Friends, Friends of Friends, Countrymen, Please lend me your ears. and hearts.
and hands.

[I don't know why I said that but it sounds cool, doesn't it? At least I thought so.]

ok, now that the ice-breaking is done, i can proceed to pour some of my
thoughts. this comes from a person who has spent every waking hour since 8pm Jan
31 (two hours before the 'proclaimation' by Gyanendra Shah) scouring internet
message boards, blogs and every bit of news there is to find
online (a good rule of thumb for this is to simply google, yahoo, and msn news
with 'nepal' in the subject line), which has become a scarce commodity if you
want anything that originated in nepal. this also comes from a guy who has woken
every hour or so during his sleep since the proclamation to try to connect home,
in hopes of hearing the sweet voice of his mother and the support of his father.
so, i have to apologize at the outset that this will not very coherent. nor will
it be organized. it is my fervent hope that should any one of you be interested
we can further this line of communication and keep the spirit of free exchange
of ideas alive. and i apologize in advance for my irreverence in trying to
tackle the difficult issues i am attempting to bring up. of course, i beg
amnesty for its obscene length and the slightly sexist tone (that was unintentional).



1. Democracy and Nepal:

There is a dominant line of thought among people who have reacted to the events
of 2/1, among royalists, monarchists, republicans, maobaadi and the entire
spectrum between these clearly definable points. Democracy is good - expressed
variously as, "Democracy is clearly the best system", "While Democracy may be a
good system...", "Democracy, in itself, is not bad", "I accept that there are
countries where Democracy has worked", "Democracy has/may have its merits..."
etc. But Democracy is not good for Nepal - "We are not educated enough for
Democracy to work...", "Democracy works only in educated societies", "Democracy
is a joke in a country where more than half the population is illiterate",
"Democracy did not produce good results", "Democracy brought about only the
advent of corrupt leaders", "Democracy brought about violence", "Democracy let
violence fester" etc.

I believe democracy is the best form of government, as represented by a liberal
democratic system with a strong presence of rule-of-law. What could be better
than people having the freedom to be the masters of their own destinies, make
their own decisions, and seek progress, prosperity and fulfillment in life? I
also, strongly, believe that democracy is the best form of government for Nepal.
Yes, even after our brief trysts with democracy and its cruel usurpations.
The argument that we are not educated enough for democracy is just plain
fallacious. If anything, it is because we are not educated enough that we need
democracy. We, the people, need the freedom to live our lives the best we can.
Lack of education is tantamount to lack of power and no society can progress
without empowering each and every individual (equally, if i may be brave enough
to add) in the society, especially the ones who are already at the back of the pack.
Our experience with democracy was not the best we could have had, and of course
there is always something more to be desired in life. We saw corrupt politicians
rise up who, in the name of the people, sought to satiate their own personal
needs and desires first. In quite a few cases, we might even argue that personal
gains were all political leaders thought of. With democracy, we also saw the
rise of the mob, the mob that is bent on destruction at the slightest
provocation. With democracy and the fangless leaders, we also experienced and
are continuing to experience a blood bath under the astutely organized and
executed banner of Maobaad.
And yet, I still say that democracy is good for us. It has done good for us and
only it will do for us, no other regime can ever address our issues. Each of the
perceived failures of democracy presented us with great opportunities to build
our democracy and buttress it with rule of law. A corrupt politician was an
opportunity for us to establish, clearly and firmly, that a betrayal of people
will not stand. Any person in a position of responsibility has to act in the
interest of the people, us. With every unwarranted instance of destruction of
property (public and private), we had an opportunity to stand up and declare
"No, we do not want this and we do not like this at all." With democracy we had
avenues available to us to address all of these issues and much more. We had the
opportunity to act for our betterment. We even had a genuine opportunity to
defeat the unwarranted violence wrought by Maobaad, a defeat (victory?) that is
ideologically, morally, and yes, operationally acceptable to us as a people
under one nation.
If anything, our experience with democracy was too little, our patience too
short, our commitment too weak and our responsibility too derelict.

