Just Three Weeks
Three weeks: That’s how long it took for the people of Nepal to gain an agreement with King Gyanedra over reinstatement of their Parliament. Protesters began their efforts on April 6, affectively closing down the tiny nation until their demands were met. CNN writes about the gun battles over the weekend, and about today’s celebrations. The Washington Post insists on painting a picture of an embattled government and an unruly populace, linking the pro-democracy movement with the separate actions of the Maoist rebels and taking the side of established power. Note how WaPo uses the word “opposition” in place of “demonstrators” when referring to the Nepalese people, and how it stresses the refusal of a watered down concession by King Gyanedra to reinstall the Prime Minister instead of the whole Parliament. The NY Times takes a human-interest slant by denoting the troubles of a hospital in Katmandu.
An interesting point is brought up in the NYT articles about the recent urging by the US, India, China and the EU for the protesting parties to accept the king’s earlier offer of reinstating the Prime Minister. The commoners knew this to be a side issue, and would not be distracted by it…
On Sunday, some of Nepal’s best known civic advocates, now in detention in a police barracks outside the capital, sent a letter of defiance to foreign ambassadors. The letter said that the endorsement of the king’s offer by the ambassadors’ countries had “needlessly delayed a peaceful transition in the country at a critical hour.”
“We ask you, in the hours and days ahead, to be more alert to royal machinations and to support the political parties as they challenge the royal palace,” said the letter, signed by 18 detainees, including human rights advocates, writers, lawyers and doctors — among them the director of Model Hospital, Dr. Bharat Pradhan.
…and issuing the above statement to tell outsiders to back off and stay out if it. I’m called to mind the hubris of the industrialized nations and of the collective arrogance that many of the world’s wealthiest nations bring to “negotiations.” America is the worst of the bunch, telling the Nepali people that we know what’s best for them. When has America given two thoughts to Nepal before this past week? Of all the previously mentioned nations, India alone backed off their stance after Nepal’s rebuttal.
Although this drama is not over, a lesson can be learned by the determination of the Nepali people, their courage in the face of tear gas and bullets, and their unwillingness to accept half measures. Three weeks of grass roots politics at its most basic level affected a change that our leaders have been pretending at for three years in Iraq. I cannot stress this lesson enough: Democracy is born from the will of the people involved, not from the will of foreign armies and unrelenting political ideologies.
As a contrast to the Iraqi situation, we can see how a nation reacts when it truly wants a democratic representation, as exemplified in the actions of the Nepalese. And we can see how a nation reacts when democracy is forced down their unwilling throats, as exemplified by the Iraqis.