The terrorism germinates and grows in the environment of unequal opportunities, acute poverty, gross marginalization, illiteracy, unemployment, rampant corruption, criminalization of politics, unresponsive executive and judiciary, and easy access to means of terrorism. For many frustrated youths, violence is the sure means of quick solutions; there are thousands such youths vulnerable for exploitation. If we continue fighting and killing each others; one day there will be no Nepali left, for this reason no Nepal. It will be lose- lose state of affairs. No one will win. Terrorism does not pay. It does not win hearts and minds. There are other better alternatives to politics than terrorism. We have already wasted valuable lives and times in the past. Now there is no time to waste. No resources left. If we really are dedicated to people then let us all be clear that people want peace and prosperity. My understanding is that we are all traveling in the same boat. So no one can keep him/herself aloof. Terrorism spares none. Let us all row the boat to safety first; not fight with each other. National interests come first always and everywhere, then the group and individual interests. Surely we would not like our country to become another Sierra Leone, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Peru, Sri Lanka etc.Let our conscience rule over our ego.
Fighting terrorism is not a matter of interest, not a matter of choice, but a matter of utmost necessity, a matter of high importance, and a matter of urgency. What is required is action--not just sit satisfied in tacit connivance only. Watching others facing the brunt of terrorism, waiting for one’s turn, shutting doors to the gross scene of violence, murders, rape, and closing nostrils to the rotten smell of dead bodies are acts of cowardice. We must have courage to stand against these. If we do not, then we simply wait in the queue for our turn; and it is destined to come sooner or later - because terrorism spares none. Raising awareness and education among the leaders, cadres, and communities against the futility of such terrorism to attain political solution or usher social change, and providing economic activities for many jobless young people, and create good political environment which is more conducive and inclusive than conservative are sure steps towards ending violence. An effective response to the Maoist threat should therefore encompass larger issues of development, leadership, and good governance.
Anyone can be a very good guru and preacher of modern democracy and good governance. One should respect their knowledge. But at the same time we should also not forget the ground realities of our land. Westerners have already gone through the phases of learning by mistakes. We are only entering into it now. It is always easy to demand than give. It is easy to preach than practice. For the successful practice of democracy we need to have discipline; without it, democracy will turn into lawlessness, mobocracy, chhadatantra, autocracy, and mockery. Democracy can survive when the rights and duties of citizen are properly balanced. There is no place in the world where there are no laws, where there are no restrictions to criminal acts, where there are no punishments for corruptions. Democracy means respecting the law of the country. In our case, Grouchi Marx’s saying “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies” perfectly matches. In the name of democracy the social norms and values have been dismantled. Therefore let us all consolidate for peace and prosperity.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Animal rights
The shrill shriek of pigs facing deaths tears my eardrums and then the heart. There are several pork meat shops nearby my house. These are famous for ‘Dharane Kalo Sungur’(Dharan’s Black Pigs). I can hear the poor animals shrieking for help when the sharp steel blades pierce into their hearts. At times when there are people dying without mercy; who cares of these animals. But after all how long will all these things keep going? How long should we allow them to continue? Should not be there be mankind to stop them? Should not there be a law to stop these types of cruelty and end these everlasting pain before deaths? Le us arise and stop them from today onwards, right from today.
