second shot at the all party government idea through the use of Article 127. As the chief executive he should come up with the idea, present the idea, and then sell the idea until it is sold. It is that political work of selling he has never exhibited a propensity for that is the best evidence he is not a democrat. He does not understand the democratic process. He has a master-slave mentality. Subjects don't question, they take orders.

This guy is the ultimate Mandale.

His goal right now is to launch a guided democracy, which is a fancy term third world dictators use for autocracy.

He does not have that kind of time.

He stands to be swept away. And he will have noone to blame but himself.

He has a roadmap. He claims he has one.

This guy is so going down.

He is going to change course, or he is going to go down.

We live in a day and age when the national boundaries are pretty much fixed. The last person to have challenged that assumption was Saddam Hussein, and his experiment in Kuwait did not have a happy ending for him. Similarly we live in a day and age when no regime can afford a military crackdown upon peaceful demonstrators. We live in an era of instantaneous global coverage, an era of global outcries, an era of conscious citizens. The king does not have the crackdown option.

But he does not realize that.

What if he is more incompetent than he is evil? What if he just does not know. Leonid Brezhnev was a feared leader of a superpower. But when he died, his diaries of his final years were full of simple details of his daily rituals. The superpower was running on autopilot, presumably.

That is a good reason not to have a monarchy. The guy can just have ritualistic breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday and noone will ever know how incompetent he really is until there is a total collapse.

A person so bent on self destruction has health problems. It is possible he is depressed.

It is possible his staunchest sycophants secretly want his kingship to end. That pull-down tendency of the Nepalis is well documented. MaHa documented it a long time ago in their joke about Nepali frogs getting exported in open vessels.

How little he understands democracy gets exhibited more through his municipal polls stunt than anything else.

If he is so hellbent on elections, he should work towards elections to a Constituent Assembly. That would end the civil war! But then that would be democracy!

King G played cruel political football with Melamchi, and now he wants Melamchi back! This guy has started to go round and round in circles.

In The News

• KTV doesn’t have license for sat transmission: MoIC NepalNews The MoIC said that the government had granted license for terrestrial transmission aiming at ensuring people with minimal income could also have access to the broadcast of television. The satellite transmission is out of the reach of ordinary people because they need to install expensive instruments including separate antenna (to access its transmission), the Ministry said....... Kantipur Television Network—that has been running its programmes for nearly last two years-- is yet to respond to the clarification furnished by the government.
• No int’l observers for municipal polls ..... the date for polls to the municipalities will be announced between Dashain and Tihar...... leaders of major political parties have said that elections of the constituent assembly should be held under the involvement of the United Nations to resolve the problems dogging the country.
• India to doubles its troops along Nepal border The number of troops guarding the border is now expected to rise to around 45,000..... troops would be given armour-plated vehicles to protect them from landmines.
• UN OHCHR report on Nepal next week The report will be discussed and debated at the Third Committee of the United Nations, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural affairs. The session of the Committee started on October 3 and will come to an end on November 23.
• Nepal-India to Start Border Entry Records from Nov 1 Himalayan Times, Nepal
• Nepal security forces kill unarmed Maoist girl NewKerala.com, India
• Maoists free 500 abducted students, teachers Hindu
  
• Norway snubs govt request on Melamchi Kantipur Online, Nepal ... Nepal government's request to review its decision of pulling out of Melamchi Water Supply Project
• Events following king's takeover darken the prospects for peace ... OhmyNews International, South Korea Nepal is on the verge of political collapse and that the steps taken after Feb. 1, 2005 to impose King Gyanendra's rule are self-defeating...... unless all involved move quickly to address the country's problems effectively, there is a strong risk of political collapse .....the Maoist ceasefire, notwithstanding the tactics behind it, offers an opportunity for a government response to create a truce
  
• ‘Constitution not hurdle’ Kathmandu Post, Nepal Satchit Sumsher Rana .... "There might be some loopholes in the current constitution, but it is in no way a hurdle to achieving peace in the country."
• Conference cautions of possible betrayal At the end of the conference, senior Indian politicians like Laxmi Sehgal, a former contestant for the president's post, and Dr Surendra Mohan, cautioned that there were still high possibilities of making a tri-partite agreement between the king, parties and the Maoists under international initiatives, and keep the roots for anti-people conspiracies alive..... held to garner international support to Nepal's ongoing movement for a "democratic republic" ...... Sehgal, her party would leave no stone unturned to assist the ongoing movement for absolute democratic system of governance in Nepal..... Nepali delegates in the conference included Medeni Prasad Keval of NC, KP Oli of the UML, Amik Serchan of Peoples Front Nepal, Khemraj Bhatta Mayalu of NC(D), Mohan Bikram Singh and Chitra Bahadur KC of CPN (Unity center) and Chandra Dev Joshi of Unified Left Front.
• OHCHR report on Nepal on Oct 11 Kathmandu Post, Nepal
  
• Troops, Maoists ignore child rights: NHRC Kathmandu Post, Nepal
  
• Parties think foreigners have magic rod, they don’t Gorkhapatra, Nepal one things that our parties must be applauded for is their ability to bring an unending stream of foreign troupes to investigate, intervene, interfere, and to sermonise us on our national scenario. The state in this regard has been outdone in term of networking, contacts and mobilisation of Nepali’s and friends living abroad.
• Vietnamese monk in Nepal proposes venue for peace talks Nhan Dan, Vietnam offering his monastery
  
• Royalists criticize incumbent minister's performance Nepalnews.com, Nepal