Press Release of CCOMPOSA

Ccomposa calls on South Asia peoples to oppose Indian rulers’ growing intervention in neighbouring countries

13 August 2007. A World to Win News Service. Following is a press release sent out by the Coordinating Committee of Maoist Parties of South Asia (CCOMPOSA) dated 25 June 2007.The Indian rulers seek total domination of the countries of South Asia acting as the gendarme of the US in this region. At the SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation) Summit in April, they went so far as to propose a South Asia Parliament, seeking to undermine even the existing limited sovereignty of the South Asian countries. Earlier they had proposed a common currency for the region to further consolidate India’s economic hegemony in the region. At the SAARC Summit they continued to push their SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Association), in order to dominate the markets of the region and allow the unhindered free flow of goods made in India (mostly by the big comprador houses and the transnational corporations) to all countries of South Asia.

CCOMPOSA calls for the disbanding of SAARC and the setting up of genuine forums of people-to-people relations between the countries of South Asia.Lately the Indian rulers have been even more crudely intervening in the internal affairs of neighbouring countries and even more crudely crushing the national aspirations for self-determination of the peoples of Kashmir, Naga, Manipur, Assam, etc.

In Nepal they have been playing an active role to diffuse the democratic aspirations of the Nepalese people and prop up the reactionary elements after isolating the Maoists. They have been instigating the Madheshi people of the Terrai (Nepal’s southern plains) region against the Maoists, in league with the Nepalese monarch. Hindu fundamentalists have been particularly active in setting up vigilante gangs to murder activists, as happened in Gaur where 28 Maoists were killed. Recently these gangs murdered a YCL (Young Communist League) Central Committee member in the Terrai region, together with another comrade. The Indian ambassador has, of late, been pro-actively roaming the interior of Nepal, offering large sums of money for schools, hospitals, roads, etc., in order to wean the masses away from the influence of the Maoists. In addition, the Indian paramilitary have fired on and killed Nepalese of Bhutani origin (to prevent them) from returning to their motherland, and have been fully involved in the US conspiracy to transport 60,000 refugees to the West as a modern-day form of slave labour. The US imperialists and Indian rulers have been working to prop up the reactionaries and neutralize the Maoists.

CCOMPOSA strongly condemns the role of the Indian rulers in Nepal and demands that they stop meddling in the affairs of Nepal and that the Indian people bring to justice the murderous gangs operating across the Nepalese border.In Bangladesh, the Indian rulers have not only openly backed their stooge Sheikh Hasina but have utilised the present army-backed caretaker government to push through massive deals for Indian big comprador houses. They have sought to help the Tatas (an Indian monopoly capitalist group) to make massive investments there and lately the Mittals (an internationally powerful Indian steel monopoly) have signed a gigantic deal in the energy sector of Bangladesh. The Indian ambassador has been actively working in the country together with the US ambassador in the dealings between the various political parties and the caretaker government.

CCOMPOSA demands that the extensive natural wealth of poverty-stricken Bangladesh be utilized for the development of their own country and not robbed by Indian compradors and the US imperialists.In Sri Lanka, they openly threatened the government when it sought arms from China and Pakistan. The Indian rulers have already imposed humiliating free-trade agreements on Sri Lanka. They have also surreptitiously been assisting the Sri Lankan government to crush the just aspirations of the Tamil people for a Tamil Elam.CCOMPOSA demands the scrapping all these unequal agreements and supports the just struggle of the Tamil people for their self-determination from the jackboots of the Indian ruling classes.

