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Today's
Stories
March 5 / 6,
2005
Alexander Cockburn
Arnold
vs. the Nurses
March 4, 2005
Frederick Hudson
Caught
in a Cage
March 3, 2005
Pat Williams
"Social Security Protects the Young as Much as the Old"
Brian Cloughley
Headlines, Beliefs and Deceptions
Dave Lindorff
Why Do the Democrats Pamper Greenspan?
Amira Hass
Oslo All Over Again
Greg Moses
In Oscar Texas: One Down, One to Go?
Lynne Landes
Exit Poll Madness
Nelson P. Valdés
Rapture Takes Leftists
John Ross
Mexico's
Fox Schemes to Jail Front-Running Leftist
Wars
of the Laptop Bombers
March 2, 2005
Saul Landau
/ Farrah Hassen
The
"Noble Liars" Attack Syria
Mike Roselle
The State of Oregon vs. Mike Roselle: Criminalizing Environmental
Dissent
M. Junaid Alam
Columbia University and the New Anti-Semitism
Suzan Mazur
Inside the Polygamy Cults of Southern Utah
Jackson Thoreau
Texas Congressman Calls for "Nuking Syria"
Michael Donnelly
No Love for Teresa Heinz; John Edwards Gets a Pass
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Uncle
Bucky Makes a Killing
Website of the Day
The Ghosts of Karl Marx & Ed Abbey
March 1, 2005
Scott Richard
Lyons
Million
Dollar Bigotry
David Lindorff
Stealing Workers' Pensions
Patrick Cockburn
/ David Enders
Bloodbath in Iraq
Ron Jacobs
The Last Poets Recalled
Tanya Garcia
USA Next: the Industry Front Group to Privatize Social Security
Joseph Pietri
The Drug Trail Ends in Kathmandu: Golden Tar Heroin and the Black
Prince
Kona Lowell
Woody: Broken in Vietnam
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Coming End of the American Superpower
Website of
the Day
Petition: No US Intervention in Iran
February 28,
2005
Gary Leupp
Year
4 in the Five Year Plan: a June Attack on Iran?
Bill Quigley
Haitian Police Open Fire on Nonviolent Marchers
Mickey Z.
The
Million Dollar Interview: Mary Johnson on Clinton Eastwood, Hunter
Thompson and the "Right to Die"
Paul de Rooij
Why
Ted Honderich is Wrong on All Counts About Israel
David Swanson
Basic Income Guarantee Versus the Corp Media
Mario Lamo
Jimenez
Maria
Full of Cultural Contradictions at the Oscars
Emma Perez
The Attacks on Ward Churchill: a Test Case in the Neocons Purge
of Academia
Diana Johnstone
Censorship
and the Empire
Website of the Day
Stop the War Campaign!
February 26
/ 27, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
An
American Jew Laments Decline in Jewish Influence
Noam Chomsky
Nuclear
Terror at Home
Rev. William E. Alberts
Rhetoric in the Air; Reality on the Ground
Fred Gardner
AARP Gets Pot-Baited
Gary Leupp
Bush and Camus on Freedom
Saul Landau
An Interview with Cuban VP Ricardo Alarcon (Part 3): the Miami
Mafia
Robin Philpot
Second Thoughts on the Hotel Rwanda
Yitkhak Laor
In Praise of the Facts
Ben Tripp
Out of Sight; Out of Mind
Justin Taylor
Zizek Seen Over the Handlebars
Jack Random
The Wounds from Wounded Knee
Rafael Renteria
Ward Churchill and White America
Jim B.
