Myopic parties

The political parties managed to sustain democracy and freedom for 12 years after the 1990 successful revolution. It has hardly been 12 months since the April uprising restored the parliament, and the political parties are already on the brink of losing democracy, freedom and sovereignty. Thanks to the myopic leadership. The political parties, especially Nepali Congress, UML and CPN (Maoist) are responsible for bringing this situation. The double standard of the parties and crisis of confidence coupled with the personal ego and ideological differences have brought this situation. If the eight political parties fail to reach an agreement in a day or two to smoothen the country's political transition, we will face serious consequence similar to Bangladesh, or the country may split into different warlord-ruled zones. The possibility of neighboring army marching into the country cannot be ruled out. The people are forced to sit over this time bomb because of the myopic attitude of our leaders.

NC committed a mistake by failing to recognize UML as a strong pillar of democracy. Prime Minister Koirala and his kitchen cabinet thought that everything would be in control by appeasing the Maoists. Unfortunately, after snatching 83 seats in the parliament, promulgating the interim constitution, and bagging lucrative ministerial berths, the Maoists are mulling to topple Koirala's government and capture the power with UML's support. The UML leadership has shown very immature behavior, throughout. It is behaving more like a bickering baby. The emergence of the Maoists has shocked UML. It has lost confidence. It is unnecessarily trying to be too radical to prevent the Maoists from snatching its cadres. The party that earned good national and international reputation as a democratic force suddenly has been fooled by the Maoist leadership and is trying to rechristen itself as a real "communist" party. Its obdurate stand on proportional election is but an example of how it forgets the basics of democracy.

The Maoists have been very smart throughout. The only caveat is, if they succeed in grapping power, the Nepalis will be worse off. They are trying to reverse the process of development, progress and democracy. Their whole idea is preposterous because they are attempting something that is impossible to attain at the current national and global realities. NC and UML are only the forces capable of changing the Maoists, but due to the duel between these two parties, the Maoists have succeeded in converting the country into chaos, violence, lawlessness, and confusion. The situation would immediately improve if Koirala extends friendship to Madhav Kumar Nepal, and takes him into confidence. If both come together, the Maoists would be easily tamed. But the problem is, NC and UML have not realized this fact and the Maoists are exploiting them.

Source: The Kathmandu Post, May 30, 2007