Indepth Analysis

The multi-party decade: State at standstill!

Kathmandu: The only reason the tourism industry is surviving here at 12-year-old rates is the sudden escalation of the price of the convertible currency over the decade. Tourism admittedly is the only earning industry in the country at the moment. Its backers say that it is just surviving. Most other industries in the country have already closed down, are on the verge of closing or are surviving artificially.

Nepali imports to Nepal that largely back consumption here have a curious mix of illegal. It is this illegality that cushions the pricing system given the state of our borders. The movement of the Army in the key customs areas appears to have already helped closed loopholes in this illegality. The result, higher prices in the border areas.

The state of the economy is precarious no doubt. What is worrisome is that this is further aggravated by the politics of the country, which has the sole responsibility of providing the solutions. Example is found this week in the near total closure of national production. Sunday and Monday were traditional holidays. Tuesday, yesterday, was the lone working week. Wednesday and Thursday have been declared by the ML as "traffic free days" nationwide. Friday is a national bundh called by the "'all-powerful" Maoists. Saturday and Sunday again, of course, are weekends. Sunday, moreover, is the congress declared anti-corruption day coinciding with the UML declared agitation against the Lauda deal.

This obsession with politics has advantage for the political parties no doubt. The cadres are given programs to show themselves on the streets. Money is spent and no body knows from where it comes. And strength is tested. Outside of this national production and other economic activities remains at a virtual standstill.

No systemic response to revert the situation appears round the corner. Government has cut the additional Sunday weekend for essential services. It has cut the number of long standing religious holidays. It has even managed to identify essential services that now include tourism where now strikes been banned. These measures are, however, utterly inadequate to boost the national performance. The key is in the political sector. And the political sector has been agitating since 1990. It is this agitation that is being commemorated this week. For the lay public the agitation continues and it is telling on the people.

A rapidly shrinking job market and a deteriorating production sector have mixed negatively still with a precarious law and order situation contributing further to the destabilization of the total Nepali State. A declared Maoist target, the former IGP, Achyut Krishna Kharel, has his home wrecked in Kathmandu itself Monday early morning. This shows both Maoists clout in Kathmandu and the glaring loopholes in our security system in the capital city itself. The state of affairs outside the capital is such that the Maoists movement virtually dictates the law and order situation and the presence of the government authority in name only is limited to district head quarters.

The decade old multi-party democracy the restoration of which is being celebrated this week by the political parties that led the people's movement a decade ago has no unanimous participation from the lay public and the sole celebrants are those of these political parties who the public realize are the sole beneficiaries of this "democracy" and are themselves responsible for the perversions that have put the lay people in this dismal state.

The lack of spontaneity or even the appearance of such in the current celebrations is further made notorious by the glaring divisions among the very people who are celebrating the occasion.

Parliament this winter session has been the very victim of this division. Even the constitution has been allowed a paralysis that defies constitutional solutions. It is the very divisions on these key issues that ridicule the system today. A decade after the restoration of multi-party democracy the State stands still.

Opposition adamant in its avowal; Koirala remains undeterred

Kathmandu : The opposition led by the UML has vowed to unseat Prime Minister Koirala from his current chair come what may. The crusade is on since fifty days plus.

Prime Minister Koirala remains undeterred and has not yet hinted that he would yield to the dictates of the opposition come what may. His arrogance remains unabated that has paralyzed the parliament since day one of its beginning some two months back.

Not very surprisingly, both the rivals pocket the salaries provided them by the parliament secretariat even for not attending the session. The beauty of a democratic system indeed.

In the process, the opposition led by the UML has apparently intensified its agitation program to throw out the Prime Minister as per its declared avowal made two months back. The nine left parties too have one point agenda and that being the ouster of Prime Minister Koirala from the present chair.

The ML is in a dilemma. However, its students grouping in one way or the other is contributing to the agitation led by the UML by organizing a traffic free day beginning today for consecutive two days.

The UML is yet to announce its fresh programs to unseat the Prime Minister after the winter session of the parliament is prorogued this week. The impending UML programs would be, as rumors have it, of different nature but definitely would be more chaotic for the Prime Minister and the nation as well.

The daddy of them all would be the April 6 bundh sponsored by the Maoists considering the events that have followed this week in various parts of the country.

Slowly but very steadily the situation in the nation is getting out of the grips of the establishment.

While on the one hand Prime Minister Koirala is facing frontal attacks from the parliamentarians in the opposition, on the other the Maoists have tentatively destabilized his regime through the use of violence and force and in the process have already killed a sizeable chunk of the security personals in different parts of the nation.

The worst hit is the people. Neither they can support the killings of the policemen by the rebellions nor could give plus points to the establishment for the total lack of security-system in the nation.

