For a long time the people of Nepal have known deep down that the future of this country will be different from the past. The million dollor question is – “is the future that they are talking about going to be better than what had been their immediate past at all?”
The long awaited high-level talks between Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Maoist Chairman, Prachanda, has resumed at the Prime Minister’s residence at Baluwatar. Several contentious issues between the government and the rebels are being discussed for final resolution.
The issues deliberately ignored in the discussion are the three crucial steps which must have been decided first before they started discussing any political agenda: (a) conclusion of a reliable ceasefire agreement; (b) immediate end to kidnapping, killing, extortion and other criminal activities from the Maoist side; and (c) surrendering of all weapons held by the guerrillas.
As of today, the entire thrust is on power sharing, the promulgation of the interim constitution and the election of the constituent assembly. One needs to peel back the veil of media-induced deception to reveal exactly, when, where, how and especially why Maoists brought into the lies that they want to join the democratic mainstream – yet without signing a ceasefire agreement – continuing with kidnapping, killing and extortion, and without bidding farewell to arms.
If there is some honesty in what is being done, the omnipotent government of G.P. Koirala needs to respond to the people on this issue. Just explain how a civic government is possible when one of the constituents intends to have its own private army and run a parallel government from the platform of a legitimate power. There are no regrets in life, just lessons: false humility of the government can be even more harmful in this respect than false pride of becoming an invincible government.
In fact, the emerging situation reminds the educated Nepalis of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” – a simple fable of great symbolic value – which was published in 1945. What exemplifies George Orwell’s fable is the declared goals of the revolution and the failure to meet them. George Orwell’s illustrates this failure through the malfunction of the new leaders, and their disastrous reign. Power corrupts, but absolute power the leaders vest in themselves (with the strength of the revolution) corrupts absolutely.
Before the Revolution, as the fable goes, the inhabitants of the “Animal Farm” are ruled by a tyrannical human being, Mr Jones [or King Gyanendra?]. The animals get fed up with the treatment they have been receiving and, at one meeting, one Old Major [or RAW?] provides a solution that befits its scheme, Revolution. The Revolution plans to overthrow Jones, the tyrannical farmer, and set up an animal government [supervised by New Delhi?]. The forces find their way and the plan is successful.
Then comes the simple and tragic story of what happens when the oppressed farm animals drive out Mr. Jones, the farmer, and attempt to rule the farm themselves, on the basis of equality.
The new regime begins in idealistic optimism as expressed by the motto” no animal must ever tyrannize over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers.” The Seven Commandments (or the parliamentary proclamations?) are soon proclamed with all the animals contented as equals. The pigs (or the members of the Seven Party Alliance?) come to take the charge of the new government. They become successful propagandist, use the dogs (the security umbrella?) as force to keep animals in line, and in fact the rest of the animals are easily led. There is of course no change in tyranny that these animals had been historically facing.
The venture fails, and the “Animal Farm” ends up being a dictatorship of pigs, who were said to be the brightest, and most idle of the animals. At the climax of the story, these pigs even start walking upright like human beings. The ultimate return of humans indicates the overall failure of the rebellion, with the farm in human hands, due to start the same hellish life they had before Old Major prompted them to change.
The government of the Seven Party Alliance has to live the vision, day in day out – embodying it – and empowering the people to implement and execute that vision in everything they do. Of course, it has the right to commit suicide should it want. But it does not have any right to mislead the country, and to surrender the legitimate stakes that the people have in the peace process.
The mandate of the SPA government is to accommodate Maoists in the political mainstream of the country; it is not the mandate to establish them in power with their private army and other paraphernalia, and run the country into oblivion.
Changes in mindset do not start on a larger scale. Maoists are yet to develop that democratic mindset and the ability to build on it. They also need a sense of purpose beyond themselves. If the purpose is only for oneself, it rapidly dissipates the way the democratic arrangements under the 1990 constitution dissipated. In fact, it is not enough to talk about the future – the leaders should also show that they are building it. And, this is not the case.
[LAWYERS_INC_NEPAL@yahoo.com]