by Mukti Nepal
Reactionary and status quoist parties at home and imperialist powers in foreign countries are blocking the Maoist party from going to power. They are forcing this party to dismantle all their forces and weapons. The old army is hiring new incumbents and accumulating weaponry but the defense minister is threatening to use force to stop the new and retaliatory hiring, if any, in the Maoist army side. How futile you think the effort is to go to power for the Maoist on the basis of the shaky votes which can be easily horse-traded to pull them back and when they have been defeated continuously for four times? Which path ahead: confrontation or finessing or a midway of waging peoples’ movement on the basis of issues to be incorporated in the new constitution for the time being?
Nepal is at a terrible cross road. Nepal has shown number of negative and positive extremes in recent years. It has witnessed a number of achievements as well as failures during this period. Among them, political economic extremes are most notable. While militarily unbeatable armed struggle led by the Maoists (the Peoples’ War) and the resultant abolition of monarchy are the major positive extremes, the unusual political economic stalemate at the later part is the major negative feature. As a result of the War, the marginalized, underrepresented and disadvantaged section of people such as disadvantaged ethnic groups, women, dalits (the so-called ‘untouchables’) have become politically aware, organized, empowered, have significantly increased representation in the parliament and have enjoyed some reforms in elementary education, primary health care, reforms in women rights such as heir and mother-based citizenship rights, pay and wage raises and distribution of lands to some bonded laborers.
To the negative side, a globally notable revolutionary Peoples’ War has now confined to incremental parliamentary plays before the conclusion of the agendas of the War and/or the placement of a legal and revolutionary constitution. To speak the truth, the parliamentary plays have resulted in a political stalemate, non-governance and anarchism. The country has failed to elect the prime minister for the fourth time again yesterday. Neither Maoists nor the opponents have been able to agree with each others proposals of integration of the Maoist army. The power holders including the (caretaker) prime minister are in a race of accumulating wealth for the life time through the front as well as the back doors. Ministers are involved in public fund or resource (such as mines, forest, herbs, etc.) embezzlements. Tradesmen are creating artificial scarcities of everyday goods and raising prices arbitrarily. The so-called government is irresponsive. The situation of law and order is record worse. Many ordinary citizens, press reporters, Maoist cadres, tradesmen, police officers and medical doctors have been robbed, abducted and many of them have been even killed. The cross-border problems have risen. Border pillars have disappeared, dislocated and people in the bordering areas have lost their lands and country in these encroachment processes. Decent people have been robbed, rapped and tortured by border security people. Instead of protecting countrymen, the foreign minister takes the side of the foreign oppressor.
The life of people is very difficult. Besides the problems caused by global warming (such as drought, flood, drying up of drinking water sources, etc.), political economic and socio-cultural problems have also horribly hit the lives of people. Many major discriminatory practices are still in operation in most parts of the country. Back door oppressions by feudal lords have greatly reduced because of the War but the front door sucking (like low wages, high interest rates, high service charges especially for education, health care, clothing materials, apartment rentals, housing materials and accessories, telephones, utilities, transportations, etc., price rise of everyday goods /increase in the cost of living, disproportional product pricing, etc.) and black marketers have still making the life of the resource poor very difficult. In rural areas, still a large portion of people have little or no land to make the living. Unemployment or lack of cash income has severely hit the life of people. Those who can invest for foreign labor employment have got some relief but many of these also have been cheated by labor supply companies or the employers in the foreign countries (the gulf countries, Malaysia, Korea, etc.). Many female Nepali workers in foreign countries (especially in gulf countries) have committed even suicide. Kamaiya (the male bonded laborers) have been legally freed but have no or insufficient resource ownership to support the living. Many homes and farms of Kamaiyas that settled in public lands were destroyed and several Kamaiyas were even killed by the government. Kamlari (the female bonded laborers) have still not been freed. A sizeable number of freed Kamaiyas have committed suicide for not being able to protect or feed or provide medical treatments to the kids or the family. These kinds of suicide cases have been frequent lately among other resource poor families too in remote areas. Many poor low caste or dalit women have been beaten to death by usually the neighborhood high caste, non-dalit richer people blaming the victim to be practicing witchcraft. The revolutionaries as well as the government have been helpless to these suiciding or beaten or difficult-to- make-a-living families. Neither most ordinary people nor the country has experienced improvement in the living of most people after the War (please visit the interview archieves of BBC Nepali radio or Radio Sagarmatha or Radio Mirmire with economist prof. Dr. Madan Dahal and Young Communist League officer comrade Chandra Bahadur Thapa last month for further evidences and details). While Maoist leadership of the War is considering the parliamentary play as the essential pathway for the successful conclusion of the agendas of peoples war and resolution to the management of Maoist army in the confinement, it has no meaning to these sections of people. They rank all participants of the parliament to fall in the same category!
