Sunday, February 20, 2005

Stumbling Towards Autocracy

Looks as though we're losing the democracy battle overall...everytime we set one up (Iraq)another one falls (Nepal). Recently King Gyanendra sacked the national government and declared a state of emergency. Telephone and internet wires were cut, flights diverted and major cities were forced into a "lockdown." The King dismissed several provisions of the constitution such as freedom of the press, peaceful assembly, speech and expression, and the right against preventive detention.

2 days ago Gyanendra justified his actions as necessary due to "terrorist activites" and "a growing disillusionment with democracy in general." Talk about feast or famine. I guess in his eyes if you can't do democracy well, you shouldn't do it at all. Whether or not Gyanendra can work his way out of this is TBD, but this does beg the question, is Nepal looking ripe for a political takeover? And where better on earth to be then between the 2 largest countries in the world? Would China cloak such a takeover in a "helping our neighbor" cover?

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