Nepal: the world's newest republic
- added June 20, 2008
- 0 responses
In his last act before leaving his palace last week, Nepal's former king, Gyanendra, tried something he never attempted during his disastrous experiment with autocratic rule.
He decided to call a press conference - and for dismayed royalists the ensuing scene encapsulated the fall of an ancient institution that had collapsed from within.
Excited journalists climbed on the palace furniture. They posed for pictures in the chair where Gyanendra would sit, flanked by two stuffed tigers. When the ex-king arrived they heckled him with the rudest words in the Nepali language.
Yet he gave his speech with dignity. Five years after sacking his first prime minister, three years after he used the army to seize absolute power, he was going quietly.
The king had seized power to defeat a powerful Maoist insurgency that was fuelled by the poverty and injustice of village life. But while the royal army floundered against the rebels in the hills, republican protests swelled on the streets of the capital. A peace process led to elections earlier this year.
The next government will be led by the Maoists, who have already abolished the monarchy. The king - seen as a living god, and worshipped as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu - became just another commoner.
And yet, in the manner of his departure, Gyanendra won sympathy from some unexpected quarters. On the day he left the palace a well-known commentator, not noted for his royalist sympathies, sent me an email. "It was a day full of thrill and tears," he wrote. "Some people are really sad today. His exit was a tragic day for an institution."
"Leaving the palace was the best thing he has done in two years," says Sirish Shumsher Rana, the king's former information minister. "What the king did [when he seized power] was necessary, but he failed."
Monarchists still cling to the hope that if Gyanendra's reputation is repaired, and if the next government fails as most Nepali governments do, some kind of royal revival might one day be possible. After all, abolishing an institution with such deep roots - Nepal was forged in war by the king's ancestors 239 years ago - is no small matter.
He decided to call a press conference - and for dismayed royalists the ensuing scene encapsulated the fall of an ancient institution that had collapsed from within.
Excited journalists climbed on the palace furniture. They posed for pictures in the chair where Gyanendra would sit, flanked by two stuffed tigers. When the ex-king arrived they heckled him with the rudest words in the Nepali language.
Yet he gave his speech with dignity. Five years after sacking his first prime minister, three years after he used the army to seize absolute power, he was going quietly.
The king had seized power to defeat a powerful Maoist insurgency that was fuelled by the poverty and injustice of village life. But while the royal army floundered against the rebels in the hills, republican protests swelled on the streets of the capital. A peace process led to elections earlier this year.
The next government will be led by the Maoists, who have already abolished the monarchy. The king - seen as a living god, and worshipped as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu - became just another commoner.
And yet, in the manner of his departure, Gyanendra won sympathy from some unexpected quarters. On the day he left the palace a well-known commentator, not noted for his royalist sympathies, sent me an email. "It was a day full of thrill and tears," he wrote. "Some people are really sad today. His exit was a tragic day for an institution."
"Leaving the palace was the best thing he has done in two years," says Sirish Shumsher Rana, the king's former information minister. "What the king did [when he seized power] was necessary, but he failed."
Monarchists still cling to the hope that if Gyanendra's reputation is repaired, and if the next government fails as most Nepali governments do, some kind of royal revival might one day be possible. After all, abolishing an institution with such deep roots - Nepal was forged in war by the king's ancestors 239 years ago - is no small matter.
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