Goal Has To Be To Stay As One Country

The Primary Reason To Stay As One Country Is Economic

To break up countries is to go backwards in time. India and Pakistan broke up and they still don't have normal relations. Breaking Nepal into two might sour relations between the two new countries for perhaps a generation. Will that have been worth it? The goal of the Madhesi Movement is equality with the Pahadis, not animosity.

There are at least a few Madhesis in every village who have gone to far away countries like Malaysia and the Arab countries to work. If the Madhesis will go to far away countries, they will go to the hills, to Kathmandu, to India, as they do. And the people in the hills will come to the Terai to seek economic opportunities. That is normal. That is desired. That is a good thing. New York City is perhaps the best example of diversity making great economic sense. Culturally diverse economies are superior to ethnically homogeneous ones.

The French and the Germans are proud nationalists, they are proud people. They have long histories as separate peoples. But now they want to become one country, one economic unit, one Europe to counterbalance America on the global stage. When you advance, you integrate. Disintegration is going backwards in terms of progress.

Both Pahadis and Madhesis are better off economically if Nepal continues to be one country.

A Breakup, If Possible, Could Be Traumatic

I don't expect the armed Madhesi groups to approach the military and political sophistication of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, not even close, because they are not land locked and there is a rich Tamil diaspora, and Sri Lanka has still not become two countries after decades of bloody civil war.

It is better to have inequality than to have a civil war. Violence is out of question.

But the thing is we don't have to put up with inequality. We have some very good political options to end inequality.

But, say, a political, nonviolent breakup were possible, should we go for it? If we could break up like Czechoslovakia, should we do it? They were a richer country, they did not have desperate poverty. Peaceful breakup can still be traumatic. There will have to be negotiations on dividing national wealth, national debt. We will need two new currencies. That would be very messy to bring that about. The rivers that flood the Terai every year are designed for north-south, not east-west management.

Even if a nonviolent breakup were possible, we should not go for it.

And also, it would be highly problematic to draw the boundaries for the new countries. One third of the population in the Terai is Pahadi by now.

Pahadi Prejudice Is Very Real

Every Madhesi knows that. Pahadis want Madhesis to continue to have second class status in the political parties, in the bureaucracy, in the army, in the diaspora. Pahadis want Madhesis to have second class status right there in the Terai.

Pahadi politicians never ceased to disrespect the historic Madhesi Kranti that was the second chapter of the April Revolution itself.

Our grievances are very real.

Clarity And Organization Needed

It is hard for the powerless and the oppressed to get organized. The best and the brightest have had to strike compromises with the ruling class to make forward progress in life. They have often paid huge emotional prices in the process.

Before the Madhesi Kranti, the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum was a small NGO that had a few leaders and members in several of the Terai districts. It is no wonder the MJF was not able to provide better leadership than it did. Perhaps the movement should only have concluded after the Prime Minister had agreed to federalism and completely proportional elections to the constituent assembly and to declaring martyrs of the movement and compensation to the injured and the dead. But we did not know. We did not know any better. We lacked clarity, and that is not a problem. We can attempt clarity of vision now. We lacked organization then. We can attempt better, far more sophisticated organization now.

Today the MJF has more than 100,000 members and organizations in all Terai districts and in Kathmandu valley.

If Madhesis Can Die, They Can Vote

The Madhesis are now wide awake. They performed out in the streets during the Madhesi Kranti. They will surely perform at the ballot box.

Power Flows Through The Ballot Box

Madhesi equality is our goal. But our only vehicle is the democratic process. Nonviolence is the only option. And that is the best option, the most effective.

Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, Upendra Yadav

It is not Ram Raja Prasadi Singh, it is not the Sadbhavana. It is MJF and Upendra Yadav in the lead of the Madhesi Movement. Upendra Yadav must take the lead in trying to forge together a Madhesi Alliance. It is going to be hard to bring the armed Madhesi groups along, but effort has to be made. The Sadbhavana might prefer to continue to be part of the eight party alliance rather than come along for some kind of a Madhesi alliance, but an effort has to be made to bring them along.

