After a Year of "Loktantra" - Is it finally time for a Democratic Alliance?

(Courtesy: el Guapo)

A year after a failed King handed power back to a group of failed politicians, the trajectory of this country's polity is finally coming into focus. The process of cooperative politics upon which the 12 Point Agreement was forged in New Delhi is on the verge of collapse. The return to a natural state of competitive politics is back on the agenda and the emergence of a united leftist front under a republican banner is imminent.

The cardinal assumption forwarded as the basis for the 12 Point Agreement was that the Maoists had had a change of heart. Civil society leaders, prominent human rights activists, and famous media personalities all advocated for an alliance between the Seven Parties and the Maoists on the premise that the Maoists were eager to enter the democratic mainstream.

To the Maoists' credit, they successfully played on the desperation of disillusioned personalities while maintaining a silent (yet emotionally charged) dedication to their original, strategic end-goals (which are anything but democratic). With help from their counterparts in India, an arrogant King without a plan, and above all, with assistance from the very groups that today, refuse to revisit their own rationale, the Maoists forged their much coveted SPAM alliance.

More than a year after the 12 Point Agreement was signed in New Delhi, there is no room left for speculation on how misleading the premise upon which fellowship was forged, truly was.

The SPA exhibited no moral inhibitions when teaming up with an organization that members of the SPA leadership themselves had termed terrorists. At the time, the King and his band of jokers were a much bigger threat in the minds of SPA leaders; the royal threat was sufficient to overlook every rational, logical (even moral) sense of duty the SPA leadership had towards guaranteeing a viable future for not just themselves, but the entire country.

Maoist leader C.P. Gajurel minced no words when he spoke at JNU on the Maoists' view of the current political establishment. Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal reiterated Gajurel's stance and lately, every speech a Maoist leader delivers, alludes to the same theme - the Maoists' end-goal of ultimately establishing a one-party communist republic is very much alive and well and every event that has transpired since the signing of the 12 Point Agreement and today, are all tactical moves designed to achieve larger, strategic end-goals.

Even with all this publicly available information, the disillusioned classes remain wed to their belief that the Maoists' inclusion in the government will somehow magically transform them into a democratic party. Media coverage on this topic is sporadic at best if not completely biased.

The limited debate that has occurred has been overshadowed by meaningless coverage of which temple the King and Queen visited, when and speculation on why? As pathetic as it is, this sort of coverage generates more debate amongst Nepal's intellectual class than the looming disembowelment of the country's pseudo-democratic core.

What the original advocates of the 12 Point Agreement need to do is understand that their collective intellectual capacities failed to grasp how skilfully their advocacy was abused by the Maoists to elevate the Maoist leadership to power.

The disillusioned intellectual classes need to urgently come to terms with the fact that it is not the mainstream that is democratizing the Maoists but the Maoists who are fully mobilized and well-positioned to define the mainstream. Which other political group in Nepal has claim to its own media outlets, its own militia, its own army, its own legal system, and to top it off, multiple sources of income (of which one is funding from the very government the Maoists are systematically dismantling)?

It was alright when members of Rabindra Nath Sharma's royally inclined RPP were beaten up, their faces covered in soot and shoe garlands hung around their necks. The media provided limited coverage and there was hardly any discussion of the violation of the right to speech or the right to assembly of the individuals in question. And this was considered alright, because after all, Mr. Sharma's party was prevented from speaking because of the party's allegiance to a King who attempted wholesale political reform, while playing the part of a monarch (instead of a constitutional protectorate).

However, yesterday's event in Basantapur should give everyone food for thought. Print media remaining silent on any Nepali's right to constitutionally granted freedoms and human rights being violated is pathetic. The print media's silence on Nepali Congress leader Ram Chandra Poudel (a likely candidate to replace Girija Koirala), receiving a hail of plastic water bottles, slippers and "boos" from the crowed gathered to celebrate Loktantra day, is inexcusable. Mr. Poudel was prevented from taking the podium, with known Nepali "celebrities" like Mr. Kanak Dixit and comedian Hari Bansha, shielding the NC leader from the crowed that eventually forced him off of the stage.

It is anyone's guess as to which direction Nepal's polity is leaning and equally alarming how easily a central committee member of the "invincible" Nepali Congress was shoed off stage in the heart of Kathmandu. Does Ram Chandra Poudel and the intellectual sycophants that surround his party finally understand who truly owns the republican agenda? If a leader of Mr. Poudel's stature can be prevented from speaking, how well does the Nepali Congress expect its district and village level cadre to perform during upcoming elections?

The time for a Democratic Alliance has come and is now, nearly gone. It is imperative for Centrist Forces (without royal liability) to assertively realign their agendas and brace against the inevitable leftist onslaught. The level of cohesion that leftist forces achieve within the next three months will determine the construct of Nepal's political landscape well into the next decade.

The challenge for non-leftist groups is to unite without jeopardizing the on-going sham of a peace process - a process that with each passing day, appears increasingly like a tool at the Maoists' disposal to forward their strategy under the façade of international legitimacy.

RELATED LINKS:

The Idiot’s Guide to the Maoist Playbook
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2007/01/idiots-guide-to-maoist-playbook.html

Surreal Politics - How Nepal’s Intellectual / Political Class, Continue to Look the Other Way…
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2007/01/surreal-politics-how-nepals.html

The "New Nepal" - The Maoist Way or the Highway?
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2006/12/new-nepal-maoist-way-or-highway.html

The Lessons the Mainstream will teach our Maoists
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2006/11/lessons-mainstream-will-teach-our.html