The decline and fall of Nepal's last king
Gopal Sharma
Reuters North American News Service
Jun 11, 2008 09:16 EST
KATHMANDU, June 11 (Reuters) - Not long ago he was revered
by some as a Hindu god, waited upon by thousands of royal palace
retainers. His face adorned banknotes and the national anthem sang
his praises.
Now Nepal's former King Gyanendra is vilified, has lost his crown
and is being forced out of his palace.
A specially elected assembly voted overwhelmingly to abolish the
239-year-old monarchy two weeks ago, leaving Gyanendra to go down
in history as the last king of Nepal. Gyanendra will now move to an
old royal hunting lodge just outside the capital until he has a
chance to find a permanent home.
Addressing a first-ever press conference at the Narayanhiti royal
palace in Kathmandu on Wednesday, Gyanendra vowed not to leave the
country but stay in Nepal and work for the people.
The 60-year-old businessman-turned-monarch has only himself to
blame, many Nepalis say, after an ill-judged power grab in 2005
when he dismissed the government, jailed politicians and declared a
state of emergency.
Gyanendra was apparently fed up with Nepal's corrupt and squabbling
politicians and decided only he could rescue the country from a
deadly Maoist insurgency.
The attempt backfired, and he was forced to back down the
following year after weeks of street protests that ultimately
sealed his and the monarchy's fate.
CHILD KING
As a three-year-old boy Gyanendra was thrust on the throne in 1950
when his grandfather briefly fled to India, in the midst of a power
struggle with the country's hereditary prime ministers, the
Ranas.
When King Tribhuvan returned a few months later, Gyanendra
retreated once more into the background, building a fortune in tea,
tobacco and hotels and getting involved in environmental
conservation.
Then, nearly seven years ago, his more popular brother King
Birendra and eight other members of the royal family were shot and
killed by the crown prince, who then turned his gun on
himself.
Gyanendra was back on the throne, and like many of his
predecessors, he was brought up to believe he knew better than his
subjects what was best for Nepal.
The massacre had broken the mystique of a monarchy once revered as
incarnations of the Hindu god Vishnu, while Gyanendra's seizure of
power unleashed the wrath of the people.
"I think he is getting what he deserved," said 48-year-old labourer
Suntali Khatri, breast-feeding her two-year-old daughter next to a
building site. "He could not ask for more."
OVER-AMBITIOUS?
Gyanendra went to school in Darjeeling, a hill station in eastern
India, and graduated from Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu.
Mohan Prasad Lohani, who taught him English in university, said he
was an irregular student -- more interested in politics than
studies. "He had his own notion of how things should change. He was
very ambitious," he said.
That ambition could have been his downfall, analysts say. And it
has been a dramatic fall from grace.
In the past two years, the government has seized thousands of acres
of royal lands, nationalised more than a dozen of his palaces and
sacked his priest in a purge of palace employees.
Virtually confined to his palace, the king had his annual allowance
cut, been hit with tax demands and requests for unpaid electricity
bills. He has seen his face replaced by an image of Mount Everest
on the country's banknotes and praise of him purged from the
national anthem.
But royalists who have met him said he has taken it all calmly, and
he looked composed and even smiled during his address to the
press.
Some royalists argue that the hasty abolition of the monarchy could
backfire and leave the country without the anchor it needs in times
of change. But royalist parties won just four seats in the
601-member assembly in April.
While many Nepalis liked the idea of a constitutional monarchy, few
like the idea of being ruled by Gyanendra or his unpopular son
Paras, who has a reputation as a playboy and a reckless driver.
(Writing by Gopal Sharma and Simon Denyer; Editing by Bappa
Majumdar)
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=207222
In a situation like ours, however,
there is no realistic chance of an opposition party winning
the election and displacing the PAP as the ruling party. This is because the PAP keeps changing the rules—and
introducing new ones—to make it impossible for opposition parties
to win any significant number of seats. It is just not
realistic or intelligent to attempt to change the election system
that the PAP controls by going through the election system
that the PAP controls.
It is, therefore,
important to seek an alternative path to make our elections free
and fair. The only solution is for citizens to exercise
their rights through peaceful mass protests to compel the PAP to
accede to the people’s demands for a free and fair election
system. The immediate reaction of Singaporeans would be
that public protests in Singapore are banned. In such a case how
are citizens going to organize a mass movement? The answer is
through the use of non-violent action (see below).
http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/the-party/why-we-do-what-we-do
Lee Kuan Yew's nightmare:
- South Korea mass protest over USA beef imports.
Lee Kuan Yew's nightmare is that mass Singapore protest against PAP might finally bring his regime to an end.
My apologies for reviving this thread,but i've found something which is pretty useful and contribute to this great fear of LKY's.
Police in the Oslo suburb of Bærum struggled to control the worst night of violence involving teenaged russ so far this year. It's high season for their wild partying that traditionally accompanies the last days of their schooling.
Between 30 and 40 of the painted busses used by the russ (roughly pronounced "roose") were gathered late Tuesday night at the waterfront area in Sandvika called Kadettangen.
"Police had to send in all available patrols after several reports of noise, drunkenness and fighting," the operations leader of the Asker and Bærum Police District, Jørgen Jacobsen, told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) Wednesday morning.
He said chaos reigned when police arrived at the scene, and their forces were insufficient to handle the brawling crowds. "It was almost impossible for us to get through," Jacobsen said. "There were russ-busses in the driveways and everywhere, along with lots of garbage and several fights."
There was so much fighting going on, he said, "that we didn't manage to control it all."
Police had their hands full simply trying to corral the drunken teenagers inside the various busses, and order them out of the area. There wasn't time, he said, for police to identify the brawling teens."
Source : Aftenposten Norway (Afternoon Post)
Yes,this is a traditional event that is tolerated in Norway.
But somehow - if the International Schools' students here(AIS,CIS,GEP etc) is interested in this,they may be of significant help which we can organise a mass scale version of this which even though have no violence motiff,can already be of a great fear to Lee Kuan Yew and his PAP lackeys because it shows the mass people's power(in the russ case's - too much of a quantity for the police to control) of toppling the Government later on.
LKY has entrenched himself with laws, for something like that to happen, it would have to be mass unemployment or hyper-inflation.
It will be chaotic once this happen.
fixed..
Originally posted by Midlusionz:It will be chaotic once this happen.
If this happens (which is way overdue), it might be chaotic for a while..... But our lives will definitely change for the better!