Sunday, May 15, 2005
nation building
Recently I had been to a round trip inspection tour of several districts. In this connection I also visited the Bandipur of Siraha district where Maoist had attacked on one unified security base camp, police station, and army battalion HQ. Three policemen, one army soldier, and six local people, and many Maoists died in this incident. Few security personnel are taken as hostage by Maoist. The dead bodies of many ‘guerillas’ were strewn around the incident site. Looking at the bodies of these ‘guerillas’; I felt very bad. They were of very young age, looked innocent and ignorant of any politics of Maoism giving impetus to totalitarianism. Most of them appeared to belong to indigenous group, the Janajatis. Their poor dress and gear indicated that they lacked resources and had very poor preparations. It appeared that they were committing suicidal attacks on such well fortified camps manned by well trained soldiers with superior fire arms. We should be actively doing something, not only show tacit connivance, to stop these types of killings of one Nepali by another Nepali. We can do few things like—raising awareness and education among the communities against the futility of such terrorism means to achieve any political power or social change; provide economic activities for many jobless young people; and create good political environment which is more accommodative and inclusive than conservative. An effective response to the Maoist threat should encompass larger issues of development, leadership, and good governance. And only expanded economic and social infrastructures and opportunities for all to rise to their full potential will make a new Nepal-a peaceful, developed, beautiful, and a great Nepal.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
policing crimes
How do you find your police in your country? Although it is mostly based on person to person experience; the majority of the answer would be “not good”. Yes. This is the type of response that we generally come across. Then what should be done? Avoid or reform police? If we avoid them the problem will continue to be there and it will rather increase. Therefore we should include the “troublemaker” in our development or reform program. If we correct the police there will be no more trouble in future. It is so simple. When we consider police as a part of our social life then we would certainly like that our police are professional.
The philosophy of modern policing call for client oriented policing; community based policing, proactive policing. What is this then?
Community policing is:
l Designed to make crime control a collaborative effort/Multi disciplinary approach
l Taping community resources to share crime control efforts.
l Seeking to enhance crime control by engaging more powerful social control mechanism.
l A philosophy of client-oriented service delivery aimed at improving accountability and effectiveness by focusing on problem solving.
l A style of policing crimes with the help of citizens. Generating a feeling of, “All police are citizens with uniforms: All citizens are police without uniforms.”
l A policing system of the citizens, for the citizens, and by the citizens.
Yes it is systems which inculcate for the sense of belongingness, the sense of ownership, the feeling of “weness”. But it does not call for a new organization, new laws, new budgets, and new people. It requires only the change in the style of policing. So simple! If we consider people’s participation in policing; not only in policing but also in other State machineries, our jobs would become very easy, effective, and cost effective. We have experienced this result in the forestry. The conflicts in between the forest officials and community members are gone, and the forests have become denser.
Although many senior police officers still do not believe in this philosophy Nepal police is inching towards cultivating this kind of culture. I was happy to deliver a talk on “Policing crimes through community participation” to the students of Centre for Development Studies, National College, in Kathmandu today. I had had the similar opportunity of delivering lecture to the LLM students of Kathmandu School of Law on the issue of “Crimes against women and children” on 10 Apr 2005.
What I feel is there is a need for a Centre for education on the issues of crime and criminals, community safety and security, national security, business security, industrial security, bank security, personal security etc etc. If we establish such institutions the safety and security of the citizen and country will be more effective.
The philosophy of modern policing call for client oriented policing; community based policing, proactive policing. What is this then?
Community policing is:
l Designed to make crime control a collaborative effort/Multi disciplinary approach
l Taping community resources to share crime control efforts.
l Seeking to enhance crime control by engaging more powerful social control mechanism.
l A philosophy of client-oriented service delivery aimed at improving accountability and effectiveness by focusing on problem solving.
l A style of policing crimes with the help of citizens. Generating a feeling of, “All police are citizens with uniforms: All citizens are police without uniforms.”
l A policing system of the citizens, for the citizens, and by the citizens.
Yes it is systems which inculcate for the sense of belongingness, the sense of ownership, the feeling of “weness”. But it does not call for a new organization, new laws, new budgets, and new people. It requires only the change in the style of policing. So simple! If we consider people’s participation in policing; not only in policing but also in other State machineries, our jobs would become very easy, effective, and cost effective. We have experienced this result in the forestry. The conflicts in between the forest officials and community members are gone, and the forests have become denser.
Although many senior police officers still do not believe in this philosophy Nepal police is inching towards cultivating this kind of culture. I was happy to deliver a talk on “Policing crimes through community participation” to the students of Centre for Development Studies, National College, in Kathmandu today. I had had the similar opportunity of delivering lecture to the LLM students of Kathmandu School of Law on the issue of “Crimes against women and children” on 10 Apr 2005.
