Nepal needs new leadership

Recently the seven party alliance in Nepal has bowed to pressure from the Maoists and made agreement to dissolve the house, a move that does not look good, but which also holds promise. 

It’s a complex situation, both sides of the talks, Maoists, and Royalists, act as if they had the full writ of the people, but in reality the Nepalese in general are sickened by both. In this interim period Nepal bears close watching — Nepal should not put off the yoke of serfdom only to accept the shackles of communism. More here at Yahoo.

With the 8 point agreement it is necessary to dissolve the old puppet parliament, however I worry that they do so while the Royalist and Maoists armies, in uneasy truce after civil war, are still armed. Here’s the article from eKantipur:

Kantipur Report

KATHMANDU, July 8 – Serious differences erupted within the Nepali Congress (NC) parliamentary party on Saturday regarding the recent deal reached between the seven-party alliance (SPA) and the Maoists to dissolve the reinstated House of Representatives. During the four-hour-long meeting of the NC parliamentary party, the parliamentarians raised questions over the party leadership for signing such a deal, which would “further worsen the political crisis in the country.”

The parliamentarians also demanded the immediate dissolution of the Interim Constitution Drafting Committee. On June 16, the SPA government and the Maoists in a landmark eight-point deal, agreed to dissolve the House of Representatives, Maoists’ “People’s Government,” form an interim constitution, to pave the way for constituent assembly elections, which is supposed to be held by mid-April next year.                  

 

The meeting has been adjourned for Monday.

However, the parliamentarians said they will remain firm on their stance in the upcoming meeting of the party.

The meeting also endorsed a motion to impeach Chief Commissioner of Election Commission, Keshav Raj Rajbhandar, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman, Nayan Bahadur Khatri and other NHRC officials.

With PM Koirala ill from lung disease, there is a leadership vacumn, and the movement for stability and freedom has weakened a bit perhaps. I fear the Nepalese need that leadership now, and where there is a vacumn thugs like Prachandra, or leaders of the army, are always willing to step in. I do hope Koirala’s health improves.

Nepal is atop a peak sharply divided by light and dark, is it for them the dusk or the dawn of the day? The easy path of accomodating evil by a little here, a little there, always leads downhill to the edge of a cliff above a bloody abbatoir. I have written here regarding the blood-dimmed legacy of communism last century, I hope the Nepalese do not choose that easy path.

The people who stood for freedom, the people who stood for democracy should not waver, and the army should not lay down arms before the Maoist thugs and bandits give up theirs. The Nepalese must write the new contstitution, and they must keep a professional army fully subject to civilian authority, albeit perhaps without some of the royalist leaders now in place, for both sides committed attrocities during the civil war.

The path of freedom is always uphill – it takes both firmness of character and perseverance to reach the top and the light of freedom beyond. I fear if they follow the easy downhill path of Prachandra that all joy will flee Nepal forever.

I have confidence in the end however, if you visit the blogs in Nepal they will quote lines from The Federalist papers, Madison’s writings, Jefferson’s writings, and seem to know them better than most Americans.

If you need to know more visit here, and here, also the wikipedia article on the Nepalese Civil War.

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