Budhha's Way To Sustaining Peace

R. Manandhar

The full-fledge armed conflict became all too familiar during the Maoist insurgency in Nepal. Likewise, the people's movements in 1990 and 2006 made the Nepali people familiar with street agitation. Now another conflict has started in the Terai. Our country has, thus, become entangled in a series of conflicts. The decade-long conflict has not ended with the conclusion of a peace agreement between the eight political parties. Lasting peace is still far away. So, conflicts may come in a series unless a right solution is found.

Causes of conflict

At this point, it may be relevant to recall how Gautam Budhha mediated a conflict 2500 years ago and preached the underlying causes of conflicts. In addition to playing an intermediary role, the Buddha gave the people an insight into the root causes of conflict. This is what our country needs to understand to find a solution to the present conflict following the conclusion of the peace agreement between the eight political parties.

In Buddha's time, there were two kingdoms in the southern part of Nepal. One was ruled by the Shakyas and the other by the Koliyas. The two kingdoms were separated by the Salini River. Once it so happened that there was no rain for months. The sun was so scorching that the soil dried out. The Salini River was the only source of water to irrigate the land of both the countries, so they wanted to take possession of the river. At first there was a verbal quarrel between the farmers of the two countries, and then they got into fistfights. At last both the countries got ready to fight a battle over the river. The two kingdoms gathered their armies on the bank of the river. The Buddha came to know about the preparation for the battle. He intervened personally in the matter in time, mediated skilfully and prevented the battle, which could have taken the lives of thousands of people. Seeing that the battle would have been devastating, the Buddha went to the place where the kings and their armies had gathered. The Buddha asked them to tell him the cause of their quarrel. Both the kings said that it was for the water of the Salini River that they were going to fight a battle.

The Buddha further asked them, "Which one do you think has more intrinsic value - water or the blood of men?" They said, "Verily, the blood of men is priceless. Water has no intrinsic value in comparison with the blood of men." Then the Buddha asked, "Is it right to stake that which is priceless against that which has no intrinsic value?" Both the kings and their men realised their mistake. The Buddha suggested irrigating their lands from the Salini River in turns. Both the parties appreciated the Buddha's suggestion and came to a peaceable agreement. Thus, the war was prevented and the lives of thousands of people were saved.The Buddha did not stop even at this point. He went deeper into the root cause of all conflicts and wars. The Buddha convinced them that the water of the Salini River was just an excuse for the battle. The underlying causes were ego, greed and selfishness. These were mental defilements. Even today people live with these defilements. So there is unrest in their minds and conflict in their family, society, country and the world. The conflict will not be resolved until its root cause is removed.

The Buddha further preached 'Susukhan Vata Jeevam...' which means conflict, whether between persons or groups, starts with the desire to receive more and more pleasure. But happiness does not come from worldly pleasure. Happy indeed is the person who lives a friendly life amidst the hostile. Happy indeed is the person who lives contended amidst the afflicted (by craving). Happy indeed is the person who lives free from avarice amidst the avaricious. Happy is indeed the person who remains tranquil amidst the restless lot.In our country people in power have always been guided by harmful attitudes like ego, greed and selfishness. The people in power never showed regard for the welfare of powerless people. The rich never showed kindness to the poor. No government ever tried to be friendly with the ethnic minorities, their language and rights. The wrong attitude of those who possessed power and wealth only helped exploitation, injustice and tyranny to spread in the country, splitting society into different classes. The strong dominated the weak. Consequently, discontentment spread everywhere in society.

Consensus

The people manifested their discontentment in the form of a rebellion, causing a serious conflict in society. Conflicts can come to an end in no time if the concerned parties build a consensus as the Shakyas and the Koliyas did in Buddha's time. However, it is evident that unless the root cause of conflict - ego, greed and selfishness - is eradicated from the minds of the people (mainly from the political leaders in the context of our country), conflicts will take place time and again under different pretexts ? be it ethnic or geographical.

