NEPAL: Slow Return to Democracy

By Marty Logan Reprint | | Print |

Marty Logan

KATHMANDU, Dec 16 2005 (IPS) - Thousands of Nepalis hit the streets Thursday, and many more will stay off the capital’s roads Friday, as a protest against the king’s rule but overall the democracy movement has been sluggish in fulfilling some of its leaders’ pledges.

Slowing the progress of the movement is a monarch who is cannily playing off his opponents – both at home and abroad – against one another.

Thursday afternoon’s crowd was noticeably smaller than the 30,000-strong group that gathered at the now well-known meeting point next to a suburban convention centre on Dec. 2. That earlier rally was the largest opposition event in the capital Kathmandu since King Gyanendra seized power in a bloodless coup on Feb. 1.

Under a hot winter sun, the crowd, 90 percent of them men, reacted lackadaisically to the speeches. Half of them sat cross-legged in front of the stage while most of the others stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the flanks, craning for a view of the speakers. Others sat with friends in small groups far from the stage, shelling and munching on peanuts.

“We came to express our solidarity with the emerging democratic movement,” said Narad Bhara Dwaj, one of three friends in their 30s and 40s who identified themselves as journalists and researchers.

None of them belongs to a political party but they said they “wholeheartedly” back the seven political parties that have been cautiously cooperating in an alliance since the summer. “The democratic process will ultimately prevail because Nepali people don’t like autocracy,” said Dwaj.

“The speeches are just warming up,” added Puran Bista. “Maybe soon more important leaders will arrive and (the crowd) will heat up – we hope it does.”

At the Dec. 2 rally, United-Marxist Leninist party leader Madhav Kumar Nepal promised that the gathering was “just a harbinger of the tsunami that is coming soon”, and would sweep 500,000 people onto the capital’s streets.

On Thursday, newspaper sellers threaded their way through the tight crowds. “Nagarkot killings,” one cried, referring to the slaughter of 12 villagers at a religious festival Wednesday by a soldier who, the army said, “ran amok” after being rebuked for teasing local girls.

Speakers Thursday, blamed the king for the murders and announced a Kathmandu Valley-wide “banda” or general strike in protest, meaning vehicles will be banned from roads from sunrise to sundown.

News of the slaughter began ringing on Valley residents’ mobile phones Thursday morning. It followed the announcement Wednesday by government spokesman Shrish Shumsher Rana that the king’s government will not join a ceasefire declared by Maoist rebels nor hold talks with their leaders.

Hopes had been rising here that the palace was planning to finally join the peace process after the king reshuffled his cabinet last week, specifically because the new group includes a politician who previously negotiated with Maoist leaders.

The rebels launched their uprising against the monarchy and on behalf of Dalits (also called “untouchables”), women, indigenous people and other “disadvantaged” groups almost 10 years ago. In that time more than 12,000 people have been killed, most of them innocent villagers. The Maoists have spread their control over 75 percent of the countryside, setting up their own governments in many areas.

In November, they and the parties’ alliance realised a long-rumoured cooperation, announcing they had agreed on a 12-point “understanding”. It calls for a conference of democratic forces that would form an interim government, followed by elections to a constituent assembly and finally restoration of parliament.

The king’s dismissal of the 12-point pact plays in the opposition’s favour, says Devendra Raj Panday, co-chairman of the Citizens Movement for Democracy and Peace (CMDP), a loose alliance of groups and individuals that launched public protests against palace rule this summer.

“The king will contribute more to the kind of political change we are seeking by being intransigent,” he told IPS in an interview, Thursday.

The CMDP, which has scheduled a day-long sit-in for the centre of Kathmandu on Dec. 19, backs the 12-point deal’s endorsement of a constituent assembly and many of its leaders would like to see Nepal’s monarchical system of government replaced by a republic.

Raj Panday said his group is still hoping that the political parties can iron out their differences and take clear charge of the pro-democracy movement but that the CDMP is not joining hands with the alliance. That reluctance reflects the public’s wariness of the political parties that many believe squandered a dozen years of multi-party democracy that started with 1990’s “democratic spring”.

“Some people think we should be playing a collaborative role with them but a large section of society think that would be the worst thing we could do,” he added.

Many Nepalis have been closely watching the reaction of the international community to events here. The United Nations and many donor nations – who have strong influence in this nation, because it relies on foreign aid for about one-quarter of its budget – urged the king to follow suit after the Maoists extended their ceasefire Dec. 3.

The palace responded by announcing that the army chief would be travelling to Pakistan for talks with senior leaders, signalling that Nepal’s South Asia neighbour could soon provide military assistance, as did northern giant China in November.

India, the United Kingdom and the United States stopped supplying “deadly” aid after the king’s takeover, so the latest visits reveal the king’s strategy of playing off Nepal’s mammoth neighbours against one another.

Even with these international developments, Raj Panday is optimistic.

“Hopefully we’re reaching that point where the parties will take charge of the movement,” he said. “It’s not just a question of the physical presence, the size of the crowd – it’s the kind of message they give to the people. After the 12-point agreement, people are expecting them to talk about going for a constituent assembly.”

One man in Thursday’s crowd said he was ready to follow the parties’ lead. “People are responding very positively – you can see that by their presence,” he added, asking to not be named.

“It will take a bit longer,” added the man. “(These rallies) are a big step forward but still the king is against democracy…yet all the common people are gradually understanding the value of democracy; they are also coming to have a clear understanding of the actions of the king.”