ND Dynamics

I am so very glad to be part of this group, Nepal Democracy. It reminds me of the Sajha action in 2002, only with this group much more in-depth conversations are possible. I don't begrudge the group's exclusivity when it comes to its membership. The moderators are very selective in terms of who they allow and who they don't. It is supposed to be some kind of a Who's Who of the diaspora and beyond. Famous names like Kul Chandra Gautam and Kanak Mani Dixit are listed. I don't know how I got in, but it must be all that noise I create online. Besides I might be the only member of the group to have been to all 48 states in the continental US. That is my claim to fame.

Right now the group has emerged the hub of democracy action. Office holders of most of the major Nepali organizations in the US seem to be members, though there are only about 10 very active members among the more than 100. Less than five participate on a near daily basis. But I am told there are many who just like to read the stuff and not write anything. And then they talk about it offline in their respective social circles!

This group is making possible conversations that could not have been possible any other way.

Google has been indispensable to my involvement in the Nepal movement. I access most of my news from Google News. I do most of my communication through this blog, which is on Google property. And the "parliament" I am a member of is a Google group: Nepal Democracy. I still have my Yahoo email account as my primary one, or Gmail is not that far away as an option. It is hard for me to imagine my involvement without Google. If you heard rumors Google is going to take over the world, they are true!

Those are some of the nice things I have to say about the Nepal Democracy group. But I also have criticisms I would like to heap upon it.

1. The technology is designed for a cloud/galaxy model of interaction. But the mindset of many members is still stuck on the pyramid model. (The Cloud Model, Not The Pyramid Model) Once in a while appears a longing for a hiearachy. And there seem to be cliques that interact over the phone as much as at the group website. And I am all for such larger interactions. Hey, Skype now offers video calls for free.
   
2. Since there are office holders from many organizations here, many of them seem to want that respect. There are supposed to be these dons who hardly every say anything, and then once in a while come out of the woodworks and attempt to establish some kind of an authority. I find that perplexing. First, there are few people on the list that I know in person. And so when ephemeral hierarchies are formed, they are performance and activity based. This "parliament" is no House of Lords.
   
3. There is a tendency towards much talk and little action. The past few days the group has been discussing who will draft a letter to the Nepal Medical Association and how. There is a lot of preparing to prepare to prepare going on. Who will tie the bell round the cat's neck? I got impatient, drafted one, called it an attempted draft 1, and emailed it to Shambhu Thapa and Sudha Sharma, presidents respectively of the Nepal Bar Association and the NMA. Did that breach protocol? How could it have? It is called attempted draft 1. So it is not official communication.
   
4. The most the group has done in the past is issue statements. I am a new member, so I don't know, but I believe the stories which are that the group takes forever to compose press statements. By the time the statement comes out, the news has gone stale.
   
5. For the diaspora to move from thinking only moral support is to be extended to think major logistical support is also to be extended is something like the Maoists moving from communist republic to democratic republic. That is a fundamental shift. But mentally many members do not seem to have made the move. The five projects have been identified, but members are still not jumping to join the teams. The few that are working do not want to make it official. Don't get me wrong, a lot of work is being done. But the pace is slow. I wish more people stepped up to join specific project teams so we could break them into smaller groups for mini projects. And we could have a beehive of activity.
   
6. There is dysfunction. Nothing helped me understand the dynamics of the seven party coalition in Nepal like joining this group. Now I am more patient with the leaders at the other end.
   
7. My key point is this. If this is going to be a two year movement, is it not better instead to participate in the elections, and then take that new parliament to a constituent assembly? This regime has to fall before February, or there is going to be a lot of trouble in the democratic camp. I don't think the king is thinking martial law, military crackdown and all that. I think he is putting his all into the municipal polls. I just got this email from a high school friend yesterday who is in Kathmandu. The guy has registered a party! If elections are held, and there is a 35% voter turnout, then the king gets to claim two victories: that polls were held, and that protest rallies were allowed during the months leading to the polls. Two major acts of democracy right there. So if you perform a slow bleeding revolution, that actually helps the king! This Nepal Democracy group needs to feel that urgency. And even if the Maoists turn to violence to disrupt the polls, we democrats still lose. Through our internal dysfunction, we would have made that possible. (Badri Mandal: Winner) And if the municipal polls succeed, the king buys himself at least a year. Leaders talk of actively foiling the polls. Would it not be easier to get the masses out into the streets before that? Some talk of the harvest season. The time to bring down regimes is in Baisakh! Glory be upon us.
   
8. We are making these major preparations about how if there is a military crackdown, we will take the king to the Hague and stuff, but I think what we should really worry about is what if municipal polls are held! I think a continuous movement is the only one that can dislodge the regime. (Pyramid Of 10 In Kathmandu, Logistics To Bring Down The Regime)
9. Instead the momentum so far has been to hold one rally this week, another rally next week. That helps the king! All those boost his democratic credentials.
   
10. But for mass action you need clarity. There instead is this happy fog. And the Nepal Democracy group is in no hurry either. There are people who report they are working on some statement that should be ready in "two months' time." You can't possibly be serious. This revolution feels like a leisurely stroll. We must be a lucky bunch.
    

