NEPAL:KOIRALA SAYS, MONARCHY A VITAL PART OF THE SOCIETY

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala was expected any day to disseminate words for the rescue of the Monarchy in Nepal. He visited the eastern region twice within two-month period but both the time he had bitter words for Monarchy. Third time Girija said what he really had in his mind, he said “Monarchy can exist within a republican order”. He said this in Birtamod, Jhapa District in Nepal amid a party mass meet.

In our endeavor to transform the society and the country as a whole, the monarchy can take a new form too, Koirala added. “The Monarchy too is a vital part of this society”, PM Koirala said.
He said if a republican order is established, the King may not be abdicated.
He said, but to declare Nepal a republic needs a process, we all have to follow. He however, confused the mass when he said the “Monarchy will slowly transform itself into a republic”; it’s just a matter of time.

Violence may not establish monarchy, even if it is established through violent means it may not last long, PM said further.
He said in the process of taking responsibility of the country he can take any bold decisions. He almost in a threatening tone targeting other political parties said they must now remain prepared to face such decisions. “Without creating favorable atmosphere, CA polls can’t be held”, he added. Prime Minister said further, to conduct the CA polls I can go to any extent. He alleged the rest of the parties in the alliance for creating hullabaloo in the name of CA polls. Making unnecessary noise won’t transform the society, a CA poll is the only legitimate way to do it, he continued.

He said, now other leaders in the alliance are treating me like an old tree that does not give fruits, thus they are trying to cut it. I know what I am, so I am not afraid of any one, I talk what my heart says. “After I successfully conduct the CA polls my importance will be finished” PM concluded. June 3, 2007

Source: The Telegraph, June 4, 2007

Maoist Homophobia?

Gary Leupp

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), leading what many have considered the most advanced Maoist movement in the world for the last decade, has recently been accused of attacks on gay people and of indulging in anti-gay rhetoric. Unfortunately, the reports seem valid. In January, a senior party leader, Dev Gurung, now Minister of Local Development in Nepal’s transitional government, was quoted in the press as stating: “Under Soviet rule and when China was still very much a communist state, there were no homosexuals in the Soviet Union or China. Now [that] they are moving towards capitalism, homosexuals may have arisen there as well. So homosexuality is a product of capitalism. Under socialism this kind of problem does not exist.”

The statement seems quite un-Maoist in its description of any twentieth-century socialist experiment as truly “communist.” Mao broke from Stalin in emphasizing the long-term nature and fragility of the construction of socialism as a transitional stage between capitalism and the classless society of communism theoretically posited for the human future. And it seems oblivious to historical reality in denying the existence of homosexuality anywhere, anytime in human history. Dangerously foolish (if I can assume that it was indeed said), it was made in the context of reported abuses of gay men and lesbians by Maoists in areas under their control.

Such mistreatment has not been particularly associated with the Maoists in recent years but indeed more with the old security apparatus of King Gyanendra. It’s not clear that it represents a clear party line; Hisila Yami, a Maoist member of parliament, Minister of Physical Planning and Work and wife of party leader Baburam Bhattarai told a Nepali gay organization, the Blue Diamond Society, in January that the party’s policy was “not to encourage homosexual behavior but not to punish homosexuals either.” But plainly there is cause for the sort of concern recently expressed by Human Rights Watch in a letter to Khadga Bahadur Biswokarma, a CPN(M) member and now Minister of Women, Children and Social Welfare. The letter claims that in December 2006, Maoists in Katmandu ordered homeowners not to rent rooms to gays or lesbians, and that Amrita Thapa, general secretary of the Maoist women’s association, told participants at a national conference in March 2006 that homosexuals were unnatural and were “polluting” society.

I’ve sometimes been critical of Human Rights Watch, which has little sympathy for revolutionary movements and has sometimes sided overtly with repressive regimes. (It congratulated the government of Alberto Fujimori in Peru for capturing Maoist leader Abimael Guzman in 1992 and has done little to protect the human rights of Maoists imprisoned under successive Peruvian regimes.) But here HRW seems to be on target in its criticism.

The communist movement of course has a long sordid history of homophobia — just as does bourgeois liberalism. Up to 1962, homosexual sex was punishable by lengthy jail terms everywhere in the U.S., and it was only in 2003 that the Supreme Court invalidated the “anti-sodomy” laws operative in Texas and several other states. The sentiments expressed by Gurung and Biswokarma are obviously not unique to communists but part of an historical continuum of intolerance that crosses all kinds of ideological lines.

