Logic For The Maoists

These are the things the Maoists themselves have said:

• That their ultimate goal continues to be a classless utopia, but that the goal could take a hundred or more years to realize.
  
• That even if they were to come to power, their transformation of the state to that end would be peaceful. They basically are ditching the Mao line that power flows through the barrel of a gun.
• As to how to come to power. Their first choice is to get the seven parties to come along for a common goal of a Democratic Republic. If that be not forthcoming, they are willing to settle for a Constituent Assembly to draw a new constitution for the country, and if the Assembly were to keep a Constitutional Monarchy, they will be fine with that.
  

So there are only a few points of contention left:

1. Whether or not to go for a Constituent Assembly. The parliamentary parties, especially the two big ones, were not for the idea for the longest time. But now they have come around to it. But the Monarchists are still not for the idea. As to how to get the Monarchists to come around to it remains a struggle. The longer the Monarchists hold on, more they stand to lose.
   
2. How to enter the Constituent Assembly. Here the Maoists are unclear. They are going to have to disarm for that. As to how to disarm, on that point I myself am unclear. But I am open to the idea of third party mediation. Disarming can be done in several ways. And of course the army will have to be sent back to the barracks before elections can take place.
   
3. Who will conduct those elections? I think an interim government should. Here Girija has been posing a problem. This whole House revival thing has the ring of a Baptist revival.
   

For now it would be best for the Maoists to take the initiative to engage in trust building measures. I wish the democrats took the initiative, but I believe the Maoists might swamp them electorally after peace, so the Congress and the UML are leery of engaging the Maoists more than they have done so far.

On their part, all the above stands of the Maoists have only been taken by the central leadership. They of all people need to understand they need to adopt their new platform through a party convention. They, after all, have taken a fundamental departure from classic Maoism. That has to be formally codified. Because if they don't, they are making it hard for people like me who have been working against the global demonization of the Maoists to make headway. If the Maoists do now believe in the peaceful tools of state power, how come they have not said as much in any of their authoritative documents? That is a valid point.

Whichever camp - the Maoists or the democrats - takes greater initiatives to engage in trust-building measures now will reap the larger rewards once peace is achieved. Because the Nepali people sure are watching. And they do understand.

The Maoists should not become enemies to their steps 3,4,5 and 6 by not getting creative with steps 1 and 2. And if they do take the lead, they stand a strong chance of emerging the largest party within a multi-party framework. After all, is that not what they want?

It is like the Gagan Thapa dilemma. He has the guts to challenge the king for the democratic cause, but he gets confused when it comes time to challenge Girija's autocratic ways inside the Congress.

The Maoists have been willing to die for their cause. But now when their goal is in sight, will they make some smart, peaceful moves to make all those sacrifices worth it?

The current political paralysis has to be undone. One camp has to take the initiative.

Some of the things the Maoists could do to seize the initiative:

1. Engage the cadres of the seven parties at the local levels in dialogue. Prove that they can work freely wherever. For this you do not need the permission of the central leaders of the seven parties.
   
2. Call for a party convention to adopt the new party program of a peaceful transformation.
   
3. Halt the military campaign, and aid the seven party agitation in all the urban areas. By just staying out of the way.
   
4. Start training your cadres for the transition. Peaceful grass roots organizing is different from wielding the gun. Teach them new skills.
   

I mean, you can not say you do mean to lay down your arms and engage in peaceful, progressive exercises of power, and then turn around and give the world hell about disarming!

The UML is about to totally go republican. The Congress is heavily tilting that way. But neither of them will ever compromise on the basic disarmament issue.

