The midnight march

Well everything has changed now.

I'm writing this at 2.30am, Tuesday 25th. I’ve just got back in. Earlier on this evening there was an announcement – The King would make a statement later. We’d already heard there would be curfews tomorrow – people were expecting that the King would say something bad. You don’t announce a curfew when you’re about to grant the people’s demands, right?

At 10.30pm the TV announced that the King would speak at 11.30pm. I didn’t think I’d last ‘til then. I’d had an unaccustomed joint. I went to bed. A bit after 11.30 – more like 12, I heard cheering and shouting, but I thought someone would come and wake me if it was good news, so I wasn’t sure what had happened. I’d almost been falling asleep, so tried to go back to sleep. The noise though didn’t die down. After a bit I could hear people in the street, chanting and walking. Lots of people.

Eventually I had to come down to see what had happened. No-one was in the communal area, or in the garden, the night watchman was at the gate and it sounded like the people were nearby, one of the French girls came out of the other building and we were asking the nightwatchman. He said it was difficult to explain in English, but that the King had agreed to democracy. But he seemed to have reservations. He said ‘I didn’t understand all of King’s speech’. Other people arrived, they were saying the King had made, not all concessions, but some. That the people were very happy, that it was democracy, ‘We won!’

I was flabbergasted, but the girls were going back to bed and the nightwatchman was on watch, so I went back to bed, thinking I’d find out more in the morning. Of course also wanting to be out there seeing what was happening. After a short while, with more chanting getting loud again outside, I knew I wouldn’t sleep. I was thinking I could go out, just into the street to see what was going on.

I put on my boots with no socks (I only have one clean pair left), grabbed a bottle of water and went downstairs. A few people were up, sitting quietly talking. The noise of chanting had receded now. I sat with them and lit a fag, we were all talking about what had happened. How tomorrow the demonstrations will be full of confidence now. How people are near to getting what they want and they won’t give up now.

Then the owners wife and her friend came to the gate (they live in another house nearby). They were very excited and happy, they said her husband had gone to join the demonstration, up near the bus station. One of the lads looked around and said, ‘let’s go, eh?’ I was on my feet straight away. I had to see this!

We set off, a couple of staff, a couple of guests, walking up the road towards the ring road. We had to pass one group of soldiers, but they did nothing to stop us. We headed down a long road towards the bus station – a couple of km away. We walked for ages. Along the way we could faintly here the demonstration ahead of us. Also the occasional knot of people coming the other way, sometimes they would start clapping or whistling or cheering. Sometimes people would look out of their windows and laugh or clap.

One of the lads had a torch, sensibly, to pick out the bigger potholes or piles of rubbish to avoid. The air was still slightly warm – warmth coming out from the stones and the roadway after a hot day. We were walking quite fast. Occasionally we’d pass other people going the same way. A couple of motorbikes passed us, who the lads thought were press, but I didn’t see the signs.

We came to the ring road and turned left, onto the big, open road. We could hear the demonstration ahead of us louder now, but it was moving fast, it had sounded not too far away for a while, but we didn’t catch up with it. But now there were more and more people heading the same way. We passed the bus station. It was difficult to know when it stopped being people walking to the demonstration and became the demonstration.

We saw the hotel owner and one of the other guests and a couple of staff and joined up with them. The crowd were making more noise now. I noticed a couple of people look our way and doubletake, surprised. One of the lads laughed and said to me, ‘You make them feel braver, they are saying, "look even foreigners are here, it is good, it is OK".’ The procession stopped briefly, for some people at the front to shout slogans and wave their arms in the air. Then we carried on.

It was like a great gig or a club kicking off, or a football match. Everyone was exuberant. Spontaneous clapping, whistling or chanting breaking out. They were chanting ‘We want democracy’, ‘No more King’, 'This is the People's victory' and 'The movement goes on'.

There were maybe a few hundred people there. It was difficult to know where the demonstration began or ended exactly, it was spread out. We were still walking pretty fast. Fit buggers, these Nepalis. You’d never get a British demonstration going half as fast. Although it was mainly young to middle aged men – there were a few woman, but not loads.

We passed a police van parked at the side of the road. As far as I could see there was only one police guy. He was out of his van, standing ahead of it, and laughed and joked with the crowd passing him. After we passed him, he drove through the crowd, trying to get to somewhere ahead of us and after a little resistance the crowd let him through without rancour.

We walked and walked. (and chanted and chanted) Eventually we came to the bit of the ring road near our hotel. The police were stopping the way. Very brave of them really. I couldn’t see the front. I don’t know if they had guns. But there were policewomen there, standing right at the front facing the crowd.

Someone at the front started addressing the crowd. I found out afterwards he was saying, ‘OK, we have to stop now, we’ll go home peacefully, but tomorrow we go on and we wait to see what they say and we go on and we get democracy.’ The crowd was down to maybe three hundred now, we’d been losing stragglers. They started to disperse and the police stood aside. Our group, and a few others, headed up the road towards Thamel and our guest house.

We got home a bit before 2.30am, ordered a beer and drank a toast to Nepal and democracy. We sat and quietly talked for a bit. No-one can believe it. The Nepali guys were saying that history has been made tonight, That they didn’t know if it would come and that they had been afraid what would happen – if the King could continue his autocracy after so many days of strike and problems then it could get very bad. Now they feel like they have hope again and they are nearly there – still a way to go, but nearly there.

Quite apart from history, etc, it felt good to stride round the city, after so many days cooped up in just a few streets. The Nepalis have been much more restricted than the tourists. They were saying it felt ‘so cool’ to be walking the streets again, feeling brave and like no-one could do anything to then.

I've been so impressed by the Nepali people. It sounds stupid and I always hate it when people say the so-and-so people are like so-and-so - people are individuals the world over. But for 20 days of strikes and shortages and curfews and beatings they've continued to believe in collective action and people's power. People have walked for miles, sometimes days, to come to these demonstrations. And they've kept their good humour.

They deserve this more than anyone does. I hope it works out. Maybe it’s all true. Maybe the people united WILL never be defeated.

Breakfast-time

Everyone's smiling this morning. No curfew, everything's open again. Vehicles in the streets! So, the smog is back - ah, the smell of democracy!

The front page of the Kathmandu Post has a banner across the top - 'People Power Wins'.

They also quote a poll which found 90% of people in favour of a democratic republic and only 0.8% in favour of an active monarchy. They quote the King's speech - he has re-instated the suspended house of representatives, the first session to be held this Friday. He also acknowledges the people's movement and regrets the deaths. It's a lot better than the last statement but there's still a way to go here and still no-one knows what will happen.

I think the big demonstrations planned for today will still go ahead, but maybe in different form. I'm going to go out and see!