Marx and Engels themselves were, as their private correspondence clearly establishes, distinctly hostile to homosexuality, which they viewed as “unnatural.” On the other hand, in the 1890s, the German Social Democratic Party leaders Eduard Bernstein and Karl Kautsky, and the socialist Reichstag deputy August Bebel, called for the repeal of the German statute criminalizing sex between consenting adult males. Bernstein called for “a scientific approach” to sexuality rather than one based on “more or less arbitrary moral concepts.” (Meanwhile the British socialist Edward Carpenter, influenced by the work of German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, argued that “uranians” — or members the “intermediate sex” — served in a positive role as a bridge between [heterosexual] men and women.) Adolf Thiele, a socialist deputy in the German parliament in 1905, declared that he “wouldn’t even admit that [homosexuality] is something sick.” It was, he opined, “simply a deviation from the usual pattern nature produces.”

Between 1917 and 1933, the USSR pioneered in sexual legal reform. The Bolsheviks in power rescinded all the anti-homosexual statutes in the czarist legal code and sent Soviet delegations to international sexual reform congresses in Europe. The early Soviet state officially declared “the absolute non-interference of the state and society into sexual matters, so long as nobody is injured, and no one’s interests are encroached upon.” Soviet law regarded homosexual intercourse as the same as “so-called natural intercourse” and was far ahead of (for example) U.S. law at the time.

All this changed in 1933, when the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party introduced a statute penalizing consensual homosexual activity (muzhelozhstvo or sodomy) between men; thereafter Soviet writers increasingly conflated male homosexuality as indeed “unnatural,” and associated it with German fascism. Not all Marxist theorists followed the Soviet lead in castigating homosexual activity, but the most prestigious of Marxist psychoanalysts, Sigmund Freud’s student William Reich, wrote in 1934 that men of a “homosexual tendency” were easily “drawn toward the right.”

Gurung’s association of homosexuality with capitalism echoes the Stalinist line that homosexuality represents “bourgeois decadence.” But Gurung should realize that Maoists outside Nepal have largely abandoned the Stalinist legacy on this issue. The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, a close ally of the Nepali Maoists, up until 2001 stated in its program that under socialism “struggle will be waged to eliminate [homosexuality] and reform homosexuals.” But the RCP now accepts homosexuality and renounces its past position on the issue (if without adequate self-criticism or explanation for why a bankrupt line was held so long). The Communist Party of the Philippines, another Maoist party with cordial ties to the CPN(M), officially recognized gay relationships among its members in 1998 and has been conducting same-sex marriages since 2005. The Nepali party lags embarrassingly behind.

Many have derived inspiration from the People’s War in Nepal, which in a mere decade acquired control over about 80% of Nepali territory and proved to the world that revolutionary communism remains the hope of the hopeless. I myself was happy to endorse Li Onesto’s first-person and very sympathetic account of her Maoist-sponsored visit to Nepal, Dispatches from the People’s War in Nepal (Pluto Press, 2005). The party now shares power with its former foes, heading six ministries in the provisional government. Some who have supported the CPN(M) are expressing grave concern that the party is abandoning its commitment to socialist revolution by its deal with the seven mainstream parties and its abandonment of the People’s War.

The Nepali Maoists deny that that’s the case, and I’d just as soon withhold judgment on that issue. But if the sentiments of Comrades Gurung and Biswokarma are at all representative of party sentiment, and if measures against gays are part of the party’s agenda, the outlook for a new revolutionary model in Nepal is looking worrisome.

Source: Krantikari Nepal, June 3, 2007

Positive Talks

THE long-awaited talks between the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) and a government talks team have finally materialised, and there has been genuine appreciation from all quarters as they were held in a cordial atmosphere. The talks that were held the other day in Janakpur are learnt to have been positive, laying the foundation for reaching a compromise in resolving several contentious issues.

During the talks, the MJF has put forth a 26-point demand that include, among other things, the federal system of governance and also the inclusion of Madhesis in all the organs of the state. The government, for its part, was also asked to withdraw the charges against the MJF leaders.

Demands were also made to provide compensation to all those who were injured during the Madhesi movement. Some issues raised came close to an understanding during the talks, and at the same time other demands were also discussed. As the country is headed towards the constituent assembly polls, it is highly essential to create an environment where such polls can be held in a free and fair manner and in an atmosphere without fear.

The country belongs to all the communities that inhabit it, and it is only fitting that all their grievances should be addressed. The talks should be seen in this light and the achievements made by the two sides to categorise the demands into those which could be met immediately and others that need further preparation and discussion should lead to an amicable solution agreeable to all.

