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The Nepal Digest Wednesday 16 Nov 94: Kartik 30 2051 BkSm Volume 33 Issue 10
Today's Topics are:
1. KURA_KANI Education: Re: Education et. all.
Politics: Gimire from Ramechap
Excerpts from politics in Nepal
2. TAJA_KHABAR News From Nepal
3. JAN_KARI Info about devanagari fonts
4. TITAR_BITAR Humor - Top 5 Alu Dum
*****************************************************************************
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* +++++ Food For Thought +++++ *
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*****************************************************************************
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Date: Sun, 13 Nov 1994 17:08:31 -0500
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Jagdish Ghimire representing Ramechhap
From: fkroger@halcyon.halcyon.com (Frank F Kroger)
In the last few weeks, I think it was, Ashutosh Tiwari who alluded to
Jagdish Ghimire running to represent Ramechhap for the Congress party.
Since that time I have received an end-of-year report about the doings of
Tamakoshi Sewa Samiti. Please see the last paragraph about Jagdish's
political aspirations. You can also enjoy the reference to
"push-paper-management-style." For the complete TSS report see my
signature file at the bottom for the URL
TSS budget has been multiplied almost nine times, from US$12,000 to
US$109,000 in the last four years and the programs have expanded
a ccordingly. This is due to the increasing absorptive capacity of the
organization. In addition to World Neighbors other organizations
have started assisting TSS, including United Nations Development
Program (UNDP), World Bank Water and Sanitation Program (JAKPAS) and
UNICEF. Jakpas has made substantia contributions to the building of
drinking water schemes and sanitation. UNICEF has provided
assistance for non-formal education.
TSS has a very positive image in the district and in the
country. Side effects of success are beginning to appear with more
visitors coming to the sites and offers being made by new
donors. Most of the new donors usually believe in what we
think is unnecessary paper work or push-paper-management style (PPMS) that
indicates no trust in the relationship. PPM bureaucratic procedures place
more emphasis on rules than on goals and result in
unsustainable and money centred development practices.
During the last several years of work as TSS chairperson,
Jagdish Ghimire has earned a good reputation as development/NGO activist
in the country as well as in the Ramechhap
province, which has a population of about 200,000. One of the
side effects is that he is now considered one of the few potential
nominees of the ruling party to run for the office of
member of parliament from Ramechhap in the general elections
due November 13, 1994.
Frank Kroger
fkroger@halcyon.com
World Neighbors: working at the forefront to help the poor of the
world help themselves, with dignity and in a cost effective way.
World Neighbors Home Page http://www.halcyon.com/fkroger/wn.html
******************************************************************
Date: 13 Nov 1994 15:40:06 U
From: "Hridaya Bajracharya" <hridaya_bajracharya@sec.educ.ualberta.ca>
Subject: KURA_KANI
To: "Nepal Digest" <nepal@cs.niu.edu>
Subject: Time:15:37
OFFICE MEMO KURA_KANI Date:11/13/94
DEVELOPMENT AND SCHOOL EDUCATION IN OUR CONTEXTS
REALIZATION: Four decades of development drama and its implication: fading
hope of modern development like the clouds and thunders that do not bear
rain, and now, we are compelled to reflect on our position as being
continuously pulled downward in the swamp of modern development millieu.
What went wrong with all those willingness and efforts? It seems ours case
is a failure to realize the complex nature of the phenomena of modern
development. It seems we now need to shake off the concept of development.
What development, development in whose terms and for whom? If we are
modelling the development after the industrial giants, we must be forgetting
the military muscle and the sucker tentacles necessary for scafolding the
structure of development. The internal social, political and economical
dynamics is different thing. The currewnt reality is that we are ready to
live like a missionary who stake life for a living, or a reckless bharia
toiling other's burden, or like the development brokers working mindlessly
for the translation of other's whims; for not the real sake of living but for
what we cannot have as a feather in the head -- a fancy electronic gadget, a
car, construction and living in the other world in miniscule form.
