Wednesday, January 11, 2006

The Blame Game


Some people badmouth the political parties endlessly. They blame the parties for the Maoists, they blame the parties for the king. They blame the parties for the 1990s as if that was a dark period in Nepal's history when facts prove otherwise: just look at all the infrastructure work that got done. Dark compared to what? The Panchayat? The Rana rule?

It is one thing to criticize the political parties. After all, it is that right to free speech that we are fighting for when we are fighting for democracy, a right that neither the king nor the Maoists allow. But it is quite another thing to pour your resources into attacking the political parties when those resources should be directed against the autocratic camps in the country.

The political parties did not give birth to the monarchy and its inherent autocratic tendencies. The political parties did not give birth to the ideology called Maoism.

Infighting is a symptom of powerlessness. When we attack the parties, we democrats are engaging in infighting. We have to counter that tendency so as to strengthen our democratic camp.

It is not true the monarchy and the Maoists are stronger than the ideal of democracy. A democracy would be one where the country is lead by someone who is directly elected by the people who is Commander In Chief of the army and is sworn to uphold and protect the constitution. Protecting democracy would be the army's prime responsibility. Attempts to sabotage democracy would amount to treason. Both brute physical force and rule of law would be on democracy's side.

But that democracy we have never had.

It is sad the king did not reciprocate the Maoists' ceasefire. And it is sad the king did not appreciate the 12 point agreement between the Maoists and the political parties. But then it is hard to understand the king's actions if you look at him through the eyes of the democrats. The monarchy is out to preserve itself and expand its base. The country is a small price to pay.

People like Girija Koirala, Madhav Nepal, Sher Bahadur Deuba and the rest have been duly elected by their respective parties. It is one thing to criticize their specific words and actions, but it is quite another to be dismissive of them. Girija is not the reason the king has the country under his claws, the king is the reason.

We should focus more on the future agenda in the democratic camp. If we did not like what the country had in the 1990s, we should work to offer an alternate vision for where the country should go down the line.

But even that is kind of secondary. The immediate challenge is to help the movement for democracy the best we can. Attacking people in the democratic camp is hardly the way to go.

There are three worst case scenarios I see.
  1. The king imposes martial law. That would hurt him further, but he could do it as an act of desperation.
  2. The king could get ousted, and the army could stage a coup and take over. Pyar Jung could end up the Nepali Musharraf.
  3. The king could get ousted, the army could get disbanded, and the Maoists could decide they want a communist republic after all, and they want it now. Nepal could end up a one party state of the Maoists.
I don't see either of these unfolding, really. But we have to watch out. And we have to proactively prevent them. We do that by putting forth a sophisticated, effective, robust democracy movement. We have to act like we are going to reoccupy the center.

My Proposal To The Saturday Symposium At Columbia

Visitors

11 January03:56Department of State, Washington, D.C., United States
11 January06:17D. E. Shaw & Co., New York, United States
11 January06:24NetCologne, Germany
11 January06:44JPNIC, Japan
11 January07:36206.220.32.x
11 January08:51Sify Limited, India
11 January09:06British Telecommunications plc, United Kingdom


11 January10:05Nepal (wlink.com.np)
11 January10:34Internet Qatar, Qatar
11 January12:20AMD, Austin, United States
11 January13:12ETC, United Arab Emirates
11 January13:38Swipnet, Sweden
11 January13:38Columbia University, United States
11 January15:19OTEnet, Greece
11 January16:04Minnesota State Universities, United States
11 January17:56Xtra, New Zealand

In The News

Policemen reported missing in Dhandgadhi NepalNews
Deuba gives key party posts to Shrestha, Singh and Nidhi
Be ready to court arrests, Nepal tells party men
Rolpalis start fleeing from villages due to fear of war: Report
Not to Set Up Poll Booths on School Premises: Students
Himalayan Times, Nepal
Seven Party Alliance Organising Mass Meet in Janakpur
Himalayan Times, Nepal
Anti-Poll Drive in Full Swing in Biratnagar
Himalayan Times, Nepal
Maoists attack district headquarter in Nepal
Webindia123, India
Total Democracy NC-D’s Objective and Destination
NewsLine Nepal, Nepal
RPP Dissidents’ Convention Concludes, Statute Remains Intact
NewsLine Nepal, Nepal
Frm Speaker Blames King for Crisis
NewsLine Nepal, Nepal
Maoists attack district headquarter in Nepal
NewKerala.com, India
Nepal’s largest royalist party chief ‘ousted’
The Statesman, India
261-year-old war re-opens in Nepal Daily News & Analysis
Ex Nepal Army chief takes exception to Indian envoy's remarks
Press Trust of India, India
NEPAL: The Year in Review 2005 - Conflict grinds on Reuters AlertNet
Nepal says Maoist threats will not delay polls Reuters AlertNet
Nepal's Conflict Hits Economy Badly: ADB
Himalayan Times, Nepal
Thousands protest against royal rule in Nepal Reuters AlertNet

