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Nepal's NC Not Favoring Change

Prakash Bom - 12/16/2008

Perhaps Maoist insurgency could have never been merged with "People´s April Uprising" if Maoists had not revealed their fundamental demand for the Constituent Assembly elections to draft a new constitution of Nepal. That is to say, if Maoist insurgency did not have surfaced demands along the people´s aspiration for democracy (but with their people´s war strategy to establish one-party totalitarian communist government system), people could have never given Maoists chance to get simple majority in Constituent Assembly. Is this what PM Prachanda is arguing and accusing NC for not fulfilling people´s aspiration?

Obviously, this has become apparent that PM Prachanda and his Maoist party are committed to drafting a new constitution of "Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal" after their national cadres´ successful convention. This means people have to trust Maoist leaderships for drafting a new constitution that guarantees civil liberty and rights of people under the competitive multi-party democratic political system with the federal government apparatus. Otherwise, if any Maoist hardliner string is attached then it will inevitably create not only national but also global oppositions.

Historically, the process of the Constituent Assembly elections for drafting a constitution of a nation has had never been the approach of any great communist revolution either of former USSR or People´s Revolution of China. All communist revolutions have had been manipulated by the personality-cult of an individual leader of the one-party dictatorship.

The chance for such a mass media to create a heroic public image of an individual such as Prachanda for a dictatorship in the contemporary Nepali politics for democracy is slim, no matter how honest, genuine, intelligent and charismatic is the leadership. Generally, in democracy such a personality-cult driven dictatorship is rare because it needs utter human absurdity devoid of human rationality and scientific thinking.

However, more than fifty years´ political disposition Nepal has been a personality-cult driven oligarchic domain. Nepali Congress party is the prime example of this temper because it has not given other capable, thoughtful and charismatic young leaders chance to lead the party. Koirala line of hierarchy has always resisted the change in the party mechanism.

The hierarchical status quoism mentality that insists on seniority based political tradition for the leadership (whether the candidate is capable or not) obviously resists the change as the underlying regressive force. If this is what PM Prachanda is having trouble with both in the politics and government mechanism then he must fight for change but never comply with, not for the sake of Maoist hardliners but for the sake of people´s aspiration for competitive multi-party democracy.

However, challenging to quit the government for people revolt against the "status quo" in the politics and government mechanism is not the intelligent solution, but an excuse for betraying people´s aspiration for democracy. Such a reactionary move might not only jeopardize national integrity with the blink of nationwide civil war but also undermine the historical achievements of April Uprising and Maoist People´s War. Honestly, any Maoist hardliner strategy for the socio-political and economic change is not viable but if attempted will be disaster.

Democracy works well if the political proposals are logical, justifiable and pragmatic, but not mere ideology driven arbitrations. The economic development of the nation is the priority but not at the expense of civil liberty and right of people or democracy. The most intelligent way to purge the tradition of status quo is to draft a new constitution that will set the legislations for restructuring state with the federal, state and local governments. No fundamental transformation can be brought to people prior to the completion of drafting a new constitution.

For example, the public education system cannot be transformed as Maoist led government has anticipated under the current government mechanism. If Nepal has been declared "Federal Democratic Republic" and it is committed to be governed with the federal government mechanism then no public school can be managed without its electoral district at the grass-root level. The public schools should be governed by the votes of electorates of the school districts of a local government of the federal government system.

Any fundamental socio-political and economic change such as scientific redistribution of land or agrarian land-reform cannot be implemented under the current government mechanism prior to restructuring the state. Again the central government can legislate the bill and state governments can re-enforce the process but the land-redistribution responsibility for implementation under federal government system is of the local governments.

The fundamental responsibilities of Maoist led government in transition is to draft a new constitution, to bring peace to a logical conclusion, maintain public safety and security and keep up a normal government mechanism by eliminating appalling corruptions, tradition of impunity and social injustice. The responsibility of Constituent Assembly and people of Nepal regardless of party affiliation is to support government to accomplish these objectives.

Most of all, the integration of PLA into Nepal Army has become the major obstruction for peace to reach a logical conclusion due to both NC and Maoist parties´ party-politics and arbitrary stand-off plus senior political leaders´ lack of sensibility.

For example, it is fair for NC to demand equal representation of all major political parties in Army Integration Commission in order to make national consensus much effective. Similarly, unprofessional integration of army with the PLA combatants who are under-age, who lack professional military training, who are active in politics as political leaders and cadres cannot be integrated.

Such pragmatic and scientific classification based on military professionalism must be established with the major political parties´ national consensus. In the name of peace to reach a logical conclusion Maoists cannot politicize the national army. After all, it is the national army but not Maoist can defend the national security.

Maoist led government has to stop down-playing other major political parties´ role in the transitional politics. The senior political leaders such as GP Koirala, MK Nepal, KP Oli and Kiran Baidhya need to be more sensible beyond the politics of power for their own status quo in order to assist transitional government to accomplish its fundamental objectives.

Maoist led government will be failure if it keep down playing the role of major political parties with their logical representations in the transitional politics because without their consensus Maoist cannot lead the government. Therefore, by no means Maoist led government can over rule the consensus of the major political parties and any decision that Maoist led government does without their consensus will create political gridlock.