If there is "we" at all, we must seek other meanings for development. We
have to shake off the dream of achieving developments based on the aids and
loans. They are nothing more than a opium dream. It is never late for us to
shake off and wake up from the sleep walk and be mindful of the road we are
taking and we ought to be taking. It doesn't take a great economist to
realize that the country's vitality lies in overall distributive development
rather than developing a limb unproportionately no matter how economic it
would be to do so. Because it would be efficient to get the flow of blood in
one big vein will never justify developing a big vein in place of the clumsy
millions in our body. If we value our body as integral part of our being, we
must allow everything to grow in most natural way possible. We cannot be
apprehenssive of its color, odour, contour etc.
ALTERNATIVE: If industrialized countries attract people with its modern
goodies we must attract through our simple, happy, and moral life, harmonious
life is something that is becoming illussive quest for many in the so called
developed countries. If that were to make the goal of development, we can
perhaps still acheive development ahead of many other countries. If we are
to make better living places, we could have used that as the asset in
excahnage for respect and just economic transaction. Not like the present
day when the cost of a cup of coffee in the US would be same as a day's
earning in Nepal. We have to be in control of ourselve. We cannot be
other's slave for the want of goodies that are not the primary necessity of
our life. We should at once stop the dalali mentality of selling our own
place and people in exchange for personal acquisition of the goodies and the
comforts.
EDUCATION ROLE To be realistic to our situation, we need to work out a
different definition of development: contentious, peaceful, and culturally
prosperous. We must judiciously use the modern knowledge available in this
direction. Our education must be developed with these things in mind. One
of the important requirements to get along this direction is to overcome
pretentions. The pretentions of scientific, rational knowledge, the
pretentions of grammar, the pretention of correct language, the pretention of
idealistic norms, the pretention of the inheritance of authority, and the
pretentions of so called modern development.
In educational institutions we should be able to talk about what we believed,
freely without being intimidated by the modern knowledge or by the
correctness of the grammar, or by ideological correctness, or by the pretentious
authorities. Living, if that is what a nation symbolizes is too complex to
understand in a rational language, in gramatical rules, and in ideological
discourses. It is not that they are not necessary but that living goes
beyond those things to also reflect spirituality, emotionality, and other
sensityvities. We seek refuge in the spiritual spaces of Vedas, Upanishads,
Gita, and the Buddhist scriptures conceived milleniums ago to get meaning for
our want today and wish for future. Even the cumulative experiences,
concepts and ideas from that past to the present fall short of an absolute
conduct of living practicable for a nation.
What else can we wish from our education for such living as a nation except
the three important things -- intellect and wisdom, ethics and moral,
community and social relationship? And what else can we expect from the
nation except the enthusiasm to to live, to take risk and experience the joy
and pain of sucess and failure guided by the above three? We ought to fill
vitality in our nation and that can only happen if we have compassionate
orientation towards what we are and desire to always situate it in the
present with peace and propesrity.
>From this premise I would like to pursue discussion on school science
education in Nepal. I am at this moment tempted to start by saying that in a
biology class in a Nepali village it is far more important to talk about pat,
shyaula, kanda, and sisnu than teaching of the scientific names and their
classifications, it is far more important to talk about what children
believed about the animals, what animals are there around them than their
specifications. In other word, there should be our own biology to begin
with. Same applies in the case of chemical, and physical science. It is far
more important to understand the chemicals that we often come across such as
milk, fruit juices, water and contaminations, food, etc. than rote learn the
abstract concepts. A student should not be laughed at for telling that
rainbow sucks water up to the sky to make rain, or that a snake's eye can
capture the image of the person who harms it. For they are the beliefs that
are there and likely they will exist in some near future as well. How many
of us are devoid of concepts that science may not justify? Anyway, how true
is science compared to other forms of inunciations? We should likewise view
technology from a different perspectives: no matter bullet train exist in the
other parts of the world, what may be relevant for us would be to imagine a
comfortable and pleasant walking trail, or a very simple means of transport
such as a simple ropeway, a simple means of communication and transportation
of goods between two villages that are under the control of the villagers.
Rocket technology exist does not justify that the villagers should give up
living descent life to be enslaved in the whimsical quest of acquiring that
technology by themselves or by the authority.
Of course, if there is no such thing as "we" or "nation" then for the peace
of conscience there is a need to make this known to all so that no one can
sell some one in the pretex of "our". No pretext of nation! No nationalism,
national boundaries, nothing! Prepare people to be subsumed in any name form
in which the life will be better livable -- Indian, Chinese, American,
Japanese, Arabian, African -- and see if they would and we could. If they
wouldn't and we couldn't the rule is simple either jungle law: Kill, get
killed, eat, be eaten and let the nature in its raw form take its route. Or,
continue to spiral down in the tenfold hell of chaos, pain and mental
sufferings.
