Maoist terrorists continue to suck the blood

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On Nepal : Maoist terrorists continue to suck the blood - "OP-ED"

 

>From Bangladesh-Web

Friday December 23 2005 15:48:17 PM BDT

SASHI MALLA, Nepal

 

The antics of the Communist dominated Maoist-seven party front know

no bounds. Their utterances and actions border on the pathetic, were

they not to affect the lives of innocent people. Their bandh last

Friday unnecessarily prevented people from going about their normal

lives.

 

The reason for calling the bandh was challengeable in every respect.

The Nagarkot incident was an isolated and unnecessary action

perpetrated by a single soldier gone crazy under the effect of

alcohol. The action was no way premeditated.

 

The army camp had no reason to interfere in the peaceful

celebrations of the community, nor was there any hint of a

conspiracy. The Home Minister, Kamal Thapa, on behalf of HMG/N acted

very promptly and decisively in offering the government's and the

people's heartfelt condolences and succour and providing immediate

financial support to the bereaved families.

 

HMG/N and the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) have promised further help

and will definitely look to additional possibilities of support in

the future in the way of employment and education to the effected

families. Therefore, what needed to have been done was very

effectively implemented. It was damage control par excellence.

 

Unfortunately, the Maoist-mainstream Communist-Kangresi front had

nothing better to offer as to call the injudicious bandh, which

achieved nothing at all except to be a nuisance again to the

populace at large. Two wrongs do not make a right and people who

consider themselves political leaders worthy of the name should have

had the decency to console the mourning families instead of trying

to make political capital out of a genuinely tragic situation.

 

It just illustrates for all right-thinking and dignified Nepalese to

which low-level these so-called leaders can sink. But this is also

the crooked and warped method of argumentation of terrorists and die-

hard Communists. In spite of the so-called ceasefire, the Maoist

terrorists continue to suck the blood of ordinary people and

tourists and certain political parties do the same by trampling on

the people's basic human rights, including free movement and earning

a daily wage. The would-be leaders incessantly talk of `power to the

people', but conveniently suffer amnesia regarding the parties'

fourteen years of misrule—or 14 wasted years of our country's

development.

 

It is, therefore, all the more regrettable that a section of the

print media is attempting to create an incendiary situation

(`'Nation gets into violent protest mode''; `' Temple grounds become

killing field''/ [shades of Pol Pot?] ). In the forefront as usual

are the Indian-controlled Kantipur and Himalayan Times groups both

as the vanguard of the propaganda wing of the concerted action to

undermine the current twin pillars of the Nepalese nation to uphold

our sovereignty and territorial integrity—the monarchy and the RNA.

 

The Kathmandu Post's obfuscating and offensive columnist, Damakant

Jayshi, (`a wolf in sheep's clothing' and an all-knowing and

interfering Indian?) writing a provocative and seditious

piece: "What is army's mandate anyway?" has apparently made it his

life's mission to discredit the hallowed institution of monarchy and

the nationalistic RNA. He insinuates that the Nagarkot incident was

not an `aberration', nor isolated case, but has been the normal

practice, as has been repeated `extra-judicial killings' throughout

the country.

 

That Jayshi and the Kathmandu Post can get away with such high-

handed statements, just shows the low quality of journalistic ethics

and the evil designs of certain foreign powers. Jayshi, the would-be

security expert, makes the unfounded claim that the `politicization'

of the RNA and its meddling in civil administration has reached the

apex and that its main role now is to interfere in political

rallies.

 

He has the effrontery to demand that the RNA to see the writing on

the wall. He should justly be charged with defamation. But actually,

this is just one more instance of a well-laid plan to destabilize

our beloved motherland, maim our functioning institutions and erode

our way of life. In our hour of acute crisis, we have to be

particularly aware of domestic and international bloodsuckers!

 

The same infamous sheet's Puran P. Bista, a Prabasi Nepalese from

Assam, whose insight into North-Eastern Indian affairs, Sikkim and

Bhutan, are exemplary, has unfortunately also overstepped his

natural capacity with his ill-considered comments on the Nagarkot

incident. Although his cousin (his own admission) is in the army, he

speaks disparagingly of the `royal soldiers' and `RNA riflemen', who

have been emboldened to kill `innocent villagers at will.'

 

Bista further intimates that the RNA was not authorized

(legally/administratively/morally?) to form an independent enquiry

committee and that "there is something beneath the surface that the

RNA does not want to make public." He exposes his `insider'

information: "The RNA is an institution run by a particular clan

based on an `obsolete' ideology." Now which clan does he mean? Or

does he lump the Gurung, Magar, Pun, Rai, Limbu, Brahmin, Newar,

Bista(!), Thapa, Basnet, Pandey, K.C., Rana and Thakuri into one

happy, joint Nepalese `clan'—like in Prithvi Narayan Shah's famous

dictum: `one garden, many flowers'?

 

The RNA has the glorious tradition of upholding national security

and now of defending our national way of life against internal

enemies, being abetted by foreign powers which have their own axe to

grind. Is this `obsolete ideology'? Bista berates the `george

sahebs' (By George! He surely means the `Jar Sahebs'/generals) for

not having the knack `'for reading every soldier's mind and

problems'' (!). He then contradicts himself by claiming that these

very soldiers `'are in the military service because they happen to

be fortunate sons of george sahibs'' (his own cousin too?).

 

The lopsided nature of our media landscape is compounded by the fact

that well-known politicians have no compunction to contribute

articles to such anti-national sheets like The Himalayan Times.

 

Thus former foreign ministers, Shailendra Kumar Upadhya and Dr.

Prakash Chandra Lohini write regularly for this Indian funded,

staffed and directed paper, which, of course, then enjoys an air of

respectability. Instead of projecting our own image in the

international arena, the Indian standpoint gets the limelight.

Similarly, the Kathmandu Post this week cited a `highly placed

source' (which could have been none other than the US embassy) to

the effect that terribly embarrassed American president George W.

Bush, suffering his Mississippi blues, had written to the King to

urge that he "reach out to the political parties and start a

democratic process."

 

First, why should the King `reach out' to failed political dons and

warlords under the thumb of unfriendly foreign powers and dominated

by certified terrorists? Is embattled Bush himself ready to make a

pact with Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda? Second, Bush's political

mentor, foreign minister and former professor of political science

at an elite university, Condi Rice, has surely advised him that

democracy without elections is a no-go. There is absolutely no

reason why the King should abandon his long-term strategy to usher

in democracy and achieve lasting peace at home and consolidate

Nepal's international standing. On both fronts there have been

remarkable successes. Some Nepalese may be blood-suckers and

traitors, others can surely be bought; but most Nepalese are

definitely not suckers or stupid.

 

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