Reflections on the Eve of Fatherhood
Seth DeLong
Land Reform in Venezuela: More Like Lincoln Than Lenin
John Chuckman
A Season of Depressing Political Reruns
Alison Weir
Relativity, LA Times Style
Richard Oxman
Political Solitude: From Garcia Marquez to Maria Full of Grace
Dr. Susan Block
It Always Rains in California: All About Female Ejaculation
Poets' Basement
Landau, Lowell, Louise, Davies, Soderstrom, Norris & Albert
February 25,
2005
Roger Burbach
Murder
in the Amazon
Behzad Yaghmaian
Iranian Distrust of America: 50 Years in the Making
Kurt Nimmo
Conclave of the Brats
Joshua Frank
Diagnosing the Green Party
John Farley
How to Stop the War in Iraq: Punish Pro-War Politicians
Lawrence Reichard
The D'Aubuisson Memorial: Flowers of Evil
Pratyush Chandra
The Royal Coup in Nepal and Global Imperialist Designs
David Smith-Ferri
When
the Battlefield has No Borders
Website of
the Day
The 2005 Election in 3-D
February 24,
2005
Omar Waraich
The
Galloway Saga: Smearing an Anti-War Politician
Brian Cloughley
Bribing and Twisting Amerian Journalists: Valerie Plame &
30 Pieces of Silver
Tom Wright
Torture Nation: Abu Ghraib, a Year Later
Sharon Smith
The Anti-War Movement After Kerry: Learning All the Wrong Lessons
Dave Lindorff
Do These Roosting Chickens Have Flu?
Fred Feldman
Lynching Ward Churchill
James Reiss
On Hearing About a Plot to Assassinate President Bush
Diane Christian
Bad
Blood: Ritual & Sexual Torture in Iraq
Website of
the Day
The Gray Line
February 23,
2005
Werther
The
Poisoned Well: What the CIA's Nazi Files Can Tell Us About Iraq
W. John Green
A Salvador Option for Iraq? How Negroponte Changes the Ground
Rules
James Petras
A New Face to Bush Foreign Policy?
Conn Hallinan
Cornering the Dragon: the Return of the China Lobby
Joe Pietri
Cannabis: the Goose that Lays Golden Eggs (For Consumers and
Cops)
Louis Proyect
Hunter Thompson and the "New" Journalism
Alexander Cockburn
Hunter
S. Thompson and Gonzo
Website of
the Day
Did You Make the Blacklist? Why Not?
February 22,
2005
Naseer Aruri
The
Politics of the Hariri Assassination: Remapping the Middle East
Richard Manning
The
Economy of Hunger: Starvation is Part of the Economic Plan
William A.
Cook
Righteous
Racism Running Rampant
Paul Craig Roberts
The Agents of Instability
Ken Krayeske
Dr. Thompson is Out
Dave Zirin
How the Owners Destroyed the NHL
Kirkpatrick
Sale
Imperial
Entropy: the Collapse of the American Empire
February 21,
2005
Hunter S. Thompson
"He
Was A Crook"
John Ross
Mexico:
the Pentagon's Proxy Army in Iraq
Ward Churchill
What Did I Really Say? Why Did
I Say It?
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
Military Recruiting on Channel One: Geometry 101, Brought to
You by the US Navy
David Swanson
Fighting for a Living Wage, State by State
Dave Lindorff
All the News That's Fit to Fake
Stew Albert
Fear and Loathing: HST
Michael Neumann
Strategies
in Palestine: a Shrinking Pie in the Sky
February 19
/ 20, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Back
to Salem: Paul Shanley and the Return of "Recovered Memory"
Kathleen Christison
Struggling
for Justice in Palestine
Ted Honderich
On Being Persona Non Grata
Gary Leupp
Self-Hating Gays: Welcome to the White House & Welcome to
Commit Suicide
Don Santina
Reparations for the Blues
Jennifer Roesch
John Negroponte: Dirty Warrior
Scott Richard
Lyons
Ward
Churchill and the Identity Police
Chris Clarke
Ward Churchill and Liberal Outrage
George Beres
Censorship in the Land of Wayne Morse: Gagging W. Churchill in
Oregon
Harry Browne
The Belfast Heist: the Plot Unravels
Manuel García,
Jr.
Who Killed Rafik Hariri?