*********************************************************************
Subject: News: campainging by Indian politician protested in Nepal
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 1994 18:18:14 -0500 (EST)
From: "Purushottam Subedi" <psubedi@osf1.gmu.edu>
Source: India News Network Digest
CAMPAIGNING BY INDIAN POLITICIANS PROTESTED IN NEPAL
Japan Economic Newswire
Kathmandu, Nov. 11 Kyodo
Former Nepalese Prime Minister Kirtinidhi Bista protested Friday about the
reported participation of Indian politicians in campaigning for Nepal's
midterm elections set for next Tuesday.
Bista, 75, who is running for a Kathmandu constituency, told a press
conference, 'It is regrettable that such a thing should go unprotested openly.'
Nepalese newspapers have reported that at least four prominent politicians
from India were doing door-to-door rounds in Nepalese constituencies near
the border wooing voters for different candidates.
Countrywide campaigning for the polls to elect a new Nepalese parliament
for a five-year term will come to a close Sunday morning.
See NEPALI LITERATURE HOME PAGE on http://www.site.gmu.edu/~psubedi
********************************************************************
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 1994 20:54 EST
From: ATULADHAR@vax.clarku.edu
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Politics of Underdevelopment in Nepal
=====================================
[This is an extract from a review article by Dr.David Seddon on two books: the
first is "Regionalism and National Unity in Nepal" by Frederick H. Gaige and
"Nepali Politics:Retrospect and Prospect" by Rishikesh Shaha, both published
in 1975. This review appeared in the Bulletin #12/13 of the Nepal Studies
Association in Winter/Spring 1977. I am posting this here to underscore how
so much of the predictions have come true and how the political processes of
underdevelopment is still operating in the post-democratic Congress govt that
swears by development. Amulya R. Tuladhar , Clark University, MAss.}
"... Nepal is one of the five poorest countires in the world. But not only is
it poor, it is also rapidly becoming poorer and less able to maintain itself.
Already dependent to an exceptional degree on foreign aid, Nepal appears to be
heading for a fundamental economic crisis within the next decade as population
growth and ecological collapse in the densely settled hill regions threaten to
overtake its weak and predominantly subsitence-oriented agrarian economy. The
coming crisis is likely to accompanied by increasing political unrest within
Nepal (are not the 1979 and 1989/90 political unrest major disruption,
already?) , and the combination of economic and political difficulties may
conceiveably lead to the disintegration of Nepal as an autonomous state (that
is rapidly happening with Indian police romping at will in Nepal and Girija
giving away Tanakpur and the nepal economy to the "private" capital interest
of the Indians).
"In this context, the central concern for both authors with the conditions
necessary for the creation and maintainence of a viable natioon state in Nepal
is particularly appropriate... they confront crucial issues and identify some
of teh major structural weaknesses of the contemporary Nepalese state. Each
is critical of the feeble efforts made to date by the Nepalese government and
the landowning ruling class from which it is largley drawn to transform an
essentially extractive and predatory state into a dynamic apparatus for the
promotion of economic and social development...{Is the congress any diffeerent
now?)
"Each regards as regrettable and potentially dangerous the concentration of
power in the hands of a tiny fraction of the ruling class. {Is the cabal led
by Girija any different?}.
