Only in Nepal could we expect two anachronistic ideas battling out while the one that is synchronous with the modern world stands aside perplexed. Both Communism and Monarchy are ideas that are things of the past, and will not bode well for the future of Nepal. Either of these two will be ruinous to Nepal?s future and its ability to compete in the interconnected world of the 21st century. The so called democratic forces, parties and people are unable and unwilling to challenge the validity of the Communist and Monarchist.

Communism?s heyday was back in the Soviet era. The experiment has failed worldwide. The remaining stronghold North Korea and Cuba are suffering under totalitarian regimes. Yet, in Nepal Maoist dream of having communist rule. What have these people learned from the world history? Why are they mesmerized by the Pol Pot experience that resulted in killing fields?

Monarchy is an even older institution whose heyday was in the middle-ages when autocratic monarchs claimed divinity as their source of power to subjugate millions of people as subjects. Our own monarchy claims divinity, which is hard to be accepted by the Western world encouraging democratic values and celebrating individual freedom.

But democracy is a concept that will not be easy to take root in Nepal. There are inherent cultural and social constraints. To begin with, there are certain conditions that have to be met for democracy to have a chance to succeed. Even though they are not causality for the success of democracy, there are certain assumptions and background conditions for democracy to have a chance anywhere in the world. Democracy assumes that people be informed and can make independent decisions. For this to occur, people must be smart enough to critique ideas, customs and values of the society and willing to make changes for the betterment of the society. For people to be educated, they have to have certain economic conditions. Aristotle studied and proposed correlation between the size of the middle class and success of democracy during the Athenian democracy. In Nepal, majority of the people are poor, uneducated and expect government to provide for development, instead of believing that onus is on people themselves to chart their own future. Education and equitable income distribution providing for a large middle class are two necessary conditions. There are two other conditions that are necessary but not sufficient. 1. Vibrant civil society; and 2. Trusted leadership.

In Nepal?s case the best hope for democracy to take root is by strengthening civil society. For civil society to prosper, there have to be local level political community leaders who are willing to act in the best interest of the community, and can gain the trust of the people. Local leaders are important because Nepal has not had the opportunity to provide an atmosphere for strong national leaders. All our national leaders have failed miserably as they have not been able to free themselves of corruptions and self-interest. Leadership?s goal during the democratic era we experienced has been to look for their own benefits at the expense of the people and the nation. I do not see any doubt about that. The only institution that people trust more than any other is the monarchy. That?s because it is rooted in their world view, and has been present in their discourse and understanding of the world. The monarchs have strengthened their own self-interest by not allowing any strong leaders to emerge who could provide an alternative to their leadership. It was no accident that one of the things insisted for the present constitution was that it be a Hindu kingdom. Hinduism is so intricately intertwined with the worldview of Nepalese that it is an ontological fabric. Remember the times when no movies could be shown where a king was slain, no matter how corrupt the kind was. Republicanism is a new concept for Nepalese, albeit it is the trend of the world for the time being.

Like any new concept to take hold, it takes time and sacrifice of lot of people to demonstrate to the mass its benefit and relevance. At the moment, tethering under illiteracy, poverty, and helplessness, Nepal does not seem to be prepared to meet the challenges of a Republican state. Government is expected to bring development to their villages. Majority do not believe in their own power. In addition, change will be hard to sustain as there are entrenched interests that are far more guile and wily at undermining such efforts. We can just look at the present situation to see the entrenched interests. And these entrenched reactionary interests are as much spread abroad as they are in Nepal. The convenient sampling pole in Sajha is a good indicator of the extent of their strength.

But there might be hope.

There are lots of Nepalese who are concerned about their homeland. They are educated and have the understanding of the world. Instead of changing Nepal, which is a noble goal, maybe we can start by adopting our own district. We have knowledge of them, we understand their drawback, and if we are to pledge to lift our own district, it is not an impossible task. They need expertise we can provide. They need international connection we can build. They need resources we can seek. And we can independently or jointly coordinate our effort so that we could like efforts in our districts with international organizations that care about human sufferings. There are plenty of charities and grants available internationally that can be of benefit for Nepal?s community efforts. For example SEBS won the World Bank grant to start a DoKo Dai mobile library project.

There are so many surfing the net, each of us can give half an hour or so to check out these grants that will fit the needs of Nepalese community. A database can be built of these grants. Then we could contact our district and community people to get mobilized. We can be facilitators and build bridges. We can individually put our districts and local projects on the web. First challenge is always gathering information. Get all the information from the districts and community initiatives and put them on the web. Learn about grant writing. Start writing grants. That is a good starting point.

To add to our goal, we can get involved in local community projects wherever we are (abroad) and learn from local efforts. While learning, we can also build networks of people abroad who are aware of our goals, and cognizant of our goodness of hearts. We can get endorsements of out efforts, and other help by being involved in volunteering activities wherever we are. Just for an example: Could you maybe start a school project where a car wash by some student could raise $500 for library books in your district?

It is time to believe on ourselves. Otherwise there is no prospect of democracy in Nepal.

It is time to act!