Mark Scaramella
Lessons from the Hidden Afghan War
Michael Donnelly
Whatever Happened to John Edwards?
John Pilger
First, They Attack the Past
Norman Madarasz
Death Wish for Reform in Brazil?
Surendra Devkota
The Monarchy in Nepal
Deborah Rich
How Anti-GMO Ballot Measures May Miss the Mark
Fred Gardner
When Dr. Tod Met Merle Haggard
CounterPunch
News Service
About King Mswati: Political Developments in Swaziland
Richard Oxman
CounterPunching Arthur Miller
Poets' Basement
Albert, Giebel, Tripp, Engel and Orkin
February 18,
2005
Ben Moxham
In
East Timor, the Nightmare Continues
Dave Lindorff
The
Scum Also Rises: the Bloody Career of John Negroponte
Larry Birns
Negroponte: a Resume of Death Squads, Deceptions and Bribery
Gregory Elich
N, Korea's Phantom Nukes and the US's Subversion of Diplomacy
Samuel Logan / John Meyers
The Future of Colombia's Paramilitary Death Squads
Nicole Colson
Shock and Awe on Civil Liberties: From Lynne Stewart to Ward
Churchill
Suzan Mazur
Whose National Security Are We Talking About?
Mickey Z.
"One
Man Has Stopped Killing"
February 17,
2005
Joshua Frank
Hogtying
of the Deaniacs
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
Willing Sychophants: the Conservative Media
Robert Fisk
Under
the Shadow of Death in Lebanon
Christopher
Brauchli
Where
Time Stands Still: Kinsey and Darwin in Cobb County, GA
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
Military
Recruitment TV: Why Send Them to College, When Your Kid Can be
Cannon Fodder?
Alison Weir
Russia, Israel and Media Omissions
Ahrar Ahmad
A Review of Shahid Alam's "Is There an Islamic Problem?"
Saul Landau
An
Interview with Cuban VP Ricardo Alarcon: "The US Tramples
the Laws It Wrote"
Website of the Day
Petition to Support Ward Churchill
February 16,
2005
Robert Fisk
Lebanon:
a Battlefield for the Wars of Others
Kevin Zeese
Creating a Real Ownership Society: Share the Wealth; Protect
Retirement
Gary Leupp
Meanwhile, in Nepal...
Ron Jacobs
Why the Iranian Opposition Should Not Trust the Bush Administration
Jessica Leight
Oil-Flush Chavez Begins to Strut His Stuff
Greg Moses
Houston, You've Got a Problem: Documenting Voting Irregularities
in Texas
Mark Engler
The Last Porto Alegre
Jack McCarthy
Where's the Outrage About Pat? Buchanan Does a Churchill
Bill Christison
US
Foreign Policy Dangerously Slanted Toward Israel
Website of the Day
The
World is Melting: a Photo Survey by Gary Braasch
February 15,
2005
CounterPunch
News Service
Dean
a "Safe" Moderate, Says NYT Citing CounterPunch
Robert Fisk
The
Killing of Mr. Lebanon
Uri Avnery
"Sharm-al-Sheikh,
We Have Come Back Again"
Stan Cox
Fighting Big Pharma in Little Digwal
Mickey Z.
Radio
Active North of the Border: an Interview with Chris Cook
Dave Zirin
Bashing Bush: Jose Canseco Comes Clean
Nadia Martinez
Ending
World Poverty? Opening at the World Bank, Apply Now
Lila Rajiva
"Little Eichmanns" and the 'Harijan': the Danger of
Magical Thinking in Politics
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
American Job Sell Out
February 14,
2005
Robert Jensen
Ward
Churchill: Right to Speak Out; Right About 9/11
Brian Cloughley
Kuwait's Freedom, Bush-style
Patrick Cockburn
Outcome
of the Iraqi Elections: Shortages, Corruption, Guerrilla War
Gary Leupp
Post-election Iraq: What Next?
Michael Donnelly
Sacred Nature: Just Another Commodity?
