NIB SPONSORS FRIENDS CLUB Kathmandu, 13 Sept.: Nepal Investment Bank (NIB) is to provide Rs 1.5 million to Lalitpur based Friends Club, RSS reports. At a news conference organized here today [Thursday], Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, Jyoti Pandey, announced the monetary sponsorship. Pandey also announced that the Bank is going to provide job to one national player on the recommendation of the Club from this year. Recalling that earlier too, the Bank had also sponsored the Club, which is involved for the development of football for more than four decades, Chairman of the Bank, Ratna Shamsher Rana expressed the belief that collaboration between the Bank and the Club will be further extended in the days ahead. Nnnn OPINION RPP-N AND LAST LINE OF DEFENSE Kathmandu, 13 Sept.: The much-hyped unification process launched by the three parties dominated by former panchas has come to a juddering stop, at least for now. A breakthrough was considered imminent this time because much of the optimism seemed to be coming from the so-called ‘republican ex-panchas’, i.e., Surya Bahadur Thapa’s Rastriya Janashakti Party (RJP) and Pashupati Shamsher Rana’s Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Maila Baje writes in Nepali Netbook. (RPP). At one point during the negotiations, Kamal Thapa’s Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N) was even reported to have abandoned its agenda of restoring the monarchy in order to facilitate the unity. Now S.B. Thapa is being blamed for scuttling the unification by, among other things, expelling party general-secretary Keshar Bahadur Bista, who was active in the negotiations. But you cannot really blame the wily old man. He must have so badly wanted to believe that the RPP-N’s interest in unification far outweighed its affinity to the crown. Maila Baje finds the republican panchas in a deep identity crisis. To be fair, the RJP and RPP opposed the royal takeover of February 1, 2005, seeking to project themselves as centrist democratic parties. But that was not enough for the rest of the country to consider them the equivalents of the Nepali Congress or the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist. Towards the twilight of his life, Surya Bahadur Thapa may have sought to build a legacy. If B.P. Koirala, who was so victimized by the palace, could remain a monarchist until his last breath, why could not a man patronized by the palace be a republican? The problem is, no one believes S.B. Thapa. For all his personability, the man is far too impervious politically. Rana in recent months has become less confident of the real end of the Nepali monarchy. Of course, when your survival – political and personal – depends on disbursement of protection money, there are few things you can take for granted. Kamal Thapa’s course is an honorable one, in no small measure because he sees no reason to make apologies for his political past. As home minister during the royal regime, he has taken responsibility for the excesses committed under his watch. He could have taken the easy route and blamed the king for the failure of that experiment. Instead, the campaign to restore Nepal’s monarchy and Hindu character gives the RPP-N a distinct identity. The monarchy’s return is not something that can be ruled out or ruled in. If it is restored, it will be through the will of the people, expressed in some form. (Former king Gyanendra Shah himself has signaled as much.) More importantly, the people’s desire for such a return will be rooted not in any great national salvation plan they expect the crown to possess, but because of the systematic erosion of what Nepal had acquired under the monarchy. History tends to obscure the bad and amplify the good. When the average Nepali looks back – through personal or secondary experience – the dark tends to be exorcised. The national political discourse, admittedly, runs from political exigencies, but they ultimately have to succumb to the people’s desires. Nepalis have stunned the world by their resilience. In the midst of constant experimentations, sheer abandonment of constitutionalism and proliferation of platitudes, they have not lost hope. There may be many reasons for this national trait. One certainly is the fact that the monarchy remains alive in the national consciousness. History and tradition have provided a last line of defense, a conviction symbolized in the RPP-N’s political platform. Should we really expect the party to abandon it? nnnn RPPN: emerging party with credibility Kathmandu, 13 Sept.:Of late indications are that Kamal Thapa’s Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPPN) is emerging as a credible force to reckon with. In the last six years, the party led by the pro-monarchist who was also on the cabinet chaired by King Gyanendra (2005-6), faced and weathered violently turbulent times unleashed by the so-called loktantriks. Its worst was over long ago, Trikal Vastavik writes in People’s Review.. If free and fair polls are held in a peaceful manner, RPPN’s stocks are bound to soar. The proportionate system of elections should come to its advantage. People appreciate those who live by their conviction through thick and thin. This is something many other parties that have misled the people for several years and created a mess fail to realise. RPPN members, including its ex-chairman, the late Rabindra Natha Sharma, a veteran