Global News Post: Southern Asia

Nepal's Youth Turn to Social Media in Constitution Campaign

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Photo by Jacob Poul Skoubo</i></span></span></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">In Nepal, thousands of young Nepalese have launched a campaign, using social networking sites, to pressure political parties to draw up a new constitution for the country. </span></i></b> </span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
For four straight Saturdays, hundreds of young Nepalese men and women have demonstrated in the capital, Kathmandu, demanding that lawmakers should forego their salaries if they cannot give the country its long overdue democratic constitution.<br />
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They are being mobilized through social network sites like Facebook. The campaign, “Nepal Unites,” has been triggered by deep anger with political parties, which have failed to reach a consensus and produce a new constitution.<br />
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The constitution was to have been drafted by May 2010, after a bloody civil war ended and the monarchy was abolished. But two deadlines have already been missed. The latest passed on Saturday.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The young, urban elite backing the campaign say they fear that squabbling political parties are endangering the country’s hard-won democracy.<br />
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“We are totally apolitical," said Prashant Singh, one of the founders of the Facebook campaign. "We don’t want to promote any kind of violence. We are not trying to derail the political process or by any means belittle the political parties, in general, because we all are believers in democracy and liberal values.  It is already democracy; we are just trying to strengthen it."<br />
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In less than a month, thousands of young professionals, activists and students have joined the campaign to press lawmakers to complete the transition to democracy.  For most of them, this is the first time they have turned out to take part in such protests - whether on the streets or on the net.  Their message to lawmakers is simple: “No work, no pay.”<br />
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Political analysts say the campaign highlights the deep frustration in the country at the stalled peace process.  <br />
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Analyst Yuvaraj Ghimire in Nepal says the three major political parties have not even decided on a first draft and have fundamental differences on what system of government to adopt.  <br />
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“These parties have basically taken a rigid stance, now trying to impose their individual lines to be the ingredients of future constitutions, whereas four years ago when they decided to come together, they had taken a pledge to pursue the political consensus. So from what they said four years ago, and what they are doing now, there is a world of difference,” Ghimire says. <br />
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Lawmakers voted Saturday to give parliament a three-month extension to write the constitution. But there are fears that this, too, might be frittered away.<br />
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Prashant Singh says, for the next three months, they will keep up the pressure on political parties.<br />
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“We are not going to sleep [become distracted] again. Very soon we will have hoardings at very important places of Kathmandu, which is like a countdown, 89 days left, 88 days left and things like that.  And, even on Facebook for example, people will change their profile pictures everyday, so it is like a constant reminder that we are awake and we are looking at it,” he says.<br />
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The campaigners say their message is hitting home. Many lawmakers had wanted a longer extension to write the constitution, but decided not to risk deepening public anger by giving parliament more than 90 days to complete the task.</span> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 4.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">VOA News</span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
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Nepal's Youth Turn to Social Media in Constitution Campaign

Photo by Jacob Poul Skoubo In Nepal, thousands of young Nepalese have launched a campaign, using social networking sites, to pressure p...

Yunus Loses Final Legal Battle to Challenge Sacking from Grameen Bank

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In Bangladesh, the supreme court has dismissed a final attempt by microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus to challenge his sacking as head of Grameen Bank, which he founded three decades ago.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">After a brief hearing, a seven-member bench of the supreme court dismissed two petitions seeking to overturn the sacking of Muhammad Yunus as head of Grameen Bank. The petitions had been filed by Yunus and nine directors of the bank.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Tuesday’s order ends a two-month legal battle by the Nobel laureate to save his job as head of the institution which extends tiny loans to poor people.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><u>Age discrimination?</u></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Yunus, 70, was dismissed for staying past the retirement age of 60. His supporters believe he was politically targeted for briefly trying to start his own political party in 2007.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The debate in Bangladesh is now moving to how the controversy will impact the work for which Yunus won international acclaim and a Nobel prize in 2006. His concept of microfinance is credited with helping millions of poor people in Bangladesh and other parts of the world.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><u>Stability </u></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Debapriya Bhattacharya heads the Center for Policy Dialogue in Dhaka and is a public policy analyst. He says the government must ensure that Grameen Bank’s stability is not affected. The bank has more than eight million borrowers, spread across more than 80,000 villages,</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and is a significant feature of the country’s rural economy.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">He says the government must also clarify its policy toward numerous other microcredit institutions which are working in the country.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"Given what has happened to the Grameen Bank’s leadership transition, it is important to note that the other microcredit operators at the field level should not feel threatened," he said. "No atmosphere of hostility should be created so that they do not feel it is not Grameen, but it is microcredit, as a whole, which is being challenged. It is very important for the government to reassure all these thousands of microcredit organizations operating in the field so that they do not feel any adverse environment. "</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><u>No worries </u></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The government has dismissed concerns that Grameen Bank will be affected by the removal of Yunus. However, fears about the government’s attitude to microfinance institutions arose after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called Yunus a “blood sucker of the poor.”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In recent years, microfinance institutions have faced criticism for charging high interest rates. In neighboring India, local governments have accused some microcredit lenders of predatory practices aimed more at enriching investors than helping the poor.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But most economists say microfinance has played a useful role in poverty alleviation in one of the world’s poorest countries. They say the loans, given without collateral, also help poor people overcome crises such as illness or loss of job.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 15px;">(VOA News)</span></div></div>

Yunus Loses Final Legal Battle to Challenge Sacking from Grameen Bank

In Bangladesh, the supreme court has dismissed a final attempt by microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus to challenge his sacking as head of Gra...