(Courtesy: Dr. Saubhagya Shah)
The Great White Chief came, saw, and conquered the ruling eight party alliance and affiliated NGOdom and civil society. Yet, Jimmy Carter, chief of an international NGO bearing his name has failed to lift the national mood that had begun to dip since last December. According to a long-time Washington insider, Jimmyji from Georgia had not received this much media adulation even from the Washington press when he came to the White House, circa 1970s. Trust our fourth estate to separate the chaff from the wheat and put things into perspective. Despite lionizing Girija Koirala as the greatest democratic hero and entertaining the Maoist supremo duo’s supplication for non-terrorist tag in his Soaltee suite, the one-time US president’s two-week long festivities in the local media during his recent daibik vraman (Godly tour) has left the country basically where it was, that is: high and dry. And I do not only imply the dry petrol pumps and frustrated drivers swearing and sweltering in mile-long queues or the bruised fingertips of peasant women trying to stick the paddy saplings into the parched fields in south Patan.
Where else in the world can one see a revolution carried out in the name of the peasants, using peasant blood and Maoist ideology that suddenly turns around from New Delhi to say that it is actually a struggle to strengthen capitalistic production relations and bourgeois democracy? By any measure, the ruse deployed to pilfer the peasant to provide for the prosperous must be considered history’s greatest heist.
Within a year of the great Janaandolan II, the New Nepal is back to self-doubts and despondency reminiscent of the Old Nepal. The sense of victory and epochal accomplishment has been overshadowed by anger and accusation, suspicion and cynicism in every quarter. Interestingly, nowhere is this sense of foreboding shriller than among the main actors who coalesced to defeat the old regime and institute the New Nepal. Not even the announcement of the third constituent assembly election date in less than a year seems to have done much to dispel the foreboding. It is as if too many false gods have caused the population to inoculate itself against further disappointments with cynicism. In the absence of a basic national agreement on the purpose and modality of the constituent assembly election and an unflinching commitment to honor its outcome, the whole exercise won’t be worth the paper it is written on. The historical instances from Europe, Africa, and Asia tell us as much.
While the new dispensation contained several inherent structural and ideological contradictions that had been conveniently glossed over during the movement to overthrow the royal regime, it was the sudden firestorm in the Terai that not only swept away the triumphalism but also the very foundation of the new state alliance. With the benefit of hindsight, the original critique of New Delhi sponsored 12-Point Pact as essentially an ‘unholy’ one-point instrument of convenience rather than a larger national vision might come to haunt the eight party victors than has been given credit so far. The nature of the present peace - the normalization of violence and lawlessness as transitional alibi - is perhaps a poetic commentary on the perils of power shorn of ethics. Peace must be principled; otherwise it ends up being no different than war. Surely, if the peace is so costly, who needs war?
Had there been a more sober rather than a rhetorical assessment of the nature and scope of the April upheaval, perhaps the country would have been spared another bout of apprehension and despondency. Caught up in the euphoria of the moment, many enthusiasts characterized the April change as being unique, unprecedented, and a historic mark on the canvass of the 21st century. The Panglossic view even claimed that it was a world-historical event that would allow the world to be remade entirely anew again. What was forgotten was Marx’s caution to his revolutionaries that men (now women as well, I suppose) may make history, but only within the circumstances they find themselves in.
Objectively speaking, the April episode was not even a regime change, it was simply a case of regime collapse. Basically, a supremely incompetent regime in a weak state setting crumbled at the first serious challenge from a combined opposition. In a monumental miscalculation, the palace had jumped at the weaknesses of the political parties while completely failing to appreciate their collective strength that had both an internal and external dimension. It was this elementary political blunder which cost the crown its constitutional authority and much more.
What succeeded the King’s debacle is not even a regime in the strict sense; it is a regime-to-be. Comprised of eight political parties that espouse conflicting ideology and modus operandi, the new regime appears as an internally conflicting holding group rather than a coherent government. Paradoxically, the only issue that is still keeping the winning alliance intact is their shared hatred of the Crown that has been put in a kind of political coma by the interim constitution. It is almost as if the republican coalition now has more need of a phantom monarchy to keep them going than the royalists ever dreamt of. During its heyday, the Crown was often hailed as the unifying center of the Nepali nation. History will certainly pass its verdict on that claim, but it is ironic that it should already be the galvanizing force for the political parties as well. Indeed, where would the grand alliance now be without the benefit of a royal bogey? The desperate search for ‘ritual kingship’ or the ‘baby king’ by Nepal’s die-hard republicans and secularists is symptomatic of the befuddled ideology guiding the country’s political destiny.
Truly classless
Given the character of the new elites and the regional and international environment, it is highly unlikely that the new dispensation in Nepal will be able to undertake substantive economic reforms and initiatives that could positively impact the fortunes of ordinary Nepalis. Notwithstanding the occasional radical bluster, the new ruling circle will not dare change course from the current peripheral capitalist economy or disregard IMF and World Bank market prescriptions.