"Each argues the need for a greater degree of political integration, to be
achieved through genuine popular representation and more effective involvement
of the mass of the Nepalese in the political life of their country, {have we
achieved this with a multi-party elected democracy now?}
"Despite the criticism of the monarchy and the increasing control from center,
both Gaige and Shaha conclude that the future direction of politics of Nepalk
will be determined by the will of King. {How ironic that the present midterm
elections come as a formal will of the King unchallengeable in the Court of
the land.}
"During the nineteenth century, although nepal was never colonized, the
country was effectively subordinated by the British India. The enforced
marginalization served during teh latter part of the 19th century to maintain
in power a ruling dynasty of "heriditary prime ministers", the Ranas, whose
primary objective was the extraction of taxes and tribute from the peasantry
and their overlords, and the control of the long-distance trade from Tibet and
British India, for their own personal aggrandizement. The state apparatus
under the Ranas was extractive (collection of revenues) and repressive
(maintaence of 'law and order'); its intervention in the economy was minimal
and revenues were increased by coercion, the management of trade and the
encouragement of immigration and settlement, in the relatively fertile terai
in particular, rather than by developing the productive capacity of
agriculture. The importation of commodities manufactured in India or in
Britain served at the same time to strengthen the position of the ruling class
(guns and luxury goods) and to undersmine local artisan production (cloth and
metal utensils). For the British who supported the regime Nepal provided a
buffer state, a source of mercenaries (the Gurkhas), a market for manufactured
commodities and a source of exotic trade goods.
"Popular unrest and opposition to the Rana regime grew rapidely after
Partition and Indian independence in 1947, and 1951 the monarchy, now
reinstanted, joined with the new Nepali Congress Party to initiate a decade of
political experimentation. Hopes of a rapid transformation of the Nepalese
economy and society under the new regime gradually faded as the traditional
landowning aristocracy (now masquerading as the Congress Party), the
Ranas included, began to organise themselves to
resist the threat of major reforms. In the firest ever general elections held
in 1959, the Nepali Congress Party, with a moderate socialist programme, won
73 out of the 109 seats in the lower house of parliament; but the conservative
forces emerged triumphant when the King abolished teh parliamentary system,
imprisioned the PM and reestablished control by the Palace. The Panchayat
democracy was entirely ineffectual as a means of promoting anything other than
limited participation in local politics and local government.
"Despite the changes that have taken place over the last twenty-five years-and
in certain respects these have been considerable- Nepal remains in many ways
a prisoner of the past and of a distinctive geo-political situation: a
tributary state attempting to transform itself, through the half-hearted
efforts of a traditional landowning class controlling a rapidly expanding but
still relatively ineffectual state apparatus, and with substantial but
strategically determined aid from the great powers on either border, into a
modern nation state capable of achieving economic and social development
without, however, undergoing radical political change.
"Dominated economically by India to the south, Nepal has been unable, either
through private enterprise or state intervention, to achieve any degree of
industrial development, and although the nepalese terai produces amajor grain
surplus most of which however seeps away intoIndia across the open frontier,
agricultural development whether in the terai or in the densely populated
hills remains a hope forth future rather than a rality of today.
"It is significant that , so far, political unrest has been most evident among
he lower classes in the the terai, wehre such manufacturing as does exist in
Nepal is concentrated, where uran development is greatest and where constant
movement takes place across teh border with India.
"Terai is heavily exploited serving as both grainbasket and industrial centre,
and is thus eclearly to nepal's economic survival, it remains politically
marginal, its population unintegrated into the national decision-making
process which neverthels affects them directly.
****************************************************************
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 1994 22:15:22 -0500
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: info about devanagari font
From: subin@uhunix4.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Subin Shakya)
Hi there,
Just wondering if anyone can help me with devanagari font.
Question is:
1) How to type "dha" for "paniko dhal"
2) How to type "da" for "dashain"
this font is for Macintosh Word 5.0 5.1.
Thanks very much.
- subin
********************************************************************
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 1994 22:15:44 -0500
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Girija Hurt : More Election violence
From: rana@violet.ccit.arizona.edu (VIVEK S. RANA)
Dhangadhi :
PM Girija Koirala was adressing a congress ralley when all of a
sudden the choas broke out and he was struck my a piece of wood thrown at him
from the audience. There was minor bleeding from his nose and his face was
swollen up.
Saptari :
Jaya P. anand, press secreatry of the PM has been very clsely
linked with a murder of a prominent village congressmen's family. Prem Rai the
ward charman of Fatehpur district was one of the many congressmen not extending
their support to JP Anand.
*********************************************************************
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 1994 15:21:24 +0000 (&2)
From: Depika Sherchan <s931093@minyos.xx.rmit.EDU.AU>
Subject: top five politically correct reasons to eat allu dum.
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
5) Its a flatulence-free product.
4) its culturally sensitive.
3) The Body Shop approves.
2) Potatoes are in harmony with the earth's shifting biorhythms.
