“That is why a visionary who has armed force on his side has always won,
while unarmed even your visionary is always a loser.”
(Machiavelli, The Prince, 1613, p.23, Penguin ed.)
“One of the things historians admired about the Achaean leader Philopoemen
was that even in peacetime he thought of nothing but military strategy and when
he was in the country with his friends he would stop and ask them: if the enemy
were over that hill and we were down here with our army, who would be in the
better position? How could we attack them without breaking ranks? If we decided
to retreat, how would we do it? And as he and his friends went along he would
list all the predicaments an army can find itself in. He listened to their
ideas, expressed and explained his own; so much so that, thanks to his constant
work of mental preparation that when he was back leading his armies there was
simply nothing that could happen that he didn’t know how to deal with.”(ibid: p
59)
HAUNTED BY A RED SPECTRE - DARK FORCES
THREATEN NEPAL
(Notes from underground)
INTRO
The international line-up against the Nepalese Maoists boycott of the
scheduled November 19th election has already taken shape. This week
the European Union (EU) ‘missions’ in Nepal condemned the successful one-day
general strike (banda) called by the 33 party alliance led by the CPN (Maoist)
and urged them to desist from agitations: “which disrupt people’s daily
life.”
Parties to this statement were; Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the UK
plus Norway and Switzerland; all expressing ‘serious concerns’ over the effect
of the banda in the Kathmandu Valley and nine eastern districts of Nepal. They
furthermore stated that the ‘bandh culture is inhibiting Nepal’s investment
prospects.’
The CPN (M) hit back directly, expressing anger this ‘meddling in Nepal’s
internal affairs’ was a breach of diplomatic norms but because a critical mass
of the political representatives of the Nepalese people were excluded from the
corrupt political process which had delivered this kathit nirbaachan
(so-called election) process they had no other peaceful option at their
disposal.
This is a foretaste of what is to come in the propaganda war against the
Maoists and their allies. The enemy has – on the face of it – a formidable array
of powerful foreign states, the UN, international government and non-government
organisations all focused on driving this election through.
The UN – in all its multitudinous manifestations - is mainly here to keep
Nepal underdeveloped and aid dependent according to the imperatives of western
monopoly interests and this case to wave a stick on as it imposes western
‘democratic.’ norms on possibly troublesome natives. The White Sahib now
patronises as much as he terrorises. But it is same old imperial mindset, just
tricked-out in Madison Avenue PC gloss. The White Man’s Burden de nos
jours.
UN & NGO OBSERVERS
Therefore, we had last week the first batch of international observers
arriving to subject the process to scrutiny. Representatives from the Carter
Center and up to a 100 from the United Nations having already arrived; “to
assess the pre-election environment”. Observers from the European Union and the
Asian Network for Free Election (ANFREL) will be here in the next couple of
weeks.
All of these international worthies and many indigenous ones will soon be
granted accreditation prior to any monitoring taking place.
The Carter Center’s senior consultant – Peter Burleigh – has form. He
‘monitored’ the 2008 Constitutional Assembly as well, as part of a broader US
strategy, orchestrated by the then American Ambassador – De Lisi – aimed at
discrediting the election where the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN (M)
had emerged as the largest party.
The allegation made was that the Maoists had won by intimidation, using the
300,000 strong Young Communist League (YCL) to enforce a victory. Hence the
thuggish response this time to the boycott campaign was not surprising as the
Centre in its report of October 1st , inter alia, urged the
government to launch a police-crackdown on ‘anti-poll activities’ and gave full
support to security services acting against: ‘illegal efforts to block the
election process’.
It further claimed that efforts to block voters registration were in
breach of Article 9 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights. Therefore concluding that ‘incidents of intimidation, theft and
destruction of ECN (election) materials’ violated these rights. Underlying how
seriously sections of the international bourgeoisie are taking the boycott as
they goad the Nepalese state repressive apparatus into attack mode.
ANFREL is a straightforward NGO ideological mechanism promoting western
bourgeois ‘democratic’ practice in the patently unsuitable soil of the region.
