How realistic South Asian leaders could be

South Asian leaders in Colombo are going to make another "historic" declaration at the 15th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit scheduled for 2-3 August. This year the Summit will be held amid two political uncertainties in the region: formation of a new government in Nepal and a week after Indian prime minister won the no-trust vote over the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. For two days leaders will try to hold off bilateral differences and focus on removing trade policy barriers in favor of intra-regional trade.

With the transition from SAARC Preferential Trading Agreement (SAPTA) to South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), the first step toward regional economic integration is complete. By 2012 the member-states, other than the four Least Developed Countries -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives and Nepal -- will reduce their duty to zero percent. These LDCs have until 2015 to fulfill this commitment.

India has a crucial role in realizing the SAARC ideals as it shares borders with all member-countries. A cordial bilateral relationship, especially between India and Pakistan, should build up trust toward regional cooperation. The current Indo-Pak trade under the Most Favored Nation status remains at below $2 billion, but experts talk of a $12 billion potential.

However, the ongoing hostility has thwarted prospects of any regional integration including cancellation of several summits.

India's considerable business interest in the region remains unexplored due to fragile political landscape in the sub-continent. Investors like the Tata Group are keen on setting up steel, fertilizer and power plants in Bangladesh that aims to bolster the economy of India's Northeastern states benefiting 40 million people. Such capital investments and enhanced commercial activities can bring down trade imbalance of $100 million exports and $2 billion imports.

Despite volatile political climate, Nepal opened up its market by recently awarding a 300 megawatt hydro-electric contract to GMR Energy, an Indian infrastructure company. However, the soon-to-be-formed government must create conducive environment for foreign investors. Two multinational subsidiaries, Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive, closed their operation due to insecurity. Since SAFTA also does not accommodate Indo-US ventures, and is thus ineligible for duty-free access, the Summit has a serious business to do.

The Summit should work toward goodwill measures in the interest of the region by increasing people-to-people contact as promised in recent declarations. Increasing physical connectivity, liberalizing visas for education, media and medical purposes are as important as duty-free access to goods. More specific cooperation can be reached in the sub-regional "growth quadrangle" comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal for power and water sharing.

Another contentious issue is cross-border terrorism. While India does not want any categorization of terrorism, Pakistan maintains some acts are "freedom struggles." Since both the countries have rejected the role of the United Nations in dealing with the Kashmir issue, the call for a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism among member- nations remains significant. India now seems to favor the UN Security Council Resolution 1373 (2001) to deal with terrorism.

Although the difference in approach over terrorism exists between the two arch-rivals, other bilateral issues in the region should not build further acrimony. Only recently India provided a soft-loan of $1 billion to Sri Lanka to upgrade its defense capabilities, and the two nations may ink a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) on the margins of the Summit. India is further planning a multilateral cooperation to set up gas pipeline through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Therefore, a regional consensus to contain terrorism and violence is as much important for big countries as it is in the economic and social interest of the smaller nations.

In addition to goodwill achievements, such as setting up of the South Asian University and agreement on SAARC model village, the Summit has to work toward a functioning South Asian Customs Union and operationalization of the SAARC Development Fund. The Intergovernmental Agreement on establishing the SAARC Food Bank is a credible move in dealing with the food security. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has also put this agenda at the forefront, besides climate and fuel crises.

SAARC observer-countries have shown immense interests in the development of the region. The Chinese proposal for a China-South Asia Business Forum and SAARC-Japan Special Fund could actually complement the intra-regional development vision. The Summit should be able to accommodate trans-SAARC issues beyond rhetoric.

To achieve all these, an effort in "building of trust and understanding" among member-states has been long due for the realization of a South Asian economic union.

Originally published on The Kathmandu Post.

Anticipating personality cult in Nepali Maoists

Only a few factors can be combined to conclude why the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) rose to power in just a matter of a decade. The armed struggle that began in February 1996 culminated in the civil uprising of April 2006 placing the CPN-M as the most decisive factor in the political history of Nepal. The people who put forth the agenda of federalism were not only radical at the time but they also molded the belief of a large mass to unite against the age-old institution of monarchy.

