Maoist desperation

Just when the climate is turning favorable for the Nov 22 Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, CPN (Maoist) has thrown a spanner in the works. This is time when the parties are expected to come out with their manifestos so as to intensify debates and discussions on the future of Nepali state through a new constitution. Instead the Maoists have raised some dead and already decided issues as pre-conditions for the CA polls. If the Maoists are hell-bent on further diminishing their prospects of facing the ballot box, they may do so. But the problem is that their constant U-turns are affecting the entire country and the CA poll is at the stake. We should have already been in top gear vis-à-vis elections by now.

The party has threatened to launch protest programs if its pre-conditions are not fulfilled by mid-September. Thereafter it would launch its infamous jana karbahi ('people's action' that was much reviled during insurgency) and 'political' strikes. All this is to ensure that the polls are held in time, it reasons. We strongly disagree. The seven-party alliance and the Maoists have already reached an agreement on all the issues that the Maoists are trying to raise now as unresolved. Be it deciding the fate of monarchy or electoral system for the CA elections, these have already been settled with the consent of the Maoists. Their latest excuse that their earlier agreement was conditional to holding the CA polls in June is specious. Between June 13 and 24 this year, the Maoist lawmakers and ministers have voted and approved the very subjects in question, including deferring the polls. The parties have already signed an agreement to decide monarchy's fate in the first sitting of the constituent assembly by a simple majority. That agreement still holds.

CPN (Maoist) must realize that it would be held solely responsible if it continued to vitiate the atmosphere for the elections as other political parties, the Election Commission and the United Nations, among others, are insisting that CA polls be held on schedule. Their actions would not ensure the holding of the elections. Rather, they will have disastrous and contrary outcome. The Maoists, understandably, are reluctant to face the ballots at a time when their image has taken a nosedive. They are desperate for a respectable presence in the assembly which would draw up a new constitution. Maoists' desperation is understandable; their disruptive behavior unacceptable. Instead of trying to disrupt the polls, the party leadership would do well to improve its sagging image by reining in the rampaging cadres who at times commit crimes. They could then seek the support of the people for their vision of new Nepal, peacefully.

Source: The Kathmandu Post, August 22, 2007