After an eleven year civil war and eight years of deadlock, the Constituent Assembly (the interim parliament) finally passed a constitution in Nepal. The last six weeks were punctuated by protests from marginalized groups, including one protest in which the leaders murdered nine policemen in cold blood to get the attention of the central government.
They sure did draw attention - the central government mobilized the Army for riot control and put large parts of the country on 24-hour lockdown.
The BBC published an excellent summary of the protests - click here.
The BBC included wonderful photos - here is one.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
for more background, go below the fold....
What has changed and what has not
The official ceremony was Sept 20th at 5 PM, which, since there is an International Date Line, has already passed.
What has changed:
- there is a new constitution.
- the rights of women have actually gone backwards;
- various protest groups did not get what they want.
- there are now hopes of new elections.
- the present Prime Minister has previously announced that he will resign one day after the new constitution; he is now on track to do so.
What has not changed
- the sun will rise in the east and set in the west
- Nepal will still have a non-quadrilinear flag
- the Army is still on alert;
- there is a queue of transport trucks waiting south of the Nepal-India border crossing in Birgunj, said to extent 60+ km back into India along the roadside, waiting for clearance. They are being held up due to the threat of violence if they drive in Nepal, and have become the targets of thieves and brigands in India.
- everyone expresses their suspicion and mistrust of India.
- for now, most of the same group of leaders are in power.
- the earthquake relief monies have still not been spent; there are tens of thousand of affected people in the earthquake zone and hundreds of thousands at risk of "food instability."
- Nepal has (quietly and over time) sent roughly four million young men (and some women) overseas as low-wage laborers in rough conditions, the highest percentage of any country of earth. The Nepal diaspora has been quiet and orderly, which allowed it to happen unnoticed, in contrast with the Syrian crisis now gripping the world headlines.
-There are dueling hashtags - #welcomeconstitution and #notmyconstitution in a sort of proxy war on Twitter. There are FaceBook pages pro and con; there are pop music songs pro and con on YouTube.
- In the far east, activists have proclaimed an independent "Free Limbuwan State," daring the government to respond. This is actually not new; they have done this four or five times in the past ten years.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
- the tourist business is still down by 40 % and people are wondering how to revive it.
What we wonder about
We wonder whether it will all blow over; the degree to which the new government will use force; and the how long the road closure will continue.
I've been blogging about Nepal, with an especial emphasis on health care there, on my other blog.