by: J. Sri Raman, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Nepalese students protesting.
(Photo: AFP / Getty Images)
Celebrations continue in two South Asian countries, which have just witnessed the defeat of dictatorships. The war for democracy, however, is yet to be fully and finally won in Nepal and Pakistan.
In both cases, popular movements and mandates have yet to put a period to issues involving personalities that symbolize a discredited past.
And, in both, the survival and stabilization of hard-won democracy will hinge crucially on the role of a distant superpower that claims to be the supreme savior of the system, though it has been among the dear friends of the overthrown dictators.
Take the more recent and more dramatic case of Nepal, first. In theory, Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev is a totally defeated dictator with his famous palace in Kathmandu about to be turned into a museum and a 240-year-old monarchy into a fossil of feudal history. The people and the political forces of Nepal, however, are not ready as yet to treat the former king as just a reminder of a predemocracy past.
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