Its lofty mission statement claims it is all about ‘promoting electoral
integrity’ and its founding member and ambassador emeritus is General Saiyud
Kerdphol, retired Supreme Commander of the Royal Thai Armed Forces. (What a
great world when a retired warrior from a feudal autocracy can undergo a
Damascene conversion and become a force for equality and fair play.
He even gets the ultimate ‘honorary white-man’ accolade - a lofty Latin
tag.) Its board of directors is fronted by regional worthies – including one
from Nepal, Kapil Shrestha, from its National Election Observation Committee
(NEOC) and all funding comes through United States Agency for International
Development (USAID).
Therefore this time they are here – not just to monitor – but to enforce an
election. They believe they have good reason to be confident in the ability of
the security forces to meet any Maoist challenge. The Nepal Army, e.g. has
swollen from less than 35000 before 2001 to nearly a 100,000 in 2013 mainly
thanks to US dollars, training and logistical aid* and is complemented by
para-militaries of the 35,000 strong Armed Police Force (APF). Plus the
government has just been given permission to hire another 50,000 special extra
cops in a show of overwhelming state power.
In total there will be 51 groups, 49 national and 2 international,
accredited by the Election Committee deploying 74,000 observers covering 18,000
voting booths. The NEOC alone is providing 10,000 personnel. The two
international groups chosen and mentioned above are the Carter Center and ANFREL
and the EC has also extended invitations to the EU and the UN.
The EC has said that it is setting minimum academic standards for national
observers saying they should hold at least a high-school degree or have some
experience in monitoring polls with local ones having at least a school leaving
certificate.
* From previous page: (Although US arms began filtering arms through to
the then Royal Nepalese Army after 2002, subsequent to the Maoists being labeled
‘terrorists’ in the same category as Jihadis, even up to the 2006 ceasefire the
average squaddie carried a bolt-action .303. Standard; issue now is the
much-improved, modified and versatile M16 along with its carbine variant for
Rangers and Special Forces battalions. With the UK providing also the Heckler
& Koch SA 80s it is evidence that the army whatever its overall
logistical problems till now, has considerably enhanced its infantry firepower
with modern bullpup weaponry.)
The minimum requirements for the extra police are similarly tailored to the
work and preference will be shown to ex-servicemen as long as they do not have a
police record, although a spokesman has said that: “The force does not
necessarily have to be only ex-soldiers.”
The proposed measures of all these domestic and foreign governments and
organisations show they are aware that the forces supporting boycott are not
negligible; at the political level the CPN-M alone has 92 delegates plus allies
in smaller parties in the 491 strong CA, on the streets it has shown its
strength with the cumulative wave of well-drilled marches and rallies organized
by the People’s Volunteer Bureau (CPN-M youth wing), at a possible operational
level the Party has retained the support of 70% of PLA veterans. Add to these
factors the latest successful bandas unfolding across the country and consider
that these are only preludes to the main campaign due to be launched next week
and the fear in the ranks of the status quo is both palpable and explicable. It
accounts for the huge military and political over-reaction and evidences a
determination to see the electoral process through.
To some extent the Four-Party syndicate is a bystander in the unfolding
drama as it squabbles – not only among its constituent parties but within the
parties themselves as factions and clans jockey for political position and
advantage. They are also divided by sotto voce by psephological prospects
as to the actual election date and the scope for flexibility in trying to bring
the CPN-M on board. It is not a monolithic front and the Maoists have exploited
this fact in negotiations but whenever agreement has looked likely Dehli has
directly intervened. The latest occasion last week when Dehli firmly squashed
any suggestion of Regmi – the Chief Justice appointed as PM through Prachanda’s
macinations – resigning in response to a CPN-M demand for a political
administration. The Indian Foreign Secretary – Sujatha Singh – followed this up
by stating to Koirala – the NC leader – in Katmandu that they must take place on
the 19th November and that furthermore India would seal the border to
curb: “unwanted elements.” (Himalayan, Sept.15th) This will involve
open tactical cooperation with Nepali security forces.