Dave Lindorff
When Bush Came to My Neighborhood
Elaine Cassel
The
Lynne Stewart Verdict
February 12
/ 13, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ward
Churchill's Genes
Saul Landau
Alarcon
Speaks: an Interview with the Vice President of Cuba
Paul Craig
Roberts
Nothing
to Fear But Bush Himself
Patrick Cockburn
Two Years After the Fall of Saddam, the Resistance Controls All
Major Roads into Baghdad
John Feffer
Bush
v. N. Korea: Round Two
Mickey Z.
Right to Remain Silent; Duty to Speak
Kurt Nimmo
Viva la Cucaracha!
Fred Gardner
Waiting for Raich
Dave Zirin
Fighting the New Republic(ans)
John Chuckman
Hiroshima, Mon Amour
Ben Tripp
A Leftist on the Bush Payroll
Carol Norris
"Buddy, Can You Spare a Dwarf?"
Robert Fisk
No Middle East Peace Without Justice
Frank / Chowkwanyun
Muzzled Activist in an Age of Terror: the Case of Sherman Austin
Mike Whitney
Condi's Euro Tour
Deborah Frisch
A Psychologist's Defense of Ward Churchill
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Reading Khomeini in Colorado
Christine TenBarge
What's So Special About Ward?
Ron Jacobs
Curtis Mayfield's Train to Jordan
Dr. Susan Block
Chemistry of Love: a Valentine's Greeting
Poets' Basement
Louise, Smith-Ferri, Ford and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Free Sherman
February 11,
20055
Manuel Garcia,
Jr
The
Eight Percent War
Kurt Nimmo
Ann
Coulter's Racism: Where's Geronimo When You Really Need
Him?
Dave Lindorff
Guckert
or Gannon? The Perfect Plant; He Fit Right In
Larry Birns
War is Peace; Slavery is Freedom: Democracy According to Elliott
Abrams
Bill Quigley
Twenty Questions: a Social Justice Quiz
Tom Barry
Bush's State of Delusion
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Lynne
Stewart's Conviction Hurts Us All
February 10,
2005
Dave Lindorff
What
Academic Freedom?
Christopher Brauchli
The Love of Slaughter: From Rwanda to Iraq
Patrick Cockburn
In Baghdad, It's Easy to Get Killed
Nicole Colson
Have the Democrats Surrendered on Abortion Rights?
Suzan Mazur
More
on the Assassination of Lumumba from Mr. Garsin of Kinshasha
Michael Donnelly
Salvaging an Opposition
Mike Stark
Driving Ossie Davis: "Give Them a Little Truth, a Little
Hope"
Greg Moses
Taking
Jesus Back from the Hijackers
Website of
the Day
The Missionary Positions
February 9,
2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Duck
and Cover Redux: Bunker Busters and City Levellers
Mickey Z.
What Ward Churchill Didn't Say
John Ross
Hecho
en Mexico: the Iraqi Election
Tom Barry
Ambassador of Lies: Elliott Abrams, the Neocon's Neocon
Conn Hallinan
The
Coup in Nepal: Nursing the Pinion
Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Vision for Iraq: Cricket is Fine, But Chess is "Absolutely
Forbidden"
Steen Sohn
Danish PM Says It's OK for Israel to Violate UN Resolutions
Tim Wise
Reflections on Empire and Uppity Indians
Website of
the Day
Support Antiwar.com
February 8,
2005
Patrick Cockburn
Shia/Kurd
Coalition to Dominate New Iraqi Govt.: "It's an Electoral
Pact, Not a Party"
Brian Cloughley
Out
of the Mouths of Generals: "It's Fun to Shoot Some People"
Steve Breyman
Against the Selfishness of the "Ownership Society"
Harry Browne
"Don't
Get on that Plane!": Soldiers Seek Asylum in Ireland
Doug Giebel
"We Love Free Speech in America": the People, the President
and Ward Churchill
Nate Collins
The Censorship of Ward Churchill and Dancehall Reggae: It's the
Same Beast
Dave Lindorff
It's Time for a Labor-Oriented Newspaper
David Smith-Ferri
Sanctions and the Health Crisis in Iraq
February 7,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
War on Jobs
Carolyn Baker
The New McCarthyism on Campus: Churchill and the Attack on Higher
Ed
Joshua Frank
Marc Cooper's Hit List: First Mumia; Now Ward Churchill
Mickey Z.