2. Maobaad

This is scary. No, I am not really scared of the Nepali practitioners of Maobaad
because I am so far from the battleground, and because I have - unwillingly but
inexorably - grown used to it. Ok, I was lying but I am scared of Maobaad
because of its scope. I am sure I cannot, with my meager faculties of reason,
memory and experience, properly address the issue. But I will step up the block
and offer my neck to be guillotined should I ruffle anyone's feathers badly enough.
It is difficult to address this because I am a privileged brat. My views - while
trying the very best to be all-inclusive, illumined and enlightened - will
inevitably come out as elitist. What do I know of the people who have suffered
though generation upon generation under the colossal weight of the multiple
social strata of Nepali society? What can I say of the people, who needed
democracy the most and yet got it the least because of the systematic oppression
of our caste, class and economic heirarchy? How can I talk about the people who
have been disenfranchised for centuries. It is as if this (sic) people remained
impervious to the changes that have taken place among the rest of the people
throughout. Nor can I accurately characterize the endemic reasons that have led
to such inequity.
But I can, and will, say the reason for the social injustice entrenched in our
society was not a creation of the democracy we brought about in 1990. This
social injustice is the root cause of the rise of Maobaad, regardless of the
lens you use to look at it, your persuation - political, sociological, economic
- or your purpose - self-study, a white paper of an NGO, presentation of an
argument in your class or just idle chiyaapasal banter. Of course, the stellar
architects (pun intended) behind the movement helped a great deal. But I also
hold that this was long, long, long overdue. And I can find at least one reason
to be thankful to it - it opened my eyes to the plight of a whole section (a
significant section) of the Nepali populace that we had somehow forgetten in the
race to forge ahead, build ourselves, bring in development. In hindsight it was,
at least to me, a slap in the face for my shallow assessment of the needs of
Nepal. A very good slap. Well, now they are God's forgotten children no more.
But I still believe democracy, and democracy alone can give us any hope of
dealing with the issue, of "solving the Maobaadi problem". There is no doubt in
my mind that the victory of the guerillas OR their defeat OR a
winless-defeatless limbo can, in and of itself, sufficiently and satisfactorily
address the root cause behind the emergence of Nepali Maobaad. Only when we, the people, wake up to it will there be any hope of getting better.


3. Monarchy

Inevitably, and as expectedly as it could be, Gyanendra Shah in his
proclaimation pushed it down our throats that it was his ancestor Prithvi
Narayan who created Nepal some 200 odd years ago. Implication: Gyanendra, being
Prithvi's eventual successor, owns Nepal and has the (moral) right to dispense
of it as he pleases. Nevermind the fact that King Prithvi had the nose and ears
of my ancestor cut off to regain his sense of honor lost in a defeat. Nevermind
the fact that we have come along a quarter millenium after that episode in
Nepal's history. Nevermind the fact that our world is fundamentally and
substantially different, and it should be, from that time.
The Monarchy in Nepal enjoys an unusual (and in my view totally unearned) level
of trust and respect. Whether it be in the form of religious devotion or just
blind faith in the crown. And the evolution of a few of our institutions,
particularly the army, has bestowed vulgur power to the monarch. But there is
another side to the story. We fear the monarchy as much as we love it. We
despise the monarchy as much as we respect it. We suspect it as much as we trust
it. Perhaps, (in the glorious tradition of Bhupi Sherchan) we love it because we
fear it. We respect it because we despise it. We trust it because we suspect it.
We are comfortable with it because it makes us uneasy. We believe in it because
we don't believe in ourselves.
Why else would we raise a battle cry against corrupt politicians when we just as
easily ignore the corruption spawned and fostered by the crown? Why else would
we talk of serving justice to the people by punishing the betrayal by lesser men
and women and at the same breath exonerate the injustice represented by the
monarchy? Why else would we hail Gyanendra's oppressive step as a fresh start, a
break in a deadlock? Why else would we argue about whether or not to give the
monarchy a chance when it represents the source of all our ills?

