The clock is ticking - Nepali Times

MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA

The last four weeks have not been encouraging for those of us watching talking heads on the evening news, or reading a rehash of headlines every morning.

The special committee has not been able to meet for the last three weeks, the rhetorical war among the senior leaders is getting vicious. The power struggle between and within parties is reaching a climax.

The media gives the impression that things are pretty messed up. But look at it this way: there is an undeclared democratic movement going on within the largest party that not too long ago was waging a war against the state.

A senior Maoist leader, asked if his party was headed for a split, put it this way: "What happened to the country in April 2006, is now happening within the UCPN (Maoist)."

It is tempting to oversimplify the rift within the Maoists. There are clear differences among the top leaders on several issues, but they all understand the strength of a united struggle. This is something the Congress, UML or the Madhesi parties could never do. The Maoist party is going about its internal disagreements in a slightly more mature manner.

The present rift may have come at the worst possible time, taking the focus off the peace process. But it is in the larger interest of the polity that the biggest party in the country comes unified and clear to the table. The opposition's trust deficit towards the Maoists is to an extent fuelled by the fact that they are never sure if the comrades they are negotiating with reflect the official position within the party.

And now, the Maoist Chairman has lost the trust both within and outside the party at a time when he needs it the most. This is not a happy scenario for him, nor to his party. And for the country it means continued instability and statelessness.

It is a mess Pushpa Kamal Dahal is responsible for creating, and he better clean it up if he wants to regain his credibility. He has to overcome his persecution complex and stop behaving as if the entire world is against him. He can start by regaining trust of his deputies. A party that has committed itself to democratic politics must first address the democratic deficit within itself. Wartime bureaucratic centralism must evolve to allow devolution of responsibility and power.

Then Dahal has to face the other parties at the negotiation table. Gone are the days he could fool people with his legendary persuasiveness. The opposition has heard enough promises, they want to see action. Anything less will stall the peace process and raise questions about the party's commitment to a new constitution.

It is true that the peace process cannot be reduced just to the issue of integration and rehabilitation of ex-combatants. The absence of violence in the material sense is not peace, it is organically linked with ensuring
justice and freedom in the new constitution. So, the drafting of an inclusive constitution is very much a part of the peace process.

Procedurally, however, the integration and rehabilitation of the combatants does not have to wait for the constitution.
The technical nitty-gritty of integration seems to be the least of the problems. The issue is trust, or the lack thereof. The Maoists have to trust that the public support behind them is more influential and reliable than the weapons they have stashed away. The quicker they jettison their guns, the more public support will they earn.

Mohan Baidya & Co, especially, have to understand this because (true or not) they are the ones slotted as "hardliners" and the onus is on them to clarify this within and outside the party. The clock is ticking, and the Maoists have less than two months to resolve their internal dispute and restart the sputtering peace process.

Read also:
New time frame, ANURAG ACHARYA
The next move, EDITORIAL

1. who cares
"It is a mess Pushpa Kamal Dahal is responsible for creating, "

never forget that its puspa (from maoist internal point of view- the main real low lives who brought them here are- shah, koirala, india, some eu) who sailed maoist to this position.

and what is the skill of puspa behind this success- you have mentioned it too "one are the days he could fool people with his legendary persuasiveness. ".

those other two bahuns happily had been eating the butter produced by puspa's deception for years, and today, when no one is willing to be fooled again so puspa is no longer able to make the butter, now those two bahuns want to sidline their long time leader.

Posted on: 15 JULY 2011 | 1:08 PM NST

2. jange
Who cares?

The only significance of the Maoists was that they were allowed to murder, loot and extort.

Once that is stopped there is no reason for hem to exist and they ill go back to being what they were- a minor nuisance.

Posted on: 15 JULY 2011 | 3:25 PM NST

3. jange
And for the country it means continued instability and statelessness.

Statelessness??

Posted on: 15 JULY 2011 | 7:46 PM NST

4. Soni
"The present rift may have come at the worst possible time, taking the focus off the peace process."

You know, and yet, you choose not to.

The rift has indeed come at a crunch time, it has taken attention away from a lot of things. YCL, return of property.............everything suddenly forgotten. Makes one wonder if it indeed true that you can fool some people all the time.

Posted on: 16 JULY 2011 | 12:12 PM NST

5. jange
# 4

It has worked every time and it will this time too. How many weeks left now for the CA term to end? And the NT is discussing irrelevant Maoist gossip??!! But wait for there to be a few days left and the NT will be exhorting everyone to extend it again since that is what the Maoists want.

Posted on: 16 JULY 2011 | 2:32 PM NST

6. Arthur
"The clock is ticking, and the Maoists have less than two months to resolve their internal dispute and restart the sputtering peace process."

Or else what?

Since you accept that everything is entirely up to the Maoists, and see that no other forces have any relevant role to play, what is the point of blustering against the only party that could resolve matters?

Posted on: 17 JULY 2011 | 7:21 PM NST

7. Comrade Harry Subba
PS.
Let Ajaya Sunmargi and Upendra Mahato provide the audited statement and get the clearance.

Posted on: 19 JULY 2011 | 9:39 PM NST

8. Gadkari
3 Arthur.
Wait till Sujata Koirala,& Bam Deva Gautam ,. Join the Maoist Party. They should also be made the Vices ,VPs.,.
They are the comrade-in -arms in Sudan scam.
Jhala Nath Khanal can be Assistant- President too., AP.
Let parties break ,so that there is no whip in the CA, conscience voting must be allowed in the CA for a good constitutiom.

Posted on: 19 JULY 2011 | 9:46 PM NST

9. John Kelleher
3. jange

>> "Statelessness??"

An unfortunate error in word choice, though not the most egregious this writer has ever made. At least he's no longer quoting Lenin or posting bad-tempered rants about "throwing" people "out of Red Nepal!" Collecting his stipend from the corporate media he previously loathed has had a most welcome moderating effect on his tone.

It hasn't stopped him from shooting rather wide of the mark, of course. Some of us recognized Prachanda's "legendary persuasiveness" as transparent, rancid lies from the beginning, and his party's "commitment" to "democratic politics" as nothing more than a tactical feint. How tragic that it's taken more than five years for others to slowly come around to the same conclusion. The writer's awkward discomfort with his own logical dissonance is palpable: he knows that the Maoists neither can nor will renounce their weapons or their private armies. Violence is their trump-card: it has gotten them what they want until now, and they would be foolish to let go of it until they have their hands on the unqualified power they seek.

Yet once again the writer begs them to give up their arms to win public support: a support the Maoists largely enjoy by dint of coercion and the public perception of preponderant force being in the Maoists' favor. The Maoists are not going to shoot themselves in the foot simply to gratify the writers' daydream of the UCPN-M morphing into a nonviolent progressive political front. It's not in the cards, and it's certainly not in the Maoists' own political philosophy.

Odd that people who continue to credit the hoary, moth-eaten myths of revolutionary socialism should be surprised when the net result is instability and "statelessness" (sic). I cannot see that it's ever produced much else.

>> "A senior Maoist leader, asked if his party was headed for a split, put it this way: 'What happened to the country in April 2006, is now happening within the UCPN (Maoist)'." <<

This is rather funny! If the implication here is that the Maoists are headed towards internal collapse, institutional emasculation, structural disarray and long-term political failure, then I would be the first to welcome the news. Such a pity that the anonymous apparatchik is almost certainly indulging in hyperbole, at best.

Posted on: 19 JULY 2011 | 1:26 AM NST