DATELINE HELSINKI

Last week we, I and some of my Nepali friends, travelled from Järvenpää to Helsinki in order to meet the first prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal- Mr Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda. This name used to have connotation of a mysterious hidden charisma, but when he started working as Nepal’s premiere; his name doesn’t give any thrill, of course, but instead has become a synonym of favoritism, dualism, incompetence, and to some extent negation and intolerance. Instead of his growing unpopularity at home, he enjoys a greater degree of celebration abroad especially among the Nepali Diaspora. I could see that in Helsinki too. People in Nepal were accusing him of ‘escaping’ the country when parliament session was just about to start and political chaos was already out of the bucket. Whereas he was busy receiving appellations such as ‘a great hero’ ‘the leader of our nation’ and a kind of our ‘savior’. What a joke! It reminded me of the last Nepalese king Gyanendra. Now Mr. Gyanendra, by the way.

I don’t mean to say that Mr. Prachanda deserves a hellish condemnation whereas other leaders should be worshipped for their work. What I all mean to say is Nepal has paid a huge price for Mr. Prachanda and his party. We lost 13000 youths during the decade long war and millions of people lost one thing or the other. Almost all Nepalese were on the brink of losing hope, but fortunately peace prevailed because people realized enough was enough.

Recently I read a statement given by our premiere where he said, “I work fifteen hours a day and the press does not highlight it.” I wanted to reply him, “Yes, the press does not highlight it because there are Nepalese who work 18 hours a day and find it difficult to burn their oven in the evening and there are Nepalese who swallowed bullets for their nation and gave their lives to bring our freedom back.” And these Nepalese don’t expect to become prime minister and getting highlighted by the media. These Nepalese know that only one type of personality has that sort of expectations: the narcissists.

We could not meet Mr. Prachanda in Helsinki personally, but we had a chance to take part in a discussion and have dinner with him. He talked about many ‘miracles’ that the government was going to make happen and he applauded people’s achievement and so on. I did not listen that much, because all those words were blunt to me. I wanted to get very practical answers from him. I was worried whether there will be still power cuts in Nepal when I go back home next autumn and whether my friends have enough water in Kathmandu to wash their bellies. I wanted to know whether my brother is still queuing up on a line to put petrol in his car and whether my mother is worried about the cooking gas. That was my concern. I don’t believe in leaps and jumps and miracles.

There doesn’t seem to be a better alternative in Nepal instead of this government. Yes, people say democracy is all about alternatives, but at times that’s not so practical as well. What can we do in such a situation? My job is not to come up with ready-made solutions and ship them out, but I think there is still something that can be done in order to make our nation a better land. One could be pressing them, the Maoists, hard so that they get rid of their intoxicating revolutionary past and become more responsible. It’s not the time we spend playing cards and watching Mickey Mouse cartoons, so other political parties should also become flexible especially in army integration process.

The Chinese leader Mao was asked a question when he was discussing with Chinese youths at a discussion program.

“Whose nation is this?” a young boy asked.

“It’s my nation as well as your nation, but in final analysis it’s your nation,” he replied.

Obviously, he wanted to say that the nation belonged more to the younger generation. It’s the same in our Nepali context as well. Our octogenarian leaders are naturally less concerned about our country in comparison to us. We have to spend our forthcoming decades there and our offspring will have to find future there. So unless and until we continue becoming just passive followers of political coteries, the famously proclaimed ‘New Nepal’ will remain a distant dream. I would like to tell the same thing to Nepalese youths which Arvind Adiga said to Indian youths through Balram Halwai, a character of his novel. He said:

“The book of your revolution sits in the pit of your belly, young Indian. Crap it out, and read. Instead of which, you're all sitting in front of color TVs and watching cricket and shampoo advertisements.”