In addition, the Indian rulers continue to maintain and tighten their vice-like grip over the small countries of the region like Bhutan, Sikkim, the Maldives, etc., and continue their attempts to bully Pakistan utilizing the Kashmir card. Particularly they continue to forcibly maintain the oppressed nationalities within Indian hegemony. Not only does the Indian army of occupation crush their just demands with utmost brutality, they have been pitting one section of the people against the other to drown their just struggles in oceans of blood. This is to be seen in Nagaland, Manipur, Assam, Kashmir and elsewhere.CCOMPOSA demands that the people of these oppressed nationalities be allowed to determine their own future and the immediate and total withdrawal of Indian army and paramilitary forces from all these regions.South Asia has become a burning cauldron of revolutionary, democratic and nationality movements. CCOMPOSA supports all these just movements and calls on the peoples of South Asia to unite against their common enemy and not fall prey to the divisive policies of the rulers and their US imperialist backers in the region.

1) Proletarian Party of Purba Bangla-CC – PBSP (CC) [Bangladesh]

2) Communist Party of East Bengal (ML)(Red Flag) – CPEB (ML)(Red Flag) [Bangladesh]

3) Bangladesher Samyobadi Dal(Marxist-Leninist) – BSD(ML) [Bangladesh]

4) Communist Party of Bhutan (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) – CPB(MLM) [Bhutan]

5) Communist Party of India (Maoist) – CPI(Maoist)[India]

6) Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Naxalbari – CPI-ML (Naxalbari) [India]

7) Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) – CPI(MLM) [India]

8) Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) – CPN (Maoist) [Nepal]

Source: Maoist Information Bulletin, June 25, 2007

UN Support For Polls

The United Nations has given full support to the process of holding the polls for a constituent assembly in Nepal. The UN has established its full presence in Nepal and is backstopping and overseeing the peace building and democratisation process in the country. The UN general secretary Ban Ki Moon, like his predecessor Kofi Anan, has evinced keen interest in the peace and democratisation process in Nepal. At one end, the UN is involved in the verification of the Maoist combatants to pave the way for their demobilisation. The global organisation is putting its weight behind making the polls to the constituent assembly a success. It needs to be mentioned that the UN has been consistently helping the country to ensure that the election to the constituent assembly is held during November and a democratic and peaceful Nepal is constructed. The UN voter education specialists are at work to assist the Election Commission to design and implement a strategy for empowering the Nepali electors to make informed choices in the polls.

Moreover, the UN has set up an advisory unit to provide technical and intellectual resources in the process of framing a new democratic constitution in the country. High level UN officials have been visiting Nepal to oversee and encourage the process for conducting elections to the constituent assembly. The visit by B. Lynn Pascoe, UN undersecretary general for political affairs recently, has been crucial in boosting the prospects for the constituent assembly polls in Nepal. At a time when pessimism and frustration have been heightened due to feuds and fissures among the political actors, posing serious questions on the prospects and possibilities of the polls for a constituent assembly, the positive remarks given by the high level UN official with regard to the polls should be commended. The UN official remarked that the political process for holding the constituent assembly elections in Nepal is moving on the right track and spoke with certainty that there was no room for despondency and pessimism. These observations have contributed to giving the political situation a positive direction. The political actors are expected to work in concert to make the scheme of the constituent assembly a success.

Source: The Rising Nepal, August 23, 2007

Overcoming Poverty

Lok Nath Bhusal

Indeed, time has come to put the poverty alleviation agenda at the heart of the development debate and action for since a long time, poverty has been a major hurdle to prosperity. Broadly, poverty is a human situation in which people lack what they need to possess - economic well-being, political awareness and social inclusion - for their meaningful and dignified existence in the society. Therefore, it embraces the whole gamut of economic, political and social dimensions; not necessarily only their incomes but capabilities as a whole.

Policy failures

For advanced economies, poverty is generally a relative concept whereas it is an absolute one for developing countries like Nepal. People hate poverty and wish to come out, but some unfortunate ones are destined to live under the shadow of poverty and suffer it. This situation is basically attributed to the failure of state policies and their proper implementation. Since poverty is one of the major reasons for socio-economic instability, the state must make systematic interventions to fight against this socio-economic ill. First, the current subsistence agriculture must be transformed into a competitive and wealth-yielding business to tackle the poverty systematically. Our agricultural productivity is the lowest in South Asia. Over two thirds of the economically active population works for agriculture, but its contribution to the GDP is a mere 40 percent. Hence, majority of the poor people come from agriculture. Again, the Economic Survey 2005/06 reveals that in the last fiscal year, the entire production of food crops was adversely affected due to the vagaries of the weather - drought. Indeed, farmers should be able to receive extra income, and conventional agricultural practices must be by more profitable techniques and marketisation of agro-products through the development of physical infrastructures.