BULLETS & BALLOTS
The huge security operation just announced will see deployed 62,000 Nepal
Army as back-up, 54,000 police, 22,000 Armed Police Force and 44,000 temporary
police operational at voting centres, with officials of these four security
services cooperating with the Home Secretary and the Home Minister in an
Integrated Security Plan. The government will further form central security and
central command committees with devolved powers to the five regions and 75
districts. This has led to a drastic escalation of expected budgeted costs,
rising from over Rs 8 billion originally demanded by the Home Minister from the
Finance Ministry, to an amount that now could exceed Rs 14 billion. The increase
solely attributable to pressure from the security services for an enhanced
role.
This reflects a justifiable jitteriness – especially from the Army who know
that among the ranks of CPN-Maoist are many tough, experienced
political/military personnel who were at the forefront of the decade-long
People’s War.
They are largely second-generation leaders who may have joined the PLA as
teenagers and are now in their early forties. They have been influential in the
setting-up of the People’s Volunteer Bureau – a proto-army that has been evident
at the boycott marches and rallies.
This and their unflinching determination to stop the ballot mean they have
the potential to wreck these electoral stratagems. If there is extensive
government repression they know it could provoke armed conflict.
The Maoist leaders have not ruled this out and it is another worrying
prospect for the NA command.
This scenario demonstrates the latent power of the Army as a decisive
player in Nepalese political life, intervening now as forcefully as it did in
the 2008 coup when it overthrew the infant Maoist-led government under
Prachanda.
Here we see a supposed democratic function become usurped as a
military/police operation. The election therefore has become subsidiary to
security considerations as a tight-knit political/military cabal attempt to
dictate the course of events up to and on election day, along with their foreign
allies and advisers.
In this respect NA staff meet monthly with their American counterparts at
the US embassy, Kathmandhu, at the Office for Defense Cooperation – OCD –
convened under CINCPAC – US Commander-in-Chief – Pacific.
It reflects a growing ‘Egyptianisation’ of the NA, as its officer class and
high command are integrated into the US industrial/military complex, building on
links already established through Nepal’s comparatively high level of
participation in UN ‘Peace-Keeping’ missions.
The US army provides extensive training programmes and has inducted the NA
into – inter alia- counter-insurgency strategy and tactics. With the
weaponry already alluded to, on paper, this makes it a much more professional
force than the one which faced the PLA after the turn of the century There are
however, geo-political constraints on the NA command as a recent US president
asserted that the US and PRC were “strategic competitors” in Nepal.
Given that Nepal has a strong national interest in seeing a strong China as
a growing counterweight to its present neo-colonial subservience to India this
gives little room for any blatant pro-American strategic maneuverings.
The subservience extends deeply into the military sphere, for all the US
targeted aid, India is now resuming its role as the NA’s major supplier of arms
and equipment and is now Nepal’s biggest military aid provider. This follows a
long gap of eight years when India cut off aid in protest at King Gyanendra’s
2005 declaration of Emergency Rule under which the CA was dissolved and parties
banned.
The timing of this resumption is no accident and is to bolster the 62,000
NA personnel being deployed and to help them mesh effectively with the police
and other security forces in ensuring a trouble free election. The fact is that
despite the targeted US military aid in officer training and light weaponry the
army has been suffering from severe logistical deficiencies in basic equipment
and has made several requests to the Indian government which hitherto have gone
unanswered. Now New Delhi has resumed its role as Nepal’s major military aid
provider and it has been prompted by the fact that the Maoist-led boycott
creates uncertainty. It believes resumption will boost the chances of the army
containing any violence and has assured to that end:
“All possible logistical support for the polls, including 764 vehicles at
the cost Rupees 50 crores….The total value of equipment and other logistics to
be supplied immediately was stated as Nepalese Rupees 1.76 billion.”
(Hindustan Times, October 3, 2013)
Back in August jeeps, buses and motorbikes began arriving; three drones
have been acquired and Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) manufactured in
Bangalore by Hindustan Aeronautics have been promised, all under the rubric:
“Bilateral assistance in restructuring and capacity building”.