Warning: More Hate Speech from W. Churchill
Patrick Cockburn
The
Kidnapping Gangs of Iraq
Mike Whitney
Tom Friedman: Scribe for New Age Imperialism
Stacie Jonas
Pinochet: Fit to be Tried
Dave Zirin
A Miserable Super Sunday: Clinton, Bush and the FBI
Tariq Ali
Imperial
Delusions
February 5
/ 6, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ward
Churchill and the Mad Dogs
Kurt Nimmo
A Ward Churchill Kind of Day
Joshua Frank
Liberals Trash Ward Churchill
P. Sainath
Mumbai's Man-Made Tsunami
Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Triumph; Allawi's Bust
Laura Carlsen
Bush, Rice and Latin America
Dave Lindorff
How the NYT Killed the Bush Bulge Story
Pamela Olson
West Bank Story
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Future of Sudanese Refugees in the West
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
A Threatened UN in King George's Court
Roger Burbach
World Social Forum: a Tale of Two Presidents
Robert Fisk
History by Laptop
David Swanson
James Forman and the Liberal-Labor Syndrome
Justin E.H. Smith
Gay Marriage: a Report from Canada
Cacie Hart
The "State" of the Union: More War and a Ban on Love
Ron Jacobs
Chairman Bob Avakian: a Revolutionary Life
Mickey Z.
Viewing America from the Outside
Ben Tripp
Republican Heroes: a New Breed of Good Guy
Ben Sonnenberg
France at the End of the Devil's Decade: Renoir's Rules of the
Game
Poets' Basement
Smith-Ferri, Davies, Collins, & Albert
Website of
the Weekend
John Trudell: How to Earn a 17,000 Page FBI File
February 4,
2005
Brian Cloughley
The
Army Symphonist: "Sometimes the Only Way to Change the Behavior
of Someone Like That is to Kill Them"
Bill Christison
Election
Parallels: Vietnam, 1967; Iraq, 2005
Elaine Cassel
Did Zoloft Make Him Do It?
Jacob Levich
Chomsky and the Draft
Kanak Mani Dixit
Return of the Royalists in Nepal
Ron Jacobs
The
Downward Spiral in Iraq
February 3,
2005
Ward Churchill
On
the Injustice of Getting Smeared: a Campaign of Fabrications
and Gross Distortions
Sharon Smith
Resisting
Soldiers Need Our Support
Mickey Z.
Leslie
Gelb Asks Iraq: Who's Your Daddy?
