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Maoists ready to address NA's problems
KATHMANDU, Sept 14: Vice Chairman of the UCPN (Maoist) Narayankaji Shrestha on Tuesday clarified that the government and his party have reached a gentlemen´s agreement to address the problems faced by the national army through dialogues.
“If there are genuine problems of the Nepal Army, our party is ready to address them through discussions at political level,” said Shrestha.
The government had on Monday agreed to allow UNMIN to monitor the Nepal Army after September 15 till its extended term expires.
The Maoists have made it clear that they would be flexible in letting the army fill up technical posts and allow procurement of arms and ammunition meant for peace keeping purpose after holding dialogues at the political level.
http://myrepublica.com/portal/index....&news_id=23311
Agreement at last
The government and the UCPN (Maoist) have finally struck a deal about the future of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) and have sent a joint letter to the United Nation’s Security Council (UNSC) to extend its term – for the last time – for four months. This was a deal, in a way forced by the UNSC that rejected separate letters sent by the government and the Maoists and asked them to form a common stance on the issue. Since the Security Council threatened the parties with a technical rollover of the Mission if they failed to reach an agreement, they had no choice but to comply. That we have reached a point where it seems no longer possible for us to use our common sense and reason to take decisions by ourselves is unfortunate.
The parties have also pledged to “take up the remaining tasks of the peace process from September 17 and complete them ‘basically’ by January 14, 2011.” This is the most important component of the 4-point deal between the government and the Maoists. There is, however, a caveat: Are the parties committed to and confident of ending the peace process in the next four months?
The wording of the agreement also leaves room for doubts. We urge all the parties to make use of the next four months to conclude the peace process and prepare a ground for writing a democratic constitution. Even as we ask all the parties to behave responsibly, there is no doubt in our mind that the Maoist party has to shoulder the major responsibility. As the party with its own army and the one that is yet to renounce violence, the onus for taking initiatives lie disproportionately on the Maoists.
But the Maoists still seem divided between concluding the peace process, writing a constitution, and becoming a part of a democratic mainstream and waging a revolt to capture state by force. Only on Wednesday, when Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal was busy signing a deal in Baluwatar to conclude the peace process in the next four months, Maoist Senior Vice Chairman Mohan Baidya was telling the public that his party was preparing for the final revolt.
The peaceful protest programs, announced by the party for a month beginning September 17, according to Baidya, will prepare ground for the revolt. The Maoist party must once and for all decide which way it wants to go. So long as the party remains vertically split – half of its leaders committed to peace half-heartedly and the other half harping on war – the party is going to go nowhere. Our only hope is that, if and when the party takes a final decision, it will decide to side with peace and democracy and shun the radical elements in the party.
http://myrepublica.com/portal/index....&news_id=23303
Govt, Maoists send consensus letters to UN
KATHMANDU, Sept 14: The government and the UCPN (Maoist) on Tuesday sent separate consensus letters to the United Nations (UN) for renewal of the existing mandate of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) by four more months.
Earlier, the government and the UCPN (Maoist) had sent separate and conflicting letters to the UN with regard to the renewal of UNMIN´s mandate after September 15, the deadline of the existing mandate of the UN political mission.
"The letter reflects the spirit of the agreement reached between the government and the UCPN (Maoist) on Monday," said a source close to the prime minister.
On Monday, both the government and the Maoists had agreed to complete the peace process in the next four months, among others.
The UCPN (Maoist), in the letter, has expressed its optimism that it will be possible to take the ongoing peace process to a fruitful conclusion within the next four months. The party sent the letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon through the UNMIN´s office in Kathmandu.
http://myrepublica.com/portal/index....&news_id=23313
Dahal says Maoists will trounce regressive forces
Wednesday, 15 September 2010 17:07
He, however, said he was concerned looking at the one after another round of election for a prime minister failing to bear results.
Dahal, who was speaking at a book launching programme in the capital on Wednesday, also described the deepening political problem as a direct result of the serious contention between progressive and regressive forces.
The Maoist chairman, however, said that the party will emerge victorious in its fight against regressive forces. nepalnews.com
http://www.nepalnews.com/main/index....ve-forces.html
Whoa! WTF?