With the success of the Constituent Assembly election, which the United Nations called it “a historic achievement,” the nation waits to see how the leaders who once believed in armed rebellion conduct through a parliamentary process. One of the biggest concerns today is what kind of character will the Maoists develop given their history of coercion and intimidation. Will Nepal eventually become a totalitarian state like most communist regimes in the past? What is the impact of charisma in communist leadership in the context of Nepal? Will the modest background of leaders like Pushpa Kama Dahal ‘Prachanda,’ Dr. Baburam Bhattarai and scores of others eventually evolve to become autocratic once they have the democratic mandate?

Another concern in Nepali politics is concluding the intention of the Maoists who often say that to achieve a ‘higher ideal’ they have accepted ‘bourgeois democracy’ for now. Therefore, the abolishment of monarchy is only the first step. The socialists interpretation of poverty among the proletariat is due the rise of capitalism. However, since the Maoists are not opposed to capitalism this ideological shift creates confusion.

Does this mean the CPN-M leadership has a secret plan that will thwart the present agreement in which the UN is directly involved? As the Maoists have not disclosed their plans for the federal restructuring of the state, does it mean they are open to discussions, agreements and compromise? And if yes, until when?

We ought to see transitional democracies with some skepticism, especially when radical communists become powerful.

Media Stereotype: What is normal and what is a type?

Stereotype seems easy to define: an image that people hold about other people; but it is difficult to rationalize. When people have a "fixed mental image" that is applied to members of a group, it might seem justified because this image has been unconsciously approved by people who constantly use it.

At one level stereotype actually helps people to get a larger picture of the "other" who is different from the rest, and therefore, the general opinion is an economical way of viewing the world. So, can journalists also go by these stereotypes?

We see people using stereotypes in every culture. Some usage may be humorous while other can be negative and scathing.

The world of entertainment is replete with creative uses of stereotypes. In 2005, Screen Actors Guild commissioned a research on stereotypes that reported actors with disability faced “stereotypical” attitudes and were considered only for supporting roles. People with disabilities are rarely “allowed to develop into fully-rounded characters or shown as valuing and participating in typical activities like sports or fitness, thereby further reinforcing stereotypical views." This situation isn't likely to change in the next decade.

However, other groups of minority have had a favorable stereotype. For instance, in the United States Asians are considered as some sort of wiz-kids. In the 1960s, William Petersen wrote for the New York Times Magazine about the Japanese as the “model minority.” All immigrant communities in the US have some kind of stereotypes associated to them because stereotyping is deeply rooted in human nature.

In Bollywood movies, stereotypes of territorial regions or communities are predominant. For example, a south-Indian Tamil will be shown to be speaking a distorted version of Hindi, a north-Indian UPite is almost always a beetle-nut chewing bhaiyya (literally, a brother but used pejoratively), Pakistan is always India’s enemy, and a Nepali is always a baton-bearing Gurkha gatekeeper or night watchman who patrols the urban streets.

One such recent example of extreme stereotyping is the Hollywood blockbuster Borat. This movie outrageously ridicules Kazakhstan to the meanest degree. The humor in the movie comes from cynical portrayal of their habits and customs. I've talked to couple Kazakh nationals and they don't find this humorous at all. They felt it created an erroneous ethnic prejudice and created an unfair label about their people. The government of Kazakhstan objected to the movie for its misrepresentation of the country. Forbes.com reported about the “pernicious influence” of the movie and how government of Kazakhstan launched a massive ad campaign to salvage the country’s image.

An important question to answer is, does the entertainment industry reflect the characteristics of the society? If not, what ethical consideration should it make to create a better understanding of the ‘other’ culture? Can the media, both as journalism and creative arts, truly play a catalytic role? Do mass media have a responsibility to differentiate between reality and stereotype?

In the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists, there is a clear guideline, “Avoid stereotyping by race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, geography, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance or social status.” This guideline almost puts a journalist to perform a didactic role in an attempt to treat others with dignity. That is for journalists who strive for objectivity.

But how much is too much in the field of creative expression? Is there a line that one shouldn't cross? Well, that's another serious debate.

An onward march toward media professionalism in Nepal

(This is an excerpt of my short analysis of the struggle between free press and professionalism after the restoration of Democracy in 1990.)