This is a sub-continental show of ‘machtpolitik’ showing that New
Delhi is not only prepared to crush brutally internal Maoist revolt but will
also intervene to defeat the same threat in Nepal. Therefore, each of Nepal’s
present military partners has their own reasons for wanting Nepalese Maoism
contained at least with respect to the boycott and hopefully extirpated at a
later time.
It has to be containment as all elements in the cabal, domestic and foreign
know that a bloodbath will tarnish the election unless it can be pinned on the
Maoists. In this respect I mentioned in an earlier piece regarding the estimated
25,000 Indian security personnel (Research and Analysis Wing, RAW) in Kathmandu
who may act as agents provocateurs providing the excuse for massive
repression. While obviously preferring quiescence they may have to consider
switching tactics should the boycott be effective.
They also have to consider Chinese reaction given that the CPN-M is the
only political party that is credibly pro-Chinese having made the estimate,
mentioned earlier, that a strong China was in Nepal’s national interest and that
vice versa an independent Nepal was in Chinese national interests, not wanting
to see it either ‘Sikkimised’ by India or used a border fort by America as part
of an encirclement strategy aimed at hobbling China. (The Chinese have earlier
evidence of the latter given continuing US, CIA support for Lamist, Tibetan
separatists.)
THE PROPAGANDA FRONT
Therefore the boycotters face a considerable security apparatus with the
emerging modalities of a police-state. While in parallel there is a sustained,
domestic, vitriolic, anti-Maoist campaign centring on the Kantipur media
monopoly – a conglomerate with tentacles in press, TV and radio. As the date of
the intended election draws nearer the indigenous propaganda machine will be
supplemented by foreign media organizations; CNN, BBC, Al Jazera, NBC, SKY
&c. They will send battalions of journos, reporters, photographers,
cameramen, commentators, anchorman, presenters, ad nauseam and will be
uniformly hostile towards the CPN-Maoist and the 33 party alliance’s
boycott.
The local right-wing media has long portrayed the CPN-Maoists leadership as
‘dogmatic’ and ‘hardline’ and further worked itself into a state of hysteria at
the effectiveness of the bandas. Incidents that could be magnified distorted or
invented given prominence as part of a sustained campaign against boycott
activists, particularly the Maoists. E.g. last week in Charikot when a group of
bandists were attacked by a few local goondahs; the press unanimously declared
this heralded popular resistance against ‘these anti-people activities’, with
the Katmandu Post – part of the Kantipur media monopoly) opining that the
Maoists had got: “the trashing they deserved”.
I myself, inadvertently became a target for Kantipur for daring to give a
message of solidarity with the boycott, from communists and progressives in
Europe and the Americas, to a huge Dash Maoist rally the following week in the
same town – Charikot – (in the Tamsaling region which surrounds the Kathmandu
Valley) and was labeled in Kantipur the next day, to paraphrase it, an ‘Irish
trouble-maker’. Subsequently a police and army man-hunt has been launched for
some alleged breach of electoral law and I write this after some days
underground.
(CPN-Maoist boycott rally in Charikot, September 24th 2013.
Programme included speeches from GS Badal, Dr Bishnu Hari Nepal, many local
activists and I as foreign guest. It was Emceed by Party secretary, Prem Darnal,
and also included music, dance and drama from the Party’s terrific young
cultural troupe, Sanskriti Abhiyaan.
This shows two things; the first is that the countrywide search for a
‘Controversy stirrer Irish’ (sic) (Kathmandu Post, Sept. 26th
) arises from panic and secondly the double standards applying where a sole
left-wing supporter of the boycott is pilloried and hounded while hordes of
foreign right-wingers can descend and tell Nepalese why they should submit to a
November 19th election and blasting the boycotters and the many
Nepalese people they represent without any comment or action being taken. The
Party’s International Department’s representative, Dr. Bishnu Hari Nepal pointed
this out and called for Jimmy (‘No more Mr. Nice Guy) Carter to be charged
similarly with meddling in Nepal’s affairs. (Kathmandu Post, September
27th).
Misinformation and black propaganda are familiar in countries where there
is monopoly bourgeois control of all media outlets and which fashions
ideological rottweilers en masse and habitually unleashes them, to
denigrate progressive causes and demomise radical individuals. In relation to
Nepal this well-oiled attack machine is going to appear in even more
concentrated and coordinated form when the foreign homologues of the local
commentariat descend and the battlefield widens from the national to the
international front.
