Why Robert Penner is being deported?
Nepal’s Immigration has asked Mr. Robert Penner, a Canadian citizen, to leave Nepal. Mr. Penner works as a scientist in Sprout Technology Private Limited, Kathmandu based private company. Mr. Penner, an “alleged” threat to national integrity, was detained by Nepal police based on complaints filed by anonymous twitter handle and by someone who claimed that Mr. Penner’s tweets was causing adverse impact to the social harmony. Mr. Penner is also alleged that as a foreigner with working visa, he is not allowed to express his opinion on Nepali politics. The twitter handle further blames that Mr. Penner is too much involved in Nepal’s politics and internal affairs of Human Rights in Nepal without providing any substantial evidence. The way complaint was registered is itself questionable and the way Government of Nepal (GoN) responded swiftly is even more astonishing with cancelling his visa and asking him to leave within twenty-six hours. GoN which is widely criticised for sluggish response and failure in providing relief to much needed earthquake victims, has stirred wide interest from the cross section of people within Nepal and internationally.
Read Pranaya Rana’s op-ed in the Kathmandu Post: Speak your mind
The hasty constitution that was passed after the April earthquake has widely been criticized and has reneged the rights of the minorities and marginalized community which was promised in the interim-constitution. The deplorable human rights violations to curb the protest against the new constitution by the GoN has received a lot of criticism from international community and marginalised communities within Nepal. This incident of harassing a foreign resident for expressing his opinion on his personal twitter handle regarding the politics of Nepal by GoN only epitomizes the intolerance and persecution of dissent, an authoritarian characteristic of Mr. Oli. Nepal’s incumbent PM Mr. Oli himself is known for faux-pas such as calling “human chain of Madheshis (an ethnical minority of Nepal)” as “Housefly chain” has resorted to totalitarian measures of subduing any dissents. This might be a tactic to consolidate the status quo while feeding the rhetoric of ultra-nationalism and Nepali-supremacy. The irony is that this whole course of actions is happening in the week of World Press Freedom Day.
Read New York Times Coverage of alarming Rob Penner’s arrest by Nepal Government : Nepal Arrests Canadian Man Over ‘Provocative’ Twitter Post
Mr. Penner is a scientist and a computer programmer. He, like any active resident would do, follows the national news and development. It is obvious for anyone residing in Nepal to follow closely Nepal’s politics and severe human rights violations as reported by Human Rights Watch, UN and countries like UK and USA. The human rights violations in Nepal by the government were tabled on the special UN human rights session in Geneva by European countries and immediate neighbor India. This has led to civil movements of all the other marginalized communities like Madheshi, Tharu and Janjati except the permanent establishment of Nepal, who enjoy the fruits of exclusivist state mechanism. Mr. Penner has contributed by fact based and incisive writings through open platform like medium and through op-ed published in various newspapers. His writings are focussed on truth exploration about the human rights violations during the six month of Madhesh Andolan against the newly promulgated constitution. More than 50 people were killed including security personnels during the Andolan. Human Rights Watch published an extensive reports of human rights violations during the civil movements – Like We are Not Nepali
Read the Toronto Star coverage: Canadian man ordered out of Nepal after political tweets
The report drew immense attention and scrutiny from the international community including UN. It was followed by spineless defense from the key people in Nepal media. Mr. Penner’s efforts post report were to debunk the non-credible and false propaganda done by the echo-chamber to protect of the crimes of GoN. Follow Mr Penner at Medium.
Mr. Penner never got actively involved with any political party or group, rather he merely expressed his political belief during the period of political turmoil. His hard-hitting fact based rebuttals might have upset right-wing people.
Read the Wall Street Journal news : Nepal Tries to Oust Canadian for His Critical Tweets
It is an utter shame for the people of Nepal, who are known as peace loving people throughout globe to deport a Canadian national, equally known for their humbleness. But lately, Nepal is neither peaceful nor democratic country anymore. A democracy without freedom of speech, is no democracy. The present democracy is mere word play by the status quoist, for the status quoist and of the status quoist. In lieu democracy, the old school conservatives of Nepal are fighting their last battle, and hence they want to consolidate power and further oppress the marginalized common people. The current government has resorted to violent means and propaganda to divide people in lines of ethnicity, castes and religion. A nation is built of people, for the people and after the people with diversity where everyone is equal, and not differentiated based on their color, caste, region and religion. Nationalism should embrace all colors in the palate, but not just be based on one caste, language and region.
