MAOIST STANDING COMMITTEE RESUMES

NATURAL DISASTERS BEFORE AND AFTER MONSOON CLAIMS 56 LIVES SO FAR

Kathmandu, 10 July: Floods, landslides and lightning have killed 56 persons so far before the after the monsoon outbreak, National Emergency Operation center of the home ministry.
The capital recorded the highest rainfall in three years in June. The monsoon ends September.
Lightening killed 26 persons.
Altogether 121 houses were destroyed from 1 June to 6 July and property estimated at Rs. 24.6 million was destroyed.
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MAOIST STANDING COMMITTEE MEETS AGAIN SUNDAY

Kathmandu, 19 July: Maoist standing committee which met last week after repeated postponements because of internal party differences, resumes its meeting Sunday.
Faction leaders held halts Saturday amid stiff challenge to the leadership of Chairman Prachanda fromfactions led particularly by Vice-chairmen Mohan Baiidya and Dr. Baburam Bhattarai.
The standing committee, in its last meeting, asked government to present a populist people’s oriented budget Friday.
The standing committee discussed sharing of power responsibilities, including the leadership of a future government.
The party has decided the next national government should be led by Maoists.
The standing will fix a date for the central committee meet.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat, leader of the main opposition, Saturday ruled out any possibility of Maoists leading a government immediately
and set pre-conditions.
Maoists, he said, must should complete the integration of their 19,000 plus former combatants now in cantonments and satellite camps.
He also demanded the return of seized assets during the 10-year insurgency.
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UML NATIONAL MEET IN DHULIKHEL

Kathmandu, 10 July: A three-day national meet of UML, which is leading the majority communist government, will be held in Dhulikhel from 23 July:
Altogether 200 leaders are expected to attend to discuss national and internal party issues.
The dialogue is being held nearly two and a held years after a general convention that elected Jhalanath Khanal chairman to succeed Madhav Kumar Nepal as party boss.
The meet also comes at a time deep differences have surfaced between factions by Khanal, who is also prime minister, and former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and KP Oli.
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25 SUDAN SCAM ACCUSED RECEIVE SUMMONS

Kathmandu, 10 July : Of the 34 police bigwigs accused in the Sudan scam, 25 have received summons notices issued by the Special Court, Bimal Gautam writes in Republica,

"Initially, most of them declined to accept our summons notices, under various pretexts," said Special Court Registrar Dhir Bahadur Chand, adding, "However, as of Friday, 25 officials accused in the scam have accepted the 15-day summons."

According to him, those who received the summons notices have to appear before the court within this week if they want to defend themselves against the charge filed against them.
Chand informed that the three former police chiefs---Om Bikram Rana, Hem Bahadur Gurung and Ramesh Chand Thakuri -- have already received the summons notices.

Former AIG Dipendra Bahadur Bista, former DIG Niraj Pun and other police brass have received the summons. AIG Arjun Jung Shahi and former DIG Surendra Pal are among nine other police officers who have still not accepted the summons notices.

Former police chief Gurung and former AIG Bista are likely to appear before the Special Court this week, Chand said.

"An accused has to appear before the court if he wants to defend himself against charges filed against him," Chand added. "However, the court won´t have any problem initiating hearings and other procedures even in the absence of the accused."

With the filing of corruption cases against 34 police officers and two contractors, accusing them of embezzling about Rs 290 million while planning, procuring and supplying armored personnel carriers (APCs) and other logistics for Nepali peacekeepers deployed in Darfur, Sudan, the Special Court had issued 15-day summons in the names of the accused. All the accused were summoned to the court to defend themselves against corruption charges filed by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).

Notice servers from Kathmandu and Lalitpur district courts tried to serve the summons but the accused in the scam including former police chief Rana, suspended AIG Madan Khadka and others flatly refused to accept the summons. Finally, the notice servers pasted the summons notices at the gates of Rana and Khadka and other accused.

Rana had initially declined to accept the summons letter, citing inadequate consultations with his lawyers.

"As per our notice, the accused must appear before the court within 15 days," said Chand. "If they submit applications showing genuine reasons for their failure to be present before the court within 15 days, they can get another 15 days´ time to make their appearance before the court."

"If someone does not defend himself against a charge filed against him, he will obviously lose the case. And the same thing can happen to the Sudan scam accused,´" said an official.

Private lawyers trying to plead on behalf of the accused won´t be allowed to do so if the accused themselves are not present at court.

