Saturday, February 5, 2005 (New Delhi):


There seems to be no international support for King Gyanendra's moves to take complete control of Nepal. But more important is the fact that people within the country are clearly against the move.

A survey conducted just three months before the February 1 coup shows people preferred the democratic government to absolute monarchy, even though they were fed up with the unstable political situation.

The European Union-supported survey was conducted by the Delhi-based Center for Study of Developing Societies, Stockholm-based International IDEA, and academics from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan University.

Representative democracy

"People are unhappy with the way the political parties have conducted themselves, but they are not for absolute monarchy. They want constitutional monarchy," said Peter Ronald D'souza, Center for Study of Developing Societies.

"People want the government to include all sections of society, including the Maoists, under a new constitution," he added.

According to the survey, 62 per cent of the people polled said they preferred democracy under any circumstances to absolute monarchy.

Ten per cent said they supported the monarchy, while 28 per cent did not have an opinion.

Sense of insecurity

An overwhelming 79 per cent believed that democracy was the best system for Nepal, even though 57 per cent said the experience with multi-party democracy has been disappointing.

It is clear that King Gyanendra tried to cash in on the low public support that the bickering political parties enjoyed. But the alternate system put in place by him enjoys even lesser public support.

In imposing total monarchy, the monarch has struck at the very roots of the system that the people trust the most.

"There is general sense of insecurity that the people polled in this survey spoke about. Some said they feared the Maoists, others said they feared the army. This is a result of the political volatility of the past few years," Peter Ronald D'souza said.

The survey was conducted all over Nepal and represented all sections of people. The overwhelming vote in favour of democracy is a sentiment King Gyanendra has chosen to ignore. But the question is, for how long can he afford to do so.