A Green Revolution through the use of high-yielding varieties, expansion of irrigation facilities and availability of reasonably-priced chemical fertiliser, comprehensive land reforms and expansion of extension services must materialise. Furthermore, economic development throughout the world suggests that rapid industrialisation must be supported by a strong agriculture sector as the latter has backward and forward linkages to the development of the former. In the context of Nepal, since the agriculture sector is the topmost contributor to the GDP, positive state intervention is most crucial and urgently required to successfully compete with other countries, especially India. This is why farmers of the developed countries are enriched by the state, and much of the trade impasse is concentrated around reducing agriculture subsidies provided by the state.Second, disparity in the distribution of income and resources must be reduced to uplift the penniless population. Our average per capita income has risen to US$ 311, but it is an understatement of the degree of income inequality; averages have great significance in statistics, but they can be dangerous. For example, there have been frequent reports that 20 per cent of the population captures 80 per cent of Nepal's resources whereas the remaining 80 per cent population is stuck with 20 percent of the national income. This has been largely supported by the Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS) conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

Alarmingly, the Gini ratio, which measures the inequality in the income distribution, was 0.34 for the first NLSS carried out in 1995/96. But this jumped to 0.41 in the second NLSS of 2003/04, suggesting an economically more asymmetric society. Moreover, there are colossal income gaps between the rural and urban population and the people working in the formal/organised and informal/unorganised sector. Clearly, this is a threat to a civilised society. Hence, the state must ensure a more equal and inclusive society through a progressive tax system so that those who can afford pay more, and thus help freeing the poor people from poverty.Third, enhancing social and political consciousness among the people is an equally important determinant in effectively tackling poverty. So far, age-old laws and conventions based on the feudal system and with ill-intention have been able to suppress the people in the name of religion, race, caste, ethnicity and gender. Social change has been terribly slow due to strongly grounded vested conventions designed to promote the elite. As a result, the so-called lower caste people, minorities, various ethnic communities and women have been deprived of their social rights. Consequently, poverty has been hovering around them. However, overcoming such a situation through ethnic autonomy as proposed by some political forces is more likely to aggravate the situation rather than truly addressing the issue.

Precisely, the politics of ethnic autonomy cannot be justified in the 21st century. In fact, it must be realised that the unprecedented economic success made recently by Japan and South Korea has been largely attributed to their homogonous society. Precisely, in developed societies we do not observe informal institutions such as caste, race and ethnicity. This reflects that the ultimate cure to the problem is social transformation, not the autonomy based on ethnicity. Clearly, ethnicity unknowingly invites disintegration which has been proved as a major barrier to rapid socio-economic development. As a solution to these maladies, we need to decentralise, delegate the central power and resources to the people and make them responsible to understand their local problems and to identify alternative local solutions. For this, the notion of home-rule and local government as a fundamental right must be ensured in the upcoming interim constitution. Also, promotion of human rights, building strong communities and strengthening civil society organisations and local bodies are very crucial engagements required to improve the demand side of the equation. Such an unequivocal and inclusive social and democratic political system helps to reduce the poverty in a sustainable manner.

Challenges

Finally, poverty mitigation has been the single goal of the Tenth plan and all our development efforts for quite a long time. However, the progress made so far has not been very satisfactory. Agricultural, economic and socio-political challenges must be overcome to eradicate the extreme poverty. More aggressive state intervention in the form of crafting and implementing pro-poor programmes is extremely desirable to maintain socio-economic stability and national prosperity. Given the recent political developments, the poor population is likely to decrease significantly in the next couple of years. For this, it is quite understandable that an economic agenda, one that particularly focusses on the above issues, must go simultaneously with the ongoing political transition.