Source: The Rising Nepal, June 11, 2007

Bottoms up

The units of local self-governance — the 75 district development committees, some 4, 000 village development committees and 58 municipalities — have been without the people’s representatives for the past five years, including one year of the post-Jana Andolan 2 period. They have mostly been run by employees, except sporadically, in some of them, by people nominated to the elective posts by successive governments after the term of the elected bodies was allowed to lapse in 2002 by the Sher Bahadur Deuba government despite the legal provision for extension by a year. This was because Deuba did not want the CPN-UML, the then main Opposition, to continue to hold sway in about two-thirds of them. The failure to fill all the vacancies was due to the Maoist insurgency at that time. Now, at long last, the elective vacancies may soon be filled as the eight parties are reported to have reached an understanding on the matter, including a formula for the distribution of all the posts among them. The three major parties — the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML and the CPN-Maoist — are to be treated as equals, the NC-D is to get half of any of the Big Three, and the remaining tiny constituents of the alliance will not have to draw a blank.

According to a report, all the local bodies are likely to be constituted in three phases, starting with the coming fiscal year. The government has prepared a set of directives for operating the local bodies in line with Article 139 of the Interim Constitution, which provides for the formation of the units of local government “to create a congenial atmosphere for the practice of the people’s sovereignty from the local level upwards ... to provide services to the people locally and to promote institutional development of democracy right from the local level up...” Decentralisation and devolution of powers have been emphasised. As there has been a national understanding on the question of providing greater autonomy to the local units, the practice of local governance in the interim period should reflect this consensus.

The eight-party look of the local units will inject optimism into the local people, giving the impression that democracy and peace are returning to the villages. The filling of all the elective posts through consensus-based nomination will activate service delivery, disrupted so often in so many places, to its full capacity, and is likely to make it efficient and transparent. In the past, after the elected bodies were allowed to die, most donors, particularly Scandinavian governments, were not pleased and had expressed their serious reservations about continuing aid aimed at strengthening local self-governance on the ground that the shape of the local bodies under active royal rule did not reflect a representative political arrangement. This had severely hampered work. The eight-party arrangements are expected to enhance accountability and credibility of local units, and greater willingness on the part of donors to help with expertise, money and material to promote democracy and decision-making at the grassroots.

Source: The Himalayan Times, June 10, 2007

Virtual diplomacy: Can Nepal benefit from it?

Madhav Shrestha

Thanks to the Geneva-based DiploFoundation, the concept of “Virtual Embassy” has finally materialised. Run with the help of internet, the virtual embassy occupies what is dubbed “Diplomatic Quarter of Diplomacy Island in Second Life” in cyberspace. The services and facilities of the virtual embassy are especially intended for the countries with limited human resources and severe financial constraints — the countries incapable of putting enough people on the ground. Considering its diplomatic efficacy, small and weak countries with limited diplomatic outreach may opt for it. In fact, smaller countries are ideally suited for the conduct of virtual diplomacy.

Recently, the Maldives became the first country in the world to bring to use the services offered by virtual embassy developed by DiploFoundation. Although the concept of virtual embassy is still in an adumbrative state, Sweden, a highly advanced Nordic country, intends to use it. The Philippines, too, along with other countries, is likely to follow suit soon. No doubt, this latest innovation will be brought to wide use if its worth as an effective diplomatic and cost-efficient tool is proven while it is used by the first few countries that embrace it.
Nonetheless, the virtual embassy looks like it’s here to stay. For it is likely to prove highly effective in diplomatic dealings in both regional and broader international settings. Any government can use virtual embassy for representation and negotiation on bilateral and multilateral concerns should two or more countries choose to adhere to the techniques and methods developed by the DiploFoundation. Certainly, cash-starved governments which are short on good diplomats may choose this option. However, no safe predictions can be made at a time when its concept is slowly evolving. Unseen complexities and outcomes cannot be ruled out in the atmosphere of highly competitive and self-interested negotiations among nations.

Modalities of the virtual embassy will gain popularity if governments believe state secrets and intelligence services will not be compromised by its use. Viewed in this context, the concept of virtual embassy might not take off comfortably, although it might be considered convenient to handle diplomatic business bilaterally and multilaterally. Moreover, its scope and activities are likely to be limited only to non-sensitive areas for aforementioned reasons.
Virtual embassy may not prove to be of much help if it is intended to replace the “substantial groundwork” of diplomats accredited to specific countries. Indeed, that is not its purpose. The reports Net diplomats send to their governments — prepared without ground-level observation and analysis — might not prove useful. Realistically, diplomats in question will be made worthless who contribute nothing substantive. Such practice will make diplomats look like boys at the other end of the keyboard who are not very aware about the ground realities of the place he is talking about. Their stature and personality will not be held in high esteem, the way traditional diplomats are looked upon.