My Proposal To The Saturday Symposium At Columbia








  • Saturday, January 14, 2006, From 8.30 am to 5 PM
  • Jerome Greene Hall, Room 102 Columbia University Law School, New York, NY 10027, At the corner of 116 th Street and Amsterdam Ave

I believe this is going to be a fairly representative group of Nepalis from across the continent although I don't believe the Nepali organizations in the US have ever truly been mass based. But this meeting has to be made the best use of if we are in tune with the mass movement in Nepal.

I would like to propose a few concepts and a few projects.

Concepts

(1) We have to become mass based.

If there are 50,000 Nepalis in the US, we have to find ways to reach out to as many of them as possible. The Flickr project is designed to do that. This might be the best, simplest, cheapest, fastest, most egalitarian, most hassle free, most inclusive, most decentralized way to do it. People with digital cameras should reach out to the Nepalis in their respective circles, take group pictures of people who support the cause, upload them at Flickr, and tag them nepaldemocracy.

We have to seek dignity not only for Nepalis who have college and advanced degrees, who hold top paying jobs with institutions of renown, Neplis who are US citizens and green card holders, but also those who only have high school degrees, who work odd jobs, who work below minimum wage. The positive fallouts are many. We are in good position to present Nepal as the Iraq for the Democrats for 2006 and 2008. We could hope to work to earn voting rights for non-citizens in cities like New York: no taxation without representation.

Participation in the democracy movement is not just for those 27 million back in Nepal but also for the 50,000 in the US. See this as political self interest.

(2) We have to think of the Internet as the new country.

It is not America. We don't live in America. America is Europe, the Internet is America. The traditional geographical boundary/barrier between Nepal and America no longer exists if we can fully embrace the Internet. If we were to create a few open, virtual "parliaments," we could contribute not only to the establishment of democracy, but also to the institution building without which democracy is at best hollow, and also to rapid economic growth for the country, year in year out, decade in decade out. There is no substitue to face time, but we have to optimize screen time to the max to both enrich face time, and also to make interaction and exchange possible when face time might not be an option.

Because of the internet, we all can become our own media. (Blogger, Audioblogger, Blastpodcast, YouTube) This is true for those of us in the US but also for those in Nepal. We could truly collaborate with people at the other end and we should do it.

(3) Put your money where your mouth is.

Talk is not enough. Ideas are not enough. Press statements are not enough. Lobbying is not enough. Rallies are not enough. Events are not enough.

We have to move on to that next step, which is to provide major logistical support to the movement back in Nepal. Several projects were identified at the Nepal Democracy Google Group in November. All 50,000 Nepalis in the US can afford to donate at least $10. Many can afford to donate $1000 or more. And we should do it. We can disagree on how that money should be raised and spent - personally I am for the most decentralized ways possible - but we can not disagree on if or not to raise the money. Money has to be raised.

I am for going beyond the projects identified so far to directly funding the protests rallies and programs of the seven party alliance. They should take care of the political aspects, we should take care of the financial aspects. We could quicken the pace of the movement for a quicker resolution. We have the power to do that.

On The Web

Orange Revolution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Indian Independence Movement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
French Revolution - Wikipedia
American Revolution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Russian Revolution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chinese Civil War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
May Fourth Movement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chinese democracy movement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Democracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Human rights - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Freedom of speech - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Visitors

10 January12:36British Telecommunications plc, United Kingdom
10 January15:17KORNET, Korea
10 January20:57New York University, New York, United States
10 January22:14Michigan Technological Inst., Houghton, United States
11 January01:15KDDI Corporation, Japan