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December, 2004 |
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Political |
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Protests, Protests As the wintry chill grows, violence and protest programmes of different types are heating up. On November 8, the country observed the 15th Constitution Day while debating on whether to amend or replace it as it has apparently failed to address so many issues that have led to the present crisis. The main refrains of the commentators were the repetition of the empty call to the Maoists to honour the constitutional process and diatribes against the political parties and their leaders. Dr. Mohammad Mohsin, a minister believed to be representing the royal palace in the Council of Ministers, created a stir across the political spectrum by publicly saying that if the present government had to leave office, it would be replaced by an authoritarian regime. However, some analysts say that as the present situation is not a democracy (so many rights of the people have now been suspended), there is no point in complaining about what Dr. Mohsin indicated. Some say that the so called alternate political force that former Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa is now putting together is in fact a preparation for putting in place such an authoritarian regime.
Mid-November marked the end of the festival season and violence by the Maoists immediately started escalating. It was often reckless – they killed a teacher in Pokhara who, they too agree, was innocent. Also the army has come out aggressively against the Maoists as shown by the successful attack in an important Maoist camp at Pandaun village, Kailali district. In Dailekh, village women staged an impressive rally protesting the Maoist atrocities. How the government utilises the people’s hatred against the Maoists and how the Maoists would react to that are yet uncertain. Maoists sent more jitters across the nation by using drill machines on the shin bones of some women in Baglung. However, the people led by Janmorcha Nepal (an ally of Nepali congress in its anti regression movement) are reported staging similar protest against the Maoists as in Dailekh. Meanwhile the government is repeating the call for peace talks and threatening to go ahead with the preparation for the general elections. On November 25, it announced that it would wait till mid-January for the Maoists to come up with a talk proposal, or it would start the election process. Coincidentally, this announcement came immediately after the news report of the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice agreeing to give priority to the hearing of a pending petition that demands restoration of the house. According to one analysis, the Prime Minister is trying to pre-empt the Supreme Court’s decision. His point is that there would be no need to restore the parliament since the election will be held soon. According to some other analysts, the present government has to keep on harping about two things– talks and elections - as without doing so it would lose its existence (Remember, these were the two tasks specifically entrusted upon them when they were sworn in!). As a new initiative to win support for his scheme of things, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba started ‘dinner diplomacy’ by inviting various leaders to cocktail dinners at his official residence. Meanwhile, the opposition parties led by Nepali Congress have started a fresh round of protest programmes against what they call ‘regression.’ However, these protest programmes by the opposition are drawing the people’s concern more for the traffic jams they are creating at the centre of the capital rather than for the possibility of these protests changing the present state of affairs. If similar innumerable protest programmes in the past failed to do that, why would anyone believe that the fresh round is going to be a successful one? Also the dinners hosted by the Prime Minister are making more news about the astronomical liquor bills than about the likelihood of their success to bring about a national consensus. The month also saw a near walk-out of the CPN-UML from the government under pressure of its student wing and some influential central leaders. The party family, however, decided to hold onto the government. The next day, UML supremo Madhav Nepal called on Congress supreme GP Koirala, but nothing concrete has come out of the meeting during which both tried to convince each other of mutual help. Early December witnessed further protest programs against the conference of Raj Parisad, the council of royal advisors, which advised the king to be more active. Also the CPN-UML, the coalition partner in the government, joined these protests. The conference was boycotted by CPN-UML ministers as a step they considered revolutionary. One major newsmaker of the month was the controversial former Mayor of Kathmandu, Keshav Sthapit, who surprised all by joining the Praja Parishad, a political party existing over 60 years, which now has only about a few dozen members, Septuagenarians and Octogenarians, who were too happy to entrust Sthapit with the post of the party president on the same day that he joined it. The Supreme Court overruled its earlier controversial decision to acquit the international drug peddler William Robbinson, thus formally recognising that the two judges who had made the earlier decision had acted in a manner not fit for their positions. While one of these judges had already resigned from his position, the other resigned soon after the decision was overruled. Meanwhile, the apex court also overruled the decision of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to suspend one of its members on the logic that such a person can be removed only by the parliament. Since the Parliament is suspended, this decision means the officials of the constitutional bodies can have a free play. |
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