Tuesday, March 13, 2007

No Guns, Explosives, Weapons Outside Cantonments


SAC discusses bill on political parties The government had tabled a Bill on Political Parties- 2063 in the Interim Legislature, proposing to make all political parties more democratic, transparent and inclusive in practice. ...... bill proposes, among others, to prohibit all political parties from organizing strikes and bandas ...... the bill also proposes to prohibit the parties from collecting any sort of donation or receiving grants or assistance from any national or international organization, government or individual. ..... the political parties will be entitled to state funds in proportion to the popular vote garnered by them during the election. They should maintain their accounts in a transparent manner and have them audited by a recognized auditor.

I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of having to differentiate between the Maoist soldiers and the Maoist militia. There can be no weapons outside the cantonments, period. And if there are little homemade weapons that the UN refuses to recognize as weapons, such should be disposed of, should be handed over to the authorities. The Maoists outside the cantonments may not move around carrying weapons.

It is understandable that the Maoist leaders need bodyguards as they move around the country. I proposed that right after the April Revolution concluded. But that also has to be well defined. How many should be allowed? 50 in total? And of course they can not be allowed on the Singha Durbar premises and other places guarded by the state security forces. And at mass meetings, the weapons should be concealed as much as possible without jeopardizing the security of the leaders.

There might still be some wayward Maoist cadres who might refuse to go by the party line and still carry weapons. The Maoist party must dissociate itself from such elements, and must definte them as law and order problems to be taken care of by the state security forces.

And Maoist cadres may not act like they were traffic police. They may not do law enforcement work. All that has to stop immediately.

Feeding the 30,000 Maoists in the cantonments is one thing, but the Maoist cadres elsewhere are not for the state to feed. Cadres of other parties work full time, feed themselves, and work part time for their parties. The Maoists are going to have to do the same.

In short, the Maoists must become a political party and totally abandon their claim to being some kind of a parallel state before they can be inducted into the interim government. They have to become a political party before elections to the constituent assembly can take place.

And now that we are about to become a country of state funded political parties, Nepal is about to become a classless democracy like no other. Nepal is about to become the number one democracy on the planet.

The idea of state funded political parties is so huge. This has been my number one dream. It is about to become true. Nothing that has resulted from the April Revolution has made me happier, not the one third reservation provision for women, not even the Madhesi Movement. We are about to become the first truly one person, one vote democracy in the world. As soon as this is codified and made into law, the April Revolution becomes one of the greatest revolutions in human history. The April Revolution will be put in the same league as the French Revolution, Lenin's October Revolution. With this one move, Nepal will put immense pressure on both India and China to do the same. China is going to come under immense pressure to become a multi-party democracy, although one of state funded parties, unlike the "capitalist" democracies like America and Britain. And India is going to be forced to realize it is going to have to become a democracy of state funded parties, and once it does, the Maoist insurgency in India is going to evaporate off like magic. Once we become a democracy of state funded parties, we are going to become the go to country for the progressives in countries like America and Britain.

Mao's dictum that power flows through the barrel of a gun has been shot down and it has been replaced by Power Flows Through The Ballot Box.

The Maoists have been progressive on many counts. They have been great politically when it comes to the empowerment of the ethnically and genderwise marginalized. Let's face it, it is because of the Maoists that we are about to have a constituent assembly. They are also the people who took the lead on the republican question. They also are most committed to land reform, a must if Nepal is to have an economic transformation not only in the cities but also in the villages. I think they might also do really well on education and health issues. They might give Nepal a Kerala like literacy rate and a Cuba like health care system. And that will be great.

If only the Maoists will completely transform themselves and become a political party that has sought and got a complete divorce from arms, the Maoists will stand to do real well in the elections, and might as well.

On the other hand, they will find themselves with major electoral losses. I will not understand if they will opt for that. It makes no sense for them to lose the peace. If they can truly become a political party, they will emerge one of the largest parties in the constituent assembly. Heck, they might even emerge the largest. But first say no to arms totally.

Constitution| Mantra
Nepal As A Cutting Edge Democracy
Bodyguards For Prachanda And Baburam
The King Should Abdicate
Not So Fast, Indian Communists
Two Armies: What To Do

MPRF: A Few Scenarios
It Is Tough For The Madhesi
Upendra Yadav: Madhesi Martin Luther King
New MJF Strategy: Hit The State, Not The People
Krishna Sitaula: Appeaser, Not Peacemaker
A Federal Republic Electoral Alliance Against The Maoists Needed
Sadist Koirala, Kans Sitaula, Pol Pot Prachanda
Further Compromise: Mixed Election With Reservations
5 Point Demand: Compromise Formula So Elections Can Be Held In June
MJF And NEFIN Must Become Political Parties
The Economist: Nepal's Ethnic Politics: The New Battlefront