Upendra Yadav and the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum have to continue to lead the Madhesi Movement.

November 22

If you can get the vast majority of Madhesis to boycott the November 22 elections peacefully, which would be the only legitimate way to boycott it, you can get a vast majority of Madhesis to vote for you on that day. Getting them to vote is the superior option.

The beauty of democracy and the electoral process is when the Pahadi Bahuns in power make sense and give us equality, we get equality, but when they keep talking crap, we get to turn their crap into election issues and we get to beat them at the ballot box.

The goal of the Madhesi Movement should be to wipe out the existence of the Pahadi parties from the Madhesh. Any so-called national political party whose central committee is not at least one third Madhesi should have no place whatsoever in the Madhesh.

Maybe it is good that we are going to have electoral constituencies. That will give us an opportunity to make sure we bring to an end the political careers of the likes of Girija Koirala and Madhav Nepal and any other Pahadi central leaders from those parties that might bother to contest from the Madhesh.

Can we defeat Girija in Morang and Sunsari? Can we defeat Madhav Nepal in Bara? The Madhesi Movement should take that up as one of its challenges. They should be made to pay the price for disrespecting the Madhesi Kranti.

240 Seats For Proportional Election

The four categories of people that we need to prepare our list of 240, they all exist in the Terai. We should be able to prepare a full list of 240 individuals. Yes, we have Dalits. Yes, we have Janajatis. Tharus, Dhimals, Satars, they are all Janajati. There are Pahadi Bahun Chhetris who have lived in the Terai for generations and who claim they are also Madhesi. Put them in the Bahun Chhetri category.

No party will secure more than 15% of the votes on November 22. The MJF has the option to emerge one of the largest parties in the country. It will easily get more than 10% of the votes. If we work hard enough, we might even emerge the largest party on the national scene.

Power Is With The People, Not With The Bahuns In Power

We want respect for the martyrs and the injured of the Madhesi Kranti. The power to give that respect is with the people, not the sick Bahuns in power. We want a Madhesh state. We go to the people. Ek Madhesh, Ek Pradhesh. That has to be the one point slogan of the Madhesi Alliance during the election campaign.

Chunawi Mahasangram: The Electoral Battlefield

The MJF needs to talk to all armed Madhesi groups. They should all get behind the Madhesi Alliance candidates for the November 22 elections. They should all call a ceasefire from now until then. They should all help with the election campaign. After the election, the MJF gets into power, and it holds respectful dialogue with all armed Madhesi groups. We need this arrangement to take the Madhesi Movement to the next level.

Girija ka jamanat japt karo. Madhav ka jamanat japt karo.

Long Term Goal: South Asian Economic Union

We don't want to break Nepal into two, but we do intend to make Nepal part of a South Asian economic union.

तीन लाखले सरकारी जागीर खाने, तीन करोड कता जाने?
Upendra Yadav Book 2
Upendra Yadav Book 1
Madhesi Alliance Needed
एक मधेश एक प्रदेश
मधेशी अान्दोलनको गन्तव्य: नभम्बर चुनाव

