Thursday, January 19, 2006

Prakash Chandra Lohani Is Off The Mark


Before I even get into the details of Dr. Lohani's article, let me make it absolutely clear, it has always been my position that a communist republic is out of question. An executive monarchy with only limited democracy is preferable to a communist republic. But then I am also opposed to any attempt at political blackmail by the Monarchists.

But my point is the Maoists do not want a communist republic, and they can not get it even if they might want it. They do envision a long term communist republic, some kind of a socialist utopia, but then America some day hopes to send a "manned" mission to Mars, if George W. is to be believed. That long term vision does not bother me the least. They are looking at 100 years or more by their own account.

After 2/1 I think I was the first and the only democrat who consistenly reached out to the Maoists to seek common ground around the goal of a democratic republic. The enemy of your enemy is your friend. Some people claim Dr. Baburam Bhattarai's time spent in "protective custody" around that time had something to do with his suggesting the Maoists should come around to the idea of a democratic republic and not see India as their primary enemy. But then I might be wrong on that one.

Prachanda: A Profile
Prachanda Is Angry
The Twins Gyanendra And Prachanda Are Watching Closed-Circuit Television
Nepali Maoists And The US Perspective
The Monarchists, Not The Maoists, Are Like The Al Qaeda
Online Coverage Of The Maoists
Nepal Communist Party (Progressive)
To: Prachanda, Baburam, Mahara, Badal And The Rest Of The Maoist Leadership
Doing Business With Baburam Bhattarai
Baburam Bhattarai On A Democratic Republic
Ideological Overture To The Nepali Maoists (2)
Democrats, Imagine The Worst From Monarchists/Maoists
Ideological Overture To The Nepali Maoists
Sought eDialogue with Dr. Baburam Bhattarai
Towards a Democratic Republic of Nepal

The Maoists have made it very clear they are for a multi-party framework in the 12 point agreement with the seven party alliance. Is that dishonesty on their part? Are they out to use the parties to finish off the king? I don't think so.

My position on the 12 point agreement is that it is work in progress. (10 Point Agreement To Succeed 12 Point Agreement) Actually my first reaction to the 12 point agreement was hostile. The Maoists had not said much that was new. Just look at this article by Dr. Bhattarai which came a long time before the 12 point agreement. Why could the parties not have just read that article and hurried things up?

To: Dr. Baburam Bhattarai
Baburam Bhattarai, Pramod Aryal, Ram Chandra Poudel

But then the king has consistently acted like the Maoists make it possible for him to become an executive monarch. He leaves no room for an ideological transformation on the part of the Maoists. A low intensity insurgency suits the designs of a guy who intends to be an activist monarch.

Why do I say that? Because the king and his people accuse the Maoists of having used every previous round of peace talk to only regroup. That just is not true. It is the king who has ensured the failure of every previous round of peace talk by refusing to come around to the idea of a constituent assembly. The king's idea of peace talk is that the Maoists surrender. Just like the king's idea of dialogue with the parties is that they come around to his ridiculous roadmap. The monarch has a feudal mindset.

Prakash Chandra Lohani himself is of dubious character. If the Panchayat had lasted forever, that would not have bothered Lohani one bit. If Lohani is a democrat, he is so by default and by convenience. Now that the executive monarchy is back, he seems to be feeling perfectly at home.

The Lohani tendency is to say the 1990 constitution is good enough. My position is that is one disgusting piece of document. I feel that way as a Madhesi. (This Inadequate, Improper, Insufficient 1990 Constitution) And you know I am no Maoist.

Do I trust the Maoists? I don't have to. I seek for them to come forth to a stated position that I can trust. And then I seek a roadmap that I can trust, and then I move ahead one step at a time. I wish to engage the Maoists in a respectful dialogue. I have gone so far as to challenge Dr. Bhattarai to come up with a more progressive constitution than the one I have outlined: Proposed Republican Constitution 2006. In stating that challenge, I am perfectly comfortable with the idea Dr. Bhattarai might quote Mao.

So what roadmap am I talking about? I think the 12 point agreement should be revised. (10 Point Agreement To Succeed 12 Point Agreement) The country should skip House revival and should go straight to an interim government. Madhav Nepal should be interim prime minister as the leader of the largest party. The interim PM ought be Commander In Chief of the army. The state army and the Maoist army should be integrated. The Maoists should be guaranteed physical safety. I am fine with the idea of their having their own armed cadres as their bodyguards, only now they will be on state payroll. They should become a political party. And the country should go for elections to a constituent assembly. Do I believe the Maoists will accept the outcome of the assembly? Yes.

I guess they can always go back to their old ways, theoretically speaking. But then they will have to raise an army from scratch.

But my bet is if the country were to adopt my Proposed Republican Constitution 2006, the Maoists will have no political room to go back to their violent ways.

So, yes, I believe in a political solution to the insurgency. Not only that, I have a clear proposed roadmap.

But then there is the Lohani school of thought that refuses to believe the Maoists are capable of ideological transformation. That school of thought is housed by people who enjoyed unchallenged power during the Panchayat, are even today just fine with the idea of an activist king, think the 1990 constitution is great, belong to the ruling class, have no empathy for the grievances of the DaMaJaMa (Pradip Giri: DaMaJaMa), and do not face discomfort of any kind personally no matter if the country go through famine, civil war, or worse.

