A recent change in Prime
Ministers in Nepal occurred smoothly, without protest in the streets,
even as we have come to expect protests around political events of
some magnitude. This smooth transition does not speak of order and discipline, but
rather suggests that what looked like a transfer of power was in fact
nothing but the change of personnel precisely in order to leave the
same power in place: there is an outward change in leadership but
problematically Nepal will remain the same, there is predictability
with regards to the important steps and decisions the new leader will
take, and hence he has been accepted without protest from the major
elements. In the major level of national politics in Nepal, there is
no vacuum and chaos after one leader steps down and before another
one has to be sought. Rather, the transition has been planned and
calculated in advance so that the needs of unchanging core power are
quietly met.
It is when there is such
a smooth transition at high levels of power that a micro-politics must become active. This micro-political whim could have
posited a new party with a new leader, simply as a disruption and not
as participatory in filling the vacuum after one
leader has left. An important goal of disruptive micro-politics in Nepal is
to show that any action in the vacuum between the major two or three
parties is interpreted as disruptive, regardless of its content,
and thereby dismissed or actively suppressed, so that no place
remains for the general population to act without participation and
support to the major political parties or interests.
One could raise oneself
as a candidate for Prime Minister out on a busy street in Jamal,
cause confusion in the fringe-cadres walking to or from a political
event, and thereby mobilize the major political parties' resources to
reflect on whether their own candidate is worthy, or to cause them to
become more alert and prepared for the planning of a rapid election
campaign, so that their own party can win against this new
political element that announced its candidacy quite randomly out on
the street.
But the goal of disruptive
micro-politics would not be to register one's micro-political event
in the ears of the major elements and interests, but to make the few
fringe-cadres around one more aware of how chaotic the fringes to
their respective political parties are, where their very own beliefs
and understandings of major political figures, events and processes are
never fully certain. This roadside micro-politics is interested in
enacting small and undetected chaos in the fringe-cadres' minds
rather than initiating activity in the major political elements,
organs and systems of Nepal.
The purpose of
micro-politics is not to distance itself from the major
national-level political events, but to position itself in-between
major political events, in between major leaders who are
orchestrating the transfer of power, precisely in those
places/moments where major political elements least expect there to
be resistance or disruption. The purpose is to show that the
major elements and interests cannot decide on their own when politics
is going to be smooth and when it is going to be volatile, but that a
whim in some individual of the general populace, or from a small
group of friends, can cause the fringe-cadres walking by to
re-evaluate the biggest tenets, symbols and leaders of their parties.
