Fly in, create turbulence, lift off

I don’t want to repeat last week’s post (or comments) on the situation in Nepal, but I am compelled to bring your attention to this article, Management by Helicopter: Carter’s Futile Visit. The article appears to be written by two Nepalese natives, and is unique in that it is neither pro-King nor pro-Maoist (like most media coming out of Nepal), but takes a measured look at the current predicament in the Himalayan kingdom and the interests of the various parties.

Those in favour of a constitutional monarchy would do well to be wary of another trick from the wheeler-dealer. In the view of the authors, whether or not Nepal will retain its monarchy is a decision of the people. Full stop. As stated again and again in this space, this question of state structuring is one that is not to be pre-emptied by an unelected interim parliament. We believe that it is exactly the unpredictability as to how the Nepalese people will vote on this that makes some political quarters want to abolish the monarchy prematurely. Let us not forget that the termination of the monarchy was a key objective of specifically the CPN-Maoist all along.

In this context, it is interesting to observe that the ‘interim government’ tabled a bill in the ‘interim parliament’ amending the ‘interim constitution’ whereby the monarchy can be abolished by a two-thirds majority, if the King was found conspiring against the holding of CA elections. And it is the cabinet which will decide whether the King is creating obstacles. There should be no difficulty in bringing forth trumped up charges. Since the oligarchs have already swelled the ranks of MPs with their own members, the necessary majority should be no hindrance at all.

Prime Minister Koirala’s (he is also the defence minister) zigzag political course is an open book. Some time back, he had only praise for the Nepalese Army. At the same time he and his closest advisers are conspiring to undermine the morale of the officer corps. They are actively promoting the interests of a shady major-general who is set to be promoted to lieutenant-general over the heads of other more deserving officers with distinguished careers. It is also planned to appoint him as the chief of the general staff, and is, therefore, slated to be the next army chief. This is corruption and nepotism of a high order.

The article is also brutal in its critique of Carter’s recent visit:

The visit to Nepal by former US president Jimmy Carter has not contributed substantially to the peace process, nor has it strengthened good governance and the possibility of free and fair elections to the Constituent Assembly in the foreseeable future. What it has achieved is to shore up Koirala’s autocratic regime. At a time when the oligarchs of the Seven Party Alliance plus the Maoists (SPAM) are at loggerheads on practically every aspect of government and cannot move ahead, Carter heaped praise on Koirala, who allegedly “has been a hero for me with his reputation and his integrity.” This is the same man who due to his inability or unwillingness to practice inner-party democracy, caused his own party to split. Little positive can be said about his track record in orderly and clean governance. Carter seems to have missed the wood for the trees when he further elucidated: “He has been the focal point around which the peace and future democracy of this country has been built.” It seems he was not properly briefed on current affairs and recent Nepalese history… The Maoists’ penchant for not honouring their commitments is well known and Carter should have been fully cognizant of that fact before agreeing to act as an intermediary with the US government. Some comfort may be gained by the fact that he visited as a private US citizen and none of his views or recommendations are of a binding nature.

More Nepali views on Carter’s visit can be read here and here.