1) Its a completely gender-neutral dish, so different from past ones used
as a sexist tool for the oppression of women.
Disclaimer: The contents of this message do not necessarily reflect the
views/opinions/dislikes/wants/needs/wishes/past sexual
encounters/desires/writings/readings/vacuous babblings/etc of anyone, really.
Love,
A Cunning Linguist.
******************************************************************
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 1994 17:07:04 -0500
From: rshresth@black.clarku.edu (RaJesh B. Shrestha)
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Education, et al...
From: tiwari@fas.harvard.edu (Ashutosh Tiwari)
pant arun dev <pant@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> writes:
> I am following up a clarification to an earlier posting on the
>subject. I appreciate some of the comments made by Ashutosh Tiwari
>though I disagree with some of his observations.
Thank you Arun for your clarification. It's good to see concerned people
like you coming forward with your disagreements about this important and
interseting thread of discussion. Sure, we need not agree on all the points;
but we can certainly express all the ideas about we think are good . . .:)
>The idea of a balanced approach to resource allocation for educational
>development is significant in that it trys to address the lack of
>educational infrastructure in a more holistic manner rather than
>concentrate on populist statements like 'education for all' given the
>bitter fact that the resources available fall pathetically short for such
>noble sentiments.
I admit that "education for all" is an empty slogan. But that was
NOT my point at all. My point was about DIVERTING the BKS resources
to SEVERAL public high schools in Nepal. I am concerned that public
high schools across Nepal have been PERSISTENTLY neglected by the state, and
this negligence can simply NOT continue.
[Broadly, or at least theoretically, money saved from BKS could also be
spent on vocational education, primary education and so on; but that's up
to the policy-makers and others to decide.]
Ideas like "in a holistic manner" and so on sound nice but, on the whole,
are impractical. For argument's sake, with there being a constant trade-off
of resources, no matter what you do in education or in anything, anything
"holistic" is hard to come by.
>This means that it is acceptable (to Nepal's
>development efforts) to proportion resources in other ways than the
>most physically wide reaching manner -- as long as it is within a
>comprehensive national educational framework and that it is aiming
>towards some end goal.
Precisely. But don't you think that whole idea of "proportinate resources"
is in conflict with your earlier "holistic" approach? More to the point,
isn't it time for the state to DEFINE what "some end goal" is, and come
up with CLEAR, though not necessarily perfect, educational policies? So
far, it has not even done that!
As things stand, there's absolutely NO POLICY, NO CLARITY about what to do
with secondary school education. [Witness the approximately 2/3 failure
rate on the SLC, every year, since 1974. This, by the way, is documented.]
And there is BKS with no accountability to anybody!
>I doubt that BKS is within this framework
>but disagree that government should pull out purely on the basis of
>equity considerations. Another way of looking at it is:
Like I said before, there ARE ways to privatize things. It depends on HOW
you do it. Privatization here does NOT mean running the school like a small
company or a firm -- trying to maximize profits. And that's because
education has inherent worth for DEMOCRACY that a consumer good does not.
My concern has been with DIVERTING the resources of the state out of BKS
into other needed SUBSTITUTES. As a thought experiment: BKS could be
run, for example, by committee of public
individuals. Socially-motivated doctors, lawyers, social activists and
village leaders and so on could be on its board of trustees.
These public owners, all members of various ethnic, professional and
geographic communities in Nepal, could raise funds to help
establish scholarship funds at BKS and so forth. [Given the influence of
The Lion, The Leo and the Rotary Clubs in Nepal, some of their members could
serve on the new BKS's board of trustees. After all, if the more educated
citizens don't take time to help out the help educated, who will? The
British government? So on and so forth.]
> a) We have the school
> b) It would be inconceivable that under present circumstances,
> govt. and private, another such project could be undertaken.
> c) Unless it is proven that the school is harming an existing
> national education framework, it would be unfair to 'pull the plug
> because:
Thank you for bringing this up. I am sorry, but this is a classic
misperception about foreign aid that we seem to have: Here's why.
The school may be neither harming nor helping the existing national
educational framework. Empirically, that harm or help can only be
expressed in terms of relative deprivation of other schools with regard
to the same pot of foreign aid money.