4. We, the Nepali People

An American doctor who worked in Nepal (he continued to work in various places
in Western Nepal until his life was threatened by the ever bolder Maobaadi
extortionists), in his blase assessment, once coughed up to me, "You know with
the standard of hygiene and sanitation you people maintain, the level of health
services you have, the (technical) medical know-how and expertise you can
muster, I am really surprised the Nepali people did not become extinct 300 years
ago." Uneasy, I laughed, but it was a lugubrious laughter.
I have thought about that a lot since. It speaks of the difficulties we face, of
our ineluctable circumstances. But it also speaks volumes about our resilience,
our fight for life. We, the Nepali people, have throughout our history faced
daunting tasks and have managed to survive.
But then I wondered, how come we have not really made progress in moving past
survival? Only to be reminded that oh, we have actually done more than survive.
Just look at the Nepali cross-section today. From the "expat" communities in
some of the richest nations in the world, to the legions of people working in
various countries, to the urban, to the rural, to the poor, to the rich. That is
our character. By whatever means we have, we've shown that we can achieve, if we
want.
So, why not believe in ourselves? Why not believe and forcefully assert that
yes, we want to live our lives the best we can? That we want and we can handle
freedom to be the masters of our own destinies, make our own decisions, and seek
progress, prosperity and fulfillment in life? That we will not be impeded by
social challenges? That, if it really comes down to this we will seek security
by boldly addressing, working with, working for, and embracing God's forgotten
children? That we will take the responsibility for our lives and conquer our
apathetic pathos? That we don't need strong-men to dictate our lives? That if we
want peace, security and the riches, we will work for it?
Can't we do it? Of course we can. How best to do it? Let's find out! Let's take
charge of our lives and not leave it to strong-men. Strong-men can't take care
of us even if they really wanted to. How can one man lift all the weight in our
shoulders? We can lift and can carry the weight ourselves. We can help the ones
who are barely managing to do it. Besides, if we charge strong-men - be it in
the form or a local political leader, a minister, a prime-minister, a president
or a monarch - with doing our work and let our muscles atrophy why will the
strong-men do our work?
Maybe, we haven't been clever enough to warn those who've betrayed our trust.
But we learn. We learn. And we take part in the democratic exercise. That is how
peoplecracies are built, isn't it? I mean, it;s not going to be here you have
democracy and we have everything in place in the blink of an eye. We have to
build the house. We can! We can establish democracy with a rule of law. It will
take time and effort and determination. But, let's throw our inaction, apathy and the desire to find someone to pick up our shit. At the same time, let's make sure that it is we who are in charge of our destinies, not a strong man. Going forward, we have a good (if not
fantastic) future.


5. Looking ahead

There is no denying that each and everyone of us is responsible for the critical
state of Nepal today. And there is no denying that until we, the people, rise
nobody can take us out of this mess.
The politicians were not good for us because we were too apathetic to exercise
our right of foresight. Let's correct that. We can make the system work for us.
But otherwise we have no chance.
Will giving the King a chance help? I don' think so. If this is our shit, we go
to clean it up. Sure, a tyrant has made his move and tried to usurp our power,
our dreams, our voices. But Gyanendra does not have the power to take the
country out of our crisis, even if he wanted to. Does he have a magic wand, that
he can just wave and poof! the Maobaadi will disappear and there will be peace
in Nepal? Is the suppression of Maobaadi cadre using brute force the solution?
Aren't we just inviting a more disastrous encounter with history in that case?
After all that we have gone through, do we have the courage to be responsible?
To work for our own peace? To work for our freedom to live, to progress? To get
out of our languishing?
It can be done, of course. Let us all do it. Looking for the way out without
taking the responsibility, without putting in any effort is only going to land
us in hot water. Why surrender our liberties, our essense of life just because a
problem comes up that seems so hard to conquer? We have conquered such demons
throughout our history, heck, for a lot of us we do it everyday.
If we, the people, don't work today to conquer both the oppression from the
crown and from the Maobaadi, we don't deserve to demand peace, prosperity or
progress. Not that we will get it anyways.
So, let's get up and shake the apathy. Let it be known that we don't want
oppression or rule of fear. More importantly, let it be known that we are our
own masters, that we will stand up for ourselves and our brethen.








let's talk. let's act.
wake up and live.