| Username |
Post |
| paramendra |
Posted
on 22-Sep-02 02:44 PM
(1) Who is Pratyoush Onta?
(2) Time to hold "primaries?" Instead of the Sushil Koiralas of the world issuing tickets? Intra-party democracy written into law?
(3) Could not read Mishra's article. Font problems on a public computer.
(4) "....King Birendra, himself a Harvard alumnus..." A joke?
(5) There is an undemocratic longing for the-knight-in-shining-armor creeping into the thread. The tricle-down theory of development is suspicious. Let the best and brightest rule! Wow. Apologists for the World Bank and the IMF?
(6) It is good to be bright, and good to be educated. But ultimately one has to throw one's hat in, and listen to the people, and win their votes. And get molded in the process. It has to be bottom up. "Looking for talent" to plant them on people might not work.
(7) Of course, running for office is not the only way out. There are other ways to serve.
(8) On the other hand, active political leadership is what all the dreamers and intellectuals need. And I am wondering if all the bright minds at the site might be willing to "fund" and support some of the Sajhaites that might jump into the fray? The good, silent, inactive people.
(9) It would be of interest to watch some of the people/names at the site running for public office in Nepal.
(10) Nepe proposes Nepal be a republic. I have always maintained that is a pertinent topic and has to be talked about. And I would not mind a non-violent dismissing of the monarchy. It used to be said in Kathmandu that the "illiterates in the remote areas" are in support. Well, how come the Maoists are the strongest in those same areas? Who exactly wants the monarchy to stay on? If not the Kathmanduites? If not the remote folks? If not the educated? If not the Madhesis? Is it just historical momentum?
|
| paramendra |
Posted
on 22-Sep-02 02:45 PM
(... was unable to post my response to the original thread ---)
|
| ashu |
Posted
on 26-Sep-02 12:10 PM
(1) Who is Pratyoush Onta?
Ashu: Simply put, Pratyoush Onta is a thirty-something historian who runs Kathmandu's
Martin Chautari.
********
(4) "....King Birendra, himself a Harvard alumnus..." A joke?
Ashu: No.
An alumnus (could be a non-degree holder) is a not the same as a graduate (a degree holder.) At Harvard, King Birendra's professors were John Kenneth Galbraith and
Samuel Huntington, among others. Huntingtonm (aka Sam the Man) especially, remembers Birendra with fondness.
**********
(8) On the other hand, active political leadership is what all the dreamers and intellectuals need. And I am wondering if all the bright minds at the site might be willing to "fund" and support some of the Sajhaites that might jump into the fray? The good, silent, inactive people.
Ashu: Count me in as a supporter in any capacity.
***********
(9) It would be of interest to watch some of the people/names at the site running for public office in Nepal.
Ashu: In fact, if the elections happen this November, I will be working as a volunteer
campaign-manager for a local candidate for the MP post from Kathmandu. I once
worked for about six weeks on Al Gore's presidential campaign (Primary stage in New Hampshire, put in 20-hour days and delivered the town of Portsmouth, NH to Gore
on the 1st of February 2000. Since I learnt an awful lot then, I am eager to try out how much of what I learnt then can be translated to Nepali contexts and realities.
Let's see.
**************
(10) Nepe proposes Nepal be a republic. I have always maintained that is a pertinent topic and has to be talked about. And I would not mind a non-violent dismissing of the monarchy. It used to be said in Kathmandu that the "illiterates in the remote areas" are in support. Well, how come the Maoists are the strongest in those same areas? Who exactly wants the monarchy to stay on? If not the Kathmanduites? If not the remote folks? If not the educated? If not the Madhesis? Is it just historical momentum?
Ashu: Next week's Himal Khabar Patrika is carrying an extensive opinion poll -- with research conducted by ORG-MARG, a market research company. One of their findings
is that Nepali janata know how to distinguosh between the King's persona and the institution of monarchy. Most respondents said that they preferred the institution of monarchy to continue on in this country. That's public opinon for you.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
|
| Poonte |
Posted
on 26-Sep-02 01:48 PM
My regards to Pratyoush dai...
With regards to the role of the monarchy, I had posted few thoughts on the threads titled "King needs to take over" and "King's role II". I am sure you guys had a chance to skim thruogh them too. In a nutshell:
I am rather reluctant to acquiesce to the idea of abolishing the monarchy completely from the Nepali social and cultural arenas. For many Nepalis, monarchy has become an inseparable part of their national identity; and I still believe we should keep the monarchy, albeit with a LIMITED role as a symbol of our national unity. If His Majesty wishes to get politicized, then he can go back to Gorkha and run as an MP from there.
Nepal is far from being a constitutional monarchy, as is claimed. To begin with, the Royal Nepal Armed forces are NOT under the authority of the civillian, elected governement; the property and income of HM are exempted from "all kinds of tax, fee or other similar charge." (Part 5, Article 30); "No question shall be raised in any court about any act performed by HM..." (Article 31), thereby placing the "Vishnu ko avatar" above the law of the land. The MPs are not even permitted to discuss the Shree 5 in the parliament!
Although the idea of Republic of Nepal certainly seems very tempting, I think the more realistic and impeccable path towards better democracy at this juncture is to de-politicize the monarchy thoroughly and make HM liable to the laws of the land, henceforth heralding an era of a genuine constitutional monarchy.
|
| paramendra |
Posted
on 26-Sep-02 02:28 PM
Ashu: "... I will be working as a volunteer campaign-manager for a local candidate for the MP post from Kathmandu ..."
Who is this candidate? When will YOU run yourself?
|
| ashu |
Posted
on 26-Sep-02 08:12 PM
Paramendra,
I will be happy to tell the name of the candidate once he makes his declaration
formal.
For a start, he is a long-time woda-chairman who's done some good, honest corruption-free work, and now has set his sights on a higher office. Let's see how things go.
As for my running, well, as I wrote earlier in another thread, I believe NEITHER in
taking short-cuts because of some political/personal connections NOR in deluding
myself and those around me that things will be easy for me or that I would be effective just because I am some smart-alec with a fancy education.
For now, I am happy to be doing small, small work so that I can make lots of mistakes, learn from them without being crushed, make god contacts, really enjoy the process, and if I really, realy LIKE all that, then move on to bigger things in coming years. If not, well, that's that. I can't see myself doing things that I don't like.
We'll see what happens, and let's leave it at that.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
|
| Deep |
Posted
on 27-Sep-02 09:34 AM
"....For now, I am happy to be doing small, small work so that I can make lots of mistakes, learn from them without being crushed, make god contacts, really enjoy the process,..."
Yeah, I would also love to have GOD contacts after making lots of mistakes and learning from them without being crushed. Then, I certainly would love to enjoy really the process.....
:-), Please don't take it seriously. I know it's a typo.
|
| ashu |
Posted
on 27-Sep-02 11:02 AM
So, see Deep?
I am already making those "small small" mistakes, ad learning from them.
Ah, learning never stops -- and that's life.
A Happy World Tourism Day to you all.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
|
| Tropical |
Posted
on 27-Sep-02 01:36 PM
ashu>> once worked for about six weeks on Al Gore's presidential campaign
Could you please inform us as to how u got the chance to campaign for Al Gore.
If I want to campaign for a political party in US then am I allowed and how should I go about it?
|
| ashu |
Posted
on 27-Sep-02 10:20 PM
Tropical,
In one word: Serendipity.
That Fall, some Gore and Bradley people were at the Kennedy School of Government for a discussion about how to run/manage political campaigns.
As an audience member, I asked a lot of questions, and ended up striking up a good rapport with one of the senior Gore staffers, and he invited me to work on the New Hampshire (Primary) campaign as a volunteer. [Disclosure:American political
campaigns need starry-eyed, sleep-deprived, caffeine-freak young volunteers
ALL THE TIME.]
I did not immediately take up the offer, for I then thought that Bill Bradley (another Democrat) was the candidate I most wanted to work for. Soon afterward, after reading a long article in The New Republic or some similar magazine about Bradley, I concluded that as much as I personally admired Bradley, he would NOT win his Party's nomination (a conclusion that turned out to be correct!).
So I changed my mind, and called that senior Gore staffer, and he arranged for me to work in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. My job was to "deliver" (his word) Portsmouth, a coastal town in New Hampshire, to Gore in the Primaries.
I volunteered strictly for the learning experience: to see/watch, on a small scale, how Amercan political (even presidential) campaigns are/were run and managed, and I must say that I learnt an awful lot.
Some days were glamorous, like shaking hands with Senators such as John Kerry ("Senator, I am Ashu, from Nepal, and I'm delighted to welcome you to Portsmouth")
and briefing them on what they should say when I accompanied them to selected
voters' homes (for them to do what they called "retail politics").
Other days were intense, convincing 1000s of skeptical voters -- in their homes, community centers, malls, traffic corners, schools and elderly-homes and so on - about why they switch sides to Gore.
Still, other days were mind-numbingly tedious, days spent on licking 1000s
of envelopes, stuffing campaign materials into them and then mailing them.
In between, I had to act as a small-scale marriage counsellor, a relationship guru, an ego-booster to other people, a calm negotiator and all that . . . when people started
to lose tempers at one another, when people's emotional/personal lives started to interfere with the campaign work . . . and all that and more.
Not to mention, I was surviving . . . not getting enough sleep, and having only time
to have countless cups of coffee and sugary donuts from nearby Dunkin' Donuts. It
was pure adrenaline energy that got me going tll the end of the New Hampshire primaries.
Like I said, I did it for the experience and to add to my own learning. In that wa, the experience was good for me.
But there are people in America who are "lifers" when it comes to running political campaigns. Every two years, they get new clients (or "candidates") who then
hire them full-time for a period of time to manage the campaigns. These lifers are "election junkies" who move from campaigns to campaigns -- using
sophisticated market research tools to "market" their candidates to voters.
Volunteering for a political campaign should NOT be dfficult. Just give the candidate's campaign office a call, expressing your interest, and you will find that they can always use an extra hand, especially if they are gettng you -- to put it bluntly -- to be a campaign slave for almost nothing, like I was :-)
Then again, that's how you learn -- by jumping in to get your hands dirty and giving your 100 per cent to the campaign.
With best wishes
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
|