Podcast

December 8, 2005 (15 minutes) Peace, democracy and social justice have to go together. Social justice issues of the DaMaJaMa are at the center of this democracy movement. They cannot be avoided.

In The News

Media ordinance is incomplete: Minister Rana NepalNews
Army Chief to visit Pakistan
US concerned about rights abuses in Nepal
EC should not comment on political decision: Prof. Mishra
Remittance important to reduce poverty: WB report
Leaders joined govt on their own wishes: Rana
The Myths of a Constituent Assembly
Thousands rally against Nepal king BBC News, UK
India not worried by Swiss diplomacy in Nepal Webindia123
Nepal king to offer olive branch to Maoists? NewKerala.com, India
Nepal king's new minister gets boot from party NewKerala.com, India
Nepal Maoist Prevents NC to Hold Mass Meeting, Demands Share in ... NewsLine Nepal, Nepal
Maoists bar NC from organizing programme Nepalnews.com
Nepal Intellectuals Blame Monarchy for Instability NewsLine Nepal, Nepal
Supreme Court opposes government ban of BBC Nepali Service IFEX, Canada
Controversial Media Ordinance will be Reviewed: Rana Himalayan Times, Nepal

Gagan Thapa's Right To Free Speech

"Meanwhile, Gagan Thapa is to be presented to Special Court on 8 Dec. for his “Rajdroha” (treason) indictment for having insulted the Monarchy during a protest."

Samudaya.

Gagan Thapa can be as republican as he wants to be. Right to free speech is a fundamental human right and he has it. He is protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Any regime or any constitution that clashes with that fundamental human right is an illegitimate one. The 1990 constitution died several years back, and has died several times since then. This regime is about to prove its illegitimacy one more time as if the numerous times before have not been enough.

Gagan Thapa is a genuine Nepali hero. He is a gift of this movement to the Nepali people.

I look forward to this movement succeeding, democracy getting established, and Gagan Thapa coming into the parliament. Gagan Thapa has been making some major contributions to the current democracy movement. That is there. But I think the bigger contributions he will make will be after democracy has already been firmly put in place.

Nepal is being run by people who should not be running Nepal, and Gagan Thapa is proof. People who have perpetrated some major crimes against humanity are in power, whereas a non-violent democracy activist is being dragged to court. A travesty of justice is about to be carried out.

But then this democracy movement is not going the route of courts. This movement is going the route of the streets.

Taking Gagan Thapa to court is a regime hastening its demise, nothing more.

Gagan Thapa is a democrat, someone who believes in non-violence. The world is not going to sit by and watch while he gets demonized by the ruling mafia.

Girija Koirala Playing Foul By Gagan Thapa

"....a new Nepal Student Union Central Committee has been formed under the presidency of Mahendra Bista who is also regarded by many as the "dharma-putra" of Sushil Koirala...."

Gagan's Talk In New York
Girijaspeak: When Republicans Are Royalists

It is as if Girija Koirala were hoping people are too busy with the movement, perhaps they will not notice.

This is a clear case of the parent party bulleying its student organization. It is perhaps in the political culture of the country that parties sometimes do that to their students wings, but why is it that only the Congress makes the news on this issue?

When I met Gagan Thapa in person, he came across as someone very dedicated to the Nepali Congress. The parent party needs to return the favor.

Foiling the Pokhara convention was a major disservice done to the democracy movement. Many were hoping the movement would take off with a successful NSU convention in Pokhara. Girija's clique foiled that.

Sidelining Gagan Thapa is exactly the wrong thing to do, not that it is possible to sideline Gagan Thapa. Neither Gyanendra nor Girija have it in their powers to sideline Gagan Thapa.

Gagan is Girija's comrade. If Girija can not see that, I doubt his democratic credentials.

A Patronizing King And 200 Brown Shirts

200 Brown Shirts

The UML organized peaceful demonstrations on December 2. Later in the day 200 rowdy types spread terror in Kathmandu with their visits to the UML party office and Girija Koirala's residence. The regime is lucky nothing untoward happened. But the hooligans were let roam scot free. As an armed group, they violated the law. Who were those people? Why did the regime not initiate action against them?

Or is it like the king trying to suggest, remember when I put you all under house arrest after 2/1? I did that for your good, for your safety.

That attitude would be utterly patronizing.

A king sticking to his roadmap is not a king seeking dialogue and reconciliation. Maybe the dramatic loss of much of his family in 2001 has hardened his heart so much, in his mind he is playing by the book, trying hard to portray himself as someone who knows the difference between his pesonal and professional lives.

He needs to move beyond the legal and the constitutional to the political. That is his best bet, if it is not already too late.

The King's Jumbo Cabinet

One more expansion and he will have overtaken Deuba's jumbo cabinet from the 1990s.

A Slow Bleeding Two Year Movement

Some democrats talk in such terms. If the idea is to have a two year movement, it would make more sense to participate in the polls. But that has two drawbacks. One, we can not legitimize this regime. Two, we can not discount the Maoists.

So I propose a more jampacked two month movement. But it is for the people on the ground to decide.