Published: April 09, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
Nepal: Heaven or Hell, Who Cares
By Nepal Freedom Centre
Photo:NFC |
When I published my first article on leadership in Nepal (Who will lead this nation?) I received many emails from Nepalis and non-Nepalis from around the world, mostly agreeing with what I wrote, some commenting with their own views, some providing me with further material and encouraging me to write more.
"Why not", I thought. Nepal is not MY country, but it is the country of my wife and my children. It has been a heaven for me in many ways; giving me a caring family who welcomed me into their fold, giving me exciting adventures as I pursued my mountaineering dreams, giving me some of the closest and most loyal friends I will ever have, and giving me a new insight into dignity, spirituality and self respect when I experienced some of the deepest personal despair imaginable. This has been my view of Nepal, until now.
For the last few years the country has endured the most turbulent and violent times; the Maoist terrorist uprising, the massacre of the royal family, strikes, demonstrations, the so called "people's movement" last April, the Gaur incident, electricity supply outages, kidnappings, extortion ....... and all this on top of corruption, caste and ethnic discrimination, poverty, a lack of education, and a political "system" that has nothing systematic about it and may yet lead the country into further violence and even civil war.
Specifically, the political parties have recently distributed amongst themselves the key government ministries to lead up to elections in June. But amongst this there are no appointments for Prachanda or Baburam the two senior Maoist leaders! Why not, shouldn't the leader of a party have one of the ministries in a coalition to at least demonstrate their competence? Second, some of the ministries themselves make no sense; why is something as important as education combined with sport? Why is agriculture seperate from soil & forestry?
Perhaps even more importantly, the elections are almost upon us and notwithstanding the logistical difficulties in such a country, I am at a loss to get any answer from anyone regarding what these elections are for! What I mean is, are they to choose representatives, are they to choose a party/leader, or ........ and this is the main difficulty, are they to decide whether Nepal should be a federal republic or a constitutional monarchy? Certainly the parties constantly keep blurring the issue, especially the Maoists with Prachanda constantly repeating that they will take to the streets again if there is not a declaration of a republic. Very democratic!
It seems that my Nepali heaven has become a complete living hell, certainly in the words of some of my family who tell me that life is becoming utterly unbearable in Kathmandu. Likewise, it seems that there may be a growing feeling of helplessness and "what's the point" from Nepalis abroad. I recently wrote to someone who had written on a website discussion board about giving up, how the people in Nepal seemed to like being ruled and weren't ready or willing for a democracy and the responsibilities that involved. I told him NOT to give up, to keep writing, to keep posting on websites, to keep asking questions these quasi-politicians didn't like or couldn't answer, and that we should keep in touch and help and encourage each other.
But then I turned to my own inbox and my own blog, Nepal Freedom,and realised that the number of email responses and the number of posts on my blog has DECREASED in proportion to my own INCREASE in articles and postings. Has everyone given up except me? So, maybe my correspondent was right after all, "Nepal heaven or hell, who cares?"
The Nepal Freedom Centre is a virtual organisation for everyone concerned for democracy in Nepal. You are encouraged to participate via http://nepalfreedom.blogspot.com
* The views of Opinion writers do not necessarily reflect the views of NewsBlaze
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