Dear all,

I have frequently visited Sajha to read the interesting posts that are placed here. One recent post particularly caught my attention (http://www.sajha.com/sajha/html/openThread.cfm?forum=2&ThreadID=29939 : red alert’s contribution). I finally find myself with an urge to make my own contribution, so here it goes:

Lately I have been closely watching the news back home and am very worried about the situation. With the recent developments one cannot be sure what's going to happen next. In this regard, I want to share my experience with you. Over the past few years I have been doing some fair amount of traveling on holidays. It was on one of these holidays, that I went to Cambodia. I read up a little bit on the history of the country before I went there but nothing I read could have prepared me for what I encountered there.

Cambodia is a country not much different from Nepal. The houses and the lay of the land are also similar. The religion they practiced is mostly Buddhism but all the ancient temples were based on Hinduism. All around the ruins of the Angkor Wat were statues of Shiva, Vishnu, other gods, goddesses and apsaras. The people look like they could pass for Nepalese. They looked quite peaceful, docile and friendly, all working hard to make ends meet and make a better living for their family.

Yet, this same county carries a bloody story in the not so distant past. I could see it in the eyes of the people, in the lives they were living. I saw the remnants of it all through out the country, particularly in Phnom Penh. Ironically, the Khmer Rouge kept meticulous accounts of all their atrocities. This is apparent in the photos of all the prisoners (about 16000) that were tortured and killed at the Tuol Sleng prison (which was originally a school). The visit to that place was a very eerie and sobering experience. Quite a few of the prisoners there were Khmer Rouge members who had been labeled as betrayers for one small reason or another. Apparently a lot of mistrust and paranoia developed within the Khmer Rouge after they came into power. While I was in Phnom Penh, I bought a few books and one of them was so gripping that I could not put it down. The book was "Stay Alive my Son" by Pin Yathay, published by Silkworm Books. It's a compelling real-life account by a civil engineer about his experience before and during the Khmer Rouge regime. If you have not read this book, please buy it immediately and read it. It's a very easy read in simple language, 267 pages front to back You could probably finish this in a day because it's so powerful. It will make you travel through time and visit places that you could not otherwise.

Basically the gist of the story goes like this:
In April 17th, 1975, the government in power in Cambodia fell and the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh. The ordinary people had mixed emotions, they were happy that the war was over, but they could not make out the intentions of the Khmer Rouge. The rebellion had been a success. The corrupt government had toppled. The liberators, the Khmer Rouge were in town and were bringing equality to everybody. They rejoiced but did not know if this was really the end of the struggle. Turns out, it was only the beginning. The Khmer Rouge, with calculated preciseness, pounced on the uncertainty and ignorance of the ordinary people and asked all the city dwellers to leave their homes and be temporarily relocated outside the city. They used the excuse that the Americans were going to bomb the city (which was very effective since there was a war going on in neighboring Vietnam and I believe the Americans had been known to drop some bombs in Cambodia, mistakenly or not, in pursuit of the Vietcong). The Khmer Rouge told the city dwellers that they would be allowed to return to their homes in a couple of days. The people did not know better. They believed the Khmer Rouge. They left their homes with their families in a hurry. Some families were separated right from the start. Over the next few months, the Khmer Rouge methodically kept on moving the masses of people to different remote parts of the country and put them in labor camps. Families and friends kept getting separated and people had strong reservations on whom to trust. In the confusion of the takeover people had left in a hurry with only what they could carry and after a while they ran out of resources, were homeless, hungry and separated from family and friends. They were at a loss. They were forced to accept whatever fate the Khmer Rouge provided for them. This was the beginning of the class/education/status-based extermination of the city dwellers by the Regime. An estimated total of over 1.5 million people were killed or starved to death over a four-year period.

Now to get to my point, I am just concerned about the situation in Nepal and don't want Nepal to go through what Cambodia did in 1975. Granted that this is the 21st century, the age of information and one might make the argument that the Maoists could never do what the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia. The plethora of human rights organizations and the rest of the world would not allow that to happen. But you cannot discount the capability of a fanatical crowd misdirected by misinformation and empty promises during a time of utter confusion. I have no evidence of what the intentions of the Maoists are when and if they come into power. But if they did take the same path as the Khmer Rouge and decided to eliminate people based on class and education then we would not only have to worry about our families but also the progress that our country has made thus far because all the educated, technical and skilled people would be lost. Even if they came into power and stayed there for only one year or even a month, if the worst case scenario happens and they do go on a rampage, think of all the lives that would be wasted. I agree with the people's struggle for equality and the need for concrete change but I do not agree with the violent ways of the Maoists. Change is good but only if it’s for the better. Liberation is good but only if it results in peace and freedom. As I said before, I don’t know what the Maoists are thinking or what their strategy is but I would not like to take a gamble on whether they are going to follow the path of the Khmer Rouge.