The international community based in Kathmandu is under constant panic, which is very much understandable.

The Koirala government is receiving jolts after jolts in the political sector to say the least.

For example, while Koirala is losing his internal base from his own inner coterie then equally true is that he is being cornered by the declared opposition belonging to his own party which is explicitly led by Bhattarai-Deuba combine.

Understandably, Bhattarai's internal desire would be the summary humiliating ouster of Koirala from the chair much the same manner in which he was forced to resign by master engineer that is the present Prime Minister.

The worst part of the whole ongoing politics in the country is that gradually the present establishment under Koirala is losing its credibility and legitimacy both.

Rumors have it that the recent wanton killings of the police men by the Maoists insurgents have jolted the security machinery from within to the extent that the brave officers in the system too exhibit their reluctance now in obeying the orders of their seniors who tell them to proceed to the areas where Maoists rule the roost.

Reading to the fiery statements emanating from the opposition quarters what becomes pretty clear is that the UML, with other parties or not, will go its declared way and would thus contribute to deteriorate further the already deteriorated situation in the Kingdom.

Prime Minister Koirala's resignation is not that important now given the kind of situation the country is in now, what is important is how the already chaotically derailed nation will be brought to the rails.

The government appears still in a mood to see the Maoists face to face and apparently is all set to proceed in that line come what may.

Nation heading towards a disastrous course!

Kathmandu: The otherwise peaceful Kingdom is becoming more and more dangerous and chaotic to live in due to the increased incidents of violence initiated by the Maoists insurgents. A sort of total panic has gripped the entire nation well after the Rukumkot killings of the policemen by the Maoists insurgents last Sunday early morning.

A total of about forty police personals have sacrificed their precious lives during the encounter with the insurgents this Sunday morning at Rukumkot in Rukum district.

Rukum and Rolpa are considered to be totally under the control of the Maoists since long.

The Sunday encounter in between the policemen and the rebellions is talked to be the most dangerous of all the clashes that have happened after Dunai incident that took place a few days before last year's Durga Puja festivals. Some even say the present sad event at Rukumkot was of much greater dimension than that of Dunai killings of the policemen by the revolutionaries.

Likewise the Dolkha incident which also took its tall on both the sides that is the policemen and the rebellions Sunday morning too has contributed to the increased panic among the national population.

That the security system in the country is totally nil or is very close to that gets reflected from the very explosion of a very high powered gelatin at the very private residence quarter of the former Inspector General of Police Achyut Krishna Kharel early Sunday morning. If the state of the security-system in the heart of the capital is such then it could be guessed fairly as to what would be its position of the same in the districts more so in those areas wherein the Maoists have their stronghold, for example in the remote western regions of the country.

Undoubtedly, the former IGP was tentatively the declared target of the Maoists for it was he who preferred the use of excessive force to tame the Maoists rebellions during his tenure. May be the fresh target at his private residence could be attributed to his hard posture taken against the insurgents when he was in power. A guess work only.

Now the question arises as to what would happen on April 6-the day declared by the Maoists as a nation-wide bundh- when some days in advance the insurgents have created havoc in the country?

The fresh Rukumkot attack on the policemen by the Maoists has come immediately after Chairman Prachanda through a statement preferred a dialogue with the representatives of all major actors of the Nepalese political scene and hinted that their party too could join the government thus formed after the all party meeting came to a conclusion of having a different sort of government other than the present one.

The fact is that the Maoists had declared in advance that they would initiate penal action days prior to observing the nationwide bundh on April 6.

The question now automatically arises as to why the government did not take their warnings or declarations seriously and acted accordingly. "Had the government taken their words seriously, the lives of the policemen would have been saved", commented an ordinary citizen.

Yet another panicked intellectual said that looking at the major offensive and the calculated attack on the policemen in Rukumkot, Dolakha and in Kathmandu on Sunday morning what could be guessed in advance is that the nation will either go soon in the total control of the Maoists-insurgents or this event in particular will prompt or even press the constitutional monarch to step in to bring back to normalcy the already deteriorated political scene of the country.

High placed sources in the government and in the diplomatic community, however, opine that the King will not interfere into the obtaining scheme of things in Nepal and would wish to see the wisdom of the leaders of the nation manning the government and the system itself.

" Yes! The constitutional monarch appears pretty worried at the unfolding events in the country", said a diplomat with this scribe last week.

Rumors have it that the monarch recently asked Prime Minister Koirala as to "why the parliament was not allowed to do business"?

A nervous and dumbfound Koirala, however, told the monarch that the entire opposition in close collaboration with a section of his own parliamentary party members had created the stalemate in the parliament who have been seeking his resignation over his alleged connection in the Lauda air procurement. The prime minister is supposed to have sought the support of the monarch for yet another ordinance to reactivate the sinking bill in the parliament.