On The Web

Dissolution of Czechoslovakia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The dissolution of Czechoslovakia refers to the dissolution of the former country of Czechoslovakia into the nations of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which took effect on January 1, 1993. It is often referred to as the "Velvet Divorce" Czechoslovakia. A slight majority of Slovaks, however, advocated a looser form of co-existence or complete independence and ..... By the 1990s, in economic terms, the Czech Republic's GDP per capita was some 20% higher than Slovakia's, but its long-run GDP growth was lower. Money transfers from the Czech budget to Slovakia, which had been the rule in the past, were stopped in January 1991. ...... Many Czechs and Slovaks desired the continued existence of a federalsovereignty. In November 1992, for example, a poll found that 49% of Slovaks and 50% Czechs were against the move, while 40% of Slovaks favored it. The poll also found that 41% of Czechs and 49% of Slovaks said the question should have been put to a referendum. ....... Ultimately, the country's fate was decided by politicians. In 1992, the Czech public elected Václav Klaus and others who demanded either an even tighter federation ("viable federation") or two independent states. Vladimír Mečiar and other leading Slovak politicians of the day wanted a kind of confederation. The two sides opened frequent and intense negotiations in June. On July 17, the Slovak parliament adopted the Declaration of independence of the Slovak nation. Six days later, politicians decided to dissolve Czechoslovakia at a meeting in Bratislava. ...... The goal of negotiations switched to achieving a peaceful division. On November 25, the federal parliament adopted the Constitutional law on the end of existence of Czechoslovakia, which stated that with the expiry of December 31, 1992, the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic shall cease to exist and provided for the necessary technical details. ...... The separation occurred without violence, and was thus said to be "velvet", much like the "Velvet revolution" which preceded it, which was accomplished through massive peaceful demonstrations and actions. This contrasts with the often-violent breakup of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. .............. Most of federal assets were divided in the ratio 2 to 1 (the approximate ratio between the Czech and Slovak population within Czechoslovakia), including army equipment, rail and airliner infrastructure. Some minor disputes (e.g. about gold reserves stored in Prague, federal know-how valuation) lasted for a few years after dissolution. The public in both countries was fairly uninterested in these disputes and their outcome. ........ Initially the old Czechoslovak currency, the Czechoslovak koruna, was still used in both countries (monetary union). Fears of economic loss on Czech side caused the two states to adopt two national currencies as early as 8 February 1993. At the beginning the currencies had an equal exchange rate, but later on, for most of the time, the value of the Slovak koruna was lower than that of the Czech koruna (up to cca 30%, in 2004 around 25%-27%, currently about 20%). ........ The dissolution had some negative impact on the two economies, especially in 1993, as traditional links needed to accommodate the bureaucracy of international trade were severed, but the impact was considerably lower than expected by many people. ...... The hopes that dissolution would quickly start an era of high economic growth in the Czech Republic (without the need to "sponsor the less developed Slovakia") proved plainly wrong or highly exaggerated. Also, the hope of a stand-alone, unexploited Slovakia becoming a new "economic tiger" was partially unfounded. .......... People of both countries were allowed to cross the border without a passport and were allowed to work anywhere without the need to obtain an official permit (this was used mainly by Slovaks working in the Czech Republic). ...... In Slovakia, however, most cable TV providers offer Czech TV channels, and for economic reasons, many TV programmes on Slovak TV channels are still dubbed into Czech, some films in cinemas are subtitled in Czech and there are far more Czech-language books and periodicals on the market than before the divorce. ...... After a transition period of roughly four years, during which the relations between the states could be characterised as a "post-divorce trauma", the present relations between Czechs and Slovaks, as many people point out, are probably better than they have ever been. ....... After a short interruption, Slovakia's mountains are again the target of a growing number of Czech tourists.
Lycos iQ | Why did Czechoslovakia split? And when? the split, the decision largely made by “political elites,” namely Vaclav Klaus (Czech) and Vladimir Meciar (Slovak), who then proceeded to become Prime Ministers of the newly independent countries. There was no referendum and opinion polls showed that people were largely ambivalent on the issue. ..... Slovakia overwhelmingly Catholic, while the Czechs have a large Protestant minority.
