Post Breakfast
Nepal: The difficult road ahead
NEPAL'S newly elected leadership has just changed the country from a monarchy to a republic. The approved proposal stated that Nepal is now "an independent, indivisible, sovereign, secular and an inclusive democratic republic nation".
This has been a historic move and has ended about 240 years of autocratic rule in that country. As a follow-up, a letter was sent to the 60-year-old King Gyanendra and his family, asking them to vacate the royal palace in 15 days. It is generally expected that the ousted monarch can continue to live on in Nepal as a private citizen.
This was probably a better format than taking recourse to violence. Apparently, out of 564 members of the Assembly, present and voting, only four voted to keep the monarchy. This underlined the popular distaste quite firmly. In a manner of speaking, such a step has completed the process whereby King Gyanendra was forced to end his royal dictatorship and restore democracy after widespread protests two years ago.
A full circle has been completed. It has seen the unexpected victory of the Maoist rebels in Nepal's elections, surprising both the former rebels themselves as well as political observers and the international community. The general expectation had been that the rebels would trail behind the country's two largest political parties, the Nepali Congress, and the mainstream-left, the Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist. However, both parties were left far behind and the Maoists won half the seats chosen by the first-past-the-post system. This also enabled them to gain about 30 per cent of the votes for seats given by proportional representation.
Historic changes have been made but more difficulties lie ahead for the new Nepalese leadership.
The first will be shedding the latent violent image of the Maoists themselves. The Maoist leader, Prachanda, has been quick to try to reassure the public political parties and the international community about his party's commitment to multi-party and peaceful politics. However, skepticism still abounds. In this context, senior leaders of other parties have urged the Maoists to dismantle their radical youth organization, the Young Communist League that has been blamed for many incidents of intimidation and extortion.
After this will come the difficult task of planned military integration of the former Maoist fighters into the national army. The army has said they will have no problem in working under a "legitimate" government. It has however also repeatedly made it clear that politically indoctrinated former rebel fighters cannot be part of the professional national army. This situation has become even more delicate given the alleged bad blood between the two sides and the use of derogatory language against the army chief by the Maoist leader.
Apart from these challenges, the former rebels will also have to deliver peace, stability and "economic revolution," all of which have remained their mantra for several years. The first, in this regard for the Maoist leadership will be to deal immediately with soaring price rises of food, fuel and construction material in the country. Failure to deliver might affect public euphoria.
It will be a complex journey but one that will be most interesting.
The initial strategic measure will have to address most of the factors that are associated with a mandate that wants transformation of the government from conformist-cum-centrist bourgeois democracy to socio-cultural democracy. The unexpected results of historic Constituent Assembly (CA) elections have invigorated the CPN (Maoist), now the largest political party, on the one hand, and have enervated the former power holders, the National Congress (NC) in particular.
The NC, quite understandably not very happy with the results, immediately publicly demanded the disbanding of parallel state-mechanisms like the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the People's Court, setting a fixed date for integration of the displaced people; immediate return of the seized property of displaced people; amending of the constitution to form and oust government with a simple majority instead of the current two thirds provision; an immediate end to threats, looting, beating, kidnapping, killing, extortion of donation and arson; creation of an independent judiciary, a constitutional authority, and separation of the government media, executive, police and army from the political arena. To say the least, the list is a tall order.
Among these demands, priority has been particularly given to the issue of amending the two-thirds constitutional provision to a format of simple majority. Prachanda initially disagreed, but has now agreed with such a measure. India, a major player in Nepalese politics also appears to have accepted the decision. The NC has been adamant about amending the constitutional provision because they believe that this will bring about a counter-balance to a Maoist leadership, that has control over the state mechanism, the security forces, and their own parallel local forces, the "People's Courts".
Nepal, for quite some time has been the focus of attention of the two major powers in the region-India as well as the USA. China has also taken keen interest in the evolution of the Maoist political presence. Communist ideology's triumph in that country has now added a twist to the tale for all these three countries.
The US Ambassador to Nepal Nancy J. Powell has said that the election appears to have been a credible one, 'despite reports of widespread intimidation and violence prior to the elections and problems on election day in some polling places'. Former President J. Carter, present in Nepal at the time of the elections has also endorsed the electoral process. Their views are important for Nepal because the USA has still not removed the terrorist watch tag attached to the Maoist party. Hopefully, to assist the process of democracy, the USA will now take necessary steps to remove the current designation of the CPN (Maoist) as a terrorist body on the Terrorist Exclusion list. This is vital if the issue of reduction of poverty is to be addressed meaningfully. International communities who want sustainable peace and security through social justice in Nepal will now have to take the bold step of trusting the results of the elections being a milestone that can drag Nepal out of its ancient feudal mould into the modern era.
I believe that whatever be the policies, programmes and strategies of the Maoist led national government, the prime movers in the new scenario will be the bureaucrats, diplomats and technocrats. Hopefully, there will be less politicisation than before. The security forces and the judiciary will also have to play an integral role in ensuring that there is a decline in extra-judicial killings, terror, violence and extortion.
The Maoist led government, in the seat of power for the first time, will have to tread very carefully and act with responsibility. This could start by ensuring that there is a political consensus incorporating all major parties including the MJF and the TMLP. They have to find necessary least common denominators and then act on them.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments