Monarchy still desired: A myth created by fraudulent “scientific†polls
I am sharing my reflection on this enigmatic myth served and consumed by Nepali elites and media during whole time.
From one of my retrospecting postings to ‘Nepal Democracy Group’
Nepe
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From: DK
To: nepaldemocracy@googlegroups.com
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:54:25 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: Constituent Assembly Award ??
>DK jee, you were right on many of your observations
>about the strength of the Maoists.
… -jee,
Yes, I was fortunate to be less wrong about certain things. However, I
do wonder if there were chances of what I thought being wrong all
along.
Anyway, as we are witnessing many things we believed in or disbelieved
are being proved wrong, we must have been going through retrospection
and adjustment at this point. Whatever stage we are in, one thing we
probably can rightfully claim that we have been as rationale as we
could be at every step, with the information available to us.
So if we were wrong, it was the information, not our judgment.
And I think we indeed were fed with wrong information. For example,
all 'scientific" polls coming from Nepal consistently and constantly
showed that there was an overwhelming popular support (83-97% even in
2003 and still 45 % in 2007 !!!!) for monarchy.
Deliberate or innocent, they were wrong information.
They could be deliberate, because in every poll, the question on
monarchy was always "mis/leading" and "overwhelming" (I have talked
about some of them in this forum). I know the respectable names
involved in these polls. But I can not make any sense of these
recurring fraudulence in designing the question particularly on
monarchy.
Then the second and apparently innocent misinformation is about the
interpretation of the complex term "monarchy".
I think the 'yes' answer to the question on "monarchy" was not a
support for monarchy. If that was indeed the case, how can you explain
the same poll showing 1% support for the king and 45% support for
monarchy ?
I know the analysts interrelated that as Nepali people's support for
the institution of monarchy despite their dislike for the king.
I think that was an artificial interpretation and an incorrect
conclusion, which now is also proved by the mother of all polls, the
election of CA.
Then what was that answer about ?
Researchers never devised a second question to find that out. So it is
hard to say with certainty. However, I think the answer was about the
"life and personal safety of the king and the royal family". People
were just saying they don't want the king and the royal family leave
the country or get killed. It was just a simple Nepali compassion to
an important family they were familiar with. It had nothing to do with
"monarchy" as the analysts interpreted for us.
So, in this way, through biased questions and wrong interpretation,
our analysts made us and perhaps themselves believe that monarchy in
Nepal was popular throughout (74% just before Jana-andolan II, to give
you an absurd view).
Apart from information, we also have been a victim of what I will call
a "reverse dogmatism". (similar to "reverse-racism") against Maoists.
This is more clear at this point when Nepali voters have broken what
we must be seeing as a barrier of "dogma" (Maoist's) we could have
never done.
Okay, I will stop it here. I do hope friends in the forum will take
this as my attempt to understand a difficult and complex thing rather
than trying to point finger or shame anybody. As I said, and it was
really sincerely said, I know, I have seen, everybody being rational
and good at every step of our discussion and deliberations.
best,
DK
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