Mike Whitney
President of Alienation: a Desperate State of the Union
Jenna Orkin
9/11 the Sequel: the Toxic State of Lower Manhattan
Saul Landau
Elections Won't Prevent Civil War in Iraq
Yitzhak Laor
Strange is the Silence
Dave Lindorff
The
Assault on Social Security: a New Campaign of Lies
February 2,
2005
David Domke
/ Kevin Coe
Bush's
Brand of Christianity
Noam Chomsky
Iraq
After the Elections
M. Shahid Alam
O'Reilly's
Fatwah on "Un-American" Professors: FoxNews Puts Me
in Its Crosshairs
Richard Oxman
Ringing in 1984 with Ward Churchill and Derrick Jensen
Joshua Frank
The Suckering of Howard Dean
Dave Lindorff
A History Lesson from the NYT
Nina Hartley
Feminists for Porn
Website of the Day
War is a Racket
February 1,
2005
Joshua L. Dratel
The
Torture Memos
Patrick Cockburn
New Doubts About Allawi
Robert Fisk
"The Only Decent Food We Get is at Funerals"
Uri Avnery
The Stalemate
Col. Dan Smith
"W" Stands for Withdrawal
Alison Weir
Making America as "Secure" as Israel
Alan Farago
Heaven and Hell in the Everglades
Ray Hanania
Low Voter Turnout of Iraqi Expatriates: Less Than 10% of Qualified
Voters
Paul Craig
Roberts
American
Police State
Website of the Day
Statisticians Refute Official Rationale for Exit Poll Errors
December 22,
2004
James Petras
An
Open Letter to Saramago: Nobel Laureate Suffers from a Bizarre
Historical Amnesia
Omar Barghouti
The Case for Boycotting Israel
Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond
They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit
Harry Browne
Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge
Richard Oxman
On the Seventh Column
Kathleen Christison
Imagining
Palestine
Website of the Day
FBI Torture Memos
December 21,
2004
Greg Moses
The
New Zeus on the Block: Unplugging Al-Manar TV
Dave Lindorff
Losing
It in America: Bunker of the Skittish
Chad Nagle
The View from Donetsk
Dragon Pierces
Truth*
Concrete
Colossus vs. the River Dragon: Dislocation and Three Gorges Dam
Patrick Cockburn
"Things Always Get Worse"
Seth DeLong
Aiding Oppression in Haiti
Ahmad Faruqui
Pakistan and the 9/11 Commission's Report
Paul Craig
Roberts
America
Locked Up: a System of Injustice
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
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Wendell
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Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
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The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
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Here for More Stories.
|
Weekend Edition
March 5 / 6, 2005
The Maoists in the Himalayas
Nepal
in Twilight
By
BHISHMA KARKI
The attraction for communism has faded
to zero globally, but strangely the plague of Maoism is blighting
Nepal and has for the last decade. The Maoist terror in Nepal
presents a grave cause for alarm. In order for Nepal to save
herself from a red terror, it is important for Nepali people
to understand the devastation and suffering in countries that
practiced communist dictatorship. In contemporary Nepal, however,
moderate communists have always been central players trying to
achieve power through democratic processes. They call themselves
communists but follow moderate socialist policies. More importantly,
they shun violence as a political weapon and can coexist as partners
in democracy.
The rise of the Maoists with
their blind devotion to violent insurgency poses the most serious
challenge to Nepal. If even China discards Maoism, how is it
going to help Nepal? If communism has failed everywhere, how
can it succeed in Nepal? Only the worst of worse case scenarios
will materialize for Nepal if the Maoists are ever to succeed.
In this ongoing struggle are pitted the democratic forces plus
the Monarchy versus an ill assorted gang of Maoists. Only five
years ago the Maoist threat seemed unreal and faraway. Despite
a series of incompetent governments and chronic instabilities,
Maoists were marginal feature on the political canvas of Nepal.
Some press and intelligentsia saw in the Maoist uprising an
expression of undercurrents of neglected and deprived communities
of remote villages.
Through their wanton destruction
of development infrastructure and physical elimination of opposition,
Maoists show the same tendnecy to barbarism that befell Cambodia
in the seventies. They even dream of reviving the corpse of
communism on a world stage. At the core of Maoist leadership
is a blind fanaticism that Nepal can copy Chinese leader Mao
Zedong's success. The closest inspirations of Nepal's Maoist
guerilla are Peru's Scendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and some
Maoist outfits in India.
The army of Nepal made a fatal
mistake to swing into action only long after the Maoist insurgency
started. They were already formidable militarily. The police
forces of Nepal were no match to the bands of Maoist guerrillas.
The damage is so devastating for the government of Nepal that
the entire outcome of this war is uncertain although the world
powers, in the current balance of forces, will probably not
let Nepal fall into the control of treacherous and murderous
Maoists.
The people of Nepal find themselves
divided after the royal takeover of Nepal on February 1, 2005.