THE ‘DASH MAOISTS’* LINE
“War hath determined us, and foil’d with loss
Irreparable: terms of peace yet none
Vouchsafed or sought; for what peace will be given
To us enslaved, but custody severe,
And stripes and arbitrary punishment
Inflicted? And what peace can we return,
But, to our power, hostility and hate,
Untamed reluctance and revenge though slow:
Yet ever plotting how the Conqueror least
May reap his conquest and may least rejoice
In doing what we most in suffering feel?”
(Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 2, lines 330-40)
*After
much discussion the Party adopted the title CPN-Maoist in order to distinguish
itself from Yadav’s CPN (Maoist) – an earlier breakaway from the UCPN (M) and
they are now called the Dash Maoists in common parlance.
Despite this considerable array of political, military and ideological
apparata the CPN-M has kept its nerve and matched the threats and avoided
equally the subtler ploys of the opposition trying to lure them into an
electoral trap. Further, it has stoutly condemned the mobilization of the Army
as a violation of the 2006 Comprehensive Agreement. The right has had to twist
the terms of Article 158 of Interim Constitution and finally used the ploy of
presidential decree to grease Army mobilization through.
Dev Prasad Gurung, CPN – M secretary went as far as to say that the
government was declaring war and inviting conflict into the country. Baidhya,
the Maobaadi Chairman, followed up this statement saying: “Deploying the army in
an election is a serious matter. Armies and police should fight against those
who have been damaging the image of the country.” (Himalayan, Sept.
24th). Underlying the seriousness with which the Party viewed this
deployment further saw Guarev (CP Gajurel) deliver an official memorandum to the
UN SG, Ban ki-moon via the residential coordinator, McGoldrick, complaining that
the unilateral deployment contravened the CPA in not consulting the signatory
parties. This was as much to build a case as it was to put the UN on the spot;
its remit from 2006, along with running the cantonments where the PLA and its
weapons were sequestered, was to oversee electoral modalities for the CA and the
interim constitution. This was followed up by visits to all the major embassies.
For the present Ban has sidestepped the issue by allegedly redoubling his
efforts to get the CPN-M and all the dissenting parties into the election
process but in fact sealing the process that excluded the CPN-Maoists and the 33
party alliance.
Reiterating his general point made three weeks ago at a massive march and
rally in the capitol that the Party will engage in ‘urban-centric street
agitation’, as opposed to returning to the jungle, G.S Badal nevertheless
stressed that there would be resistance to military suppression or heavy-handed
tactics wherever it was manifest. Politically the Party has attacked the
election as a means of drawing up a right-wing, status quo constitution and is
the reason they were originally excluded from the High Level Political Committee
(HLPC) which was the four-party carve-up that produced this electoral stratagem.
Now it is, according to Dahal UCPN (M) boss and leading HLPC member: “working to
the last minute to bring CPN-M on board” (Republica, Sept. 27th.)
Dahal has even tried to lure Baidya personally, aware that the date PR and FPTP
candidacies has passed and therefore dissenting parties are officially out of
the race, by offering him a seat under a UCPN (M) banner.
These blandishments have been resisted although Kiran (Mohan Baidhya)
earlier said he would not close the door in case the four-party syndicate
‘regained wisdom’ and accepted at least an open-ended, roundtable conference. By
the first week in October he recognised that the time for talk’s option was at
an end, appealing to people to boycott and for candidates to revoke their
candidacies. He further said that a new CA would not draw up a people’s
constitution and would only force Nepal into becoming a new Sikkim. Therefore
the scheduled election was not a political solution but if these points were
ignored and:
“They use force against us, we will take counter-measures.”
