Nepal’s authoritarian monarch, King Gyanendra, looks to be either on the verge of either being deposed or instigating a more brutal crackdown. After six days of riots, police have started firing on protesters.

Curzon sees things ending badly.:

Almost a year ago, I predicted that without serious aid from India and the West, the regime in Nepal would eventually collapse, giving way to a Maoist horror equivalent to what we’ve previously seen in Cambodia, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan. As I write this, demonstrations are taking over the streets of Kathmandu in Nepal. When you see pictures of police beating protestors and unhinged state violence, it’s easy for naive idealists to fret about the “pro-democracy protests,” get outraged over such tactics as the police shutting down cell phone service, and even take the pro-Maoist “Democratic Nepal” blog a little seriously.

Maybe these people genuinely believe that a collapse of the monarchy will lead to a democratic regime. But consiously or not, many of these people more accurately believe something closer to what Mark Safranski deconstructed and plainly translated in a comment last year:

“I want the Maoists to win but don’t really want to say that openly because that position doesn’t have much intellectual credibility – and it will hamper my disclaiming moral responsibility for Maoist atrocities in Nepal after the fact, should they win.”

Look at the flags many of these demonstrators are waving in the streets, it’s not the flag of liberty.

While Gyanendra is running, as Curzon describes, “probably the most unhelpful, reactionary regime that one could imagine,” it would be ludicrous to imagine anything better from the Nepalese Maoists. Long disowned by the capitalist rulers of ‘communist’ China, the Maoists are more similar in nature to Sendero Luminoso or the Khmer Rouge, the former being a major influence on the Nepalese Maoists in terms of both tactics and ideology.

It may be good to see Gyanendra gone but what comes next is be a big concern. AsiaPundit would consider intervention by New Delhi, Beijing or both far more welcome than a Maoist regime.

Sepia Mutiny has other views and an interesting comment thread.

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