Nepal has been a democracy in the making for more than half a century now. Theoretically, all the four Constitutions since 1948 supported the ideals of liberalism and pluralism. In the democratization process, journalists claim to have played an important role in the “upliftment of Nepalese society” (FNJ, 2008). The first step toward professionalism was the establishment of the Press Commission in 1959. The formation of a 12-member Press Council in 1972 was the next important decision that aimed to develop “healthy journalism” (Press Council Nepal, 2008). However, the history of the press goes back to as early as 1851 when prime minister Jung Bahadur Rana started the Giddhe press. Fifty years later, Gorkhapatra, a state-owned newspaper came to the scene. But the press could not enjoy full freedom, especially after 1960 when the party less Panchayat system of government controlled the press. The Council was forced to follow the policies formulated by the government of the time.

Unlike the development of media in the region, Nepal was silently left out due to its internal political instability and little geo-political significance in the region. Constitutional guarantee of the press came to a complete halt when the King dismissed the elected government and assumed executive powers in 2005. The hope for free press is revived once again after the April 2008 Constituent Assembly election which is charged with the making of a new constitution. Until then, the Interim Constitution of Nepal-2007 continues to guarantee “full freedom of the press” (The Interim Constitution, 2008). To help the press function professionally, the Code of Journalistic Ethics has been revised and amended in 2008 (Press Council Nepal, 2008).

Present Issues of the media

Though the idea of free press was upheld by the rulers, it did not thrive as a profession until after the restoration of democracy in 1990. The history of Nepali journalism has been dominated more by the diktat of the political parties who had been fighting the autocratic rule in the nation. Since the media supported the democratic ideals, it tended to naturally align with the politics. In the past two decades, the media have been operating more or less independently, both as a profession and as business.

The two biggest challenges for the Nepali media are raising the professional standards and catching up with the pace of the technology, both in content generation and distribution. The use of New Media technology in communication is still a distant dream. Less than 2 percent of the total population has access to the Internet (Towards a Digital Future, 2004). Therefore, the Nepali media are still traditional as compared to media in the western world.

On one hand there are media organizations that are engaged in traditional journalistic enterprise, on the other hand there is a need to participate in global issues (UNESCO, 2004). In true essence, the Nepali media didn’t carry out the watch-dog role until the restoration of democracy in 1990. The development of media has been supported mainly by foreign sponsored agencies. The ideology of the nation that supports any project has influenced the development of the media. For instance, a German sponsored project run by FES-NEPAL states its preference to enhance media coverage in “issues pertaining to conflict management and strengthening media role in democratization process” (FES-NEPAL, 2003). Another program implemented by USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives in 2006 focused on “transition to peace and democracy.” One of the objectives of the program was to “increase access to information and diversify public debate on issues critical to the political transition” (USAID/OTI, 2007). However, the program spent only 5 percent of the total $3.5 million budget.

Several international projects of similar nature are implemented in Nepal. But there are hardly any national or international strategies that focus on improving the overall quality of journalism. While there is a general agreement that journalists lack proper training and need specialized skills in reporting, partisan media have themselves been the biggest impediment in creating a value-based journalism. Since the development of journalism has been a fight for the freedom of press, the question of journalist integrity has received less attention.

For example, in June 6, 2001 a privately owned daily newspaper published an article by an underground Maoist rebel leader criticizing the king for masterminding the infamous royal massacre. The editor-in-chief and two executives were immediately arrested on sedition charges. The arrest led to worldwide condemnation and an appeal to release the journalists. Yubaraj Ghimire, the editor-in-chief, later said to the New York Times that his decision to publish the article was to present uncensored views of “person whose opinion is important to the nation” (Dugger, 2001, “Plot Thickens in Nepal”). The author of the article reacted to the incident after six months and wrote in the Monthly Review saying “Since a strict press censorship is imposed and the general public is subjected to one-sided royal military propaganda, the outside world is forced to buy the deliberately floated theory that the fight there is between ‘democracy’ and ‘terrorism’” (Bhattarai, 2002, “Birth Pangs of Democracy”).