In The News

Palace refutes plot allegations NepalNews In the wake of raging allegations about palace plotting to derail the current peace process, the Royal Palace Press Secretariat has issued a statement denying the accusations made by the Maoists against Crown Prince Paras. ..... the allegations are totally fabricated, baseless and malicious.
UNMIN concerned about ‘unregistered’ arms and combatants

Govt offers incentive to phase out old vehicles Kantipur
INTERVIEW WITH PM KOIRALA If the king, through his activities and behaviours, continues to encourage the forces that want instability, the country will surely move down the republic lane. ..... It would have been better if the king and the prince (crown prince?) abdicated; I meant giving (them) space in that situation. Even now if the king denounces the throne, it will create a whole new environment. ..... It’s being said that they did not submit 760 weapons for registration. ....... the weapons looted from the Nepal Army have not yet been recovered .... When a leader like Prachanda who makes big promises of “turning Nepal into a paradise” says that the arms were swept away by rivers and burned down in fire, it seems as if he is trying to distract children by handing them lollipops. ...... They should hand over all their weapons before the elections. ........ If the Maoists do not submit their weapons within 15 days, then they will have to surrender themselves to the government, eight parties and the people. After that, the government will take stern action against all the weapons that are yet to be registered. The government will be driven towards action and the security forces will confiscate any weapons that have been hidden. ....... the police and the armed police force would be deployed. ...... The main problem I’ve been facing is identifying its leader. Some say that they need home minister’s resignation. I understand that no one is indispensable and we can always remove the home minister. ...... Will the movement be stopped after the home minister’s resignation? If the movement will be stopped, then for the public, even the Prime Minister is ready to resign. But what if the movement does not stop? ....... I am ready to make the home minister resign anytime if they guarantee to end all this. ...... I am holding direct talks with Upendra Yadav. He is no stranger. He is also a member of my own constituency in Sunsari. ...... A proposal is going to be tabled at the next eight-party meeting. The proposal will seek to declare highways, industries, factories, educational institutions and customs check posts as strike-prohibited areas. ....... it is obvious that there has been infiltration in the movement because there is always some kind of infiltration in any kind of movement. That is natural, some element or the other always infiltrates any kind of movements. ........ It is, however, altogether another issue if we have to declare Nepal a republic before that. But if the situation comes to that, it would be much better if the king steps down himself. ....... What will you do if I step down from the presidency of the Nepali Congress? Will you force me to come back?
Ex-pilot ‘guilty’ of killing 9 rhinos
Secys discuss security of govt staff in terai
Security committee formed
UNMIN concerned over media reports on Maoist arms, armies
PM to hold one-to-one meeting on interim govt
MPRF strike-withdrawal breathes life into Terai Life in eastern Terai regions is slowly returning to normalcy following the withdrawal of the ongoing indefinite strike in 22 districts by the agitating Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF). .... Transport services which had remained closed since late February and educational institutions that had remained closed since earlier this month ..... Biratnagar saw heightened activity in its city centers after shops that had remained closed for the last month reopened today while both long and short route vehicles are running normally. ...... in Nawalparasi forum cadres have locked up various government offices. ..... The forum cadres who had taken out a baton rally in the headquarters Parasi, forcefully shut down more than half a dozen revenue collection offices including telecom office, land revenue office, land reform office and land survey office. ...... long distance vehicles plying the east-west Mahendra highway are still grounded. ..... Siraha, the epicenter of the ongoing Terai unrest ..... as a part of their civil disobedience protests, the forum members would not pay any tax to the government.
US visa application goes online
JTMM cadres abduct 3 officials from Sunsari, demand Rs 1m ransom
Sunsari DAO extends curfew ahead of Maoist cadre's funeral
Thousands of troops, arms outside camps: Prachanda
Power cuts cripple cyber café business
चुनाव तिथि तत्काल घोषणाको सहमति माओवादीले शान्ति सम्झौता अनुरूप बुधबारदेखि विभिन्न जिल्लामा राजनीतिक दलका कार्यकर्ता र र्सवसाधारणको कब्जा गरेको घरजग्गा र सम्पत्ति फिर्ता गर्न थालेको जनाएको छ । ..... प्रचण्डले आफूले राष्ट्रसंघीय मिसनको वर्गीकरणमा नपरेका सकेट बमजस्ता हतियार छन् भनेको तर त्यसलाई सञ्चार माध्यमले अतिरञ्जित रूपमा प्रस्तुत गरेको आरोप लगाएका ..... राष्ट्रसंघीय वर्गीकरणमा नपरेका अप्रशोधित विस्फोटक यन्त्र ग्रिनेड, सकेट बमलगायतका हतियार सरकारलाई बुझाउन माओवादीलाई आग्रह
दरबारद्वारा खण्डन
दलसम्बन्धी विधेयकमा विवाद
सुरक्षाकर्मीलाई कारबाही सिफारिस
नेपालमा सशक्त नेतृत्वको चाहना
राजसंस्थाको औचित्य

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