(Republica, October, 3rd )
Affirming that the next stage was one of struggle he said they would make
the constitution in the streets saying:
“We will take a decision from the field if they come against us with
force.” (ibid)
Thus the Party continued to up the ante on the boycott campaign and while
the term ‘effective’ is a balance between ‘active’ and ‘peaceful’ it is no less
confrontational. Guarev, e.g. has floated the idea of kidnapping those
attempting to register as candidates saying it was in the national interest to
do so. The right-wing press – led by Kantipur - went apoplectic at this idea
calling for the security forces to give protection to any aspiring politico thus
threatened. The Maoists have also asked candidates not to enter villages to
canvas for votes and have begun extensive training programmes on effective
boycotting with young cadres in the villages, some of which has been described
in the press as of a military nature. It has also announced further agitation
programmes culminating in a 10 day national general strike running from the
11th to the 20th November
What is apparent is the Maoists are undaunted before the combination of
enemies already limned. Prankanda (KB Bisawkarma), a veteran PW battlefield
commissar and still a young man, summed this attitude up
insouciantly:
“We sustained a People’s War for ten years. Stopping this electoral plot
will not be so difficult.”
CORE DEMAND
“When a great social revolution shall have mastered the results of the
bourgeois epoch, the market of the world and the modern powers of production and
subject to the common control of the most advanced peoples, then only will human
progress cease to resemble that hideous pagan idol who would not drink nectar
but from the skulls of the slain.”
(Marx Engels, The Future Results of British Rule in India, 1853, Selected
Works, Volume 1, p. 449)
Biplav (NB Chand) said in a recent interview about the Maoist’s bottom
line:
“Our emphasis is on the nitty-gritty of a future constitution. All others
issue are subsidiary.”
And:
“What people want now is a constitution – not an election.”
This is why the Dash Maoists are demanding a round-table conference to
thrash one out. They are acutely aware that domestic reactionaries – at the
behest of Delhi and Washington - used the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement as
cover behind which to re-group and, aided by complicity of the
Prachanda/Bhatterai UCPN (M) leadership, used the years since to block a
progressive, reforming and federal constitution that tackled land reform, ethnic
oppression and discrimination being enacted through the Constitutional
Assembly.
(Six wasted years – during which time Nepal has slid even further down the
list of least-developed nations. Where private affluence and public squalor
increase in tandem – a sure sign of a third world country that has had comprador
capitalism thrust onto it, and through economic failure sends many of its best
young men into virtual slave labour abroad for the 25% their remittances provide
to the national economy while basic infrastructure at home is either
non-existent or crumbling into maintenance-free desuetude.)
The ‘subsidiary issues’ relate to resignation of the appointed Prime
Minister – Regmi – the Chief Justice and postponement of any election and until
next year a 100% proportional representation modality instead of the present 58%
PR and 42% first past the post (FPTP).
Essentially the Party not against elections per se, as Biplav noted:
“taking part in elections is a relative concept.” but not before all Nepalese
are represented in the forging of prior constitutional understanding. Nor have
they lessened the growing tempo of bandas, agitations, marches and rallies and
general street agitations. The Party has shown strength in depth in these
activities with first and second generation leaders organising and inspiring a
third generation of cadre; where the red shirts en masse have provided
the memorable image of the boycott campaign.
I ought to add a note of caution here having been involved with
the People’s Volunteer Bureau and reported favourably on their energy and
communist zeal and therefore biased
.
However, it appears to me that they represent sizeable strata of youth in a
very young country who have seized the popular imagination. None of the 4 party
syndicate has been able to match this, or indeed to even equal the scale and
dynamism of the Dash Maoists boycott programme. Even if defeated here, and that
is no certainty, the revolutionary communists have planted the seeds of a
possible future victory by inspiring a young, dedicated cadre.
Similarly with the leadership the Maoists have another as yet imponderable
advantage as the least corrupt and most austere of all the major parties; the
four party syndicate, e.g. is riddled with millionaires, corruption, nepotism,
jobbery and not an honest leader among them, Sitaula (NC), Nepal (UML), Dahal
(UCPN(M)) are all rich Brahmins and Gadachhar (UMF) is an equally high-caste,
high-cost Madeshi politico whereas all the Maoists leaders led very modest
life-styles. Kiran is an exemplar of Leninist rectitude and has the significant
asset in being recognised as the only honest leader of any big party, even by
his enemies. In a country riddled with corruption – like its big brother India –
it is an incalculable asset for a party to be so perceived as not full of
placemen, careerists and hucksters and its activists not out solely for personal
gain.