Still, the question here is not of harm or help. The thing is, we, the
citizens, never see the money, it's given to us free, and the government
decides to use it for this and that WITHOUT our approval or complaint.
Take the garbage example: For a long time, the Germans gave us money to take
care of KTM's garbage. Not only that, they had their own technicians and
machineries to clean up KTM. And they did a wonderful job cleaning up our
mess. All through this, there was NO clear evidence of "harm" to anyone.
Now, the Germans are gone, and the Kathmandu is very, very dirty. Why? No
matter what PL Singh may think, both the government and the KTM
municipality have failed to take in the reins from the Germans. They
simply do NOT know how to handle the mess. Why? For many years, the Germans,
with their sincere desire to help, made these officials dependent on
German aid. The supposedly "helpful" aid ate up both our PRIVATE and PUBLIC
initiativeness. Now we can't even function . . .
And PL Singh is running from country to country looking for aid to clean
up KTM. Now, you, and I don't mean just you Arun, is this any way run
Kathmandu, on foreign aid? How long will this mess continue. In
retrospect, couldn't the German aid have been better spent to TRAIN, say,
"Private Garbage Collection" firms? At least, a whole bunch of people
would have been trained and employed, and their enterprise could run
either by municipal taxes or the money they would charge to kathmandu
residents.
I realize that the problem of garbage is NOT the same as secondary school
education, but the classics of foreign aid, i.e. it would make us more
dependant on others, holds equally true.
The solution then is NOT to reject aid all together. But to articulate
policies that would MINIMIZE the chances of our having to get more
foreign aid and therefore more aid LATER. With all of Nepal experience
with foreign aid since 1951, is that too hard to do? I think not.
And how do you minimize the dependence on foreign aid. By letting the
private sector take care of lots of things UNDER clear regulations and
rules. (Remember, I am not saying that let the market run TOTALLY on its own
course!)
>PRIVATIZATION is not a panacea and the 'Invisible Hand' surely does not
>take care of everything - even in capitalism.
"Invisible Hand" never claims to "take care of everything" in the first
place. It's about what self-interested agents would do under a set of
assumptions. At any rate, economists know that almost all markets are
IMPERFECT to begin with, and that's that. Market solutions are therefore
proposed -- not as "perfect panacea" to problems -- but as BETTER and LESS
costly way to get effective results.
Why, even Milton Friedman, while ok-ing 'education vouchers', would stop
short of turning all schools at the mercy of the market!
>I encourage development of
>private sector but given the state of affairs in Nepal I would definitely
>be wary of entrusting a good institution to the private sector.
"Given the state of affairs in Nepal"? If we do not trust and have faith in
the enterprise and the initiativeness of our citizens NOW, when will we do so?
I would think, thanks or no thanks to Girija, the opportunities for the
private citizens are booming in Nepal, and that's great.
namaste
ashu
I have enjoyed sharing my thoughts with you all, Rajendra, Bhushan, Arun,
Pradeep, Amulya and others. Keep such discussions going. . . I'll be back on
SCN in January '95. Good-bye.
******************************************************************
Date: 14 Nov 94 00:31:50 EST
From: Rajendra.P.Shrestha@Dartmouth.EDU (Rajendra P. Shrestha)
Subject: News11/12-13
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
SOURCE: AFP
HEADLINE: Nepal to deploy 100,000 security forces for election
DATELINE: KATHMANDU, Nov 11
BODY:
The Nepalese government said Friday it will deploy 100,000 security
personnel for next week's legistlative elections as campaigning
becomes increasingly violent.
The border with India will also be sealed off for 24 hours up until
the end of polling on November 15, Home Secretary Boj Raj Pokharel
said.
The action has been ordered following at least three deaths in
campaigning so far and an incident in which Prime Minister Girija
Prasad Koirala narrowly avoided serious injury when stoned by
left-wing opponents at an election meeting on Wednesday.
"Movement around polling booths or near the border with firearms or
any lethal weapons and sale of alcoholic beverages will be banned
before the vote and 72 hours after the election in order to avoid
bloodshed," Pokharel said.
The Home Secretary said three people had been killed and 80 injured
in election campaign violence up to now. The opposition says seven
have been killed.
He said only foreigners with valid passports would be allowed to
enter Nepal during the election. Only cars with special permission
will be allowed on the roads, the Home Secretary added.