What I feel is there is a need for a Centre for education on the issues of crime and criminals, community safety and security, national security, business security, industrial security, bank security, personal security etc etc. If we establish such institutions the safety and security of the citizen and country will be more effective.
Friday, April 08, 2005
People opt for Peace, Peace, and Peace
Dear Jyotiji,
Thanks for forwarding the article.I take this opportunity to circulate it among my colleagues. Many email addresses are suppressed on recipients' request.
What is more important for a common Nepali today-Democracy or Peace? 'Peace!' would be the impulsive answer. Today the people's first option is PEACE, PEACE AND PEACE. The populace would not opt for the DEMOCRACY if it means TERRORISM, poverty, hunger, suffering, lawlessness, indiscipline, corruption, murders, rapes, robberies, kidnappings, and destructions. The common people have realized the fact that the 'political leaders'[?] have swindled them in
the name of democracy and politics. What is more annoying is the treacherous acts of some 'political leaders'[?] busy in malicious designing against motherland from overseas land. They have in fact proved many people's belief and anticipation to be true in the sense that they will go next door and spit venom. When there are owls sitting on every branch; how can a garden flourish? When we have such 'neta haru' how can our motherland prosper? The current emergency is the stride for restoration of law and order- for reconstruction and rebuilding of state machinery- for revitalizing the dying verve of society, re-institutionalizing social norms and values. Although I have due respect and high regards for the ideals of democracy and human rights upon which the governance should stand-yet for the time being let us all get united against the terrorism. King has also expressed his commitment to the democracy time and again. He has firm belief on the democracy as the best political system of modern age.
He has very firmly put that “the terrorism can not be the alternative to democracy; the alternative to democracy is DEMOCRACY itself.” Once the insurgency problem is rooted out, we can do some politics later on. The politics can wait for sometime. But we can not wait and see people dying everyday. With best regards.
Dr. Govind Prasad Thapa, 5 Apr 2005
-----------------------------------------------------
--- Jyoti Mathur wrote:
Kanak Mani Dixit's article-an analysis Random thoughts captured in 18 points By Raj Pal Singh via email
Kanak is at it again trying to drum up some business. I will not waste as much ink (and time). My 18 points (legal voting age) is in an outline format so that Mr. Dixit and his readers can easily extrapolate - as they please - while scratching some of that - the grey matter.
1) February 1 is not about the King or the political parties. It is about how best to handle ongoing Maoist insurgency.(See Krishna Gautam's piece on "I thought I was not the humourist"). The king just happens to be one of the entity who can exercise few elements of the constitution.
2) Article 27 (3) is not unconsitutional - it is in the constitution itself. If you don't like it then ammend it with 2/3 votes in the parliment. While you are at it change your party's by-laws as well so one ethnic group can't hijack the whole country in the name of democracy. And get more people from the other ethnic groups in the media and civic society so it becomes more of a people's voice - not just yours and your kind.
3) 2005 is not 1960 (see Jan Sharma's "2005 is not 1960" piece). The time limit is maximum 36 months - now 34 to go. In the mean time let s put "constructive pressure" collectively so peace, liberty and reedom (the pillars of democracy) are brought back on track sooner han later.
4) Everyone is for democracy (See King's speech). The question is not bout democracy today. It is "what is the surest way to PROTECT IT oing forward tomorrow?"
5) Fine - Scrutiny of present cabinet is a fair game. Argue their deas and their policies not their personalities. I don't want to now what color their boxer shorts is nor do I care for their
religious beliefs - Get the idea?
6) Yes - political detaines should be released but they must renounce iolence publically. No more "bandhs" and breaking public properties n the name of whatever ...
7) Yes - press freedom should be upheld but the editors must announce pulically that they will not encourage and/or be the voice of trorists.
8) Political elites must state publically that Nepal and Nepalis areabove their party and their cadres. Where is their moral and naturallegience for the COUNTRY?
