The question in this regard is: Aren’t we a democracy? Can’t Gyanendra Shah exercise the freedom of expression every Tom, Dick and Harry exercises day and night? He can; as a citizen he has every right to enjoy civil, political and other liberties granted by the constitution including the one to express his views. Maybe some ‘messiahs’ of loktantra and ganatantra don’t believe in liberal democracy. But, as they claim they do, they should respect his right to go to the people without any fear or hindrance from their part, whether to speak his mind or to contest an election. It is the people’s job, and nobody else’s, to forgive or punish him during an election or to hear or ignore his interview. After all, we are not a regimented state where the rulers decide what people should or should not think, express and practice.
Despite his right the ex-king’s media endeavor was planned and not casual with plenty of reasons behind it. The ex-king is a political person; he could not limit himself to the role of a constitutional monarch and jumped into active politics. And he will certainly do so again if and when opportune time appears. His television interview was a way of testing the timeliness to get back into politics. The parties and their leaders should have ignored or downplayed it but they chose to overreact while the masses demonstrated total indifference. In doing so, parties only highlighted their weakness. The appeal to rally people against the ex-king has drastically diminished over time.
However, this does not imply that monarchy is strong or popular enough to stage a comeback soon. Cashing in on the decade-long violence, Maoist terror, misrule, partisanship, corruption and political clashes, the ex-king with the army’s support, seized power in 2005 which his predecessor was forced to relinquish following the popular uprising of 1990. At that time his move was silently supported by the majority of people as they hoped that he would bring peace to the war-torn nation. But hope disappeared quickly because instead of focusing on the rebels he dispersed his resources, energies and attention to witch-hunt mainstream leaders and to antagonize the powerful Indian establishment. He paid heavily for his ‘irk all’ policy; a mass uprising orchestrated by political parties (including Maoists) and supported by India led to the overthrow of monarchy.
How can a man unable to save the throne he inherited revive the institution now consigned to history? Should monarchy return in future, it will be more by riding on the failures of the present political actors and not on the former king or his successor’s acumen.
If widespread poverty, unemployment, bad governance, political instability, discrimination and neglect of marginalized and deprived groups offered breeding ground for Maoist insurgency, king’s vengeance and isolationism laid foundation for the anti-monarchy alliance between the insurgents and the mainstream political parties. The alliance also helped Maoists acquire international support and recognition. With the blend of the underground Maoist’s mass mobilization abilities, albeit coercive many a times, and the mainstream party’s acceptability and legitimacy, in less than 15 months the tide was turned; with a new belief that peace was possible without the king as the head of state. Ordinary citizens swarmed the streets of Kathmandu and forced him out.
Monarchs fail as they don’t change with time and Gyanendra Shah was one of the most unchanging monarchs of our times. He spent more time and energy on protocols, manners, religious rituals and mystic/occult practices to save his throne, rather than focusing on good governance. He relied only on the army for information. He appointed old-fashioned advisors. It is safe to say that he dug his own grave.
How can a man unable to save the throne he inherited revive and restore the institution now consigned to history? Impossible. Should monarchy return in future, it will be more by riding on the failures of the present political actors and not on the former king or his successor’s acumen. Unfortunately, the republicans are yet to learn any lesson from their past mistakes. While parties like Nepali Congress and Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist Leninist keep repeating the same old wrongs, UCPN-Maoist has gone one step further; they have not only glorified their barbaric acts that claimed over 15000 plus lives and other colossal damages, but also, every now and then they threat to revert to war.
Politicians’ greed for power and money, inter and intra-party feuds, lackluster performances and inability to work together for peace-building, constitution drafting and other aspects of nation building arising from individual and partisan interests are only adding to the frustration of the people. It has further escalated people’s discontent as per Maoist’s continued policy of fear and intimidation, the often repeated threat of power seize and their imprudent declarations of states based on ethnic origins. Ever since the king’s surrender four years ago, law and order has been constantly deteriorating. Lawlessness has reached a new height and a culture of impunity, mostly because of political reasons, has become an accepted norm. Economic downturn and the social deconstructions have continued despite Maoist’s joining the peace process. Should all this continue in the name of ‘transition’, a despot may come promising ‘to clean the mess’. When democracy fails, dictatorship steps in; and there will always be somebody to ‘assume the historical responsibility’, and that person need not only be the ex-king.
Politicians, especially the communists, require enemies to thrive and survive. When real enemies and crafty plots are not available, they create one; for, enemies and conspiracies work as alibis to justify their shortcomings and poor performance.
In Gyanendra Shah’s remarks they thought they found a defense for all their wrongdoings, ineptitude and failures. Nevertheless, an unconvinced public dismissed the uproar this time. Will politicians and their friends - the self-styled champions of civil society groups - instead of chorusing ‘the Gyanendra bash’, do some soul searching and read the writing on the wall? People already have had enough of the stories of ghosts coming back to life as much as they are fed-up with the politics of reaction.
jeevan1952@hotmail.com
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