Therefore, I think that it is highly important to let our loved ones at home know about what happened in Cambodia, so that it does not happen in Nepal also. I think that it is important that everybody know about the deception of the Khmer Rouge so that the Maoists cannot pull the same stunt, if it is their intention to do so. I would not want to have history repeat itself in Nepal just because people were not aware, because they just did not know any better. If there is anything to be learned from the Khmer Rouge incident, I think it is this. If tomorrow, the government topples and the Maoists stroll into town with their guns and they tell you to leave your homes to be relocated somewhere else, DO NOT LEAVE YOUR HOUSE! It is your home, your safe haven. Nobody has the right to kick you out. Fight for it if it comes to that. Talk to your neighbors, have contingency plan, just in case. Again, it may never come to that but you’ll be glad that you were prepared if it does.

If the people's struggle for democracy is successful, great! If there is substantial change, great! But I don't want that to happen at the expense of innocent people who just didn't know any better. Already too many people have died. Lately there have been all kinds of disturbing news making the headlines: The Maoists are infiltrating the SPA demonstrations; the Army is doing the same. The Maoists are claiming that the movement is a joint campaign and Koirala is claiming that it's not true. Who is telling the truth, who is not? You might say that I'm freaking out - The Maoists will never come into power and even if they did, they could not carry out such atrocities. But I would rather be proved wrong than proved right regarding this matter. I just hope that it's not too late. It is not my intention to start a nationwide panic but rather to bring about awareness of a possible scenario.

For people who think I’m raving lunatic ranting about “Doomsday” for no reason, I just ask you to read the book “ Stay Alive my Son” first. You might just see things in a different light. If anybody else has read this book or visited Cambodia, please let me hear your comment.

-Concerned Citizen.

P.S. I will post the first chapter of the book for people to get started.

Chapter1:Page17

Chapter1:Page18

Chapter1:Page19

Although I posted all the pages in order, they seem to have uploaded in a different order. I have labeled them correctly however and this should help when you read them.

To The Admin: Sorry, to have posted so many files in one go. I don't know if I followed the proper protocol but I did try to keep the size of the files small :)

Chapter1:Page20

sugiri,
Thank you for post.
Did you watch "killing fields"? The movie also has chilling account of a Cambodian who survived the holocaust.

sugiri! Who is dangerous, a hungry lion( KG) -power of hunger and keep the throne safe to his murderous son or Maoist? A country without any natural resources and dependent to foreign aid to run day to day work , there is no question of maoist making Nepal Combodia.Laying in between two economic( say democratic) power; there should not be any doubt maoist taking the country and go against the international community.

i cannot agree more with sugiri on this issue that we should learn from the mistakes of cambodia....but my question just out of curiosity that in the present power struggle and instability of nepal....who will come out as the ultimate winner....there is no doubt that peace and democracy is the only avenue to development and stability...is the fight between king and party benefiting the maoists....i just cannot understand this complex power equation of nepal....maoists who fought this parties for almost 9 years now found common grounds to lean with the parties just becoz king is their common enemy. so all of them look like "taal pare tiwari natra gotame". so my question to my fellow kuraknai visitors is like what should be the role of educated and sincere citizens in bringing about peaceful and longlasting solution to the current crisis.

Dear all,

Sorry for the late response.

8:), I have watched the movie “Killing Fields”.

Raman, you are missing my point. I am not debating whether the King is preferable over the Maoists. I think that the King had his chance to do something good for the country, he just did not act upon it or rather his actions totally contradicted what he said he would do. I think that in the near future, CHANGE is INEVITABLE. However, we need to prepare ourselves as best we can to deal with the change. Every possibility deserves an inspection. If the Maoists come into power and they bring peace and equality - then kudos to them and great for the general public. But if on the other hand, things go sour and they start murdering innocent people in the name of creating a new nation, then this is what we need to prepare for. You are right, even if they go crazy, they could not carry on for too long before pressure comes from some external source or even the Nepalese people. But how long do you think it would be before that happens? How many more lives would have to be lost. This is what I want to prevent if possible.

Junkynfunky, we cannot say for sure who is going to come out on top in this struggle. But one thing we can say is that the Winners should be the PEOPLE, the general public. There will be change in the country but we have to be ready to do something positive with it when that happens. Otherwise it will go back to the same old faces, same old players and the same old cycle will repeat itself. We want democracy but do we know what to do with it? Apart from chanting slogans and throwing stones at the police and burning tires, I believe that we can do something else; something positive, something effective. I am no politician nor do I claim to be an expert in any political matter but as a normal citizen, I can see the mistakes of the past and I can observe what has worked in other countries. Based on this here are a few suggestions:

In the US, there is a highly organized and well-accepted database system called the LexisNexis. This system has a tremendous amount of records filed away. You have to subscribe to the system but as a subscriber you can get public information on anybody that is in the public office. You can get a congressman’s pay, his tax records, his political resume, bills that he voted for, whether he voted in favor or against. How much campaign money he received from special interest groups, etc, etc, etc. I believe that you can also get information that has been made public for private company executives as well. This system is linked to systems in many other countries.