9) Just like there are maobadi, there are rajabadi, congressbadi,UMLbadi, kahobadi, bharatbadi, chorbadi, dankabadi et. all. This isunfortunate but real fact of life in Nepal. Here lies the opportunity for all camps to come together to the common meetingpoint of NATIONALISM. So stop your propoganda then.
10) Stop the blame game. You can be part of the problem or you canchoose to be part of the solution. The constructive choice is yours.
11) In a constitutional monarchy and multi-party system, the conceptof parties are a must. The current leaders (almost all and except forvery few) are morally bankrupt. Constitutional Monarchy is the checkand balance in those dire "the sky is falling" scenarios.
12) Even your own house can't be run on ideology let alone a countrywith 36 ethnic groups in a middle of a civil war. Save the ideologiesfor "morning chiya" - lets move on with more pragmatic aproaches.
13) Yes - the military is under the parliment. Let us elect a PM whocan humbly command their respect. The men and women in the uniform is asked to give the ultimate sacrifice - their lives - to save yourfreedom. The politicians are only asked to serve the people. Askyourself - which task stands on a higher moral ground?
14) If you believe in Constitutional Monarchy and Multi PartyDemocracy then you will do everything possible to win peace TODAY sofreedom and liberty can never be challenged TOMORROW.
15) Otherwise - state your position clearly - Don't conveniently(cowardly) hide behind democracy and throw your hatred at the king oranybody. Freedom and Liberty is bigger than anyone. Present king is amere mortal human being - No different than you and I.
16) The self-styled intellectual elites must come down from their ivry tower and ask themselves - What's Next - instead of "oh this and oh that". School of hard-knox will teach you - No one can argue with success.
17) Taking sides is the easiest thing to do. When you believe inpeace, freedom and liberty - the toughest task is to convince thenaysayers, leftists, rightists, the slogan barking militants, the
violence ridden insurgents and the biased propogandists to leave their axe behind and come to the middle ground of prudent compromise. Now, can you personally do that? Yeah...show me the money - I mean - your courage !!!
18) And lastly - you are not a journalist. You are an op-ed editor.Know the difference please. And just like anybody "your have yourright to be wrong !!!"
P.S. When the sky is falling, sometimes one man's courage is the majority.
Thanks for forwarding the article.I take this opportunity to circulate it among my colleagues. Many email addresses are suppressed on recipients' request.
What is more important for a common Nepali today-Democracy or Peace? 'Peace!' would be the impulsive answer. Today the people's first option is PEACE, PEACE AND PEACE. The populace would not opt for the DEMOCRACY if it means TERRORISM, poverty, hunger, suffering, lawlessness, indiscipline, corruption, murders, rapes, robberies, kidnappings, and destructions. The common people have realized the fact that the 'political leaders'[?] have swindled them in
the name of democracy and politics. What is more annoying is the treacherous acts of some 'political leaders'[?] busy in malicious designing against motherland from overseas land. They have in fact proved many people's belief and anticipation to be true in the sense that they will go next door and spit venom. When there are owls sitting on every branch; how can a garden flourish? When we have such 'neta haru' how can our motherland prosper? The current emergency is the stride for restoration of law and order- for reconstruction and rebuilding of state machinery- for revitalizing the dying verve of society, re-institutionalizing social norms and values. Although I have due respect and high regards for the ideals of democracy and human rights upon which the governance should stand-yet for the time being let us all get united against the terrorism. King has also expressed his commitment to the democracy time and again. He has firm belief on the democracy as the best political system of modern age.
He has very firmly put that “the terrorism can not be the alternative to democracy; the alternative to democracy is DEMOCRACY itself.” Once the insurgency problem is rooted out, we can do some politics later on. The politics can wait for sometime. But we can not wait and see people dying everyday. With best regards.
Dr. Govind Prasad Thapa, 5 Apr 2005
-----------------------------------------------------
--- Jyoti Mathur wrote:
Kanak Mani Dixit's article-an analysis Random thoughts captured in 18 points By Raj Pal Singh via email
Kanak is at it again trying to drum up some business. I will not waste as much ink (and time). My 18 points (legal voting age) is in an outline format so that Mr. Dixit and his readers can easily extrapolate - as they please - while scratching some of that - the grey matter.