Reflections on the split of Czechoslovakia, ten years on - 27-12 ... what brought about the demise of the federal republic the two nations had shared since its foundation in 1918. ...... In the 1992 elections the two republics went in completely different directions. The Civic Democrats, headed by Vaclav Klaus, won the elections in the Czech lands and Vladimir Meciar's Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) won in Slovakia. ...... "I communicated with Vladimir Meciar, at one time we were both prime ministers and I have to say it was tragic because we couldn't find a common ground. He was not a partner you could take seriously, you couldn't take him for his word, he changed his positions on issues all the time, and believed only the latest versions of what he said. I can't understand it. Of course Vladimir Meciar made it easier for those on both the Czech and Slovak sides to split up the state, by insisting on terms that could never be met. Whatever motive he might have had, he ensured that the state would have to break up. An absolutely inconsistent personality with inconsistent demands." ....... a poll conducted just before the critical elections of June 1992 showed that 64 percent of respondents in the Czech Republic and 72 percent of those in Slovakia categorised mutual relations as very good or rather good. Public opinion then was against the separation of Czechoslovakia. ....... Vladimir Meciar, who made constantly increasing demands, putting the continued existence of Czechoslovakia in jeopardy. On the Czech side, the reluctance of Vaclav Klaus to give in to demands made by Slovak politicians - in order to maintain the transformation process to a market economy - further contributed to the split. Both politicians stuck to their own goals throughout the negotiation process and as a result gained political power through the break-up of Czechoslovakia. ........ Even though opposition parties in the Federal Assembly were against the break-up of the state they could do nothing to prevent it. In the end, despite the absence of a referendum or any kind of national consensus, the Czechoslovak state ceased to exist at the beginning of January, 1993.
Monetary separation sealed split of Czechoslovakia ten years ago ... Less than six weeks after Czechoslovakia split up on the 1st of January, 1993, two new currencies emerged, replacing the Czechoslovak crown which had existed since 1919. The two countries divided their monetary assets, liabilities and reserves according to a ratio of two to one in favour of the Czech Republic. After monetary separation was publicly announced, all payments between the two new countries stopped and border controls were stepped up to prevent transfers of cash. The new currencies became valid on February 8, ten years ago. ....... If nothing else during the break-up, monetary separation certainly did have an effect on every person in this country. The public was given a deadline in which to deposit old bills in bank accounts, so that they could be marked by a stamp making them valid in the new state. Coins and small denomination notes without stamps were still in use several months after the separation, accounting for only about three percent of the total money in circulation. Gradually, the stamped banknotes were replaced by brand new Czech and Slovak notes. In the Czech Republic the whole process was completed by the end of August 1993. For a short while the exchange rate of the Czech and Slovak crowns was 1:1, but after a few months the Slovak crown depreciated by ten percent. Today one Czech crown buys approximately 1.3 Slovak crowns. ......... There are almost 250 million banknotes and 2.4 billion coins in circulation in the country, their total weight being 5,000 metric tonnes. ...... The Czech crown is celebrating its 10th anniversary these days but it is unlikely that it will survive another decade. After the Czech Republic's accession to the European Union, it will be replaced by the common European currency, according to some plans that could happen as early as in 2007.
The Split of Czechoslovakia: A Defeat or a Victory? — Jiří Pehe The split of Czechoslovakia on January 1, 1993 was not entirely inevitable, but the political and economic costs of keeping the country together would have been extremely high. ...... Incompatible political spectrums after the 1992 elections .... Czech and Slovak nationalism ... A lack of democratic experience in both countries ..... The Slovaks did not embrace the concept of Czechoslovakism, which was advocated by Czech leaders after 1918. Although many appreciated economic and educational assistance that the Czech lands offered during the first republic (and before), they were critical of the patronizing attitudes of many Czech leaders and the unwillingness of Czech political elites to grant Slovakia more autonomy. ...... The Slovaks, on the other hand, complained of Pragocentrism, which did not diminish even during the communist era. ..... First, there was initially a serious lack of clarity with regard to the division of powers between institutions on the republican level and federal institutions. Second, the upper house of the Federal Assembly—the