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By Shashi P.B.B. Malla

Complete Failure of Parliamentary Democracy

Whole books could be written about Nepal’s experiment with democracy, and very illuminating ones have been composed, including the masterly “Democratic Innovations in Nepal: A Case Study of Political Acculturation, 1966” by Bhuwan Lal Joshi and Leo E. Rose (latest reprint by Mandala Publications, 2004).

The slow and certain eating away of the edifice of democracy by termites started when India dictated the infamous 12-point agreement of the ‘Seven Party Alliance’ with the Maoists (“SPAM”) on November 22, 2005, whereby the insurgent Maoists became mainstream. The main rogue was the Nepali Congress leader Girija Prasad Koirala, a scheming character.

However, the beginning of the end started with the electoral alliance of the United Marxists-Leninists (UML), which many mistook for a social-democratic oriented party [in fact, it remained fully Communist], and the Maoists just before the 2017 general elections. This was indeed a masterstroke, and the devil must be given his due.

The sad part was that the Nepali Congress and its leaders, above all Sher Bahadur Deuba were completely nonplussed. They had no ideas and no ‘tactics and strategy’ to counter the Communist onslaught. The majestic lion had been reduced to a mouse! Like its mother party, the Indian National Congress, the Nepali Congress has lost its way and had also started to bleed from within – but without any self-realization at all!

The rest, as they say, is history. The unified Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) strolled to victory with a nearly two-thirds majority. Unknown to the gullible Nepalese – or ‘the Gorkhas in sheep clothing’ – this was the death-knell of Nepal’s experiment with democracy.

The Communist Party of Nepal like an autocratic and fake-populist party anywhere in the world set about undermining the state’s democratic institutions under the motto: ‘the end justifies the means’. After all, the Communists’ aim was to establish a free, just and classless society. Unfortunately, the true ‘end’ turned out to be rotten to the core. The Communist leaders developed into the new and powerful ‘maharajas’ and once-proud Nepali citizens have been transformed into abject subjects.

Nepal’s political system is now ‘Loktantra’ superseding ‘Prajatantra’. Whatever Nepali word you choose, it has definitely not to do with a vibrant democracy, since political participation of the people is zero.

Against all parliamentary or constitutional norms, Bam Dev Gautam is to be made minister [The party has decided to nominate him to the upper house, a rubber-stamping, money-consuming, superfluous body]. Rather than good governance, the Communists/Maoists are too busy playing various games of intrigue and conspiracy. And Oli the Clown just wants to remain the permanent head of government – just like his very competent colleagues in Venezuela, Belarus, Russia and the United States of A!

The misrule of the Communist rulers has created a situation unparalleled in the history of Nepal. The people now have to choose between real democracy and ‘Communism’. The country is now caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

There can be no inspiration from our two giant neighbours. In India, Narendra Modi and his henchmen are mobilizing the forces of reaction – communalism – to create a ‘Hindu Pakistan’, i.e. no longer a secular Republic, but a ‘Hindu Bharatvarsha’, where other religious minorities have no space.

The NCP has extended its tentacles to all corners and parts of the country in its attempt to establish a one-party state like in China. In the very process, it is also dismantling the rudiments of a pluralistic state. This is also not the model that we should aspire to.

Professor Cai Xia, who spent years at the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) top training centre and think tank in Beijing, branded the CCP a grave threat to the world at large, after which she was expelled from the party (CNN, August 23, 2020).

Nepal must distance itself from both these extremist ideologies. Otherwise, all the gains we have made since the Revolution of 1950-51 may be reduced to nought, and perhaps we would have to start again from Square One, like in a game of ‘Snakes and Ladders’ [which to some observers would not be a bad thing].

Our two giant neighbours have ‘progressed’ from patriotism to extreme nationalism and our now on the fringes of jingoism. Their positions on the border question are not conducive to a peaceful negotiated settlement since neither side is willing to make concessions in the disputed Galwan Valley in the Karakorum Range of Eastern Ladakh.

Unfortunately, the Communist/Maoist government is in no shape to navigate a foreign policy between the Asian giants that is truly and positively neutral and non-aligned.

Complete Mismanagement of the Coronavirus Pandemic

The Communist/Maoist government has completely mismanaged the Coronavirus pandemic. It is as if they have received inspiration from the Great Liar Donald Trump, who like Emperor Nero fiddles while Rome burns! [Ominously Nero was also suspected of patricide, matricide and fratricide].

There is little or no information about what the government is doing and what it intends to do. It seems Oli firmly believes in the adage: ‘speech is silver, silence is golden!’

For this reason alone, Oli, Dahal and their sidekicks must be kicked out; they have reduced the whole country to their personal fiefs like Mafia bosses, and each has become the capo di tutti capi (boss of all bosses) of their respective factions.

The Emasculation of Civil Society & Intelligentsia

Nepal’s once vibrant civil society has been completely debilitated and crippled. There are only a few scholars, cognoscenti and Illuminati who are willing and able to voice their opinions, and without fear or favour demand pressing change(s). Kathmandu’s myriad think tanks and research institutes are boarded up and shuttered. The silence of the grave reigns supreme.

Currently, a group of dedicated and starry-eyed would-be eggheads are breaking their heads (simultaneously breaking wind) in an online debate on inaugurating a new national economic plan, when the urgent need is for the country to get back on track, finding ways and means to get back to normality! These very intelligent people are definitely putting the cart before the horse! Among them is the failed Maoist chief ideologue Baburam Bhattarai (vide: NNSDEE@googlegroups.com).

The government should be looking to inching towards normality and focusing at least in three sectors: health, education and tourism.

As regards tourism, the entrepreneur Bijay Amatya has already made many relevant suggestions (interview in The Kathmandu Post, July 10, 2020), but these will, unfortunately, fall on deaf ears!

Prospects

In the absence of any inspiration from the North or the South – who in the case have their own axes to grind, we must look to ourselves to move forward. Here it must be the youth and the students that must be the vanguard that must act in their own self-interest because it is their own future which is at stake.

Professor Abhi Subedi, the eminent literary critic wrote very presciently: “But in the current times, the other power called the people has joined the historical race.” (The Kathmandu Post, December 22, 2019, in his review of Sudhir Sharma’s book: The Nepal Nexus, 2019)

The complacent Commies think that because of the coronavirus pandemic, they have the enlightened Nepalese and the resurgent youth in check.

However, there are ways and means to teach them a lasting lesson.

Urgent Action Plan

First, people, in general, have to shed their lethargy and complacency and demonstrate en masse. This can be done wearing face coverings and maintaining social distancing.

Second, the protests have to be entirely peaceful and non-violent in the fashion of Mahatma Gandhi.

Third, it has to be a grand coalition of all progressive forces.

Fourth, the police and the armed police will be used by the repressive Communist government to suppress the movement/revolution for change. But they can be neutralized and/or overwhelmed by the tactics and strategy of ‘multi-level and multi-spatial engagement.’

Fifth, the movement will not ask the military to dirty their hands and attempt a coup d’etat. In fact, they should be like a neutral observer and non-participating agent. They could, of course, control the excesses of the police and act as a facilitator for the transition.

Sixth, the transition government should not include any members of the main political parties and should be, more or less, technocratic.

Seventh, the proactive support of distinguished members of Nepalese society from all walks of life is the sine qua non for the success of the new people’s progressive democratic revolution at every stage and level of activity.

The writer can be reached at: shashipbmalla@hotmail.com

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