The most defective side of diplomacy through virtual embassy is that it completely ignores the great value of the human touch and cordial contacts able diplomats make with other diplomats, politicians, officials and important persons through real embassies. Thus it is less likely to promote understanding and cooperation between countries. The physical absence of diplomats on the spot would, in effect, create a situation of non-linkage rather than generate an atmosphere of warmth and cordiality that are so important in diplomacy. Hence the question of importance of physical presence of diplomats, be it for diplomatic business or important ceremonial occasions, should be considered seriously before deciding if virtual diplomacy should be adopted.

However, considering the financial crunch that afflicts Nepal, it is advisable that the country adopt virtual diplomacy, which was especially designed for the countries weak in both financial and manpower resources. As such, its set-up cost will be far less as compared to the huge cost involved in putting in place a real embassy in a faraway place. Hence it will be a wise option to cut down on the number of real embassies from the capital cities of the countries of lesser political, diplomatic and economic importance.

The government should be prepared to work for education and training of staff and officials needed to conduct virtual diplomacy in places considered appropriate for the purpose. If our aim is to trim down swollen budgetary expenditures, why not turn to the DiploFoundation in Geneva for necessary advice and consideration? Is the government prepared to do this? If virtual embassies can be geared towards the intended purpose, it would truly help develop Net Diplomats who will sincerely work for the welfare of the Nepali people.

Source: The Himalayan Times, June 10, 2007

India to help UN on Nepal's transition to democracy

India has told the United Nations that it will strengthen its hands to help Nepal's transition to democracy, Indian diplomats said here Thursday.At a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the two sides discussed the situation in Nepal in terms of the ensuing elections in the Himalayan country, arms management and the UN resolution 1740.

'Both the prime minister and the secretary general said that they looked forward to helping Nepal to achieve her democratic transition in a peaceful and orderly manner,' Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said after the meeting. 'UN has an active role in Nepal,' he said and added that India will also extend all the help it can in helping its South Asian neighbour that is slated to elect its constituent assembly in November. After being criticised by the international community for delaying the crucial election, regarded as the key to peace and stability in Nepal, the ruling eight-party coalition had announced last week that the polls would be held in November.

Manmohan Singh and Ban also discussed other issues like climate change and felt that the right forum to raise the issue should be under the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change. The secretary general, who has served in India in the past, proposed a meeting of world leaders, ahead of the General Assembly in September, to discuss climate change.

Source: Malaysia Sun, June 7, 2007

Prachanda tells India to keep hands off from Nepal

A series of meetings between top Indian officials and leaders of two of Nepal's biggest political parties in New Delhi has given rise to deep unease among Maoist guerrillas here, with their chief Prachanda lashing out at "Indian interference". Maoist supremo Prachanda, who was touring the Terai plains as top leaders of the Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) were in New Delhi to attend a conference of MPs from South Asia, on Wednesday accused India of trying to suppress the Maoists by playing a divide and rule game. "India has no right to say which Nepali parties should come close or which ones to stay away from," the Maoist leader said.

The anger was caused by a meeting on Tuesday between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UML chief Madhav Kumar Nepal, who was also accompanied by two former deputy prime ministers, K.P. Oli and Bharat Mohan Adhikari. The Maoists are smouldering at the Indian prime minister reportedly urging close ties between the UML and the Nepali Congress, two of their biggest rivals in the upcoming November elections. Though Maoist MP Dinanath Sharma is also taking part in the parliamentarians' conference, he had not been included in the meetings between UML leaders and the Indian authorities, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The Delhi meets come at a time there has been a fresh war of words between the Maoists and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. Earlier this week, Maoist cadres handed over to the police a businessman wanted for nearly a year for defrauding a bank of about Nepali Rs.200 million.

The "arrest" of wanted businessman Sitaram Prasain, who is considered close to Koirala's Nepali Congress party, triggered an angry reaction from Koirala, who called the cadres of the Maoist Young Communist League the 'Young Criminal League'. The comment has given rise to widespread anger and criticism, both among the Maoists and the public, who are accusing Koirala of shielding corrupt businessmen. Maoists MPs on Wednesday threw a challenge to the prime miniser in parliament, saying he should ban the YCL if it was a criminal organisation, or else, apologise. Information and Communications Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who is the government spokesperson as well as one of the top Maoist leaders, said Koirala's comment smacked of bias towards criminals.

Source: The Peninsula, June 8, 2007