The spring of 1990 was witness to a mamoth democratic upsurge in Nepal. A historical divide was reached, which will separate all events that went before from those that come after. In making this division, history will judge all without mercy – actors and episodes, politicians and the wisdom of their choices and separate them into heroes and villains.
Those now entrusted with writing the new chapter will be judged most severely, for the principles they espouse and their acts of commission or omission will encode the genetic pattern of the country's future development. Whether Nepalis live better in the decades ahead will depend upon those who will fashion the new polity.
By sidelining the Panchayat system, the people have stated what they don't want. Like their Eastern European contemporaries, they rejected a political system with a philosophy and culture that failed to meet their aspirations.
However, Nepalis have not yet been able to articulate what it is that they want. Long fed a bland diet of Panchayat monism, they are now faced with an over-sumptuous choice of pluralism. Peddlers from the far left to the extreme right have surfaced, hawking new brews of factionalism, pseudo-nationalism, religious fundamentalism and ethnic exclusivism. Old ideas and concepts, which have been stagnant for 30 years in the absence of stimulating exchange and dialogue, are suddenly facing the stress of evolution.