The talks had been stalled for a long time, and as a result, the people suffered. There was much apprehension about these developments, particularly as the country is a transition phase, and untoward incidents could take place, playing into the hands of the regressive elements that have ulterior motives in their mind. The talks focussed on such burning issues as providing compensation to the families of those who died in the agitation and providing relief and treatment facilities to the injured. These are humanitarian demands and should be treated as such.

Furthermore, agreement to hold further discussions on seeking technical assistance from the United Nations to facilitate the talks also figured. The talks are a good beginning and bodes well for the peace process that the country envisages for the resolution of all the problems of the various communities so that all are accommodated in the New Nepal that has been envisaged where there would be no discrimination.

Source: The Rising Nepal, June 4, 2007

PM Koirala

PRIME Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has assured visiting US Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, Barry R. Lowenkron that there would not be a repeat of incidents of attacks on foreign diplomats and that they would be safe in Nepal. Prime Minister Koirala and the visiting US official were discussing the peace process in Nepal, which has received a significant boost following the eight-party consensus to hold the constituent assembly election by November this year. The eight parties have shown their commitment to the peace process while they are sorting out minor differences and disputes as the nation decidedly moves towards a new political beginning to be chalked out by the constituent assembly. There had been some lingering uncertainty over the new date of holding the constituent assembly election after the Election Commission demanded time beyond the earlier date scheduled for June 20 stipulated in the interim constitution. As per the new decision, the government will fix a suitable date for the election, which would not go beyond November 2007. The US official has welcomed the eight-party commitment.

There are several things that the government and the interim legislature parliament will have to accomplish before fixing the exact date for the polls. First of all, the interim constitution has to be amended. The government will need to introduce a proposal in the legislature-parliament for the amendment of the constitution, which it is set to do soon. Moreover, some election-related laws need to be formulated to enable the Election Commission to start preparing for the crucial polls. The eight-party meeting has asked and mandated the government to take these decisions on its own. Furthermore, election constituencies have to be delineated to address the demands of the various political groups, Janajatis and Madhesi people. The government had earlier formed the constituency delineation commission, which has already submitted its report. However, in light of the demands of some political parties and other groups, the eight parties have agreed to review the report. All these are important decisions because they allow for the election-related works to be carried out without further glitches. The mandate of Jana Andolan II is to take the country into a new era of full-fledged and inclusive democracy for which many important and historic agreements have already been made. The comprehensive peace treaty, that put behind a decade of armed insurgency by the Maoists, was a landmark achievement, which makes it possible to restructure the state to build a new Nepal. There are many issues waiting to be addressed. But the topmost is to maintain law and order and create an environment where the constituent assembly polls are held in a free, fair and inclusive manner. The support of foreign friends for this is vital, and Koirala?s pledge to ensure their safety counts a lot at this juncture.

Source: The Rising Nepal, June 4, 2007

New Nepal Transfiguration Of Nepalese Society

Dr. Panna Kaji Amatya

Nepal is in the thick of strife, conflicts, clashes, crimes, corruption and lawlessness. The country is beset with so many problems that to try to stupidly solve any one of them without taking into account other factors may itself be another cause of further problems. The main reason is that the people at large have an aggrieved feeling. Unequal distribution of resources, comforts and luxuries lies at the root of this wounded psyche.Ever since the creation of modern Nepal, the rulers have been utterly ignoring the interests of the people, thereby abusing power and misusing national resources for their own sake.

As a result, Nepal has remained one of the poorest countries in the world, if not the poorest one. This brings about glaring socio-economic inequalities, with nearly half the population living in abject poverty. Today, Nepal?s economy bumps along the bottom. The poor become poorer. It is only the rulers, past and present, who have immensely enriched themselves and still live off the backs of the poor people.

Justice

The masses, on the other hand, live on the hope of securing justice and a fair deal through the courts and democratic institutions but face disappointment at every step. They remain deprived of even the basic necessities of life. The net result of all this is that the aggrieved parties start abhorring every established authority and, therefore, are overtaken by a mood of defiance of that authority. This intensifies struggle. Attacks and counter-attacks, massacres and revenge, accusations and counter-accusations accrue from them.

There are perpetual crises. Lawlessness has become the hallmark of Nepalese society. Shootings, stabbings and murders are now daily occurrences. Any group, if determined base-mindedly, can take the law unto its own hands. Small weapons are in the possession of many an unscrupulous group that indiscriminately uses them for the destruction of people?s lives and property. The number of such groups is mushrooming. This is a serious threat to the very existence of Nepal?s statehood.

