More on Politics

You may remember I posted some time ago about the political situation in Nepal, in particular I used the example of the Chief of the Army Staff Katawal. Since that last post the situation has rapidly worsened. The prime minister (Maoist) forced Katawal to resign and put in his place a man more sympathetic to the Maoist cause. The President of the country then rang up Katawal and reinstated him. The President of Nepal according to teh terms of the peace process agreement signed last year is really only a ceremonial role and there to rubber stamp the constitution as it goes through parliament - understandably the Presidents intervention caused great anger in the lower house, ultimately leading to the resignation of the Maoist prime minister. So Nepal is now left with no prime minister and hence no government running the country! Interestingly as soon as the government fell the strike which was crippling food and duel supplies into the Kathmandu valley was called off, leading some commentators to suggest that the country would be better off without a government...

So where does this leave Nepal now? The main political parties are all canvassing support to form new coalitions to lead the government and the people of the city are sporadically organising protests in favour or against the main parties. What surprises me the most is the lack of interest that most Nepalis now seem to have in the whole political process. the politicians wrangling over issues that are just irrelevant to most people whose daily life revolves more around a struggle for clean drinking water, safe food and basic health care. the really sad thing is that all the political arguments and games have caused some of the major NGO's who invest in improving the lives of ordinary Nepalis to pull out or reconsider funding. Indian companies who are involved with a number of infrastructure improvement works have just announced that they wont be investing anymore due to the disruption caused by government interference. I was talking yesterday to a lady who runs a charity that educates women about the dangers of HIV who is also considering closing the branch of the charity on Kathmandu because she can't keep up with the ever changing regulations from a government which chances every 2-3 months.

In other news on Saturday i will be travelling with the Head Master to visit his family in the west of Nepal in Dang. We will also be visiting the Childrens Peace Home which is an orphanage for the children whose families were torn apart by the Maoist insurgency. the Orphanage is attached to teh HVP school in Dang - should be quite interesting and it will be nice to see another less touristy part of Nepal.