KATHMANDU UNIVERSITY GETS NEW VC Kathmandu, 13 Dec.: Dr. Ram Kantha Makaju,Shrestha director of Dhulikhel Hoptal. has been appointed vice-chancellor of Kathmandu University A government committee appointed Dr. Shrestha.. Dr. Shrestha succeeds Dr.. Suresh Raj Sharma, founding vice-chancellor who served for more than two decades. Nnnn OPINION DEADLINES AND LIFELINES Kathmaandu, 13 Dec.: President Ram Baran Yadav is probably distraught enough by the discovery that he has far more bark than bite. But it must be said that, with each extension of the collective consensus deadline to the bickering political parties, his howl is turning into a yipping yowl, Maila Baje writes in Nepali Netbook. This must make Yadav want to make good on his threat by packing up and returning to life as a farmer. The ruling Federal Democratic Republican Alliance, which seemed rather rattled by the first deadline President Yadav had set, has now issued its own ultimatum. If there is no consensus by December 12, the ruling alliance will expand the cabinet on its own. The president’s frustration is understandable. Yadav is the only elected head of state Nepalis have had the good fortune of having. Although a professional politician, so far he has largely discharged his ceremonial duties with dignity and decorum. Yet the Nepali taxpayers pay him to do the things the politicos can’t, don’t or won’t. Yadav’s reinstatement a few years ago of the army chief then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had sacked, prompting Dahal to resign, signified the emergence of an agile presidency, one capable of swerving on the task at hand and then stepping back. Given the context of our recent political evolution, it would be unfair to blame Yadav for his current inertia. He could easily have copped out, claiming he was merely a figurehead obliged to go by guidelines of the government of the day. Yadav is not responsible for the fact that Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai today leads a government unimpeded by anything resembling basic constitutional propriety. That the president has even attempted to break the deadlock should count for something. President Yadav, Maila Baje feels, should be heartened by the power of the status quo. Nepal continues to have a functioning government capable of ensuring the basic conditions needed for rudimentary existence. The brassy disarray in the opposition also shows that we have a vibrant democracy still trying to figure out a way ahead. The national discourse has taken a scope, tone and tenor that is no longer constrained by the composition of an elected assembly. Politicians in power warn against a revival of the bad old autocratic days. Opposition leaders vow to sweep the Maoists onto the same dust heap the monarchy finds itself in. The principal political parties, despite their snarls, are happy with the status quo. Fresh elections might realign politics in undesirable ways. Getting back to the original task of writing the constitution would bring back familiar headaches – and they could become far more severe with the second onset. The promulgation of a formal constitution – if that were possible at all – would circumscribe the power and privilege the eight parties feel eternally entitled to from those 19 magically tumultuous days almost seven springs ago. The perfunctory concern notwithstanding, the international community is not unduly disturbed by developments here. Almost every alien player on this eerie playground is satisfied by its power of prevention or preemption. None can afford to lose a foothold in a key geostrategic region during this period of immense global transition, even if none knows precisely what it wants to achieve. Instead, these players have collectedly figured out something subliminal. Nepalis tend to get riled up by we don’t want. For now, we don’t know what we do want – and that is good for them. Admittedly, upholding the status quo comes with a price. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai might end up with life tenure. President Yadav should be happy to acknowledge that this ensures his own survival. If, over time, human biology becomes a problem here, let the Nepali Congress inherit the presidency and the Maoists the prime ministership in perpetuity. The political bickering will continue but the equilibrium will continue – until something gives. The last time we had a serious premier-ceremonial head of state standoff, the regime lasted 104 years. And nobody blamed the Nepali people. Nnnn HOW TO SAVE SOULS Kathmandu, 13 Dec.: A curtain of discrimination is being pursued in Nepal by religious groups dominant in the West, Trikal Vastavik writes in People’s Review. The ploy conducted in this encompasses human rights issues, democracy and “twenty-first century” concepts and advances, real or imagined. The deceptive methods adopted by these moneyed groups are now known to many of Nepal’s political party leaders who previously did not take the issue with the seriousness it deserved. With funds aplenty for liberating the souls of the misguided, the penetration is deep and expanding. Christian groups are known to have filed enthusiastic reports to their superiors in Brussels, Denmark, Finland, France, London, Oslo, Rome, Vienna, Geneva, and other European cities. Of late the Americans, too, are found to be taking more interest in this aspect than at any previous time. According to government officials in the know, religious conversion in Nepal has registered a ten-fold increase since 2007. On the basis of the statistics, groups devoted to mass conversions gear all their resources and tact in many guises and issues. Since the data have impressed their headquarters and those issuing hefty cheques, the efforts can be expected to be redoubled. The approach is to first target groups