In The News

• Seven-party meet to continue Monday NepalNews Nepali Congress (NC) president Girija Prasad Koirala, CPN (UML) general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal, NC (Democratic) acting president Gopalman Shrestha, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NEPP) chairman Narayan Man Bijuckche and Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Anandi Devi) general secretary Hridayesh Tripathi and United Left Front’s Chandra Prakash Mainali attended the meeting.
• UML meet continues NepalNews ..... the UML leaders stressed that the party should opt for a democratic republic...... Jhala Nath Khanal, reportedly, demanded that the party go for an early general convention so as to reorganize it from an ideological, political, theoretical and organizational point of view.
• NC Leaders Suggest Organizational Reform Kantipur ..... pressed for the election of 75 percent of central working committee members, including vice-president of the party..... Currently, NC general convention elects 50 percent of the central committee members and the rest are nominated by the party president...... also suggested reservation for underrepresented groups— women, Dalits, Janajatis and people from underdeveloped regions— in the party's central committee. ..... Ram Chandra Poudel, Narahari Acharya, Dr Ram Saran Mahat, Arjun Narsing KC, Mahesh Acharya, Lila Koirala, Aamod Prasad Upadhaya, Radheshyam Adhikari and Chandra Bhandari..... the party's central committee members be given more responsibilities in party activities to decentralize power traditionally concentrated in the party president. ....... election of the vice-president in the party would clear the line of leadership succession for the future....... Narahari Acharya suggested that Koirala should clear the way for younger leaders to contest for the party presidency. He also informed Koirala that he would contest for the presidency.

The Democrats

This is the best of the three crowds. It is not any face on the map: it is rather the ideal of democracy that has oomph. Although there are some faces that really stand out: foremost of course being BP Koirala. Talking democracy in 1990 or 2000 is much easier than it must have been five decades back, and BP talked democracy back then.

BP had his fair share of comrades, not least among them being his brother Girija himself whom he lovingly referred to as a "hawaldar," someone more useful as a freedom fighter than he ever was as Prime Minister.

Krishna Prasad Bhattarai did a great job as interim Prime Minister. He had this great way of diffusing tension and taking along disparate people for a ride.

In the UML camp, Madan Bhandari stands out. His theoretical contribution to bringing his hard core communist party into a multi-party framework might not ring a lot of bells for the democrats, but it was a big leap for the communist camp. Too bad he did not stick around to cultivate his ideas further and to apply them with tools of power.

Gajendra Narayan Singh is a major symbol for the DaMaJaMa crowd, or at least for the largest component within it. His work remains unfinished business.

Old faces must go, new faces must come into place. That is necessary for the democratic process.

But now the talk has to be about tomorrow.

In a way it is tragic where the country is today. On the other hand, it is also a golden opportunity to create a new Nepal. It is possible to put Nepal on the political cutting edge so as to unleash its economic potential.

It is homework time for the democrats. There have to be free-flowing discussions, but there also has to be unity for the common bedrock of democracy itself.

Like Jesse Jackson would say, "Movement Time!"

Talk about new faces, I think Girija himself has identified two of them!

Gagan Thapa and Narahari Acharya both have clarity of vision. They are more in tune with the sentiments on the ground than most others. It is a litmus test for a democratic party as to if it will make room for these two or sideline them. And it is also a challenge to the political skills of these two to prove that they can walk the walk in intra-party politics, because that is one of the things you do for the democratic ideal you have wedded yourself to. Bill Clinton says politics is a contact sport. You have to get in the mud. Or like John Kennedy once noted, "Mothers want their sons to become president, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process."

An out of power party has to necessarily be transformed before it can reclaim power. And that transformation is not easy. You have to pick fights along the way.

Bill Clinton had to reinvent the Democratic Party before he could become president in 1992, Tony Blair had to do the same with Labor in Britain.

A Nepali Congress that can not introduce internal democracy inside the party is not going to be the foremost voice for democracy in the country.

And the Nepali democrats actually have it easy. Aang Saang Su Kyi is in jail in Burma. Benazir Bhutto is in exile. If you can't do it under the given circumstances, when can you? The 1990 movement was conducted in more difficult circumstances.

If the democrats do enough homework and well, they are back to occupying centerstage.

Nepal will have to establish democracy, and then Nepal will have to export that democracy elsewhere in the region.

Food, water, democracy: every human being needs and deserves these three things.

And that Nepal is a global concept. The Nepali diaspora has been a big part of the movement. The social fermentations that take place among the diaspora also has a positive impact on the process of social transformation in the country.

The impact is also to be felt economically. A democratic Nepal will be able to tap into its diaspora to make possible rapid economic growth.