The prime minister stuck to the campaign trail despite his close
call on Wednesday at Jhapa in southeast Nepal. Koirala attacked
opponents verbally at his latest meeting in Morang in the southeast.
Koirala said: "I am not deterred by the abusive slogans nor by the
showing of black flags. I am also not afraid of the communists but I
will not tolerate the act of the communists aimed at creating chaos
and anarchy."
Koirala and the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) have been tempting
voters with the promise of stability and development if re-elected.
But the left-wing opposition is thought to be closing on the NC,
which is hit with internal division, and has accused Koirala of
corruption and mismanagement of the country.
Eighty dissident NC candidates are standing. And the Nepal
Communist Party-United Marxist and Leninist (NCP-UML) has expressed
confidence of getting a majority in the 205-seat House of
Representatives.
But observers are predicting a closer battle. They pointed out the
NCP-UML's weakness in failing to unite all the leftist camps. The
NCP-UML has two strong opponents in the United People's Front- Nepal
(UPFN) and the Nepal Workers' and Peasants' Party (NWPP).
The opposition has accused Koirala of abusing the state-run media
and using military helicopters to conduct his campaign. Koirala has
faced stormy opposition at many election meetings.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: AFP
HEADLINE: Electioneering ends in Nepal
DATELINE: KATHMANDU, Nov 12
BODY:
Electioneering ended in Nepal Saturday ahead of legislative polls
Tuesday with the running of the economy the main political
battleground, local observers said.
Activists from the ruling Nepali Congress party held a rally
outside the capital Kathmandu while the main left opposition party --
the Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist and Leninist (NCP-UML) --
held its last rally, attended by more than 30,000 people, at the
city's Open Air Theatre.
Addressing the opposition rally, NCP-UML General Secretary Madhav
Nepal said that, during its three years in office, the Nepali Congress
government had weakened Nepal's economy.
"A country like Nepal, which is sandwiched between two big
countries (India and China), should not have a coalition government
because such a government cannot move ahead with developmental works,"
he said.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala held his last electioneering
campaign in his native districts Morang and Sunsari, to the southeast
of the capital.
He appealed to voters to support the Nepali Congress party for the
sake of political stability, to safeguard the fledgling democracy and
to push the country towards prosperity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: Xinhua
HEADLINE: 22 injured in clash in eastern nepal
DATELINE: kathmandu, november 13; ITEM NO: 1113058
BODY:
some 22 persons were injured, four of them serious, when clashes
broke out between supporters from three rival political parties in
eastern nepal saturday. according to election regulations, all
campaign activities would have ended from 24:00 pm saturday in the
whole country. the fighting happened between the national democratic
party (rpp), the communist party of nepal (uml) and the nepali
congress (nc) in eastern nepal's sunsari district when nc supporters
were heading for inaruwa to participate in a scheduled campaign
meeting to be addressed by prime minister girija prasad koirala at the
municipality in sunsari, local english daily "the kathmandu post"
reported today. according to details provided by the nc sunsari
district committee, rpp and uml supporters pelted a truck carrying nc
workers going to sunsari to attend the mass meeting after which the
clashes ensued. but local rpp and uml leaders denied this, saying
that congress workers had hurried abuses at them. when asked to stop
abusing, nc workers pelted stones and bricks and brandished khukuris
(knives). police reportedly had to fire blank shots, lob tear gas
shells and lathi charge to break up clashes. reports from dang
district near sunsari said that one nc activist was found shot dead
near a river close to his house saturday. he is the eighth person
being killed during the campaigning period in nepal. it was said that
some miscreants had taken the nc worker away from his rice mill
saturday afternoon. four persons have been arrested for the killing
whereas another is reported absconding.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: Reuters
HEADLINE: Nepal, new to democracy, is split ahead of polls
BYLINE: By Nelson Graves
DATELINE: KATHMANDU, Nepal
BODY:
Four years after a bloody pro-democracy revolt ended Nepal's
absolute monarchy, the Himalayan nation holds free elections this week
with communists hoping to wrest power from a deeply divided Nepali
Congress.
The opposition communists are widely expected to make gains in
Tuesday's elections to the 205-seat parliament, capitalising on
Congress party infighting and inflation that has slashed purchasing
power in one of the worlds' 10 poorest countries.