they describe as the deprived and such other rhetoric. The practice is to lure people with jobs, scholarships and funds for NGOs created overnight. The poachers make it a condition that the employed under this scheme of things contribute at least 20 percent of what they take home as pay packets. Staff members at a number of agencies, including those in the employee of UN specialized agencies, are overheard complaining about the amount they compulsorily contribute to funds designed to “help your less fortunate brothers and sisters. And God will reward you with more.” Some leftist groups have as their leaders pastors spinning “forward-thinking” ideas and also describing the “gains made through Jana-Andolan” 2005-6. Their benefactors, scattered in Western cities, had quite a few hiccups when the Constituent Assembly was dissolved shortly after, without formulating a Constitution that provided for caste-based federalism. They are targeting certain underprivileged groups in the Tarai too. The springing up churches in notable numbers is the outcome in the country’s southern belt. But the success rate is greater in the hill areas. Guthis are also their target for a toe-hold with the prospect of proselytization in the eventual run. A basket fund is created and routed through UNDP and other agencies. Calls for “expression of interest” and tenders by these agencies are basically a farce. Networking, euphemism for “Chakari” in Nepali, is the basis for awarding contracts and projects. The guiding force behind the contracts drives the donors to support groups in numerous sectors whose units loyally carry their agendas without questioning but with great enthusiasm. The strategy is to sponsor NGOs and offer attractive remunerations to leaders in different sectors. A former president of Nepal Bar Association, who died some time ago, was approached by Western religious groups if he promoted the “secularism” agenda as the Interim Constitution was being formulated. The advocate rejected the offer which then netted a former speaker of the parliament. An advocate’s wife who operates from Hong Kong and other parts of South-East Asia is neck deep in obtaining such funds enabling her hubby to lead a lifestyle that his comrades would not dream of in this life. A business news daily published from Kathmandu is also said to be the beneficiary of Christian campaign. Baburam Bhattarai’s committee for economic advice included members with close association with INGOs whose main thrust is religious conversion. No other country in South Asia gives such overbearing access to local associates of foreign agencies circulating as INGOs. It is also well known that INGOs not allowed to operate in India have managed to be formally registered in Nepal. Some of them are registered at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to circumvent whatever any difficulty and scrutiny. However, the Social Welfare Council has not been vigilant over those registered with it; and it is has also not shown any enthusiasm for drawing the government’s attention to the manner in which some INGOs have short-circuited the letter and spirit of the existing NGO and INGO registration formalities and activity. Textbooks at educational institutions and human rights issues are the fertile ground for motivated activity. On the surface, the issue is appropriate. However, the hidden agenda is to gradually infuse new elements that in the long breaks the existing social bonds and religious equations for actually non-secular reasons. India is vigilant against foreign agencies and their local fronts trying to pursue political agendas. Bangladesh is a haven for NGO activity but any activity directly or indirectly related to religious conversion would find its members having more than fingers burnt. Similar is the state in Pakistan. Sri Lanka is stepping up its scrutiny after it became clear as to how religious groups from Europe had tried to prop up the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam that waged a three-decade war for independence or full-fledged autonomy. According to a group that has done a detailed study on Sri Lanka’s civil war, the protracted war claimed more than 80,000 lives and fundamentalists among the groups trying to create a community of their religion as a dominant force with demonstration effects and an islet of prosperity in an island of many problems and shortcomings. Not long ago, a very popular humor and satire artiste was approached by a group offering Rs. 30 million to promote the cause of the church. When the artiste said that would the money be adequate to justify his campaign for such movement aimed at religious conversion, the group members said, “The offer can easily be revised and raised.” The artiste then laid a condition that he would work for promoting not only the church but also other religious institutions, the offer was dropped, which was something he had been wanting. A couple of legal and political experts, who happened to review a report quietly prepared by an European mission in Nepal, were shocked to find that Rs. 590 million was disbursed to finance indefinite protest rallies and “human rights of marginalized groups” within a span of two years. They did not name the party but said that “it is a party which today sets all political agenda and all that others do is only react to it.” At a big bash organized to launch a translated book on the South Korean preacher Moon a few months ago, many politicians from different political parties attended the program organized by Ekhnath Dhakal, the only member of the Constituent Assembly from the Pariwar Dal (Family Party). A leader of the CPN (UML) was overheard commenting: “Which leader in which party has not received help from Eknath Dhakal?” (The writer can be reached at: trikalvastavik@yahoo.com) nnnn