Source: The Rising Nepal, August 23, 2007

Trust deficit: Nepali politics at crossroads

Madhav Shrestha

Irrefutably, the fluidity of Nepali politics is constantly increasing while the common people’s trust in the political leadership is on the decline. While there is growing public discontent, the political leadership seems to have no wherewithal to win back public trust, which was lost due to their failure to keep past promises. The yawning credibility gap between the leaders of the eight political parties and the people at the bottom is certainly growing bigger as the nation steps into a threshold of yet another democratic revolution. Promises solemnly declared by the government leaders have hardly touched the hearts and minds of the general populace. The political scenario appears volatile and doubts still prevail over the democratisation process following Jana Andolan II.

In view of the present political turmoil in the country, it would be appropriate to quote an ancient Chinese adage: “The proper man understands equity, the smaller man profit”. This maxim aptly explains the emerging scenario in Nepali politics. Evidently, every political leader and every political party is looking to gain a political advantage, blatantly ignoring the needs and aspirations of the greater masses. The political leaders now in power could have done a lot for the people by adopting an all-inclusive approach. However, things appear to have gone awry as the recent political developments have indicated. The broader template has not been put into place but instead pushed to the sidelines with self-centred political interest top on the priority list.

Currently, no single political party, however big among the eight political parties currently represented in the government, has widespread support base among the people right across the country. This reality clearly indicates all political parties are, in fact, either sectarian or regional with limited influence and questionable organisation capacity. This has resulted in fractured and fragmented politics, which precludes an integrated approach. This trend is helpful neither in nurturing the democratisation process during this transition phase, norin serving the interest of common people. Certainly, such a queasy situation isindicative of the long-running political tension with the disruptive forces making headway.

Apparently, the leaders of the eight political parties lack the capacity to create an ambience of political cohesiveness which is vital to take the country out of the present political impasse. This situation is regrettable with the political bickering getting worse. The common people are scared of the likely repercussions of such a state of affairs, which might ultimately invite new forces of disruption and disturbance. Given the politically self-motivated agenda of political leadership, prospects of democracy going on the right path are almost unimaginable now. At present, no political leader seems to possess the much-needed ability to bring all pro-people forces into a common fold. Far worse is the fact that the Nepali society at this critical juncture feels an acute need of a charismatic statesman who could lead the country.

Evidently, the political void has left Nepal a wrecked ship in tumultuous high sea. Those at the helm have hardly ever cared about the suffering of the people who are in great distress owing to a decade-long political unrest and frequent natural calamities. Instead, the political leaders are busy jockeying for power and position. Nowhere in the world are the government and the political leaders so inconsiderate as to be blind to the suffering of the poor and the afflicted.

It would be appropriate to remind the political leaders of this blunt (if not hateful) remark of Bertrand Russell: “Politics is the last refuge of scoundrels”. Nepali politicians would share the same pedestal of scoundrels if they do not work for the good of the common people. And if they failed to meet the aspirations of the Nepali people which were expressed through Jana Andolan II, the political leaders who are promising to build a new Nepal would not only be scorned by the present generation but also by generations to come.Most recently, the increasing build-up of external pressure and people’s aspiration to see Nepali politics moving on right track with the election to the constituent assembly held at the stipulated time should not go unheeded. Political brinkmanship would help no one at all.

Statesmanship on the part of all leading democratic figures is the most needed demand at the moment to carry the democratic politics to its logical conclusion.Deviation from the desired path will be counterproductive and unlikely to be spared by common Nepalis. It is therefore crucial that the political leaders wake up to the need of the hour and work in unison to build a democratic society.Can they now do the right thing and stand ready to bear with the judgment of future generations?Shrestha is ex-foreign ministry official

Source: The Himalayan Times, August 23, 2007