ROCKY ROAD
Who would have thought it would come to this: that one of the most respected papers in the country would call Pushpa Kamal Dahal a 'moderate', and that we'd not split our sides or hurl ('Peace train', #348). As distasteful as it is to admit this, you are right. I might extend that assessment to add that he's a middle-of-the-roader because he's as greedy as the rest of them.
The fellow-passengers analogy is a good one; after all, not long ago communists in states that were left-unfriendly identified themselves as 'fellow travellers'. In this case, we are all journeying together all right, on what appears to be a road to nowhere.
Sanjeev,
email
. I was impressed by CK Lal's well-researched 'Rocky road to republic' (State of the state, #348). The article comes at a time when Girija Prasad Koirala has presented us with a stark choice between two dictatorships-one under the rule of his own Nepali Congress, with the eight parties in tow, and the other, reverting back to the previous model, which was shunned by the eight parties for being exclusionary.
Do the Nepali people really have no choice other than this chronic republicanism? Most of us really just want to chug along the middle democratic path. Lambasting the king alone won't help GPK this time, although my sympathies are with him, since the UML's Bharat Mohan Adhikari is threatening to pull out from the interim parliament and the government, if things do not start taking shape as conceived during Jana Andolan II.
The honeymoon phase is now over, eight-partywallas. The people want to see the democratic baby kicking and well, and bawling out a new mantra for political nirvana. And this is not as simple as the rebel's republican ruse which won't succeed in any case, given our geopolitical limitations and pressure from the international community, which wants to see a peaceful democratic dispensation in Nepal, ceremonial monarchy and all.
Surya B Prasai,
email
. Right now, the Nepali people blame the prime minister for protecting the king. After all, so many lives were lost with the goal of removing the king from power and from the country. But as it turns out, the true hindrance to peace is not kingji or Girija babu. It is ethnic violence, and the YCL, which is run by morally and ethically corrupt people with mental issues.
Prachanda is not at all in control of his quasi-political military party and seems more intent on taking over the country, rather than following party guidelines. And so, for his own safety, he's promising the world to the fools below him. But we should all know one thing: republic or no, poor and rich people will continue as they are now.
Living in a third world country means having to deal with huge trade offs between limited choices. But the Maoists, while they still have the support of many people, continue to promise us heaven so we feel that it's all the other parties who are responsible for the recent setbacks. Sure, you can build castles in the air, but do
you know how difficult and time-consuming that is?
Effective development programs come from rigorous testing and cross-checking of strategic plans, and keeping government staff in check. I wonder how Maoists are going to do all that.
Dino Shrestha,
email
CLUELESS
Pranav Budhathoki is more or less bang on about our puerile communists ('Young Clueless League', #348). I don't recall reading anything coming out of Nepal which suggests that we should be embracing the YCL comrades rather than ignoring and abominating them, and believe that such articles underline Nepali Times's even-handed reporting.
But the article raises eyebrows too. I don't think paying YCL gangs for neighbourhood watch-style patrols is going to do any good. It will only encourage people and groups, violent or otherwise, to take legal matters into their personal discretion. Then who will tame them?
Nubina Shrestha,
Lancaster
. The YCL makes me sick. My spouse is from mainland China and I've heard enough stories from my in-laws (who were 'bourgeois', i.e., educated professionals) to know how these things spiral into insanity of the kind propagated by the Red Guard.
Nima T,
Shanghai
PAST LESSONS
History cannot be rewritten or destroyed, which is why I am so concerned about the demolition of so many historical monuments and statues, no matter of which religious group or king. We need to preserve them at least to respect the workmanship of the artists. Yes, we are deeply angry at the monarchy, but why waste energy on lifeless objects? The monarchy will be gone one day, and it will be good to have its relics in a museum, so future generations can know about the elites who treated their own countrymen like animals.
Gaurav Nepali,
email
OLD BIASES
Fukuyama fundamentally fails to define 'democracy' or 'liberalisatio&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;' ('The history at the end of history', opinion, #347). Bush and his cronies also fail to do so, and we've seen the outcomes. He presents a modernist position of liberalism that is a western, protestant economic and socio political theory that has clearly failed in many places (just look at the current political issues in the UK). Instead of arguing superiority, such academics should focus on the postmodernist success stories in South Asia, such as the development of legal theory in India, and acknowledge that modernism is not the answer to all.
O Spencer-Shrestha, Nepal Society,
School of Oriental and African Studies,
London
BAD LANGUAGE
Your newspaper's opinion poll "What is the best option for King Gyanendra?" (#347) is highly flawed, considered from the perspective of how to make a good research question. The fourth option, 'hang on tight' is understood in many different ways by several readers I spoke with.
This struck me when I saw that the largest number of respondents chose 'hang-on tight'. After all, this is at a time when the masses are overtly expressing anti-monarchy views. Most people I asked said that to them the phrase meant that he should be executed-hanged. I also asked which option they would pick and all of them-republicans included-said 'hang on tight.'
Do be careful while using idioms. Or it starts to seem as if you want to garner support for the monarchy in a clandestine manner by fooling the people in favour of the monarchy.
Badri P Bastakoti,
email
UPSIDE DOWN
Yea, and verily I say unto thee, the Ass speaks the truth. All the fears of the impeding apocalypse in Nepal aside, it really does often feel as if the country has fallen into some bad film about medieval theatre, where the ass is the wise one. You're spot on about no one taking night buses to conventions any more. Having had the opportunity to observe the slowly changing habits of some of my new neighbours (certain comrades who shall not be named), I can safely say that while power does not necessarily corrupt, it can buy you modest middle class cars, schools for your kids, flashy boots and t-shirts, and mirrored sunglasses. Not so much a proletarian revolution as a somewhat tasteless assault of middle class aspiration, complete with hideously upholstered plastic-covered sofas.
Name withheld,
email
. My family-by-marriage is, I soon found out, very sober indeed. My regular hysterical snorts of laughter on reading Nepali Times' back page were greeted with an alarmed silence in my first few weeks living with them. Now, six months later, the father-in-law is also a devout reader of the Ass. This is something, given that these good people are otherwise very suspicious of anything that seems like a flippant, good time.
Anusha,
email