Those who enjoy money power, political power, muscle power or even nuisance value go about committing high-handedness and atrocities at will. Even those who are supposed to provide security to the people and to maintain law and order are found demanding that they be given adequate security. What a great joke!The law and order situation has hit rock bottom. Hard-headed lawbreakers and criminals almost always make their gateway with impunity or get off lightly. Some law enforcement authorities are reportedly defending and siding with the criminals and harassing the victims. What is worse is that even the rulers themselves appear to have no will to strictly observe the law and rules they say they adhere to.

If the Seven Party Alliance and CPN-Maoist can shake the powerful monarchy to its foundation, why cannot their government control the law-breakers? Is destroying, not constructing, the only thing they know? Each of them must answer these questions.Amid all this disorderly state of affairs, the people take a fancy to the over-repeated slogan of ?new Nepal.? However, this term has different meanings for different persons. This expression is on the lip of everybody, particularly those politicians who aspire to lead their parties to victory in the elections to be held for the Constituent Assembly, but they have failed to spell it out clearly. The reason is obvious; they seem to be unable to make themselves clear. Still, they have made great strides towards establishing a new Nepal by declaring it secular and agreeing to the establishment of federalism there.

Surprisingly enough, some leaders, by way of describing a new Nepal, talk about reversing the positions of the rulers and the ruled, and the exploiters and the exploited. Such personal and emotional urge to wreck vengeance against each other may go endlessly to the detriment of the country. If it becomes a reality, they may not inherently differ from the erstwhile cruel, undemocratic rulers. Here, what Albert Camus says is worth pondering over: ?All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the State.? In fact, any highly centralised, unitary state typically makes all rulers alike. Under such a state, innocent people always suffer and get exploited again and again. Hence the necessity of transforming the old order into the new one - politically, economically and socially. This may pave the way for the new Nepal. There is no doubt that the old are notorious for their misrule in the past. When the present-day rulers, most of whom belong to the same old stock and who have already tasted power, purse and perks under the old order, talk about a new Nepal, it merely means a pie in the sky. Jam tomorrow! But tomorrow never comes; the troubles never end; and the ill luck does not desert the masses.

Indeed, most of them may not like tomorrow because they are uncertain of their returning to power tomorrow. They are comfortable with today. What can be expected from them? Their promise of better things may be merely a promise which is unlikely to be fulfilled and a promise to be in power and repeat what they did in the past - enriching and empowering themselves. That is their habit; old habits die hard.Building a new Nepal requires new visionary, national, honest leaders. Promising the moon to the people is not enough. There should be no room for the petty politicians with fissiparous tendencies who hanker after loaves and fishes, and do not have the welfare of the masses in mind. Sadly enough, there is a dearth of such leaders.

The so-called leaders of the political parties have already passed their sell-by date. The geriatric leaders cannot build the new Nepal; they can not cut the umbilical cord with the old. They always relapse into the old habit of joining traditional forces. In the first instance, those aspiring to a new Nepal must get rid of the good-for-nothing fellows whose numbers are legion in the political parties. If the old leaders are honest and owe a great deal to their supporters for their being in power for a long time, now it is high time that they transferred their responsibility to the new at once. The New Nepal will be a dream come true if it is characterised by peace, progress and stability. Excessive optimism cannot build a new Nepal. A New Nepal does not and can not mean instant rich, prosperous and abundant Nepal because it cannot be made so in the foreseeable future. Yet, this goal should not be lost sight of.

The only practical solution at this moment is the establishment of peace which is a pre-requisite for the solution of other national problems - economic, social and political. Peace, which lacks today, should be the immediate objective of the new Nepal, for without peace nothing better and finer can be achieved. Here, the people demand that the political leaders be serious and single-minded. Whether they succeed or not will be measured by the degrees of their achievement.Peace once established on secured foundation has to be strengthened and reinforced by good governance, fundamental and human rights, efficient administration, federalism, secularism, inclusive democracy, and equity in the distribution of the gains of development. Empowering women, educating the people and improving their economic conditions, providing employment opportunities particularly to the hitherto excluded and marginalised groups are the sinews of the new order.

Reform in onese

lfBesides, criminalisation of politics and politicisation of crimes must be done away with at any price. The perpetrators of corruption, crime, violence and lawlessness should not only be discouraged but also punished.In fine, a new Nepal implies a changed Nepal. A new Nepal means nothing more than a better and finer Nepal. In order to achieve this goal, every stakeholder, instead of talking about reforming others, must think about reforming themselves without waiting for others to start doing so. Everybody dreaming a dream of a better Nepal had better act wisely so that the newly restored hard-fought democracy remains secured.