The problem with the status quo is that unless something creatively drastic is undertaken, the fundamentals of Nepali economy will remain the same for the foreseeable future: unsustainable subsistence cultivation, export of cheap labor, widening trade deficit, and massive unemployment amidst abject poverty. What the ordinary people need most in this country is growth and employment, but the new rulers at the helm are still without any credible ideas or commitment on this imperative. It must be considered a strange twist of fate that just when the communists finally emerged as the dominant force in Nepal, class as an analytic and political category has been replaced by ethnicity and identity as the major frames of intellectual, political, and developmental engagement. Although the initial payoffs might be good, it must be borne in mind that after a certain point, communalism and ethnochuvanism elsewhere have usually proven to be the scoundrel’s last refuge.
The Nepali paradoxes are indeed mind-boggling. Where else in the world can one see a revolution carried out in the name of the peasants, using peasant blood and Maoist ideology that suddenly turns around from New Delhi to say that it is actually a struggle to strengthen capitalistic production relations and bourgeois democracy? By any measure, the ruse deployed to pilfer the peasant to provide for the prosperous must be considered history’s greatest heist.
Thus, when the claims of scientific logic and reason are not much more consistent and apparent than the obscurity of political sorcery, the masses should perhaps be forgiven for giving credence to Trishul Baba’s doomsday prediction or for reading dire omens in the sweat beads rolling down Bhimeshwor’s temple in Dolakha.
Related Posts:
Life is Good When You Are a Nepali Intellectual Elite
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2007/06/life-is-good-when-you-are-nepali.html
Reality Check for Nepal - Part-II
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2007/05/reality-check-for-nepal-part-ii.html
Reality Check for Nepal - Part-I
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2007/05/reality-check-for-nepal-part-i.html
Thank You Daniela - But Nepal is Already on "Plan B"http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2007/05/thank-you-daniela-but-nepal-is-already.html
6 comments:
Elegant, witty and to the point! Superb juxtaposition of wants, desires and expecations versus reality, limitations and constraints.
There was so god damn much bull shit about Nepali people being this and that... look at where we are now? No better off than when we started in 1996.
Mr Shah writes very well with deep feelings and conviction. I really hope that not only the Nepali intellectuals but also Indian and other international writers writing on Nepal look at this blog site and wake up to accurately inform their readers. I think our regular Nepali and English newspapers even if they had this level of sophistication in writing are probably afraid to offend the Maoists. I dont blame them. Criticizing the royal regime was by comparison a cakewalk.
Well said. A true assessment. Now the question that arises is what next? Will gang of 8 hold on power under flimsy pretext of Nov. 6th, sustain them or destroy them? Press, on back pockets of India, may go over board with sing a song of CA but in reality that will be last nail in the coffin of Nepal as we know it.
We, as Nepali, must make it a call of duty to protect our sovereignty, nationhood, and way of life.
Anurag, there is more to be desired than your rambling that nor bearing at all. Post with common sense not just for sake of it- like Gang of 8
Very well written. The thug gang of 8 is already failed to rule this country. Isn't their regime is historically worst ? They are failed because ;
1. They had promised to bring peace and democracy which is not in the country in the current situation due to lack of "law and order" and historical usecure moment.
2. They had promised to uplift the poor people. But instead, the economy of the country is going down and the government is almost in the bankrupt stage. The shortage of petrol is one of the example.
3. They had promised for CA election which have been extending and even uncertain in future.
4. Their anarchism and dictatorship toward people and against opponent shows that they are not practicing the single democratic norm. Their vandalism and hoodlum against opponents and general people are the examples of being a historic autocratic regime ever practiced by Nepal.
5. They are ruining the country by dividing our nation. Although the demand of madhesi seems guinine in many contexts, but the massive suppressions toward madhesi taken place with the instruction of the gang of 8, which turned everything upside down. Now the country will either face the FIJI status or madhes will seperate from the country.
6. The peoples' expectation toward corruption-control is moving toward negative direction. It has also been heard that the leaders of 8 parties transferred the huge amount in Swiss Bank. By this information the little hope that people had with thug spam is ruined further.
7. The people who were expecting to see peace and democracy are now screaming against the division of the nation and the sovereignty of the country.
8. The arms groups are being developed to more than 25 in numbers and killings are becoming like normal phenomena in the country. This clearly depict their way of ruling the country. etc..etc...and etc...
What worst do we expect more than this ?
Perhaps the masses - and that is us - should not be forgiven for anything. Instead of fatalistic beliefs in sweating idols and such, it is time that the people take charge of its destiny. This means calling a spade a spade, e.g. the delaying tactics being used in the tripartite verification of the cantonments. This means making it clear that we do not accept the monopoly of SPAM in the CA polls. This means a vibrant media having the courage to expose misdeeds to the public. This means that the civil society reinstating its past zeal in the cause of freedom and democracy. In summary, it means saying firmly "Enough is enough!" AND if that cannot be said due to fear of reprisals from any party, then we have forsaken democracy already and it is time to go back to the drawing board - take that any way you want it.
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