Now, you can easily see the significance of this information. Things become quite transparent, especially in the public sector. I think that this is one of the crucial issues facing Nepal. There is not enough transparency. The elected officials in the past have enjoyed the protection of this cloud of obscurity and they have lost all accountability. This has just ruined the image of a leader. People have lost faith in most public figures. Their tendency is to think; it’s going to be the same no matter who wins next. Even the leaders themselves believe that when they finally reach that coveted chair, they need to amass as much wealth as they can, by whatever means, award as many favors as they can to relatives and friends and get the hell out of dodge before anybody knows what happened. Work ethics has become non-existent. An elected leader thinks that he can do anything because there’s nobody to question him and set him straight? Who’s going to prove what he has done is incorrect or unethical? Where is the proof? The ones that can call the shots are busy with their own agendas. When he runs for re-election, who is going to question his record? I’m not saying that all the people in politics are like that but I suspect the majority of them are. This is the norm. This is why we seem to see the same faces playing musical chair in the top posts again and again. Only in Nepal, can there be a person who has already become prime minister three times wanting and allowed to seek that post again. Isn’t that just AMAZING!

Enter, the brand new database system in Nepal based on the LexisNexis:

If you want to run for office, then you have to be entered into this database and you will stay in this database for a period of at least 10 years after retirement. You have to declare everything. Your property, your education, your qualification, your current income sources, the names of all your immediate family members and close relatives and what they do. From now on every vote that you cast in the parliament on any issue will be recorded. Every claim of the changes and progress you will make while in office will be recorded and compared to what you actually accomplish once there. In short you will be held accountable. The public, especially the media, will be able to do a simple search and find out pertinent information about you that has been made public. Your political history is recorded in plain black and white. If you vote for a proposal in parliament to build an industrial plant right smack in the middle of the city, then that gets recorded. If you vote to sell electricity to India in a deal that is suspiciously more beneficial to India than Nepal, then that gets recorded. If you pass a law that requires parents to give equal shares of inheritance to daughters and sons, then that gets recorded. If your income this year jumped 400% from last year, then that would be recorded. If your nephew received a very lucrative deal in a new construction project, then guess what, that would go on the record as well. So everything that you believed in and portrayed through your actions would be out there for everybody to see in plain black and white. Every good issue, bad issue, and controversial issue. The next time you run for election, people are not left in the dark. They can look at your political history and decide for themselves, what you’ve been up to, what agendas you stand for. This system, first of all would weed out all those that are not qualified for the post or that have something to hide. Secondly, when you do become active at the post, you will have to stay on your best behavior if you want to run for elections or if you do not want to get prosecuted by the law or media for any wrong doing.

Now, I realize that this is a lot to ask from a person to make one’s life so public. You may say that it’s an invasion of privacy but hey, if you want to serve the country and lead the people, if you want the coveted post then that’s the deal. Take it or leave it. If you’re reluctant or not up to it then somebody else will step up to the plate. The information about your relatives should be recorded and kept private unless something happens that could raise flags, like your nephew suspiciously winning the bid to a huge hydroelectric project, in which case it would become public information.

I also believe that government officials’ willingness to go public in their tenure of service, should be aptly rewarded. Their salaries should be increased quite significantly; and they should have other perks, within reason (so that they don’t totally abuse the system). This would make them feel appreciated for the work they are doing and the need to amass wealth from illegal means might be suppressed. Government officials should feel proud of their work and want to go to work earnestly to do what they are supposed to do, serve the people. Then only would they receive the genuine respect, support and gratitude from the people.

I think that there are a lot of reforms to be made in Nepal. However, first and foremost should be government reform. By that, I don’t mean just changing the face of the government but rather, how it operates. Think about it, no matter, who comes into power, the SPA, the King, the Maoists, the present government, or a totally new one, unless they change the way they operate, it will be the same story all over again. The main issue is that the government has to become accountable and it has to gain the public’s confidence by opening up to the public, letting them take part, by letting them have a say. After that, any other reforms to be made should be relatively easy because of the public’s trust, support and acceptance.

As I said before, I don’t know how things work in politics. These are just, my opinions. Being somewhat tech-savvy, I know that designing a database system that I have talked about here should be relatively easy, but implementing it is another story. How do you go about requiring the politicians and government officials to accept this database system? Others might have much better ideas. Anyway, I think that’s the purpose of this forum anyway. To put the ideas out there so that we can all work constructively and hope something comes out of it.

Remember, knowledge is power but to wield that power ethically and in righteousness to prevent a catastrophe, ah, that’s divine wisdom.

So please post your suggestions.

- Concerned Citizen

Anybody has proof, how com Gyane and Parash bring money from Nepal. How did they get money where did they work to earn money ? If they have money that is Nepali Janatako ragat ra Pasina ho sathi ho,,,,,,,,, those M**fker Baster sold Nepali Murti, Gaida ko khag, chares, gaja, supply poor Nepali girl to bombay. Looting and taking unlawfully money from Nepali Janata............. How com they bring money to USA and open gasstation? The US gov. always allows to bring here legally earned money.