RED DAVE
It's a concession that doesn't mean much in practice. The NA has secret arms caches, of course. While the peace accords have made it difficult for them to operate in the open in some ways, when the time comes their guns won't be without bullets. And if the UNMIN stopped monitoring them... they'd be able to very easily prepare to move against the Maoists. It would mean the abrupt end of the peace process.
All the Maoists have done is allow the NA to get the weapons and ammo it needs for overseas 'peacekeeping' missions. It's a very minor concession.
If Kiran's claims are true and the Maoists are preparing for revolt, they need time. With this concession they've gained four months. Let's hope it's enough.
Great lesson for revolutionaries all over the world ... help your local army.
Now all this can be rationalized as a delaying strategy, sort of like the nazi-Soviet pact. On the other hand, why embellish a strategic necessity with a series of lies that undermines Marxist political theory? Or is the Nepali army, like fascism according to Molotov, just a matter of taste?
RED DAVE
Last edited by RED DAVE; 16th September 2010 at 02:26.
Maybe I'm giving the Maoists in Nepal too much of the benefit of the doubt -- maybe I'm too repelled by outside pessimists right now to give credence to their arguments -- but it seems that Shrestha's quote is a tactical response that fits with what is really a delaying tactic.
“If there are genuine problems of the Nepal Army, our party is ready to address them through discussions at political level,” said Shrestha. And exactly what would the Maoists say in those political discussions? It seems to me that, with the preparations for resuming armed struggle underway, whatever the Maoists might say about problems in the NA would be geared toward weakening their opponent and strengthening the position of the PLA (even though it may not appear on the surface to be such). That's just common sense, at this point.
There is also another point to consider here. Attempting to address problems in a military through "political dialogue" is a painfully long and protracted process, in the eyes of the military itself. Consider what the "political dialogue" on the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy has done to the U.S. military in recent years. It has been demoralizing for the officer corps, taxing on personnel in general and seemingly a dead-end exercise. Everyone connected to the process, from politicians to the brass hats to the media pundits and bobbleheads is already frustrated by what has been happening. Some see it going too slow; some see it going too fast. What everyone agrees on is that consensus is impossible.
Now, consider such a dynamic in a "political dialogue" around the Nepali Army. It is going to push a lot of tensions to the surface. From the Maoist perspective, if they have any semblance of brains about this, they can use the entire experience as a "teaching moment". If the NC and UML stall on the "dialogue", the Maoists can rightly accuse them of violating the peace accord and UNMIN mandate. If the officer corps tries to revolt, it can offer an opportunity to present the PLA as the "defenders of peace and democracy". If the media tries to interrupt the "dialogue", the Maoists can use the opportunity to shift public opinion in favor of a Maoist-led government. Personally, I suspect all three will happen, to one degree or another. As a bonus, each of these, and the combinations thereof, can be used as a reason to re-launch armed struggle and enact a revolution. With the NA weakened through demoralization, the officer corps set against the Constituent Assembly (and, very likely, itself as well), the bourgeois parties looking like they are appeasing potential coup plotters, and the media frothing at the mouth over an agreed-to process of "political dialogue", the Maoists and PLA will find themselves in the best possible position to make the final push for power. Their opponents will be divided against themselves in ways not seen before, while they will be relatively unified and prepared for action.
(NB: The chief spoiler in this scenario would be Bhattarai, who will inevitably play a role akin to Zinoviev in October 1917. The real question is how much he can damage the UCPN[M] by doing so. I have a hunch it might backfire badly if he overplays his hand, though.)
On the one hand, it is a truism that the State, with the armed forces at its core is an expression of the dictatorship of one class over another.
On the other hand, the Russian revolution never would have popped off without the Tsar's soldiers switching sides. Likewise in the Chinese revolution, there was more than one instance of the KMT switching over to the Communists en bloc.
UCPN(M) is playing an interesting game here. Whether they win or lose, this is shaping up to be what is sure a massive lesson for Marxists everywhere.
