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"But today, we say ENOUGH
IS ENOUGH. We are the inheritors of the true builders of our
nation. The dispossessed, we are millions, and we thereby call
upon our brothers and sisters to join this struggle as the only
path, so that we will not die of hunger due to the insatiable
ambition of a dictatorship led by a clique of traitors who represent
the most conservative and sell-out groups. For hundreds of years
we have been asking for and believing in promises that were never
kept. We were always told to be patient and to wait for better
times. They told us to be prudent, that the future would be different.
But we see now that this isn't true. Everything is the same or
worse now than when our grandparents and parents lived. Our people
are still dying from hunger and curable diseases, and live with
ignorance, illiteracy and lack of culture. And we realize that
if we don't fight, our children can expect the same. And it is
not fair. Necessity brought us together, and we said "Enough!"
We no longer have the time or the will to wait for others to
solve our problems."
How honestly these words represent the
Nepalese people's struggle for freedom and democracy, for self-determination.
But the people who uttered these words lived very far from Nepal,
and perhaps the majority of them knew nothing about the Nepalese
people and their struggle. These were the words of the Zapatistas
declaring war against the Mexican state from Lacandona Jungle
(December 31 1993). They expressed the sentiments of not only
the Mexican Indians but of everyone who are waging the "struggle
that is necessary to meet the demands that never have been met
by [the] State [in their region]: work, land, shelter, food,
health care, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice
and peace".
On April 9, the 4-day general
strike in Nepal was supposed to end, but it continued. An activist
said, "The Nepali people want the king to abdicate and he
needs to go. There is no other option, otherwise the country
will continue to see riots and demonstrations."
Guardian reports, "On the border with India, hundreds of
demonstrators stormed government buildings to declare Nepal's
Chitwan district the kingdom's "first republic". Troops
later drove them out. It has also been reported that students
in smaller towns have taken to the streets with the slogan "death
to Gyanendra"."
The New York Times informs
what the editor of the Nepali Times wrote, "As we write
this on Sunday noon, public anger is boiling overThis is a surprising
uprising: even without the parties, neighborhoods have got together
to set up road barricades, stoning police and pouring out into
the streets to defy curfews. Each day that passes, the pro-democracy
chariot is picking up momentum."
This saying strangely connects
once again the struggles on the two corners of the globe with
each other. Well-known Marxist Harry Cleaver noted in 1994 in
his Introduction to 'Zapatistas! Documents of the New Mexican
Revolution', "Today, the social equivalent of an earthquake
is rumbling through Mexican society. Every day brings reports
of people moving to action. Campesinos [villagers] and Indigenous
peoples completely independent of the EZLN [Zapatista Army of
National Liberation] are taking up its battle cries and occupying
municipal government buildings, blockading banks, seizing lands
and demanding "Libertad." Students and workers are
being inspired not just to "support the campesinos"
but to launch their own strikes throughout the Mexican social
factory."
A prominent pro-democracy and
peace activist, Mathura P Shrestha (a retired professor and former
Secretary of Health, aged 72), arrested for endangering the security
and sovereignty of the country poses Lokatantra (full democracy)
against formal democracy in his interview to Lucia de Vries,
"Lokatantra is the rule of the people. Nepal was democratic
until four hundred years ago. People didn't vote but they talked
until a consensus was reached. Only the powerful voted What I
am researching now is how the dictatorship of the proletariat
can be transformed into the rule of the proletariat. If a constituent
assembly is properly elected we can establish the rule of the
people. I do not think ceremonial monarchy goes together with
lokatantra"
But the US State Department
still chants, "Dialogue between Nepal's constitutional political
forces, the King and opposition political parties is the only
effective way to return Nepal to democracy and address its Maoist
insurgency". It refuses to acknowledge that insurgency is
general, just backed by the Maoists and democrats. India too
refuses to listen to the unrest in Nepal and demonstrations of
solidarity in its own streets.
But, again stealing words from
Cleaver, "[L]earning to listen is not always easy, even
today. To clear the way, we have to learn to cut through the
"noise" of official discourse, to recognize and avoid
debates over how to "solve" the crisis within the old
frameworks. We have to learn to decode the official jargon, to
cut through the euphemisms that cloak the "business as usual"."
On April 8, "the rallies
occurred on the 16th anniversary of Nepal's first pro-democracy
movement, when the present king's brother and predecessor, Birendra,
accepted demands for parliamentary elections. Political activists
say the king needs to "understand the public". (Guardian)
Officially three people died in Nepal in police firings, and
Nepalese Home Minister vows, "We will get stricter now to
preserve law and order and keep the situation normal"(BBC),
as the general strike becomes indefinite.
The Nepalese Royalty's pig-headedness
has proved at least to the Nepalese people, what Baburam Bhattarai
said in his reply to the International Crisis Group in 2003,
"Laat ko bhoot baat le mandaina" (the devil of force
won't listen to persuasion).
And, today the Nepali says
in her own way: YA BASTA! Enough is enough!!! A protester told
Reuters news agency, "We are not afraid of bullets, we have
to get democracy at any cost and we will get it." (BBC)
[For latest news and views
on Nepal, visit International Nepal Solidarity Network's website,
http://www.insn.org/]
CounterPunch
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