Baburam Bhattarai on the other hand is an amazingly smart person, well read, of modest background, and never part of the power elite in the country. He speaks from the margins. Nepal's peasants are like Mao's peasants were. I can see how Maoism might have had appeal. But I want to give them ample room to transform themselves and help create a kind of democracy that does not exist in any other country on the planet. I am not asking them to surrender. I am not forcing them to defeat. I am saying their goals can be better met with my Proposed Republican Constitution 2006. I am giving them respect, and a positive outlet, the kind Mao himself never imagined. My attempt at classlessness is more sound, more real, more lasting, and it does not involve violence. But it does involve a fundamental restructuring of the state, more fundamental than has happened in any other country.

Yes, I am for a democratic republic. The king has had his chance to accept a constitutional monarchy. He wasted his opportunity. I don't think he is capable of coming around to the idea of a constitutional monarchy. He said no to tea and coffee. So now it is soda time. (Tea, Coffee Or Soda?)

If I were the seven party alliance, I like the Maoists better, because at least the Maoists engage in dialogue. It has been beneath the king to hold genuine dialogue with the parties. The heck with such a king.

We democrats talk from a position of strength. Neither the king nor the Maoists have it in their power to deprive us of democracy. It is called people power.

Strategic intent

By PRAKASH CHANDRA LOHANI

The concept of "strategic intent" was first introduced by two professors of Management, Gary Hamel and C K Prahalad in a seminal paper written in 1989 while analyzing the competitive behavior of Western and Japanese multinationals. It was argued then that strategic intent as a concept projected an inspiring obsession irrespective of a serious mismatch between resources and ambition. For the leadership, the challenge is to be creative enough to close the gap by building new advantages through a series of tactical moves in different phases.

In this process, changing the terms of engagement, competition through collaboration or building new layers of advantages could be some of the flexible means to be employed. Moving from Management to politics is quite a big jump. However, at a conceptual level, the political struggle in Nepal gets its momentum from the strategic intent of the Maoists. It was and still is a projected obsession to create a Maoist state after defeating the rival, the multiparty system of governance with a constitutional monarchy.

The strategic intent of the Maoists was an ambition that was in no way adequately supported by the resources they had when they made their move about ten years back. The rival that was in control of the polity, the multi-party system, ignored this threat and failed to respond. The parties in power took it for granted that parliamentary elections provided them with the legitimacy to use (or misuse) power and that it could not be challenged from any quarter. This naive assumption has been confuted. The Maoists did succeed in challenging the parliamentary system when they successfully managed to thwart the general election in 2002 and consequently to create a constitutional crisis that has grown worse with time. Since then they have shown remarkable flexibility in the use of tactics to achieve their objective. It is they who have been able to define the terms of engagement against the multi-party system.

Their terms of engagement have been to dominate the periphery ie the countryside by employing both their ideology and raw terror. Slowly but surely the government has continued to surrender the countryside to the Maoists.

In a short period of time after the assumption of the executive responsibility by the king, the Maoists have succeeded to add a new dimension in their tactics of revolt. Now they have changed their political line and have come up with the policy of "victory through collaboration with competition " ie collaboration with the multi-party group, who are now deeply alienated from the king.

The collaboration with the multi-party group implies working in tandem with the competitor fully aware that at the end of the day the strategic intent is to eliminate the competition itself, which means to eliminate both the king and the political parties who profess to their faith in parliamentary system.

In lack of a far-sighted vision, the political parties have concentrated most of their efforts and political resources on the short-term goal of gaining power with or without the help of the king. The political parties have assumed naively that the Maoist cannot harm parliamentary system.

Even now the parliamentary parties do not seem to grasp the strategic intent of the Maoists, which remains the overthrowing of the parliamentary system. Underestimating the latter has led to this collaboration.

The implicit hope among the political parties is that the military strength of the Maoists will be an additional instrument for acquiring power even though they ideologically do not agree with their political ideology. The Maoists know this weakness and are eager to exploit it to the hilt The new layers of advantage that the Maoist now hope to generate from this collaboration is international legitimacy and the use of the political leverage of the political parties against multi- party system and the king. The UML, or at least the majority of its top leaders, seems to have decided to turn a deaf ear to this new development and may in fact be in the process of surrendering to the Maoists either consciously or unconsciously. On the other hand, the Nepali Congress, if the statements of some of its influential leaders are to be believed, has sensed this new peril and seems to be looking for an honorable way out of the quagmire.

The success of the Maoists' present tactics of "victory through collaboration with competition" could be successful in establishing new layers of advantage for the creation of a Maoist state, ironically at the very cost of competition and the political parties. However, much would also depend upon the response of the ruling establishment now headed by the king himself. It is high time that the government should stop underestimating the Maoists. It should show its willingness to consolidate its strength by defining common space with the political parties even if that would require the government to postpone the proposed municipal election for the present. The government should also learn from the Maoist that flexibility does not mean surrender or is not a sign of weakness as long as its strategic intent is clear.

(The writer is the co-chairman of the Rastriya Janasakti Party)

Visitors
18 January21:55Central Queensland University, Australia
18 January23:15Saitama City, Japan (saitama-u.ac.jp)
19 January00:05Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd., Nepal
19 January00:12Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, India
19 January01:35Singapore (singa.pore.net)
19 January01:49University of Hawaii, United States
19 January02:12UCI Medical Center, Irvine, United States

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