Your editorial ("Fixing the roof while the house is on fire," #83) contributes to the debate on constitutional reform. The idea should be to elect peoples' representatives who are responsible and accountable to the people. Presently, most of them are not. Let the Maoists come forward and tell us why they want a constitutional assembly. How is this going to make MPs more accountable? What is the Maoists' model for a new constitution, how is it going to be an improvement on the present one? Let's stop this killing of Nepalis by Nepalis. The culture of communists is that they don't really care for what the public thinks or wants, they go into a closed-door session and decide for the rest of us. And then they invariably end up fighting each other. Krishna Prasad Bhattari used to say "you can't turn a donkey into a cow by washing it with milk". Thank god the Nepali people now know the difference. They know a donkey when they see one.

Hari Pokharel
Taiwan