Be that as it may, the situation in the country has gone from bad to worse. The politics is under tremendous strain. Security system has gone to the dogs. Add to this the chaos that would follow the bundhs sponsored by the communists and the radical ones of the sort of the Maoists in series that is to begin this Wednesday and onwards.

The government led by Girija is thus advised to resume dialogues with the insurgents if it really wishes peace to prevail in this nation. Let the sons of the soil be not killed any more. Failing to do so will undoubtedly invite 'events' of much greater frightening dimensions.

Telegraph adds: While writing this story, a news received says that at yet another attack by the Maoists on the policemen in Palpa district Tuesday morning, some policemen have been killed. Unfortunately, a contingent of policemen who headed for Palpa to control the situation there met with death as their vehicle fell down a mountain parapet.

Finnish mediamen briefed about Nepali politics

Kathmandu: A four-member delegation of the Finnish journalists visited Nepal for a week.

The media men from Finland have already left for their home country last Sunday.

The weeklong visit to Nepal had been organized by the Information Office of the Finnish ministry of foreign affairs and was led by the head of the information section of the said ministry, Ms. Outi Einola.

Others who comprised the team were Mr. Leif Olsson (Aamulehti newspaper); Ms. Susanna Andersson (Toimittaga news agency) and Paivi Alasuutari of the Kaleva Oulu daily newspaper.

The team while in Nepal visited some sites wherein some of the irrigation and water supply projects have been operating through the Finnish assistance.

At the last leg of their stay in Kathmandu, the Finnish journalists paid a courtesy call on the President of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Mr. Suresh Acharya, and asked about the laws and the regulations that regulated the right to information in Nepal.

The Finnish delegation also wished to know about the ongoing impasse in the Nepalese parliament and understandably about the Maoists insurgency.

During the talks at the FNJ, the visiting Finnish delegation assured the FNJ president that they will be of some help in bringing some Finnish media organizations closer to the Nepalese FNJ so that the media men of the two countries could work together in the future.

The Nepalese side appreciated the Finnish support being extended to Nepal and hoped that it would continue in the future as well.

The chief editor of the Telegraph weekly who is also the looking after the International relations committee at the FNJ coordinated the whole affair.

Senior Israeli diplomat in Nepal

Kathmandu: The Deputy Director General at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Zvi Gabay, is already in Nepal for a three days trip.

Mr. Gabay is the Joint Secretary at the ministry looking after the Asia and Pacific Region. He is considered to be one of the senior most official serving at the ministry in Jerusalem.

During this short trip, Mr. Gabay is expected to meet the Assistant Foreign Minister, the Foreign Secretary, and the Speaker of the Lower House Taranath Rana Bhat.

The visiting Israeli dignitary is also supposed to have a tete-a-tete with the SAARC Secretary General Mr. Nihal Rodrigo over a luncheon.

Likewise Mr. Gabay will meet the president of the FNCCI, Mr. Pradip Kumar Shrestha.

"The visit will concentrate on how to expand the existing bilateral ties in productive sectors of the economy and would also explore the possibilities wherein the two countries can cooperate together for mutual benefits", said Israel Embassy sources.

However, intellectuals opine that it is any body's guess as to what impressions will the Israeli dignitary collect from his Nepal trip as this visit has come at a time when the entire nation is at a standstill because of the impasse in the parliament since two months or so and more so due to the increased violent activities in the Kingdom that took its heavy tall early this week.

Mr. Timing of Gabay's visit coincides with the series of bundhs sponsored by the ML and the Maoists in the country.

Mr. Gabay is leaving today for his home country.

Ghastly killing of a baby in Hebron attack

Kathmandu: The Israel-Palestine conflict is known to the world.

However, what is unknown to us is the ghastly killing of a baby-girl of ten months by the Palestinian snipers.

We wish that the conflict in the area comes to an end that at least assures and secures the killings of such tender kids who in essence do not know even who is fighting with whom and what for.

Killing of such innocent babies, as mentioned in the lines printed below, must come to a halt. It is just a crime against humanity. Babies are babies and they do not have any nationality or whatsoever. Below is the detailed report of the killing of the ten month old baby-Chief editor

By Margot Dudkevitch and Herb Keinon

JERUSALEM (March 27) - The IDF imposed an internal blockade and closure on Hebron last night and a curfew on Palestinians living in the Israeli-controlled section of the city, after Palestinian snipers shot 10-month-old Shalhevet Tehiya Pass in the head as she was in her mother Uriya's arms and moderately wounded her father Yitzhak, 24, in the legs as they stood at the entrance to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood early yesterday evening.

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