4.14.2008

Ah, The Fear Again!

The Monarchists in Nepal never cease to amuse me. A few days after the King took over in February of 2005, one could see his propaganda machines mushroom everywhere, including on the Web. One such 'machine' that suddenly started to function was by the name of "Peace Journalism" (talk about ironies!). The creator of that e-zine managed to hire a Columbia graduate as her buddy and the two of them tried to brainwash pretty much everything that came there way. Everyone who supported the King suddenly became "nationalist." The rest of us became deshdrohis or terrorists.

From February 2005 to April 2006 when Gyanu dai finally succumbed to, well, his ego, history was retaught to the Nepalis. Online as well as newspaper columns poured in to describe how Prithvi Narayan Shah had created Nepal (as if putting a chapter on PNS on one course or the other in every freaking grade from 5 to 10 was not enough). We were reminded of the history of Sikkim. We were given numbers on how many people communists around the world had killed (the underlying message being that the King was better than the Maoists). And we were told how the monarchy was the unifying factor for all Nepalis. We were told how many developed countries still had monarchies and were doing just fine.

Essentially, we were told that the world would collapse without the King.

Guess what, none of that has happened even months after the country became a republic for all practical purposes. Not yet.

Even after their every prediction has failed--making weather and economic forecasters look good--the Monarchists continue to come up with the same logic repeatedly: that life will be difficult without the King and that getting rid of him will be a mess.

Maila Baje is an example: http://nepalinetbook.blogspot.com/

Dude, we know it!

Nobody has ever said Nepal's transition to peace will be easy. Nobody has ever said that getting rid of the King will unleash a torrent of development processes in the country. Nobody has ever said the new representatives in the Constituent Assembly will not fight. And nobody has said that the YCL people will become monks overnight. Don't you think that the effort to play with people's fear at this point only makes *you* look how desperate you are to save the King (not that you aren't)? Or are you yet to shed off the high-horse mentality that your judgment is superior to that of the 14 million Nepalese who just voted?

And, as if the fear from the Maoists that have made a landslide victory is not enough, you are cautioning us against the likes of Khum Bahadur Khadka? Who are you going to scare us with next? The ghost of Birendra?

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