The glory of life lies in providing maximum happiness for maximum time for maximum number of people. Modern history of Nepal in the past decade was ravaged by war, abductions, crimes, deceit, extortions, murders, wrecked industries and, above all, by the tom-foolery of our so called leaders who practiced politics without principles and pushed the nation to the brink of being a failed state. Rather, in the first half of the decade the leadership of the country has left the people in disarray, disillusioned, in dismay and in discomfort while any form of happiness has just been a mirage. The suffering people were injected with the insulin dose, after the success of Jana Andolan II, of doing away with the monarchy and the establishment of a republic, and seemingly enabling them to leave their sick beds and sleep on a bed of roses. Today, the lot of the common man is just the same if not worse. Something terribly must have gone wrong, then. For this sorry state of affairs that the nation is in, the major blame lies on the leaders’ inability to think beyond their own vested self-preservation and the failure to understand the fact that the rule of law is more important than the rule of party leaders. Enough is enough, and any shortcomings now from the leadership will surely invite genuine people’s uprising (not be confused with the threat of Maoist kind of politically injected people’s revolt). At least in the early part of the past decade Nepalese felt they were happy to belong to a nation which is too small to commit great stupidities. The bubble burst with Royal Massacre of 2001. From here on the nation went downhill on a rollercoaster ride as successive non-performing leaders and governments experimented in trying to run the nation, and failed miserably. The end result, people suffered. Leadership stuck to power well shielded by the profuse use of words like for the good of the janta, building a Naya Nepal, Civilian Supremacy and lately National Independence. Looking back at history for the past half century, every ruler worth his/her salt pronounced that they would work for the welfare of the janta. Today, look where our janta is? Did the leadership work for the people, or for their own vested interests? The leaders simply cheated the people. Naya Nepal is another coinage of political jargon to fool the masses. To begin with, have we lost old Nepal raising the need to find a Naya Nepal? Or has Nepal gone to wars with its neighbors, thereby losing/gaining some territories requiring the drawing of a new map of Naya Nepal? No such thing has happened. Perhaps, building a better Nepal rather than a Naya Nepal would have been a more meaningful coinage. Establishing civilian supremacy, indeed, sounds very pleasing to the ears, UCPN- Maoist, like the knights in shining armors, seems to consider itself as the crusader for civilian supremacy establishment in the nation. But, in reality, the Maoists are grabbing common people’s land; their cadres and the YCL are threatening and extorting money from the common man as and when they like, murdering journalists and businessmen and shielding the culprits while their militant labor unions have wrecked the nation’s industries. What brand of civilian supremacy are they talking about? Are they talking about enforcing their kind of supremacy over the civilians? The thrust of their latest coinage of the words like ‘national independence’ is yet to be understood by the common man. The call for national independence, and taking into considerations Prachanda’s latest remark that “Whether we make it to the government or not, is to prepare and capture the state through people’s revolt”, has only helped in fueling confusion and fear in the people all the more. Nepal has seen the failure of every ‘tantra’, whether it was rajtantra, panchayat tantra, prajatantra even ganatantra. Now, it is ‘Jana-Ganatantra’. However, the business folks are quick to point out that only good and stable ‘Arthatantra’ can bail the country out. Sadly, in the era of failed political experiments, the so called Civil Society also has failed to live up to its goals and philosophies. The past decade has been both harrowing and horrifying for the nation and the people with weak governments in place, lawlessness, anarchy and impunity on the rise and the political forces working indifferently hurt and ruined the nation. No wonder ‘living martyr’ Bishnu Lal Maharjan died a frustrated man. Leaders should take inspirations from his sufferings and sacrifice, and write the constitution in time and bring peace to its logical conclusion. Uncertain, we live by the day, as 2010 looms, not knowing what is in store for the nation next. The nation woke up with a ‘bandh’ right on New Year’s Day 2010. Some omen! The glory of life is not ‘never falling’. The true glory lies in, in ‘rising’ every time we fall. In 2010, can the nation and the people hope for just one time and for the sake of the motherland that the three major political parties, the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN-Maoist will set aside their differences and summon the unity that this moment demands.