Its a bit like watching a car wreck happen, really. The only question is, will it end up like Funniest Home Videos or Red Asphalt? Only time will tell.
I agree with your analysis and your post was excellent. I want to question this a bit though - it's not particularly Marxist, imho, to say that Bhattarai playing a Zinovievist role is 'inevitable'. We don't know the content of the debates. We don't know what he's saying behind closed doors. We know he's arguing for things to be slowed down and fought out legally and peacefully for a while longer, but his argument could revolve around slowing it down for only a few more months than Kiran is arguing for. We just don't know and I think it's dangerous to publicly label Bhattarai a counter-revolutionary this early in the game. He's one of the party's most senior leaders and is very highly respected in Nepal - he's also a genius, literally. An incredibly smart man. We shouldn't just dismiss him.
Lol isn't a car wreck guaranteed to end badly?
It may be completely jumping the shark to say what I said about Bhattarai. I can accept that criticism. I guess that, more than anything else, he strikes me as someone that has difficulty accepting party discipline, and even more difficulty when those efforts at enforcing discipline come from other party members he sees as being of lesser intelligence. Maybe I'm wrong -- I sorta hope I am. But I do have a bad feeling about him. But, yes, it's all speculation, so I probably shouldn't have even mentioned it.
Anyway, thanks for the compliment on the analysis. Much appreciated.
Just to go completely off topic... jumping the shark? Lolwut? Here in NZ you hear the phrase 'jumping the gun' every so often, which makes sense as a phrase. People starting to run in a race before the starter gun goes off, makes total sense.
But jumping the shark? wtf?
What I think is crucial in this process, and which I don't see up for discussion, is the relationship of the party to the working class. In my arrogant opinion, the general strike was a disaster. The most powerful weapon that the working class has short of armed insurrections was used – to accelerate the constitutional process, which is already an act of class collaboration by the Maoists.
Someone, above, argued that the Maoists are in a much more powerful position than ever. I don't see this at all. They entered, and took over the prime ministership of, a bourgeois government and got their asses kicked politically. They have sowed illusions about the constitutional process. They have used the working class to manipulate a bourgeois constitutional political process that had nothing to do with working class power (but might have something to do with Maoist power, hence Bhattarai). All this has opened fissures in their leadership which are apparent halfway around the world.
The Maoists now are discussing restarting their armed struggle, which didn't work the last time because they had failed to establish connections with the urban working class in Katmandu. Maoist propaganda and photos of the general strike notwithstanding, it is not at all clear that those connections have been made, which virtually guarantees, at best, a victory without the working class coming to power and one more round of state capitalism.
I don't mean to be cynical, comrades. But I see the Maoists having come from the wrong direction in the first place politically, and going down the China, Vietnam and soon Cuba and North Korean route: state capitalism to private capitalism.
RED DAVE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_sharkBut jumping the shark? wtf?
"Jumping the shark is an idiom used to describe the moment of downturn for a previously successful enterprise. The phrase was originally used to denote the point in a television program's history where the plot spins off into absurd storylines or unlikely characterizations. These changes were often the result of efforts to revive interest in a show whose audience had begun to decline, usually through the employment of different actors, writers or producers."
They're discussing a revolt. There cannot be a return to the jungles - the urban masses, the trade unions and student unions and womens organisations and ethnic organisations etc etc are the new 'magic weapons' of the party.
Some people will never be convinced. All evidence will be dismissed as 'Maoist propaganda', all anti-Maoist slander will be accepted as evidence. Are you honestly saying that the Maoists don't have mass support amongst the people of Kathmandu?
It's pretty much inevitable unless some European country has a revolution and comes to the rescue of these backward savages amiright?
And so the most dangerous part of the peace process since the very beginning begins... let's hope it pays off.
Mao's PLA took the red stars off their caps when they joined with the GMD forces to fight the Japanese. There's historical precedents here.
PLA now under Special Committee
KIRAN CHAPAGAIN
KATHMANDU, Sept 17: In a significant development, the UCPN (Maoist) has agreed in principle to disassociate the PLA from the party and place it under the Special Committee formed for supervision, integration and rehabilitation of the former combatants.