The Special Court will then issue its verdict on the basis of pleadings by government lawyers and the available evidence.
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MADESH FRONT THREATENS TO OBSRTRUCT BUDGET PRESENTATION

Kathmandu, 9 July: A four-party United Democratic Madesh Front (UDMF) Saturday threatened to obstruct annual budget presentation Thursday if southern regional parties’ demands aren’t addressed.
A meeting of the four parties charged government for reportedly ignoring Madesh demands.
This was announced by Rajendra Mahoto after the meet.
Delayed presentation of the budget for three consecutive years has adversely affected the national economy.
The parties, the fourth largest grouping in parliament, accused the government during a just concluded debate on the communist majority government’s polices and programmes, said regional demands were ignored in the presidential address.
The group is presenting its formal demand to Deputy Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal later Sunday.
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OPINION

LEST WE Get CAUGHT UP IN THE RUPTUR

Kathmandu, 9 June: Sooner or later Nepalis will have to break out of the rapture over the elevation China has accorded its ambassadorship to Nepal and recognize that Yang Houlan is here primarily to further his own country’s interests, Maila Baje writes in Nepali Netbook.
That we are tripping over ourselves to discover what the appointment of such a senior diplomat might mean shouldn’t be a cause for concern so long as we keep things in perspective. Nepalis have lived long enough as a nation, state or whatever it is to recognize that regardless of the intensity of China’s interest, our fragility is our own to worry about.
Historically, Nepal has made a virtue out of exaggerating its proximity to China to the point of irritating the Chinese. In the days of yore, emperors and ambans were quite direct in conveying their displeasure. We were worse than barbarians – we were even addressed as robbers and bandits in official communication.
To remain independent, Nepalis have had to develop an uncanny way of keeping the British guessing about the true nature of our relationship with China. During the Anglo-Nepalese war, Lord Moira actually had planned for the possibility of Chinese military intervention on our behalf when Beijing was daring us to join the feringhis. Even after imposing the Sugauli Treaty on us, the governor-general was prepared to withdraw the residency before receiving assurances of Chinese acquiescence. The British had to defeat the Chinese in the First Opium War to discover that the Middle Kingdom was incapable of helping even if they wanted to. (And that was a big if.)
But the mandate of heaven weighed so heavily on imperial shoulders that Nepali tribute missions served to massage the imperial ego. Our crafty Rana rulers slipped in enough consignments of opium to ensure that commercially we came out on top from the pangs of political subordination. That so infuriated the Manchus that they formally claimed suzerainty over Nepal at the precise time the ground right around them was slipping away the fastest.
The Nepal-China peace and friendship treaty abrogated all previous treaties, allowing Nepalis to believe that Tibet was Beijing’s last stop. Chinese acerbity in official correspondence has ceased in modern times, barring that phase in 1967 during the height of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. But in private Chinese diplomats and academics are known to seethe in the same way at the Maoists as they did at the monarchs.
While Mao seemed to have forgotten his assertion that Nepal was among territories lost to the imperialists during the century of humiliation (a sentiment Sun Yat-sen shared), the Great Helmsman and his acolytes also perfected the traditional Chinese practice of proffering high-sounding but ambiguous statements of support contingent upon quid pro quos, something that has stood out sharper in the splendor of our newness.
China’s ambassador became the first foreign envoy to present his credentials to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala in 2007 only after Koirala had made a full-throated pitch for China’s inclusion as a full member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. The prospect of that train being brought from Lhasa to the Nepalese border has energized four governments since the April 2006 Uprising, but who can really be sure about when to expect it to arrive? (Maila Baje recalls that the Qinghai-Lhasa portion was completed ahead of schedule.)
So when the next time a Chinese leader says his or her country will not sit idly by if anyone threatens Nepalese independence and sovereignty, by all means let’s not disbelieve those words. But even if Chinese soldiers happen to shed blood to defend Nepal’s territorial integrity, let’s be able to recognize – in full gratitude – that they would be doing so ultimately because they deemed it was in their national interest.
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TRUST DEFICIT DEVASTATING