Some see in it a return of the absolute monarchy. Others, exhausted
by the never ending violence, want the king to succeed in bringing
normalcy to the country. The king is both feared and supported
at the same time. Is the fear of king justified? It is based
on an unfounded accusation that he wants to discredit the political
parties to shore up support for his direct rule. He might concentrate
some power in his hand temporarily but his hands are not free.
He has to compromise with the political parties to play a meaningful
role and even to save the institution. The future of monarchy
depends on the return to a functional democracy.
I believe Nepal's King can
restore some semblance of order. But he has to show concrete
results soon. Although a succession of democratic governments
during the last decade and half have been reviled for their
corruption, the Nepali people will not put up with direct royal
rule unless the King defeats the Maoists and then hands over
power to the elected civilian government. One of the most fundamental
covenants of any government is to protect life and property of
its citizen. In democracy the guiding spirit is the rule of law.
In Nepal Maoist kill their opponents. The terror is so compelling
and lethal that, only in the capital city of Katmandu and some
urban centers, people are relatively safe. Only here opposition
against the Maoists can be heard. While large numbers of people,
fleeing Maoist atrocities, live as internal refugees in Katmandu,
it is also a hot bed of anti-king activities. Political parties
accuse the king of evil intentions and of wanting to be a despot,
while they fail to see through the designs of Maoists. The relevance
of democratic parties will be better demonstrated when the object
of wrath and venom is not only the king but the Maoists who
talk of violent revolution.
If Nepal were a functioning
democracy, the King's take-over tof he government would have
been unthinkable. But in a calamitous circumstance of Nepal where
Maoist atrocity and killing has risen dangerously, the most important
priority is the restoration of peace and normalcy. Who can restore
the peace by defeating Maoists or through other means? As of
now, parliamentary forces have failed to understand and forge
a common front against the Maoist terror. If king is looked upon
as a redeeming figure, it is because the options before Nepal
are limited. Parliament is defunct, its normal duration expired.
While the importance of parliament and legitimate government
can not be minimized, more importantly we need a government that
has the will to crush the Maoist terror. The future of Nepal
will be shaped effectively by how resolutely King responds to
this internal convulsion. The king has limited alternatives other
than to crush the backbone of the Maoist uprising and save Nepal
along with the institution of monarchy.
I was a democracy activist
and spent time behind bar. All my family members suffered when
there was absolute monarchy calling all the shots in Nepal through
the sham democracy of Panchayat in the years from 1960 to 19990.
Growing up in Nepal ruled by an all powerful monarchy, I fought
for the restoration of parliamentary democracy and understand
the importance of freedom. In the last three years, we hear
some grumbling of republican sentiment also from the non-Maoist
camp. How Nepal will fare without the constitutional monarchy
is a question which needs to be pondered dispassionately. The
likely scenario in the absence of monarchy is not a peaceful
democratic country but Nepal joining the ranks of Afghanistan
and Cambodia after the overthrow of the monarchy. In Nepal monarchy
is an important bulwark against further chaos and anarchy.
For Nepal, the best way forward
is constitutional monarchy. The coming of republic must come
through peaceful revolution or evolution in future. The situation
is not favorable for the king to become a despot. I don't distrust
the king when he declares himself for the constitutional monarchy.
There is no indication that he means otherwise. In time of crisis
when there is no elected government and elections can't be held,
he can rightly take steps necessary to crush the terrorists.
The stakes for him are high. Never before in the history of
Nepal has the monarchy faced such a perilous threat to its existence.
The king of Nepal has put his kingship in the line of fire. This
historical crisis calls for the boldest action on the part of
king. He should understand that Maoist strategy to sit for dialogue
has only been a propaganda ploy; it is only likely to strengthen
them. When they speak of compromise by peaceful dialogue, it
misleads the public and is not going to happen..
