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A clash of egos is gulping Nepal

Bhuwan Thapaliya - 1/30/2006

A clash of egos is threatening Nepal’s fragile autonomy and its equally fragile economy. King, Political parties and the Maoists are in angry dispute over the conduct of the Municipal election.

The political parties want the government to terminate the poll, which the government wants to hold at any cost. This has dragged Nepal further into the abyss of political uncertainty as the seven - party strikes and protests against the municipal election and the government’s suppression is slowly but surely crippling life nationwide.

Hope for peace, or even a grudging political accommodation, in Nepal are fast being extinguished. The appalling events of the past two weeks have not only affirmed what everyone knew: that many on the three sides of the political divide in Nepal are ready to resort to violence.

They have also exposed what everyone had hoped was no longer true: that mainstream positions and, in some cases, all too willing to pander to the bigots on their own side. Such political calculations are not easy to understand. The trouble is that initiatives of this sort are likely to make the matter worse, not better.

The royal regime and the mainstream political parties could yet relight the beacon of political compromise, which is the only hope of ever ending the recent conflict. But to do that they must demonstrate determination- and a willingness to co-operate with each other - rather than the incompetence and intemperance, which they are displaying now. Mainly, and as a matter of urgency, they must find a way to reach over the heads of this political imbecility.

However, the immediate authors of Nepal’s latest spate of violence were royalists. After claiming for years to be the champions of law and order, they resorted to brutal intimidation across the province - all to get their way over the route of a procession.

They were egged on by the Maoists Thankot attack but there was an air of inevitability about what happened next- but only in politics as divided, pessimistic and mired in the past as Nepal would such events seem unavoidable.

Political parties anger at the Royal regimes latest spur was entirely justifiable but the subsequent rioting in the streets of Kathmandu (let alone its effect on those making their daily bread and butter from the streets) was plainly not.

However, the royal regime should have accepted responsibility for the party’s retreat in the face of Maoists intimidation but despite all this, the royal regime refused to shift. So now the real war begins, though most Nepalese have grown tired of a political row that has dragged on too long.