London Meet had 'Carrot and Stick' both

Better late than never, a devastating news against the incumbent Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has finally traveled all along from London to Kathmandu. The sensational news that it is albeit took some three weeks to come to this beleaguered Kingdom despite the failed efforts of the present Nepali establishment to kill the news so that the Nepali population could not know as to what had in essence happened in London on June 19 and 20 last month. The fact is that the London Conference of the international donors not only wished to support Nepal in her bid to contain the threats of the Maoists insurgency but also concurrently asked Nepal to prepare an environment in order to resume the now stalled process of dialogue with the insurgents. The hint from London for the resumption of the dialogue process has come at a time when the government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba has expressed its determination to wipe out the menace of terrorism through the use of the bullets and the bullets only. The international community converged in London in sending the said message amply hints at the fact that the bullets could not be the lasting solution for an imbroglio that had its root in the very poor performance of the successive governments formed after 1990.

Yet another jolt apparently has been given to the incumbent establishment by the London meet which points out that the current Nepali regime were a weak one and hence the country needed a strong leadership in order to steer the nation and bring about a visible change in the state of the things in the country. This amply hints that the London meet assessed that all was not well in Nepal and that apart from the Maoists insurgency the country was reeling under the poor performance, bad governance, battered law and order situation and the likes. This means that the London meet does accept that Nepal needed international support in order to manage the threats from the Maoists quarters but concurrently also hints that a hosts of the current Nepali problems were the creation of the men handling the system itself and hence has indicated to perform or remain prepared for facing the grave consequences. The London meet in clear terms has told this country that its agreed-upon support will continue but would depend on how Nepal performs in her activities that needed urgent reforms.

The London meet has also ventilated its desire to see not only a strong leadership in Nepal but also has wished the prevalence of a national consensus so that the country could function which ultimately favored the lay men of the country.

Summing up, the London meet has sent signals that if Nepal were to get rid of the present day problems she had to proceed keeping in mind the three important ingredients: security, reforms and development. A perfect combination of all these three ingredients if brought into practice and that too in an integrated manner might benefit this country, the London meet presumably hopes. This means that the Meet in London is aware that the present establishment has not been able to give due attention to issues such as, for example, rising poverty; destruction of all sorts, good governance, discrimination, corruption and ever dwindling state of the Human Rights cases. This again means that the international community would very much wish to see Nepal acting in the sectors mentioned above.

All in all, the London meet did support Deuba as propagated by the official media but also had certain conditions to be met prior to receiving the said support. This means that the London meet had not only carrots for Deuba but accompanying with it were the sticks as well, which the government under Deuba preferred not to bring it to the notice of the countrymen for understandable political reasons. Such practices unfailingly go against democratic norms indeed.

Allow Nepali media men to write freely and live a secured life

The Nepali media is under tremendous stress these days. Unquestionably Nepal's media sector is one of the hardest hit after the imposition of the state of emergency. In one way or the other the Nepali media remains under the constant surveillance of the government for reasons unknown to us. In the process scores of media men were either missing or were put under custody. A sort of fear and panic persists in the minds of the Nepali media men as to what would happen to their fate next moment.

We join the sentiments of various media organizations, national and international, who have in the recent days been voicing their concern for the safety of the Nepali journalists. We also join the call of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists which has taken up the task of addressing the concerns of the lay Nepali media men. In the process, we also thank various international media organizations, for example, the CPJ, Amnesty International and the Paris based RSF, for their solidarity exhibited in favor of the Nepali journalists. It is in this light we wish the government to come up with the real details about the whereabouts of Krishna Sen-the editor of the Janadisha Weekly who is feared to have met already a different fate as per some media reports. We, as the FNJ has, demand the constitution of a probe committee under the chairmanship of a sitting judge to look after the case of Krishna Sen.

It would be befitting here to attract the attention of the developed democratic West to impress upon the Nepali establishment so that in future no Nepali journalists feel insecure. All that we the mediamen here wish is our freedom to write and live a secured life.

Allow us all to write freely and live a secured life. A democratic government will perhaps listen to our demands.

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