1) February 1 is not about the King or the political parties. It is about how best to handle ongoing Maoist insurgency.(See Krishna Gautam's piece on "I thought I was not the humourist"). The king just happens to be one of the entity who can exercise few elements of the constitution.
2) Article 27 (3) is not unconsitutional - it is in the constitution itself. If you don't like it then ammend it with 2/3 votes in the parliment. While you are at it change your party's by-laws as well so one ethnic group can't hijack the whole country in the name of democracy. And get more people from the other ethnic groups in the media and civic society so it becomes more of a people's voice - not just yours and your kind.
3) 2005 is not 1960 (see Jan Sharma's "2005 is not 1960" piece). The time limit is maximum 36 months - now 34 to go. In the mean time let s put "constructive pressure" collectively so peace, liberty and reedom (the pillars of democracy) are brought back on track sooner han later.
4) Everyone is for democracy (See King's speech). The question is not bout democracy today. It is "what is the surest way to PROTECT IT oing forward tomorrow?"
5) Fine - Scrutiny of present cabinet is a fair game. Argue their deas and their policies not their personalities. I don't want to now what color their boxer shorts is nor do I care for their
religious beliefs - Get the idea?
6) Yes - political detaines should be released but they must renounce iolence publically. No more "bandhs" and breaking public properties n the name of whatever ...
7) Yes - press freedom should be upheld but the editors must announce pulically that they will not encourage and/or be the voice of trorists.
8) Political elites must state publically that Nepal and Nepalis areabove their party and their cadres. Where is their moral and naturallegience for the COUNTRY?
9) Just like there are maobadi, there are rajabadi, congressbadi,UMLbadi, kahobadi, bharatbadi, chorbadi, dankabadi et. all. This isunfortunate but real fact of life in Nepal. Here lies the opportunity for all camps to come together to the common meetingpoint of NATIONALISM. So stop your propoganda then.
10) Stop the blame game. You can be part of the problem or you canchoose to be part of the solution. The constructive choice is yours.
11) In a constitutional monarchy and multi-party system, the conceptof parties are a must. The current leaders (almost all and except forvery few) are morally bankrupt. Constitutional Monarchy is the checkand balance in those dire "the sky is falling" scenarios.
12) Even your own house can't be run on ideology let alone a countrywith 36 ethnic groups in a middle of a civil war. Save the ideologiesfor "morning chiya" - lets move on with more pragmatic aproaches.
13) Yes - the military is under the parliment. Let us elect a PM whocan humbly command their respect. The men and women in the uniform is asked to give the ultimate sacrifice - their lives - to save yourfreedom. The politicians are only asked to serve the people. Askyourself - which task stands on a higher moral ground?
14) If you believe in Constitutional Monarchy and Multi PartyDemocracy then you will do everything possible to win peace TODAY sofreedom and liberty can never be challenged TOMORROW.
15) Otherwise - state your position clearly - Don't conveniently(cowardly) hide behind democracy and throw your hatred at the king oranybody. Freedom and Liberty is bigger than anyone. Present king is amere mortal human being - No different than you and I.
16) The self-styled intellectual elites must come down from their ivry tower and ask themselves - What's Next - instead of "oh this and oh that". School of hard-knox will teach you - No one can argue with success.
17) Taking sides is the easiest thing to do. When you believe inpeace, freedom and liberty - the toughest task is to convince thenaysayers, leftists, rightists, the slogan barking militants, the
violence ridden insurgents and the biased propogandists to leave their axe behind and come to the middle ground of prudent compromise. Now, can you personally do that? Yeah...show me the money - I mean - your courage !!!
18) And lastly - you are not a journalist. You are an op-ed editor.Know the difference please. And just like anybody "your have yourright to be wrong !!!"
