The Stock-in-Trade approach to Anglo- American world politics has very little appeal to the non-Western civilization

Yuba Raj Koirala, Political Analyst,Kathmandu

He is not an unknown person for the regular readers of this newspaper. In essence, he has appeared in these columns many a times in the past . His name is Yuba Raj Koirala, a personality who is ever keen on offering his own perspective of development which is different than what is being provided by the scholars of the same standing.

As a rather gentle and reflective person, he says he owes these qualities, if any, to his British upbringing and education where he lived for almost eight years before returning to Nepal some four years back.

Mr. Koirala has recently been invited by the UK’s one of the most prestigious University, The University of Wales, Aberystwyth to study Post Colonial Politics in its Department of International Politics which was awarded a 5* in the most recent UK Teaching Quality Assessment and remains one of the first and largest Department of its kind in the world.

While we congratulate Mr. Koirala for this unique opportunity provided to him by his former educational institution in Wales, we wish that his upcoming studies would in many ways than one benefited his own motherland.

Last week, we approached this young intellectual in a social gathering for an exclusive interview to which he readily accepted. Below the results: Chief editor.

TGQ1: Should the talks between the government and the Maoists fail for yet once again, what step do you think the recently appointed premier should take in order to bail the country out of the present political mess?

Mr. Koirala: I now tend to view the Nepali politics as having entered into one of the most decisive and crucial phase where power of will versus will to power games are evidently to be wagged for a while before any conclusions can be drawn. In this light, assigning the newly appointed Prime Minister with any preconceived work speculation as what he should do will have very little bearings to the issue you just raised.

TGQ2: What is your comment on the movement undertaken by the five mainstream political parties? Do you think it will yield a long term political solution?

Mr. Koirala: The movement clearly lacks a sense of direction and clarity of purpose, which in my opinion won’t yell any long-term political solution. The most they can ask for, at the moment and thus redirect their energy would be for the successful outcome of peace dialogue between the Maoists and the government and holding an early election. It will save their face.

TGQ3: After Iraq’s take over by the coalition forces and the subsequent bombings of certain embassies of some of the members of the coalition in the Gulf region, does it in any manner indicate that the "clash of civilization" has already begun?

Mr. Koirala: You could argue that to some extent. Clare Short, the British Secretary for Overseas Development’s resignation sends a clear message in today’s world that the stock-in-trade approach to Anglo- American world politics has very little appeal to the non-western civilization who are growing resentful in accepting and acting upon Western values and systems. Those who considered themselves to be suffering from "compassion fatigue" and look to the wider world through "cosmopolitan gaze" should now realize that trying to install the so-called "liberal regimes" to promote free market values as in the case of Afghanistan and Iraq also produces "man without chest" who remain ever ready to bomb the embassies and bring down the twin towers. Peoples and societies whose histories and cultures are hostile to market economy and liberal politics are suddenly becoming converts.

TGQ4: You have recently been offered a UK university scholarship to study Post-Colonial Politics. What it is all about? What benefits in concrete academic terms this country will have upon your completion of the said degree?

Mr. Koirala: Post colonial politics deals with issues that determine the relationship between the colonial power and former colonies. It moves beyond the traditional international relations and third world studies by abandoning the dichotomy between industrial and underdeveloped countries. Instead, it regards these areas as mutually constitutive, as producing each other and explores past and present processes and relationship that connect them.

I have purposed to work on the theme: Degeneration- a Buddho- Hegelian perspective which seeks to offer a purely Nepalese perspective on development refuting some of the central arguments that have been made for the issue. I will be looking at Kant, Hegel, Marx, Buddha, King Prithivi Narayan Shah, Nietzsche Fukuyama, and Huntington to determine the strength of above work. The Nepalese modality should enable the leaders and policy makers to view development issues in a very different light, which currently governs the North -South divide

TGQ5: How you have been viewing the constitutional monarch’s moves specially after last October 4 initiatives which dismissed the Deuba government? Allegations are that HE MADE THESE MOVES UNCONSTITUTIONALLY? How you take the King’s moves and the subsequent allegations?

Mr. Koirala: The political leaders before the King’s October 4 initiatives had already violated most of the constitutional norms. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal does not only guarantee a parliament with multi party democracy for the leaders to manipulate the system to their own end. There are many rights enshrined in the constitution that seeks a just society with justice, progress and prosperity. The leaders have failed this we know. Therefore whomever works for the general health of the nation should be considered constitutional. Rests are matters of mere legality that needs to be overcome correspondingly.

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