Nepal nears constitutional crisis
2010Clay Wadena 2010-04Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 8 →
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8 SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 2010 As the May 28 deadline for the com pletion of Nepal’s constitution quickly nears, almost all analysts agree that it is highly unlikely it will be finished on time. Unified Communist Party of Ne pal (Maoist) leaders have threatened to spearhead a social revolt if right-wing elements do not stop delaying the com pletion of the constitution and other elements of the 2006 peace agreement.
The peace agreement that ended the Maoist “People’s War” and monarchist rule (among other things) contains a provision that would allow the dead line to be extended for six months. This would also extend the interim constitu tion, but an extension currently seems unlikely, as most politicians rarely men tion it.
Major issues called for in the 2006 peace agreement have yet to be re solved. For the constitution to be fin ished on time there are a number of things that have to be worked out quickly by the Constituent Assembly. One roadblock has been debate over the question of whether the federal state would be formed by ethnic groups or geographically. Another is whether the judiciary branch of the government would be under the legislative branch or be independent of other branches.
Possibly an even more contentious matter of the peace agreement sur rounds the PLA (the 20,000-strong Maoist rebel army) and the refusal by Nepal Army generals to allow a merger of these two forces. This was mandated by the peace agreement, but there has been no progress. Maoist rebels have lan guished in UN-monitored camps for some three years while wait ing to be integrated.
This was one of the main rea sons that the UN dispatched its top political official, B. Lynn Pas coe, to Nepal on March 11. Pas coe said that Nepal’s peace pro cess was at a “very serious point.” He added, “The question of the future of the two armies should not remain unresolved any lon ger.”
However, even Pascoe was rebuffed by Nepal Army Chief General Chhatraman Singh Gu run, who told him that the rebel forces would not be integrated en masse, echoing statements made by other military leaders. The military leadership prefers that the PLA disband and its members then come up individually for consideration into the Nepal Army. This position runs counter to the peace agreement (some thing the Maoists routinely point out).
The Nepal Army, particularly its lead ership and officers, pose a grave threat to the Nepalese revolution. They have refused every attempt at civilian con trol and democratization. It was just this issue that brought down the former Maoist-led ruling government coalition, leaving the Maoists (who have the larg est bloc in the Constituent Assembly) in a minority outside the new coalition. Yet the Maoists have the support of broad sections of workers and peasants in Nepal, a country devastated by poverty and unemployment of the highest order.
It is unclear how this situation will be resolved or if it will be resolved at all. Even if the Maoists were to get their way, and have the PLA integrated into the Nepalese Army, the fusion would likely be disastrous as long as the old officer corps and the capitalist state that they serve continue to exist. For example, when the Chinese Communists (under Stalin’s direction) fused with the bour geois Kuomintang forces in the 1920s, and disarmed the organizations of the workers, it ultimately led to their near decimation. Similarly, trusting bourgeois military forces was one of the major fac tors that led to Chilean President Salvador Allende’s death in 1973 and the ensuing Pinochet military dictatorship.
The entire project of the Maoists to form a reformist “Federal Democratic Republic,” together with parties of the newly crowned capitalist class, has no promise of success. The monarchists, bourgeoisie, and big landlords will do everything they can to subvert and de rail the popular will. They will oppose any attempts toward thorough land reform, ending poverty, democratizing society, and countering the pressures of imperialism. To ensure that the status quo is maintained, they will use the Ne pal Army against the masses if need be.
For true success, the example of the Cuban Revolution provides useful in sights. The Cuban revolutionaries found that in their pursuit of a nationalistoriented program it was necessary to go beyond mere bourgeois-democratic reforms and to undertake a socialist revolution; expropriating the capitalists and setting up a government of the op pressed. Merging their rebel army with the reactionary army of Batista that they had fought against was unthinkable.
We must support the liberation strug gle in Nepal and look forward to the day when the Nepalese masses finally rule the country. n
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P rogue Parliament for three months in order to rime Minister Stephen Harper said he had to pro “re-calibrate” his minority Conservative government. What he meant by that became depressingly clear in the 2010 federal budget presented on March 4.
In it the Conservatives vow to freeze or scale back