House of Nations—could in effect block meaningful reforms. ....... The growing inability of the Federal Assembly to pass necessary federal laws was perhaps the most visible symbol of a growing decision-making paralysis. At the same time, power was gradually shifting from the federal government to the republican governments. The authority of the country’s president was also gradually shrinking. ....... after the June 1990 elections—it became obvious that the two republics were developing different political spectrums. ....... In the 1992 elections, political parties that described themselves as center-right prevailed in the Czech Republic, while leftist and nationalist parties were the winners in Slovakia. It became virtually impossible to create a functioning federal government. ........ the Czechs had a privileged position in the two-state federation, in which the other nation was half the size of the Czech nation. ...... while no significant Czech political parties actively strove for independence or greater autonomy, many Czech politicians were intellectually invested in the idea of Czechoslovakia in which the Czechs—by definition—are the more senior nation. ....... Czech nationalism was based on the belief that the Czechs are superior—more advanced, more urbanized .....Both Czech politicians and the public did not abandon the traditional Czech paternalism in attitudes toward Slovakia after 1989. ....... Some of the most important Czech politicians, including President Vaclav Havel, did not read the situation in Slovakia well, partly owing to the fact that they, as former dissidents, maintained contacts mainly with their dissident counterparts, who were predominantly pro-federalist. ......... the growing Czech-Slovak rift could have been solved by giving the Slovaks more autonomy, or by transforming the federation into a confederation. The Belgian or the Canadian models of coexistence (however imperfect) of two nations within one state could have been used ......... Democratic solutions were not explored to the utmost. ...... the dissolution of Czechoslovakia was a success in terms of the mechanisms and procedures used. It was a peaceful, negotiated process that did not produce any of the upheavals and bloody conflicts we witnessed in the former Yugoslavia or some parts of the Soviet Union. ........ the decision not to hold a referendum was fortunate. ..... First, in a country consisting of two nations of unequal size, one referendum, on a federal level only, would not work. Holding two referendums, one in each republic, was also problematic, as no one seemed to know what would happen if one republic voted in favor of the country’s split and another would be against it. ....... Public opinion and politicians were divided: some people supported the idea of a federation, some campaigned for a confederation, and others even advocated the renewal of a unitary state. There were also proposals to turn Czechoslovakia into a three-state federation, consisting of Bohemia, Moravia-Silesia, and Slovakia. ........ the Federal Assembly in the end approved the dissolution of the federation (and itself), and that the two sides agreed on a civilized division of federal assets (and eventually) also the split of the monetary union. .......... Slovakia’s slide into a semi-authoritarian regime under Prime Minister Meciar also had a negative impact on regional cooperation ...... a certain asymmetry in terms of international stature for the Czechs and the Slovaks after the split. ..... The international stature of the Czech Republic began to improve visibly only after the country’s admission to NATO in 1999. .... the Czech Republic became almost ethnically homogenous .... Although some 300,000 Slovaks stayed in the Czech Republic after the split, most of them were quite assimilated and never came to play the role of an ethnic minority. It can be argued that the ethnic homogenization of the Czech Republic further strengthened the traditional Czech provincialism. ........ Slovakia, on the other hand, became the most multicultural and multiethnic country in Central Europe. Ethnic Hungarians accounted for about 10 percent of its population, and the numbers of Roma are estimated at 300,000 to 500,000. Under the nationalist government of Meciar, Slovakia had problems with its minorities, but it seems that the need of various ethnic groups to coexist in the end contributed to improvements in Slovakia’s political culture. ....... The split of Czechoslovakia worked better for Slovakia, it seems, than for the Czechs. Many Czechs accepted the dissolution of Czechoslovakia as something of a defeat, a partial loss of their national identity. ...... The split has provoked a strange brand of Czech nationalism, which is a mixture of the idea of Czech exceptionalism, on the one hand, and the provincial xenophobia of a small nation, afraid of a large neighbor, on the other. Much of the anti-European rhetoric in Czech politics today is driven either by the belief that “we could do it better than Europe” or by the fear of Europe, especially Germany. The Slovaks appear to be, at least at this point, a more confident nation, although Slovakia suffers from its own version of provincialism and, lately, also the belief in its own exceptionality. ....... The role of the EU has been tremendously important and positive. It is almost certain that without EU integration, the story of the split could have, overall, turned out to be a failure, rather than a success, for both nations.