Sitting on the flanks of the world's highest mountains, Nepal is
sandwiched between China and India.
The elections this week are the second since the 1990 protest put
an end to a 30-year period of no parties. Nepal's only other free
polls were held in 1959, but the brief experiment in democracy was
aborted in a palace coup in 1960.
In the outgoing assembly elected in 1991, the Congress controlled
114 seats and a coalition of communist parties led by the Unified
Marxist-Leninist (UML) party held 81.
Analysts said there was a strong chance that neither Congress nor
the communists would win a clear-cut majority.
Ironically, that could thrust a third party of monarchists into a
bargaining role only four years after more than 50 people were killed
in protests to end King Birendra's absolute rule.
The king remains a constitutional monarch but no longer has the
power his father, the late King Mahendra, did between 1960 and 1990
when parties were outlawed.
Many people in the world's only official Hindu nation continue, as
they have for centuries, to revere the king as a living incarnation of
the Hindu god Vishnu.
Boosted by dissatisfaction with Congress and uncertainty about the
Communists' plans, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), which
includes the "panchas" who ruled Nepal from 1960 to 1990, is expected
to add substantially to its four seats.
"The RPP could play a very important role if Congress does not win
a majority," said political scientist Lok Raj Baral.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had to call polls 18 months
ahead of schedule after he lost a crucial parliamentary vote in
July. "Nobody wanted these elections," a diplomat said.
Thirty-six Congress deputies refused to back Koirala in that vote,
accusing him of corruption and high-handed methods.
Koirala first raised the ire of Congress colleagues in 1992 when he
summarily sacked six ministers. Then he was accused of jealously
spoiling Congress chief Krishna Prasad Bhattarai's chances in a
by-election earlier this year.
"It's been open warfare in Congress," Baral said.
Congress has patched up its splits ahead of the election and has
been warning the electorate that the communists, who say they have
shed their authoritarian designs and are now more like social
democrats, cannot be trusted.
"The major issue in the elections is political stability," Koirala
said.
But the communists hope to capitalise on allegations of Congress
corruption- Koirala himself has been accused of profiting financially
from power- and frustration with inflation, estimated at nearly 10
percent.
"We need lower prices," said communist voter Ratna Kaji Tuladhar,
speaking on the fringes of a UML rally in Kathmandu. He said the price
of rice had doubled since 1991.
The communists have also accused Koirala, who approved a deal
giving India rights to a small slice of Nepali land for a
hydroelectric project, of playing into New Delhi's hands.
The UML has said that like Congress, it supports a mixed economy
and would continue Nepal's traditional policy of neutrality toward
foreign powers. But it has promised to reform land laws by capping how
much property any one person can own.
Analysts said ideology was not the crucial question in the
elections. "There is no difference in manifestoes," Baral said.
"What Nepal needs is a government with the political will and
stability to carry out economic development," one Western diplomat
said. "I don't think any foreign donor will cancel projects just
because the Communists came to power."
Election results were not expected before Friday.
***********************************************************************
From: SOHAN PANTA <K945184@atlas.kingston.ac.uk>
To: Nepal@cs.niu.edu
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 1994 11:47:00 GMT
Subject: Congratulations
Dear Editor,
I have recently been introduced to TND. After finishing reading each
issue, I eagerly look forward to the next one. I thankyou for sending
me TND issues reguarly. Using this opportunity, I would like to
congratulate you and the rest of the team for doing an excellent job
of running this. I would be pleased to help in any way that I can.
Few days ago I read that you needed somewhere to store back issues.
Let me know if that is still there or any other way that I can help.
Sohan
Computer Science,
Kingston University
%%%%%Editor's Note: Thank you for your help and welcome aboard! %%%%%
%%%%% Yes, we are looking for an anonymous site %%%%%
%%%%% members can ftp back issues. We have close %%%%%
%%%%% to 200 issues so far and each issue is about %%%%%
%%%%% on an average 800 lines. %%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
******************************************************************
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 1994 10:33:16 EST
From: mahendradb@UFCC.UFL.EDU
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Re: Caught Between Cultures
Please try to send more information on Nepalese living abroad.I would like to know about their feelings for their new'motherland' and how they are coping with being the 'lost tribe' feelings.
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