RIVAL MEETINGS OF MAOISTS Kathmandu, 1 June: Mohan Baidhaya faction of UCPN (Maoist) will hold a national conference in the capital 15 June as a meeting endorsed his political report. A split in the party is in the offing. The Maoist establishment faction Friday called for a meeting of the extended central committee meet 29 June. nnnn ________________________________________ MUSICIANS SET RECORD PLAYING FROM MERA PEAK SUMMIT Kathmandu, 1 June: Their fingers were stiff from the cold, and two musicians got altitude sickness. But the music atop a Himalayan peak in Nepal was inspired by a sensational view as the group laid claim to the record for highest musical Performance, AP reports from Kathmandu. They even had an audience — 15 other trekkers paid $10 each to watch the musicians perform for 40 minutes at the summit of 6,654-meter (21,825-foot) high Mera Peak, which is close to Mount Everest and Mount Lhotse. "My fingers were freezing. It was difficult to play the guitar after a few minutes, but I kept playing," group leader Oz Bayldon said in the capital, Katmandu, on Thursday. "I felt like a 90-year-old with asthma." Only eight of the 10 volunteers from various countries reached the top, while the two with altitude sickness did not. Local porters helped carry their three guitars, small amplifier fitted with speakers, microphones and a stand. The musicians took turns performing May 16 "The view was beautiful in the backdrop of some of the tallest and most beautiful mountains. It was like some one had painted it and put it there," Bayldon said. He sang and played three of the English songs he wrote and one Nepali "mero naam, tero naam," which just means your name, my name. Frenchman J.B. Tilon, 25, said he was very tired on the way up and did not feel too well. But once he got to the top and saw the view he was full of energy. "It was the most beautiful landscape I have even seen. It was being above the clouds," he said, adding it was very cold and dry so he was able to play only for five minutes and only one French song. Bayldon, an Australian living in London, said the group raised 35,000 pounds ($54,300) for a charity in Nepal that is building an orphanage. Other performers are from England, Scotland, Poland and Denmark. Bayldon set a previous record for highest musical performance in 2005, performing near the base camp of Everest. But that record was broken two years later. Guinness World Records credits Musikkapelle Roggenzell, 10 musicians from Germany and Bolivia, who scaled Mount Acotango in Bolivia to perform at 6,069 meters (19,911 feet). Guiness is awaiting the evidence before verifying if the new performance set a new record. nnnn ________________________________________ OPINION UNWORKABLE CONSTITUTION Kathmandu, 1 June: Six years after “loktantra”, four years after the constituent assembly was elected on the promise of formulating a new constitution within two years, seven constitutional amendments and five prime ministers, Nepalis are left confused, uncertain and deeply worried about the economic slump aggravated by all-rounded impunity imposed by the major political parties, Trikaal Vastavik writes in People’s Review . In a ridiculously short-cut that has bypassed all previous commitments to consult with the Nepali citizens before adopting a new constitution for Nepal, the constituent assembly is in the process of “completing” the document, two years after the original deadline expired. In other words, it took double the time the interim constitution had mandated previously. On the strength of a common self-serving consensus the 601-member constituent assembly extended its term again and again before the Supreme Court finally said enough is enough. The key features of the document that a handful of political figures inserted are nothing but manifestations of inspirations and advices originating in foreign lands. A section of the European Union is marveling at its feat in having achieved something the like of which has never been recorded in post-World War II decades. “Secular” Nepal has been a great boon for the mission in liberating wayward souls to join its version of the right path to honey and heaven. This might be a short-term gain whose long-term consequences could be very frightful and painful, given the type of politics is played and money soothes the way for those with the mandate emanating from money and muscle. Nepalis are unanimous that corruption has broken all records these past five years. Now, such staggering amounts of bribery and slush money would not circulate so fast and without the supposedly long hands of the law taking over, without men with enough power to scuttle probes, rather tackle potential protest voices. With reports prepared by prominent experts indicating that Rs. 20 billion worth of money had gone into the pockets of the corrupt since 2006 when the local bodies were monopolized by basically the four power groups that are responsible for the prevailing mess all around, the unelected bodies, filled with party nominees, proved to be nests of misappropriation of public money. Those who do the auditing should also be booked for action along with the unelected ciphers making while the four-party sway rules the roost. The tale of the billions of rupees unaccounted for in the now “cleared” cantonments, which previously housed former Maoist combatants, grows lengthier by the day, with the general public not able to figure out any head or tail regarding the nature of the priorities set by the Commission for Investigating Abuse of Authority. No minister has been taken up for corruption probe so far. This has drawn sympathies for the likes of Chiranjivi Wagle and Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta who are languishing in jail and are made to cough up millions of rupees for the money they could not account for. There have been far worse people, living and dead, who are widely believed to have stolen staggering amounts of public money and gobbled up bribes for allowing files to get moved and approved. Where have all the money gone? Into the pockets of influential ones that go about in the garb of politicians, freedom fighters and civil society leaders. Get posted for more in the days or years to come when payback time will come for the corrupt who will be nailed and jailed as have a few exceptions in the last year or so, that too on account of pre-loktantrik initiations. Here, it is be appropriate to quote an American scholar: “To seek contrived means to make the Negro attractive to dramatize his plight is to distort.” The West condemns communist dictatorship but looks benignly on the rabid authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and other “friendly” countries that serve its strategic interests. B.P. Koirala, Ganesh Man Singh, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Pushpa Lal Shrestha and Manmohan Adhikary all had their share of criticisms leveled against their words and actions at different periods, although their loyalists try to create a hallow about them as if they never made any errors and were symbols of purity and invariably competed on all fronts. Yet they indeed shine head and shoulders above their successors. If B.P. Koirala was a visionary par excellence, why is that his successors, notably his sibling Girija Prasad Koirala and, now, Sushil Koiarala not following his lofty ideas? B.P. Koirala always maintained that democracy and monarchy required working hand in hand. He was not for an active, executive king but a constitutional king while the pro-Panchayat workers wanted an active monarch in view of the country’s geographical conditions and socio-economic structures. B.P. never rated Girija as someone of high caliber except possession of determination and desire to take the plunge even without taking the pros and cons into consideration. Yet Girija became prime minister half a dozen times and was party to declaring the country a republic. His last-hour keenness in a republic was not out of any concern for the welfare of Nepal and Nepalis but his ferocious desire to become the country’s “first” president. Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal made gestures that assured Girija Koirala of support for the ailing octogenarian’s personal wishes. Dahal, at that time, had not been exposed for his chameleon character in love with making sharp U-turns and without batting an eyelid. Koirala fell for the trap and whiled away his remaining months in intensely painful regret. Those who were directly or indirectly involved in the planning and execution of the armed raids in the 1960s and the RNAC aircraft hijacking but had been severely sidelined or undercut thoroughly heave a sigh of relief that Ram Baran Yadav, who was Koirala’s remote option, who eventually made it to the post for which Pushpa Kamal eyes so much as his last wish. Back in 1960, B.P. was the only elected premier. Not any longer. We have dozens and his own less celebrated brother GP donned the mantle not once but six times. Sher Bahadur Deuba became the premier thrice, of united Nepali Congress, divided Congress and as royal nominee. Surya Bahadur Thapa and Lokendra Bahadur Chand have also donned the same thrice each, during the Panchayat years when political parties were banned and during the multiparty years when the then revolutionary parties UML and NC supported them as either a “democratic-minded” or a “nationalist. Moral of all this: While elections are a must in a democracy, the new political culture that has dominated the scene now might toss in wolves wearing the garb of “popular mandate,” adding to the woes of Nepalis. nnnn