“The combatants have come under the command and control of the Special Committee from today,” Maoist representative on the Committee Barsha Man Pun told journalists after a meeting on Thursday evening.
“It is an important step toward integration and rehabilitation of (the Maoist) army.”
Pun, who is also the in-charge of his party´s combatants integration bureau, informed that the combatants will formally come under the command and control of the Special Committee once a proposed secretariat gets final shape. He said that a special function will be organized soon to announce the PLA´s formal disassociation from the party.
Four more members will be added to the technical committee formed under the Special Committee and it will function as the secretariat to oversee the combatants, according to Chief Secretary Madhav Prasad Ghimire, who is also spokesperson of the Committee.
One member each from the Nepal Army, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and the People´s Liberation Army will be added to the technical commitee. One of the 12 members will be appointed as the coordinator.
This is a significant development in the peace process which has remained practically stalled for so long. The government and the Maoists had agreed on Monday to conclude the peace process ´basically´ by January 14, 2011 and had sent a letter to the UN Security Council informing it about this.
Once the secretariat becomes functional, it will cut the link of the 19,602 combatants with the Maoist party through its command, control and direction.
A meeting of the Special Committee headed by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on Thursday evening finalized two key documents relating to directives for command and control of the combatants and a code of conduct for the ex-Maoist army personnel.
The code of conduct requires the combatants to severe all their ties with the party. They will be prohibited from carrying out political activities, using pictures of communist leaders in their barracks, singing of communist songs and painting communist slogans, among other things, according to Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Rakam Chemjong, who is an invitee member on the committee. They will also have to stop greeting their leaders and fellow combatants in the way communist cadres do.
The code of conduct also bars Maoist leaders from making political speeches inside the cantonments where the combatants have been living under UN-monitoring.
http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/in...&news_id=23379
Prachanda has withdrawn from the PM race.
Maoist leader withdraws from race to be Nepal PM
(AFP) – 58 minutes ago
KATHMANDU — The head of Nepal's opposition Maoists withdrew Friday from the race to become prime minister to pave the way for fresh talks on forming a national consensus government, his party said.
Pushpa Kamal Dahal, a former warlord who still goes by his nom de guerre, Prachanda ("the fierce one"), was the front-runner in the two-way contest, but had failed to win the cross-party support he needed to form a new coalition government.
The Maoists, who fought a decade-long civil war against the state before transforming themselves into a political party and winning 2008 elections, hold the largest number of seats in parliament, but not enough to govern alone.
"The country has been held hostage by the indecision of its politicians," the party's vice chairman Baburam Bhattarai told AFP.
"We have decided to pull out of the race so that we can make a fresh attempt at reaching consensus between the parties for a national unity government."
Nepal has been without a government since June 30, when former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal stood down under intense pressure from the Maoists.
Since then, the parties have been unable to agree on the shape of the new administration and a series of votes in the 601-member parliament have proved inconclusive, with none of the candidates securing an overall majority.
The next vote was due to be held on September 26, but is likely to be cancelled after the Maoists' move.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...i43R_W3ZIKFarA
Prachanda warns for new struggle
Added At: 2010-09-16 10:01 PM Last Updated At: 2010-09-16 10:01 PM
Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'
RSS
KATHMANDU: Chairman of the UCPN-Maoist Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' has warned of a national struggle if the party was not given a chance to lead the government through the constitutional ways.
Speaking at an interaction entitled 'Bhimdutta: National Independence and Nepali Revolution', organised by Sem Ahwan monthly magazine in the capital today, he claimed the national struggle will be different from the People's War and it will be waged under the leadership of all Nepalis.
He said the national struggle will be waged openly as the People's War was waged by publicly declaring from the Open Theatre (Khula Munch) and from the rostrum of the parliament.
Prachanda warned the people's patience and tolerance might cross the limit and it might take violent outlet saying that the Maoists and the 30 million people were overwhelmed with pain and suffering by fighting for national pride, independence and social justice.
He claimed the entire population will follow the path shown by the late Bhimdutta if the Maoists were sidelined under different pretensions.