Media Censorship

On February 1, 2005, King Gyanendra took absolute power by dismissing the government on charges of not holding the general election and the inability to restore peace. Immediately after he appeared on the television, telephone lines, cable and Internet connections were cut. The Army started patrolling the streets. Houses of prominent leaders were surrounded by the military. This was the second time he assumed political power after he became King in 2001 following the Narayanhiti Palace massacre that saw the death of 10 members of the royal family.

After the takeover, the fundamental rights of the citizens were curtailed. Military personnel were posted in media outlets and all news reports were monitored before they were published. There was a complete ban on FM stations that broadcast news. Equipments from stations were seized and journalists were beaten up. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in its 2006 report mentions that out of 1,066 cases of media censorship worldwide 567 alone were recorded in Nepal including two deaths. (Reporters Without Borders, 2006). Nepal was also placed in the list of “Enemies of the Internet” (p. 6). Even though the emergency was lifted on April 30, the independent media lived in great fear as a result they started imposing self-censorship. Even the state-run media faced some amount of censorship.

It was only when the press was facing such extreme censorship, Nepal got into the blogosphere. Views that could not be expressed in the mainstream media were now seen in blog sites like blog.com.np and mysansar.com. The educated Nepalese people craved not just for news but also waited for the censorship to be over so that they could see the media function the role of watch-dog, a role that was just beginning to be realized as an effective means in nation building process.

Brief history of Journalism in Nepal

The year 1950 marks the beginning of democracy in Nepal. With the end of Rana oligarchy and the return of King Tribhuvan B.B. Shah to Nepal from exile in India, democratic institutions were formed on the models of the Western countries, especially the UK. The freedom of the press has always been guaranteed with the promulgation of the constitutions in 1962, 1990 and 2006, but time and again the state has imposed restriction of some kind. There is hardly any historical record between the period of 1851 and 1960 with regards to the state of the media. When the state-run Radio Nepal was established in 1951, it had the characteristics of an Authoritarian model. But over the past decades the impressive development of community-radio stations has set a model even for commercial stations that broadcast in community-radio style. This transition from a strict control to following a Social Responsibility Model has not been that successful in the print media. The state-run Gorkhapatra that started as a weekly in 1901 was converted to a daily in 1960. However, even until today, the newspaper could not break away from the grip of the government, primarily because of the state control in appointing the management board.

The situation is similar in the state-run Nepal Television that was established in 1985. The total number of newspapers has increased by more than 60 percent since 2000. As of April 2007, a total of 4,600 newspapers have been registered, out of which 341 are daily newspapers and 1667 are weeklies. (Nepal Press Institute, 2008).

With the opening up of airwaves in 1995, commercial, cooperative and community-owned radio and television stations showed their independent presence. This breakaway from state-control and control from the political parties is the first step toward professionalism.

The community-owned FM radio stations are now networked to benefit from programs produced by other stations. In 2001 a project called Networking FM Radio Stations in Nepal (NFMRSN) was supported by Center for Advanced Media Prague and Panos Institute South Asia. The objective of this project was to “enable all radio stations in Nepal (FM/AM/SW) to benefit from shared program content by establishing a network that connects them through a mixture of internet, wireless and other new media technology” (PANOS South Asia, 2007). Nearly 50 FM stations currently run programs through such networks.

The most impressive feature of the growth is the spatial distribution of the stations across the nation ranging from lowlands to midland to remote areas. The initiative of the private sector is a breakaway from the state-centric model that was characteristic of the Southeast Asian political culture. Atkins (2002) mention that the idea of nation-building was tied to the media policy, and “television worked both to educate and promote national identification in the interests of national development and cohesion” (p. 14). Since the politics in the region has to accommodate a diverse culture, mass media was used to propagate messages that favored the ruling parties. Domestic media organizations were required to support state authorities by airing positive news about the government and ignoring the negative news of the opposition.

The idea that free media will disturb the social cohesion of a diverse society was a strong argument that leaders in Southeast Asia pursued for nearly half a century. However, the wave of liberalization in the 1990s, finally, paved a way toward free media enterprise that also influenced the scenario in Nepal significantly which brought professional interest in the practice of journalism.

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