Survey 14 years after the split of Czechoslovakia | ABC Prague More than a half of Czech people think that the division was a good step. To be exact, 56 % of people agree with the split, while in 1993 only every fourth person (25%) agreed. About 1/3 of Czech people (34%) now don’t agree with the split, while in 1993 it was 53 %. ..... 47 % of Czech people believe that the relations between Czech and Slovak inhabitants are the same as before the split. 25% think the relations are better, 18% think that they are worse.
Some aspects of the Czech Slovak split - political disintegration ... The two countries were to co-operate in the monetary field, but after 38 days the currencies were split. When new different banknotes were printed thousands of Slovaks rushed across the Czech border to have their old notes stamped as Czech. From the beginning it was known that the Czechs would do much better than the Slovaks. Everyone knew too that there would be much more unemployment in Slovakia so it was good to be able to claim Czech citizenship based on residence in the past. There is also the same awkward problem for thousands, as in former Yugoslavia, of mixed marriages, of Slovaks and Czechs, Croats and Serbs, of Muslims and Christians. This is why the new borders and their control have an embarrassing significance. Another delicate problem is the sharing out of the assets, and the debts, of course, of the old republic between the two new one. Symbolically the Czechs, to the annoyance of the Slovaks, kept the old flag of 1918. And in the background there is the feeling that the people were not asked about the split and a majority would have turned it down if there had been a referendum. ........ Prague could boast one of the earliest universities of the Middle Ages. .... There are crucial emotional differences between the Czechs and the Slovaks. ....... Premier Meciar has to govern forcefully because it is felt that the majority of Slovaks would have preferred to stay with the Czechs because of their living standard, which would have been more stable. The figures suggest that they were right. The gross domestic product per head among the 10.3 million Czechs, annually is 7,200 dollars, among the 5.3 million Slovaks it is 5,960 dollars. Unemployment among the Czechs is, significantly, two and a half per cent. Among the Slovaks it is 10.3 per cent. ........ The Czech Republic thus remains an advanced industrial country with an experienced work force going back for generations. ..... The Czech Republic is drifting discreetly into the German-Austrian sphere of influence and its leaders feel that their country would make a proper and quite successful member of the European Community. Investments by EC firms in key industries are growing. ........ Slovakia is quite different. In essence it is a rural country. ..... The trend in Bratislava is to cut welfare and the funding of universities while purging TV and the newspapers to keep control of the disappointed 'intelligentsia'. ....... Slovakia is now engaged in a desperate struggle with Hungary over the big power station at Gabcikovo on the Danube, right on the Hungarian border ..... the Austrians, who are annoyed that the Czechs insist on building their power station at Bohunice near the Austrian border, have been warning the Slovaks very discreetly to be cautious in their handling of the power station and the Magyar minority. ......... Slovakia is rather like one of the members of the former Soviet Union in its social and industrial structures as well as regarding that new nationhood. It really has nobody to turn to. Like the former Soviet republics and the third world countries that sided with the Soviet Union, their political establishment expects the West to help now as the Soviet Union once did. ....... The Slovak ruling establishment is therefore likely to be more and more tempted to devote their dwindling resources to the Slovaks and discriminate against their Hungarian minority. In both countries nationalist factions watch every action and utterance on the other side of the border.

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Mahara 'contradicts' Prachanda, says election will be held on time Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who leads the Maoist team in the government, has said the election will be held in November under all circumstances. ..... “There is no other option left before us than to hold the election in November to end feudalism once and for all, even though there are still many challenges for free and fair polls.” ..... Chief Election Commissioner Bhoj Raj Pokharel informed that all the Election Commission (EC) has finished all the necessary preparation including the technical aspects of the election and asked the political parties not to make any kind of unnecessary remarks that can hamper the possibility of holding election.