Claiming that use of the 'remote control' has been seen in the current prime ministerial election, he reiterated that Nepalis should get a chance to elect the prime minister on their own.
He expressed his satisfaction towards the role of some media that are backing the issues of nationality.
Whip of the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum Abhishek Pratap Shah committed to sacrifice for the sake of nationality as did the late martyr Bhimdutta.
Professor Phanindra Nepal, cartographer Buddhi Narayan Shrestha and artiste Yubaraj Lama urged the Maoists to take a strong stance on nationality.
Bhimdutta Pant was born in a farmer family in 1983BS in Doti district was murdered in 2010BS Sawan 10.
http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/ful...&NewsID=258008
Nepal Maoist further complicate Peace Process, demand integration en masse
Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai, Vice chairman Unified Maoists’ Party responded modestly when asked by journalists whether he was the candidate for the prime ministerial post, “I do not have personal ambition to become the prime minister. It would be better if Comrade Prachanda leads the country as he is also leading the party.”
Whether Dr. Bhattarai was speaking his inner mind or something different could be a matter of debate in that while Bhattarai was clarifying his “ambitions”, his party chairman was listening to the remarks of his ‘rival’ with his head down.
The Unified Maoists’ Party organized a media interaction program on Saturday, June 26, 2010 after the completion of its ten day long (June 15-25, 2010) party politburo meeting held at the party headquarters in Parisdanda, Kathmandu wherein Dr. Bhattarai made these remarks.
The party also decided to convene the extended plenum of the central committee to point-out party’s prime contradictions.
The meeting has been scheduled for the month of September 2010.
“With the abolishment of autocratic and feudal monarchy and the unfolding political events thereafter make it clear that the party’s prime contradiction has also taken a new shape…we have concluded that our external and internal contradictions have been fused together”, reads the party’s statement distributed at the press conference.
The party senior vice chairman Mr. Mohan Baidya Kiran has already made it public that with the end of Nepali monarchy, his party’s prime contradiction was with the Indian Expansionism.
The Party statement also reads: “As per the Inter-state ideology of the proletariat, we will encourage interactions with the Communist revolutionaries across the world and develop proactive relations with them and have also decided to raise voices against the repression of the people across the world, including India.
Nevertheless, an energized looking Comrade Pushpa Kamal Dahal told journalists at the press meet adding more complexity to the stalled peace process that all UNMIN qualified Militias should undergo the integration process and that too en masse.
He said that the 19,000 UNMIN verified Militias are all qualified to undergo integration.
“We will not accept the modality for integration on individual basis, instead we favor a separate security force to be formed for the Peoples’ Liberation Army”, he continued.
He made it clear to his political rivals in the UML and Nepali Congress camps that nowhere in the Broader Peace Agreement has there been mentioned pin-pointing the number of PLA combatants that would undergo the integration process.
Thus, Dahal said, it would be against the peace agreement to pressurize us to provide the number of PLA men at this juncture.
Dahal at the press meet was flanked by his party deputies, vice chairmen Dr. Bhattarai, Mohan Baidya Kiran and Narayan Kaji Prakash.
“We have come to the conclusion that the likelihood of formation of consensus government has become almost impossible”, noted Prachanda and added, “Yet we have kept both option open, consensus and majority government, both.”
“I urge you journalists not to understand more than what we have said, we have said that consensus government should be formed under our leadership and the leadership means party’s chairman”, said Dahal and left the venue.
The Highlights of Party decision follows:
· Struggle from Three Fronts: Sadak, Sadan and Sarkar (Street, Parliament and Government).
· Unified Front at the local level to provide security, control price hike and provide other basic services to the common people.
http://www.telegraphnepal.com/news_det.php?news_id=7877
Stop micro-managing Nepal
DINKAR NEPAL
When things go out of control in a neighboring country with which you are culturally, historically and geo-politically linked, your diplomats posted to handle the situation there create a mess, the politicians who you believed would listen to you start behaving strangely and the people of that country start hating you; what does the doctor prescribe?
Fly envoys. If that fails, fly special envoys in frenzy. And what’s the news? Sorry doc, it’s got worse.