If the civilian government
of Nepal has acted in a no-nonsense manner against the scourge
of Maoists in the early days, they would not have succeeded in
pushing the country to the abyss. Rounds of negotiations were
held between Nepalese government and Maoists. The upshot was
a temporary lull in hostility, then its dramatic collapse and
exacerbation in violence. A one-to-one fight is not going to
give the army of Nepal a clear and decisive edge. The moral of
the Maoist cadres is high; they sense an imminent victory. Political
parties are divided. By failing to make a common stand against
the Maoists, they are only emboldening the Maoists to be even
more ruthless and cruel. The division among democratic forces
and lack of clarity vs. the Maoists makes them incapable of rising
to the challenges of the Maoist terror. Furthermore, the Maoists
have physically trampled upon their opposition in the large rural
area of Nepal.
The propaganda line that the
Maoists will give up violence if a constitutional assembly is
agreed to is delusive. How can a group which wages violent insurgency
against a peaceful democratic country and tear it apart can be
arbiter of the constitution? They have committed terrible crimes
in the course of their violent campaign. How can they be protectors
of human rights and democracy? What will Nepal say to the victims,
the 11,000 dead? Meanwhile, let us not forget that there are
reports of excesses committed by the army of Nepal. But then,
who started the cycle of violence, the Maoists or the government
of Nepal? It would be injust to put them both on the same footing.
The Maoists had all the peaceful avenues before them to bring
about social transformation. Their weapons of choice are violence
and terror.
There is war fatigue in Nepal.
The conflict has been costly. Peace-at-any-cost sentiments propounded
by people in Nepal and aided by parties like Nepali Congress
and UML Communists will only play into the hand of the Maoists.
The Maoist strategy is either to take over Nepal through military
victory to dictate peace at its own terms. The suspicion that
King is out to put an end to Nepal's democratic experiment in
the name of fighting the Maoist and Maoists have faith in a democratic
give-and-take is a lie.
Nepal in the year 2005 is not
as backward as in1960 when it had the misfortune to groan for
thirty years under the dictatorship imposed by the late king
Mahendra, father of the present king. In the early post World
War II years there was a strong natural temptation for the newly
emerging poor countries to fall under the spell of totalitarianisms
of different colors allegedly to expedite economic progress.
The memory of that era still causes deep suspicion of the king
in Nepal, while the credibility of the political parties has
also taken a serious beating for bad governance, instability
and corruption.. Nevertheless, the most important challenge for
Nepal is to defeat the Maoist insurgency.
Very much critically depends
on how the active monarchy in Nepal after February 1,2005 deals
with this crisis.
Even though the democratic
governments in post-1990 Nepal have dismal records, the longing
for free society and democracy runs deep among the Nepalese people.
The king, in spite of his intellectual shortcomings, is perfectly
capable of understanding this changed world circumstance. Only
in the consolidation of democracy has the Monarchy a long term
future. From his announcement it appears that he harbors no illusion
of ruling Nepal by undermining the democratic aspiration of Nepali
people. He is not trying to act as he he was another Musharaff
of Pakistan.
There is an element of miracle
in this drama. On the fateful night of June 1, 2001, the present
king Gyanendra, still a prince, was absent by the luckiest coincidence
from the family gatherings which turned into the carnage of Nepali
royals at the hand of crown prince Dipendra. Perhaps destiny
kindly intervened to save Gyanendra. Latest in the long line
of succession of the Shah dynasty he ascended the throne amid
the most somber tragedy. While an infant he was crowned the monarch
by the beleaguered Rana regime for a few months when the reigning
king Tribhuvan was still alive and fugitive in India. His kingship
was short-lived and could not survive the fall of Rana oligarchy
and he found himself crowned again only after 52 years. A man
saved by the mysterious providence, he should devote his rule
to liberate Nepal from this darkness of the Maoist terror.
Bhishma Karki was born in eastern Nepal, was imprisoned
for his pro-democracy activities and now lives in Lawrence, Kansas.
He can be reached at: bhkarki@hotmail.com
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