Nepal Tipping toward Chaos

In recent years, the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal has had a problem with Maoist rebels trying to topple the rather democratic system there. Since the government of the day failed, King Gyanendra sacked the cabinet back in February 2005 and assumed direct powers to rule rather than reign. He has been trying to convince the people ever since that he only wants to crush the rebels, and then he’ll restore democracy. With an opposition led general strike entering its 12th day now, it’s safe to say His Majesty hasn’t convinced very many. It is a cautionary tale.

The king’s approach to the rebels, abolishing democracy to protect democracy, undermines the one thing that makes him and his government better than the Maoists. When a monarch decides he wants to rule the people directly, mouthing platitudes about human rights, it is hard to distinguish him from the cadre of Marxists who also want to rule the people directly and mouth similar platitudes. Morever, since the Reds always offer the poor some property expropriated from the well-off, they often look better to most people.

This has now been compounded by violent repression by the security forces of protesters. According to the BBC and others, security forces have killed five people who were engaged in anti-government protests. Usually, this journal doesn’t worry much about martyrs (if enough get martyred, their side loses); however, in a struggle to make the Maoists the bad guys, the government killing people who are demanding democracy makes it easier for the Reds to recruit.

It could be that things are coming to a head in Nepal. Reuters was told that the capital’s “Petrol supply has completely stopped,” by Harendra Bahadur Shreshtha, the head of a private consumers’ forum. Dipendra Thapa, secretary at the ministry of works and transport, told the BBC, “We will provide armed escorts to trucks transporting essential goods to Kathmandu [the capital city].” The staff at the Supreme Court have joined the strike, and the opposition parties are asking people to withhold tax and bill payments until the king relents. In a statement issued a week ago, the US state department said King Gyanendra’s direct palace rule had “failed in every regard.”

His Majesty is about to discover that sitting on bayonets makes for an uncomfortable throne. All it will take is one colonel and a handful of privates to declare a republic. Or, people power will prevail, and there will be a temporary vacuum, allowing the Maoists to make a power grab if they want to try. They might even succeed. The lesson is: “If one must burn the village to save the village, it is already lost.”

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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