politician, were ferociously mistreated, many of them beaten black and blue. The “loktantrik” parties, shedding any semblance of pretences of democratic credentials, encouraged their cadres to perpetrate the wrongs against the “rightist and reactionary forces.” Their leaders maintained a willful silence whose vile words were deafening. The government turned the other way when such terror was unleashed against a party that asserted its right to express its views in a peaceful way unlike the Nepal Congress, the UML or the Maoists whose hands are stained with blood at different periods of history since 60 years. At the same time, the politicized human rights organizations milking money from dollar-funneling foreign agencies and serving as activists of political parties, engaged themselves in distorting the universally accepted definitions of civil society and NGO activity. These groups toed their party lines to the hilt and their finding agencies did not intervene as long as their not-so- hidden agendas were not adversely affected. The 2008 polls were tainted by highly questionable practices. Some foreign farts declared them as fair by noon when polling stations were yet to close for another five hours. The partisan section of civil society and foreign observers hoping to boost their bio-data for more of such observation exercises endorsed the premature conclusion by their silence. Their verdict announced later in the day was cynically superficial. Mandated for two years, the 601-member Constituent Assembly, oblivious of popular feelings, arrogantly kept on extending its tenure periodically until the Supreme Court decided enough was enough, telling the house that it could not be extended again after June 27. Nepalis who had been hearing about a constitution being formulated by a constituent assembly since 1951 at long last came to see their representatives in their birthday suits, inside out. This explains why, today, no one but CA members is mourning the demise of the unbearable CA which wanted to extend its tenure on and on without qualms. Shameless people, however, kept on talking of reviving the CA that most Nepalis wish to forget as a terrible dream. Democrats are supposed to commit themselves to periodic polls but many politicians and their organizations fear to tread the electoral turf. Popular mandate was interpreted arbitrarily and party leaders got away with it just because most people remained unorganized and most party workers are following “loyally” whatever their few leaders dictate. It is not principles but personalities and the power they wield that are at play, which means belittling of popular mandate and aspirations. If the troika (Maoist supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress chief Sushil Koirala and UML’s Jhala Nath Khanal) goes for the CA’s revival, it is given as the general people’s mandate; if it opts for new a new CA it is supposed to echo our will most authoritatively. If it decides for parliamentary polls, it must also be construed as a fervent desire of the people from Mechi to Mahakali, from the mountains through the hills and Madhesh. This is how dictators elsewhere interpret things on behalf of the people they rule. Such national scenario staring at the Nepali people, a party like RPPN could attract larg number of voters when the calling of the polls arrives perhaps as early as next spring. Its stand that issues like monarchy, federal structure of the state and secularism be put to the test of a national referendum is a confident belief in the most direct form of democratic exercise and a public pledge to abide by the verdict whichever way it eventually went. Three-time prime minister during the panchayat decades and twice during the multiparty years, Surya Bahadur Thapa is known for his cunning and gives the impression that New Delhi would always bless him. However, Thapa in his mid-80s is fossilized and no one but the political illiterate takes him seriously any more. Age is against his side, which is why he wishes to cling to his Rastriya Janashakti Party (RJS) presidency. His party had a lone seat in the in the 601-member CA. He was the one who wore “Black Tika” on his foirehead in protest against the panchayat soon after King Birenadra’s accession to the throne in 1972. A few years later, he thundered at his Dhankuta constituency, making it clear that proponents of multiparty system should be hanged. This was widely interpreted as a reference to Nepali Congress leader B.P. Koirala. As for Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) headed by Pashupati Shumsher Rana, another former pancha who had ministerial positions during partyless years as well during multiparty years, its less than ten seats in the CA are most likely to be reduced to two or three at the most. Rana could have done a lot for his party these past four years but he reduced the organization to a group without specific identity, except for its name. Individually, if any of the three parties headed by former stalwarts of the panchayat system were to join any of the major political parties their poll prospects would be very bright. Actually they should advise themselves to take the option. RJP and RPP have no agenda that does not figure in either the NC or the UML or the Maoists. So why should people vote for them as RJP or RPP leaders who are carrying only the agendas that the other larger parties have been identified with? Surya Bahadur Thapa knows only the language of power, whatever the means. Pashupati Shumsher Rana is reduced to a pathetic image. Kamal Thapa’s party has the identity of being pro-monarchy, unitary system of state structure and Hindu state. Considering that the country’s three largest parties are firmly for a federal republic that is secular, the stand is bold. It is a stand that might cause caution in others or invite criticism from his opponents. But history will absolve him; the process is clearly on. Were it to live by conviction, it would register a lasting mark in history and might even make an extraordinary turnaround in political fortunes. (The writer can be reached at: trikalvastavik@yahoo.com) nnnn DUTCH PM WINS CLOSELY CONTESTED ELECTION Kathmandu, 13 Sept. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's Liberals won a closely contested election, but he faced the prospect of having to form a government with his arch-rivals from the Labour party on Thursday, Reuters reports from Amsterdam. In what was by the standards of the last decade a very clear result, voters handed pro-European parties a sweeping victory, shunning the radical fringes and dispelling concerns eurosceptics could gain sway in a country viewed as a core member of the euro zone family. With more than 98 percent of votes counted, Rutte's centre-right Liberals won 41 seats in the 150-member lower house, giving them a two-seat lead over the centre-left Labour Party on 39 seats. "We fought this election house by house, street by street, city by city, and I'm proud. Tomorrow I will take the first steps leading to the formation of a cabinet," Rutte said overnight after Labour leader Diederik Samsom conceded defeat. While the Liberals and Labour have played down talk of forming a coalition, the two parties would together command a governing majority in parliament. That would be a rare outcome in a country where three- or four-member coalitions are not unusual and coalition talks often take several months. That could offer the prospect of badly-needed political stability at a time of sluggish growth and when many say potentially unpopular legislation is needed to reform the housing market and healthcare. But it could also make for difficult coalition negotiations between two almost equal partners. While both parties are broadly pro-European, they have very different ideas on social and fiscal policy. "FORCED MARRIAGE" "(These two) parties have become so big that neither can form a majority cabinet with other parties," said sociologist Paul Schnabel in a column for business daily Het Financieele Dagblad. "That also makes it difficult because they are condemned to each other. A forced marriage, which usually has little blessing." Rutte's government was known throughout Europe for its hardline stance on fiscal discipline, demanding austerity from indebted countries on the euro zone's fringes and insisting the Netherlands meet its own European Union deficit targets. He will, however, probably lose his close ally, outspoken Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager, whose Christian Democrat party - which has the Dutch post-war political landscape - crashed to its worst result ever, coming fifth. Samsom, who promised "a more social Netherlands", wants a slower pace of cuts in order to allow for more fiscal stimulus at a time when the Dutch economy is growing at far slower pace than neighboring Germany. He has also said he would give Greece more time to put its house in order and, unlike Rutte, has not ruled out a third bailout there. Labour has also promised gradually to scrap an expensive tax credit for homeowners, something that would be disproportionately painful for supporters of the pro-business Liberals. But despite their differences, the election was an unambiguous victory for the centrist parties. The hard-left Socialists, who oppose austerity and euro zone bailouts, finished a distant third, tying with Geert Wilders' populist Freedom Party. His far-right anti-immigration party campaigned to leave the euro and the European Union. He lost nearly half his seats. The unexpectedly clear result removed another potential obstacle to efforts to stabilize Europe's single currency after Germany's constitutional court gave the green light for the euro zone's permanent bailout fund to go ahead. But the Netherlands is likely to remain an awkward, tough-talking member of the single currency area, strongly resisting transfers to euro zone debtors, even if the two main parties end up forming a coalition. TWO-HORSE RACE The campaign ended up as a two-horse race between Rutte, 45, a former Unilever human resources manager dubbed the "Teflon" prime minister because of his ability to brush off disasters, and energetic new Labour leader Samsom, 41, a former Greenpeace activist whose debating flair impressed voters. Rutte, whose minority centre-right government was toppled by Wilders in April over spending cuts to trim the budget deficit, vowed earlier to pursue his tough policy on euro zone bailouts in alliance with fellow northern creditor countries Germany and Finland. Samsom struck a tough tone for possible coalition negotiations, saying: "Nobody knows exactly what will happen tomorrow (Thursday), but one thing is certain. The course can be changed. The course must be changed because the right-wing policies of the past two years cannot continue." nnnn