Grave situation indeed

Some one had to speak. He has spoken. Since one week or so of his frightening remark, the nation is in a fix thinking of the latent message, if any, contained therein in the above mentioned speech. He has not only spoken the people’s internal feelings but has also aired it at a time when the people’s frustrations were at its peak and for that he must be offered kudos. But yet whether personality of that stature of that presumably apolitical institution is allowed by the 1990 constitution to speak matters of such a grave consequence and dimension could well be a matter of debate which must now be taken up at the earliest by the nation’s scholars and political scientists and albeit the constitutional experts. Whether or not he exceeded his functions let the competent authorities of the nation decide. But since he has already ventilated his views so forcefully that has already bagged accolades from the "majority" of the national population who have deliberately been left rejected and neglected by the men who handled the system for well over a decade, the matter needs to be interpreted in its right perspective. Contrary to this, his expressions have not been taken up in good taste by those who one way or the other were the beneficiaries of the system and had to a greater extent disfigured the beauties of a system that is and will be considered to be the best systems in the globe for centuries to come.

The Chief of the Army Staff, Monsieur Prazzawal Shamsher Rana’s blunt assessment of the past twelve years of the functioning of the present "democratic order" made last Wednesday can’t be dismissed outrightly simply because he is a military man and has to remain within the confines of the limits set for that institution and also for that post. We do agree that COAS Rana could and should have aired his "sensational" and presumably highly "political" views in places other than where he preferred to do so. For this what the government of the day decides for him is yet again a matter to be decided by the men in the present establishment. However, the fact is that COAS Rana’s assessments do resemble with the interpretations of the majority of the population who perhaps were waiting for the advent of a strong personality who could air their own collective assessments of the ongoing scheme of political things of the country as it stood today.

Contrary to our repeated advises, the leaders/politicians and the men in the government wished to "irritate" the two revered institutions of the country for sake of their respective political gains and games and hence the forceful rejection and the retaliation from the nation’s armed forces. This was inevitable. Nothing surprising has happened. When enough becomes enough, some one of the sorts of Rana jumps into the scene and no wonder that Rana’s utterances have created the necessary ripples in the country, from east to west and north to south.

A sort of panic could now visibly be seen in and among those leaders and politicians who have one way or the other distorted the system during these past twelve years or so for petty political gains and remained instrumental in pushing the country to the bring where the nation unfortunately stood today. The earth under their feet has suddenly collapsed and the "‘aggrieved" parties were now feeling a sense of insecurity for reasons unknown to us. But then the fact is that it was not the laymen who pushed the nation to this brink? It was not the innocent, rejected and dejected population who distorted the very basics of the present system when in power? It were not the silent majority-the governed ones, who lured the politicians to become corrupt and created ugly scenes of the sorts of the Lauda and the China-South-West and scores of others? All that "We the people" wished and needed from our leaders, men in the government and the bureaucrats was to provide us all good governance. So when COAS Rana says that the present state of the country was all due to bad governance, he in no way committing a crime. After all, the international donors have been telling this. The men in Nepal’s political leadership too have at times said this. Above all, the freshly concluded NDF meet also reiterated the same. And only the other day the ADB country representative Dr. Richard Vokes too has said almost the same what COAS Rana has explicitly said in his controversial statement last Wednesday. Should this be interpreted by the Nepali political sector that COAS Rana and Dr. Vokes issued their separate statements on two different topics by consulting each other in advance? This would be sheer folly indeed. Why then there is panic when the same truth is being uttered by nation’s armed forces?

Be that as it may, in our analysis the COAS Rana’s expressions have made us known that the army was all aware of the distortions seen of late in the system; and that the army concludes that it is the perversions brought about by mal or bad governance all along these twelve years; and that the present state of emergency had not been the wishes of the military alone but instead the compulsion of the country which has been imposed strictly in observance with the nation’s constitution; and that the political paraphernalia must accept the responsibility for having brought the nation to the present chaotic state; and that the faults or for that matter the blunders committed by the political sector can’t be summarily dumped onto the heads of the military force as has been done; and that the nation’s present day state were the cumulative results of the inter-party rivalries or for that matter the wrangling seen in the political sector in order to bounce back to power and that should enough become enough the military too could come out as politician(s) to defend itself from the volley of allegations made against it by the political sector; and that the nation’s political forces appeared reluctant in supporting the military for the cause for which they have been out of the barracks and etc.

In our own analysis, Rana’s assessments do not leave us with other option other than to accept the fact which the political leaders, more so from the ruling section, too must accept. This is a fact indeed and can’t be dismissed. However, what also becomes, by implication, clear from COAS Rana’s statement is that the military too would wish to have some role in the affairs of the state much the same way as perhaps enjoyed by the political sector. Whether this would be justifiable or even desirable in a system, which we now possess, is again a matter left to the perusal of the intellectuals. Normally it is not in a democratic system. The military remains apolitical.

The sad event has already happened. It can’t be rolled back. Mixed reactions have surfaced. Some have taken it as a good start. Others link it with the longevity of the system itself. The latter links up this matter to the surprising coincidence of the fact that immediately after the Wednesday’s fiery statement, the constitutional monarch, the COAS and the nation’s prime minister proceed to western region to take stock of the security situation in that part of the country and remain together for quite some time. However, protocol also demands that the COAS and the Prime Minister accompany with the Head of the State and that too when the latter sets himself out to assess the security situation. Could be a sheer coincidence!

Wisdom now would be in sorting out the matter amicably so that the System moved forward. The leaders must take COAS Rana’s statement seriously and act accordingly. On the other hand, COAS Rana also should set his limits. We wish that nation’s political sector and the armed force patched up their differences in the larger interest of the already battered nation. We are sure that Nepali political leadership will rise up to the occasion and the nation’s military establishment too followed the suit. Failing to arrive at an amicable solution at the earliest will invite consequences of the Himalayan dimensions.

Let us hope wisdom prevails on all sides. The dispute has apparently been settled.

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