Kathmandu, 9 July: A section of government authorities are deeply worried about the Nepali people in general not trusting government officials or agents enough to declare adequately and accurately the information the State seeks. The on-going National Census process is cited as the latest and unmistakable example.
Early reports have suggested that the majority of people are reluctant to share information concerning their personal lives and property. It was always an acknowledged conclusion that trusts deficit was high. But the census agents deployed by the government realized that the problem was considerably deeper than ever, Trikal Vastavit writes in People’s Review..
In the first place, the manner in which the agents were selected was at fault. The major political parties that have developed an undemocratic taste for jointly stretching the spoils system in all areas in any sector that government presence is required are to be blamed. Their local leaders formed scrutiny panels and filed the lists with their party activists to collect information.
Second, people remember how a “democratic” government, though not a “loktantrik” regime, had declared that anyone could pay ten percent tax on his or her undeclared wealth and no question would be asked on the same. Thousands including political leaders flocked to revenue offices to take advantage of the offer. Later, much to their chagrin, they found that the offer was invalid.
In March, hardly had Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal made a public vow to maintain law and order than bomb blasts occurred in Rautahat, Nepalgunj and Butwal. Khanal did not bother to comment on the incidents that terrified the Nepalis who recalled the dark days during the decade-long Maoist insurgency and violence that claimed some 15,000 lives.
Third, with the names of people in high places having figured in corruption scandals and misuse of office, the credibility of decision-makers and law implementers has crashed with such force that people think thrice before they even draw themselves to talking with inquisitive people.
If people have met with census teams, it is only because of compulsion rather than choice or any sense of duty. People opened their doors with one leg still inside when the census teams arrived. The hospitality, whatever the exterior, was far from warm. For the content of the information supplied was transparently unsatisfactory to the agents in question.
Let us not forget that the bloated 601-member Constituent Assembly, who under the Interim Constitution, was to have drafted the new Constitution within two years, i.e. by May 2009, failed to complete its task, making some CA members to turn red faces when confronted by school children at a public hearing as to what punishment the hon’ble members would get for not completing their “task” considering that students are punished for not completing their assignments.
Law enforcement agency people have been involved in unseemly activities, ministers have misbehaved with government officials and some law makers are found selling their diplomatic passports for a few rupees more.
Politicians for decades have promised to lift the standards of living of an average Nepali. Whenever they reiterate that normalcy will return people yawn and distract themselves. So Nepalis have chosen to adopt a code of silence whenever they are confronted by issues that in any way threatens to fleece them or drag them into “problems”, in addition to the hardships they already are suffering to intolerable heights.
For years, the so-called civil society “leaders” took Nepalis through the garden path, thanks to selective approaches, partisan attitudes and utter lack of follow-up to issues raised. Some like Pyakurel and Dixit want to board the long-awaited truth and reconciliation committee or the National Human Rights Commission; some want ministerial berths; and others want a spot that provides prestige and financial rewards. That is why these civil society leaders are dismissed with disdain by the general public; it is only their coterie and counterpart NGOists that manage to get media spotlight wielded by sympathizers of particular political following.
In India, where corruption is rampant and law and order one of the worst for an “emerging” economy and “world’s largest democracy”, there is at least freedom fighter Anna hazar here and a Yog Guru Ram Dev there.
When he undertook a fast-unto-death last spring, Hazare shook the Indian government headed by Manmohan Singh and directed by Congress (I) chief Sonia Gandhi. "I have limited energy. I have no money, no big house and no gold but I have support from the people and I see God's will in it," declared the fasting septuagenarian who drew massive nationwide support. The government quickly decided to initiate measures to check corruption. Hazare cautiously responded by ending his fast but has pledged to return to the exercise if the government did not do something substantive and convincing by next month.
Ram Dev also launched a similar fast that made big news and the government resorted to brutal attacks at midnight to end the guru’s move. It tried to malign him but without success. It would be the least surprising if the duo worked in coordination in future moves seeking to control corruption that has run riot for decades since the infamous Bofors weapons scandal that broke out in 1988 during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure in office.
Millions of Indians reposed faith in Hazare and Ram Dev because the issue they raised touched all who were disgusted by corruption that cancerously affected the nation’s economy. Rajiv Gandhi had once said that only ten paisa from each rupee spent on development projects went to the targeted group. Things have deteriorated two and a half decades later.
A spate of recent high-profile corruption cases has prompted the anti-corruption campaign in India. The movement is likely to gain momentum in the days ahead as long as there are civil society leaders that do not suffer from acute trust deficit. In Nepal, the so-called civil society leaders are enforced on audiences by media managers. They are highlighted by the Nepali media every second day. Their counterparts with a far greater credibility rate in other countries do not hanker after media mileage and are seen in the media occasionally.
For, civil society leaders with missionary zeal and firm commitment focus on only principles and practices. This is why our civil society leaders dare not go for fast-unto-death exercises. The situation naturally breeds immense trust deficit, which is a very dangerous development.
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