P.S. When the sky is falling, sometimes one man's courage is the majority.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Join in for peace
I went through both, Asia Briefing No. 36 and Asia Report No. 91 of International Crisis Group(www.icg.org). Both of those could not change my view on the King’s decision. I found them more principle based than on ground realities. I do not dare to disrespect the ideals of democracy, upon which the future of Nepal rests; I also do not deny that there have been strategic, operational, and tactical lapses in the past. But I can not find why we can not declare emergency to protect democracy? Why we can not reorganize things that have gone berserk? Why we can not take sterner steps to fight with the terrorists when all attempts to negotiations have failed? Why we can not conduct investigations on corruptions? Why every step is being suspected? I know there are gaps in between the stage of our democracy and yours. You have full grown, matured, cultured democratic politics. The King has rightly painted the picture of our state of politics by saying that ‘terrorist activities coupled with politics far removed from the common man gave a fillip to instability to the nation putting democracy at risk.’ You can not imagine the anarchy created by Maoists here. The emergency came only after the failure of all the possible democratic exercises as last resort. I also would like to say that there is no similarity between the King’s step and Gen. Musharaf. King’s steps are totally within the constitutional framework and time bound. Moreover it was Royal move not ‘Royal coup’ as has been termed. It is widely supported and welcomed by people in general as a relief—of course not by all politicians. Finally, I pity those political ‘leaders’ who have gone to India and declared joining the terrorist outfits-the Maoists. They have not only ruined the image but also discredited Nepal. This is a time to remove the cancer that is--the terrorism. Let us all join in for this mission. Once this is achieved then we can do some politics.
1 Mar 2005
1 Mar 2005
Friday, April 01, 2005
Crimes against children
I have been reported that parents and guardians have been alleging some NGOs for ‘stealing’ their children and keeping them in their rehab homes as orphans. It sometimes coaxes me why are so many children still on the streets of Nepal even after long involvement of Ministry of Women and children, police, ILO, UNICEF, Save the Children, Bal Mandir, CWIN, etc. against this problem.
It is alleged that policemen actually abuse street children by forcing them to pick pockets, and steal money and things from shops and houses. Police later on take away the money from these children. Police are also alleged that they sexually abuse children.
Blue Diamond Society[MSM] complained me that police harass and abuse them unnecessarily. But other sources say that BDS are also not good people. They also harass people loitering at late nights.
It has come to my notice that there are some persons [foreigners?] engaged in pedophilia activities in Kathmandu city. The police have no information about it. I think there is a need for a separate unit to investigate such crimes.
Recently, Anju Chhetri has revealed that there are 17000 Nepali sex workers in several cities of India. (‘17000 Nepali girls in Indian sex market’, The Himalayan Times, Vol. IV, No. 124, Sat 25 Mar 2005, p. 4.) This figure is comparatively much below the previous estimation of 100, 000-200, 000. ILO’s12000 @ year and UNICEF’s 5000-7000@ year reporting are much higher than the police annual records of human trafficking cases. The average police records of trafficking swing in between 90 -110 cases annually.
It is alleged that policemen actually abuse street children by forcing them to pick pockets, and steal money and things from shops and houses. Police later on take away the money from these children. Police are also alleged that they sexually abuse children.
Blue Diamond Society[MSM] complained me that police harass and abuse them unnecessarily. But other sources say that BDS are also not good people. They also harass people loitering at late nights.
It has come to my notice that there are some persons [foreigners?] engaged in pedophilia activities in Kathmandu city. The police have no information about it. I think there is a need for a separate unit to investigate such crimes.
Recently, Anju Chhetri has revealed that there are 17000 Nepali sex workers in several cities of India. (‘17000 Nepali girls in Indian sex market’, The Himalayan Times, Vol. IV, No. 124, Sat 25 Mar 2005, p. 4.) This figure is comparatively much below the previous estimation of 100, 000-200, 000. ILO’s12000 @ year and UNICEF’s 5000-7000@ year reporting are much higher than the police annual records of human trafficking cases. The average police records of trafficking swing in between 90 -110 cases annually.
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