Even with his death, president of the Nepali Congress and former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala presented the Nepali political parties a chance to redeem themselves. It must not be squandered. Koirala’s passing away, despite his old age and known multiple ailments, has shocked the political class, not to speak of the common folk. Shocked because whenever the parties hit a roadblock, they had GPK to look up to for steering them ahead. Now no such cushion exists. This shock should act like a therapy to goad others into action.
The usual way of doing things will, of course, only prolong the present-day crisis. If one conducts an experiment by repeating the same constituents but expects a different result each time, it only demonstrates the kind of intellect that person possesses. So is with the parties here.
Right since May last year when Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned as prime minister after being reduced to minority (and rightly so for his high-handed and illegal decision of sacking the then army chief), we have seen the experiment with a regularity that is as silly as it is fruitless.
How many times have we heard leaders say there is no alternative to consensus, but fail to reach it? How many times have we seen them identify a problem and form a task force to come with suggestions to deal with it? And how many times have we witnessed the task force failing to take any decision and referring the matter to “top leaders” for the (elusive) final decision? The “top leaders” avoid meeting and when they finally meet, they issue a new deadline to the same taskforce to come up with answers to knotty questions. Be it over the common language of the joint resolution motion on the president’s move to block Maoist government’s adventurism, formation of a national unity government or over the jurisdiction of the state restructuring commission recommended by the High-Level Political Mechanism, we have seen this again and again.
This passing of the buck must stop.
The top leadership of political parties needs to change their experiment and stop playing shadow games. Being very open and forthright will actually help in moving toward broadly acceptable solution however brazen it may sound. It took the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) nearly eight months to express their real demand after camouflaging it beneath campaigns and protests for “civilian supremacy” and later “national sovereignty and independence”: A national government under Maoist party leadership.
The Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML too should stop pretending that the existing dispensation would be able to produce desired results – the constitution, the integration and rehabilitation of cantoned Maoist combatants (along with right-sizing of the national army), and lasting peace.
The political parties in Nepal need just stick to the basics. Just doing two things would suffice: Compromise warranted by unexpected (but avoidable) situation prevailing now and honoring past agreements. They need to take up five contentious issues.
The parties agree on writing the inclusive and democratic constitution in time; they disagree on its contents. They are one when it comes to having a national unity government (the NC and UML leaders admit this in private) but sharply differ on the leadership of such a government. Everyone is for speedy integration and rehabilitation of Maoists combatants but cannot agree on how to go about it. Same goes for right-sizing the national army which certainly is too big for a country like Nepal and the economy prevailing here. The fourth is the type of federal model that we need to have. Most parties are for federation. The agreement does not extend beyond this. The parties also do not agree on the system of governance. I have not kept the independence of the judiciary in this category simply because it is non-negotiable. The parliament cannot have unnatural control over the judiciary.
The argument that an elected legislature can do anything is silly and must be dismissed. For a proper balance of power, the government, the parliament and the courts must not be allowed to trample on the other two.
Madhav Kumar Nepal is ready to quit provided Maoist party do the five things first: Allow speedy rehabilitation of Maoist combatants, cooperate in the writing of the constitution, return the property seized from people during decade-long (1996-2006) Maoist insurgency and afterwards, disband the militant structure of its Young Communist League, and transform into a “civilian” party. All are valid and just conditions but these are still part of the same old experiment.
A new approach has been proposed by Dr Shekhar Koirala of the Nepali Congress. It is worth considering because it will help allay the distrust that Maoist and non-Maoist parties have of each other. The Maoist party’s unwillingness to conclude the Maoist combatants’ issue despite its deadline having long passed and delaying the constitution-writing stems from their fear that the other parties would steamroll over them with the help of Nepal Army and they will suffer election losses. On the other hand, the non-Maoist parties are reluctant to accept Maoist leadership while the constitution is uncertain and the Maoist combatants are in cantonments and still under party command.
Dr Koirala has suggested that the Maoists should cooperate to complete drafting a democratic constitution and conclude the peace process by May 28 this year, the deadline. The Maoists can then lead a unity government and conduct the elections.
The NC and UML leaders acknowledge that a Maoist-led government is inevitable. But they don’t want Dahal to be the prime minister. If Prime Minister Nepal (despite still commanding a majority support in the parliament) has to go for the sake of consensus and compromise, so must Dahal drop his insistence on leading the government. He has had his chance and squandered it. The most apt candidate from the Maoist rank is Dr Baburam Bhattarai who is acceptable to most parties. Dahal, who has successfully managed to discredit himself time and again, must pass through two tests before claiming the top executive post in the country: Face election in his own party (not held for 19 years) and the general election. If he comes through both, he will have the rightful claim.
In his last days, GPK repeatedly said he wanted to see the realization of the constitution and peace. He could not, but we still can. This will be true homage to the architect who brought all this within our reach.
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