Prachanda's journey begins in Beijing
By Dhruba Adhikary
KATHMANDU - Defying criticisms, Nepal's newly appointed Prime Minister
Prachanda is embarking on a visit to China this week, breaking a tradition
requiring every new head of state in his country to make India the first call.
Accepting the invitation to watch the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympic
Games in Beijing, Prachanda is setting a precedent for the conduct of relations
with Nepal's two immediate neighbors.
Until three years ago, Prachanda was a dreaded name as he led an insurgency
widely perceived as a terrorist campaign. The government had announced a cash
reward to anyone helping police to arrest the revolutionary whose "people's
war" claimed the lives of over 13,000 people, beginning in 1996.
On Monday afternoon, the 54-year-old communist leader was
taking an oath as the first prime minister of Nepal since it became a republic
at the end of May. Kathmandu-based ambassadors lined up to offer their
congratulations to Prachanda, whose registered name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal. The
event represented a leap forward and Prachanda conceded that it was a "pleasant
surprise" for him as well. He may have suddenly realized that he has been
humbled by greater sense of responsibility.
Nepal's first elected communist prime minister was Manmohan Adhikary, who
headed a minority government in late 1994 that lasted only nine months.
Adhikary's moderate party had agreed to serve under a constitutional monarchy
and did not carry the radical image the present-day Maoists are radiating, even
after their decision to enter competitive politics on the eve of the April
uprising against then-king Gyanendra's rule in 2006.
As chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Prachanda needs to
address the ambitions of his comrades-in-arm while balancing the demands from
other coalition partners. It was the consequence of claims and counter-claims
for influential ministerial portfolios from these partners that prevented
Prachanda from announcing his cabinet by the time he was sworn in as prime
minister.
Some of the issues involve appear thorny because not all the coalition partners
share a leftist ideology. One of the two main partners, the Madhesi Janadhikar
Forum (MJF), does not hide its leanings towards India. The centrist Nepali
Congress, which has chosen to sit in the opposition in the 601-strong
Constituent Assembly, is skeptical about the sustainability of such a
partnership. Serious doubts will persist if the Prachanda government cannot
accomplish the main objective of the assembly elected in April: to draw up in
two years a new constitution to replace the present interim charter.
Prachanda is determined to face the challenges confronting him. On the one
hand, he has to implement a progressive agenda aimed at reducing economic
inequalities and social taboos; on the other, he has to initiate measures
needed to assure the public that the Maoist party he is heading is committed to
work under a democratic framework. Results of the April poll show his party is
backed by only 30% of about 10 million voters.
In other words, the Maoist leadership needs to focus its attention to the
remaining 70%, whose doubts and apprehensions of communist rule is tangible.
There is a pledge, for example, to return the lands and properties the Maoist
rebels seized during the insurgency to their owners so that tens of thousands
of people displaced at that time can return home and resume normal life.
The Maoists have a chance to prove their sincerity by promptly fulfilling the
pledge. But utterances of some of Prachanda's colleagues sound disturbing. One
has that said since most of the farmland have been occupied by landless
peasants it can't be returned without making appropriate arrangements. Another
leader said the landowners can expect only a token compensation for the
property they claim to have lost during the rebellion.
The other unresolved issue is a proposition to integrate the Maoist combatants,
numbering nearly 20,000, with Nepal's state army. Maoist leaders want their
People's Liberation Army (PLA) to join the state army en bloc, a move opposed
from the outset by Nepal Army commanders. Their main contention is that a
politically indoctrinated PLA cannot be accepted into an institution made up of
professional men and women in uniform.
Nepal Army chief Rookmangud Katawal has indicated that former members of the
former rebellion force can join the state army on an individual basis so long
as each one meets the required physical and educational qualifications.
Moves and measures perceived to politicize the state army are unlikely to be
accepted by the present army leadership. Whether Prachanda can change this
defiant mood through the appointment of one of his colleagues as defense
minister remains a conjecture.
The Nepal Army was previously considered "royal", as it was maintained to
protect and defend the king at any cost. Yet it intervened on the side of the
Constituent Assembly when it passed a resolution sacking Gyanendra and ending
the era of monarchy. The army leadership has maintained that the institution
stood to obey orders from legitimate civilian authority.
Nepal Army sources maintain that while the institution is committed to abide by
the constitutionally approved authority it must not be expected to accept
actions designed to break the chain of command vital for any national army.
Claims that the army stands ready to retaliate if there are attempts to disrupt
it are being voiced in media outlets. An article in The Kathmandu Post on
Tuesday carried a warning against those people showing over-enthusiasm for
integration of the PLA. The prime minister "must understand that if he attempts
to break this chain of command the people will have to suffer, for the army
will not tolerate it and therefore there will be an unfortunate confrontation".
The purported uneasiness in the Nepal Army was visible at the swearing-in
ceremony on Monday. The army chief maintained a low profile as PLA members
formed the first line of security for the prime minister, pushing the army and
police security units to the side. Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the Maoist
spokesman, depicted it as a minor incident due to an initial gap in
communication between different governmental agencies.
"Ours is a coalition and decisions are to be made in a transparent way," Mahara
told Asia Times Online. Mahara essentially reiterated Prachanda's view as
expressed in an interview published in Janaadesh, a pro-Maoist weekly, on
Tuesday.
The interview also alluded to 40 demands the Maoists submitted to the
government weeks before they launched the "People's War" in February 1996. The
prime minister who received their memorandum at that time was Sher Bahadur
Deuba, the person Prachanda defeated last week in the election for the
premiership. Now, the tables have turned and the Maoists are at the giving end.
Prachanda admits that there are ironies and contradictions.
"It is to be understood, however, that our party alone is not running the new
government," Prachanda is quoted as saying.
The original list of Maoist demands begins with their objection to the
existence of unequal treaties that India has imposed on Nepal since 1950 - the
year Nepal got rid of the 104-year-old autocratic regime of the Rana family.
The foremost among the pacts is the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1950,
whose preamble recognizes Nepal's independent status but is followed by some
restrictive provisions. Nepal, for example, is discouraged from procuring
defense-related supplies from elsewhere as long as those goods and services are
available in India. There are no references to quality of goods or competitive
price structures. Similarly, the international border has been kept porous,
permitting unrestricted movement of people from either side, thereby placing
small Nepal on a disadvantageous position.
A section of Nepal's intelligentsia appears in favor of extending support to
the Maoists in view of their nationalist concern.
While in northern neighbor China the state has replaced Maoism with nationalism
as a guiding concept, in Nepal it is the Maoist movement that has provided the
small country an enhanced sense of nationalism. That perspective adds a
positive tone to the Maoist agenda for the time being. The government's actions
will be closely watched to see if they reduce over-dependence on one country
(India) or diversify Nepal's trade and transit routes.
Prachanda can utilize some of his time in Beijing next week to investigate the
Chinese view of his country's alternatives there and elsewhere in the region.
As a gesture of goodwill, he can also assure his through a renewed pledge that
Nepal's new government will effectively discourage Tibetan exiles from
organizing frequent anti-China demonstrations.
After all, this is not allowed even by India, where the Dalai Lama resides.
Dhruba Adhikary, a former head of the Nepal Press Institute, is a
Kathmandu-based journalist.
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