US Senator's Illogical Hypocracy

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F Grade Nepal Political Report- "OP-ED"

 

 

Wednesday December 28 2005 15:47:53 PM BDT

 

 

By Bhola B. Rana, Nepal

 

 

A recent F grade political report on Nepal by Senator Patrick Leahy

is full of contradictions and personal biases against the King, the

monarchy and the Royal Nepal Army.

 

The analysis does not present an accurate picture of the country.

Leahy in one breath says the Royal Nepal Army has won praise for its

role in international peacekeeping and immediately goes on to claim

that the army is undisciplined.

 

How then can an undisciplined army receive accolades for its

peacekeeping role?

 

The Democrat senator rightly says Chief of the Army Staff Gen. Pyar

Jung Thapa has received training at the Army War College and has

participated in other US military training programmes. Gen. Thapa and

other officers have been trained not only in the USA but other

countries as well after their basic officer cadet course inside the

country. The Royal Nepal Army is an organized and professional force.

 

Gen. Thapa has regularly been instructing his boys to be disciplined

while conducting operations against the Maoists to protect the

people. He certainly has not ordered them to commit widespread,

degrading abuses like the US Army has committed in Iraq and

Afghanistan.

 

The Royal Nepal Army is a disciplined force, although Leahy would

want his 99 colleagues in the US senate to believe him when he says

the army is undisciplined.

 

The army has been deployed to restore peace and defend and protect

democracy. The army is there to defend the nation and national

institutions which it has done with determination and courage against

difficult and challenging odds.

 

The senator says the September 3 Maoist cease-fire is " flawed" but

goes on to ask the United States to encourage the army to reciprocate

the cessation of hostilities. He says this even while admitting that

the Maoist cease-fire was a tactical move to lure the political

parties into an alliance and further isolate the King. The senator

then asks his government to press the Royal Nepal Army to reciprocate

a flawed cease-fire.

 

He then goes on to say there is no way to predict with confidence if

the Maoists will participate in a political process in good faith or

simply use it as a ruse to gain new recruits and weapons. Even as

Leahy said, a Maoist resumption of attacks against civilians would be

condemned and resisted by, what he calls, the international

community. The extreme communists have said they will violently

oppose the February 8 municipal polls by killing the candidates.The

United Nations has warned this would be a serious violation of human

rights.He calls for free, fair, impartial and transparent elections

while calling the municipal polls undemocratic even as the United

States pushed and completed parliamentary elections in war-ravaged

Iraq.

 

He goes on to say the 12-point understanding between the Maoists and

the seven opposition parties is "vague", but it could still be a

basis national dialogue to restore democracy and end the conflict. As

events have folded, it is clear the purpose of the 12-point agreement

is not to restore democracy. The aim of the 12-point agreement is to

prolong the political crisis and prevent the immediate restoration of

parliamentary democracy.

 

The learned senator says he speaks because he fears Nepal may plunge

into chaos. Mr senator, if you aren't aware, the kingdom is already

facing a chaotic situation.The senator, by his own admission, says he

has thrice in six months spoken in the chamber about Nepal. Had he

visited Nepal even once, he would have felt and seen the chaotic

situation in the kingdom which he says is a land of mostly

impoverished tea and rice farmers.

 

To draw the attention of his colleagues, he could have better

described Nepal as the home of Mount Everest. He is inciting a

generally apolitical army when he asks it to demonstrate leadership

and convince the King "to abandon his imperial ambitions." Asking

an "undisciplined" army to show leadership qualities?What imperial

ambitions, senator? Leahy, in his own words, says Nepal's political

parties do not have a record of putting the interests of the nation

above their own self-interest. He does not ask them to reform but

instead says, for all their flaws, there is no substitute for

them.The administration of George W Bush should think twice before

acting on the basis of the report.

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