India is known to be a decisive influence in Nepal’s internal political affairs since the time it is known to be India. The untold promise for the Ranas in the closing years of the British Raj for protection against democratic winds; sheltering of King Tribhuvan and hence the monarchy in 1951; privileges, protection and facilities the political leaders got during the Panchayat era; the 1989-90 economic embargo; or, more recently facilitating of the 12-point agreement are all stark examples of this.
By and large, these efforts have helped positive outcomes for both Nepal and India except for the last time when the calculations went grossly wrong and the Maoists won a majority in the Constituent Assembly elections. And the problems started there.
In all the examples stated above, it was clear to India as to who matters most. The Ranas were the only people who had a say in Nepal at that time, hence there was no dilemma. Later, when the political environment became bad for the Ranas, the king was the best bet.
King Mahendra, clear on his alignments, gave little choice for India but to support the democratic movements and parties. This support continued till 1990 when the multi-party system was established. In 2006, after analyzing the merits and demerits, India helped the political parties unite against the king and created grounds for the Maoists for a soft landing into the mainstream.
But India’s calculation and the ‘democratic’ parties’ confidence was proved drastically wrong by the elections and now, the so-called Nepal experts (read ex-ambassadors, royal relatives and paper pundits) are losing their nerves.
The mother of all the problems for Lainchaur today is: Who should it deal with?
The king is almost ousted from the capital and the political arena. The Madhesis are not in a powerful majority though they are significant in number. The traditional elites or the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML have been made a political minority by the Maoists. And, with the Maoists, they are not very comfortable.
The result is this mess. Micromanagement is exposed. Threatening phone calls by intelligence operatives to legally elected lawmakers make headlines. And what is worse, the threat is over education prospects of the daughter who studies in a school!
The geo-political juxtaposition and economic reality makes it impossible for a government in Kathmandu to be indifferent toward New Delhi. Whatever be the ideological cart that pushes them to power, once the day-to-day nuances of governance, budget, finance and economy starts taking a toll on them; no political party can run away from this reality.
The moment Pushpa Kamal Dahal came to power, the ‘scrapping of the 1950 treaty’ mellowed down to both sides ‘reviewing the relationships with an open mind’. The rhetoric of recruitment of Nepali citizens in foreign army became a ‘sensitive and delicate issue’ that should be consulted with all parties. (When one of the diplomats derisively told me in a brief encounter that Dahal had himself called up the ambassador not to stop the recruitments in Nepal, I was ashamed to the hilt.)
Surprisingly, this realization has not made them confident in the right manner. It’s in the long-term interest of the relationship that India stops reacting in frenzy to each and every event in Nepal. In short, stop micro-managing Nepal.
Recently, an op-ed piece in a national newspaper of India carried an opinion of the sense that the diplomats are not there in Kathmandu to win a beauty contest. This shows that not only the policymakers but also the pundits are neglecting the most important factor in the relationship – the people. It’s high time someone gives a lecture on the importance of soft power and public opinion to the originators of such pontifications.
An image makeover, in the eyes of the public, is what India needs most right now. With what Lainchaur is involved in, it may be able to keep one or the other kind of ruling elites of its liking in the seats of importance. But, till the time the dissention remains in general public against India, some or the other party will emerge to exploit it. India, I believe, needs no lessons on this that creating a common enemy is the best method for political mass mobilization, if it has learnt something from politics of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
So, here are the tips from an insider. Instead of losing their sleep to decide who they should deal with in Nepal, the wise men in Lainchaur should focus on people-centered programs, and let the political powers come to equilibrium on their own, without an external pressure. And be rest assured, whoever emerges stronger on its own, cannot and will not bypass India.
India should focus its power and energy in educating its own citizens about the sensitivities involved while dealing with the citizens of a sovereign neighboring country. Drawing a Laxman Rekha, which should not be crossed at any cost, is in the best interests of all. And till the time this realization hits the rulers in Delhi, no Hanuman can fly to the Himalayas and get a sanjivani for the dying relationship.
[email protected]
http://myrepublica.com/portal/index....&news_id=23414
OMONOIA
ANARCHO
COMMUNISM