(It underlies the unsuitability of these imported governance models as they
form only a thin carapace over a network driven by a corrupted, compromised and
comprador ruling class. The ideas they tout do not, as claimed, represent
‘universal and eternal human values’ but are historical contingencies whereby
one class – the bourgeoisie – established it supremacy – both in modes of
production, ideology and polity – over its feudal predecessor. The peoples of
Nepal, SE Asia and all the third world will make their own forms of democracy in
their struggle for freedom and their class supremacy over the bourgeoisie in
turn.)
There is also a strong perception among many Nepalese that all the four
parties are servants – in varying degrees - of New Delhi. This is shown is the
cartoon above which appeared in the August edition of Nepal – a popular monthly
– showing Prachanda, Nepal, Sitaula and Gaddachhar blubbing uncontrollably as
Nepal beat India, 2-1,in the SAFF championships just finished. Here again is a
liberal, anti-Maoist columnist’s, Ganga Thapa, estimation:
“It would not be incorrect, if very insulting, to say that Nepal’s top
leadership vis-à-vis India, has been morally bankrupt, greedy, hypocritical and
have served as no more than errand boys. People are tired of these slick,
fast-talking politicians. In fact their reputation has gone down the drain. In a
culture aimed above all at seizing power, with material motivations, political
democracy and thereby sustained peace is unlikely.”
(Thapa, Republica, 30/09/2013)
The Party has therefore hammered the patriotic message – the appeal of
which transcends - to some degree - politics of left and right but not equally.
The fact that royalists – an aging demographic – support the Dash Maoists for
their patriot, anti-Indian expansionism is welcomed by the Party as part of
a popular front to protect national sovereignty by resisting Indian domination
and expansionism but any such movement will be Maoist led.
This has been seized on by some leftists and Prachandaite
opportunists, Matrika Yadav’s CPN(M) flounced out of the 33 party alliance
on the grounds that it was pandering to nationalism and that:
“Nepal’s sovereignty cannot be protected by pleasing both India and
China.”
And accused the Dash Maoists leadership of:
“Serving the interests of the international community.”
Equally odd things to say but no more than the further paranoia regarding
the prospect of a King Paras (ex-Crown Prince,Gyanandra’s son) in a
‘constitutional communist monarchy’. This is ultra-left/liberal paranoia because
the Party asserts its patriotic position derives from Mao’s axiom that in the
age of imperialism:
“The national question is a class question.”
And it is a class question because in third world countries the indigenous
bourgeois classes have become increasingly compromised as comprador classes; in
thrall to Western, or as in Nepal’s case Indian interests. Economically,
ideologically and politically dependant, the Nepalese Babus’ acceptance of
neo-colonial status renders them incapable of representing patriotic
aspirations. Some of them as with the Zamindars in the Madesh would even declare
the region for India given half-a-chance. Only the working-classes, rural and
urban, only the oppressed minorities, only the Dalits, only the huge
marginalized communities have a decisive interest in severing these Indian
bonds, of strengthening their border, of repealing the many Unequal Treaties and
establishing an independent socialist, federal people’s republic and the
CPN-Maoist is the only major party that represents them, with a clear vision and
a determination to achieve it.
The Babus have lost because the years of ‘capitalist democracy’ since 1990
have been years of failure. They have not been able to establish a functioning
modern state, in the manner of the Western bourgeoisie, whose epigones they
are. History has passed them by and they have not only become redundant but an
active bloc on change at the behest of foreign powers. This opens the door to
their increased authoritarianism and military repression as they attempt to
maintain to maintain power and privilege. The dog barks, and occasionally
becomes rabid, but the caravan moves on. And to continue the metaphor is why the
old CPC slogan: “Down with imperialism and its running dogs’ is still
relevant.
Nepal is at a crossroads– one way leads to it continuing – in the sort term
at least - its status as a vassal, failed state and the other toward it being
independent, socialist one. This election boycott is where the conflicting
currents in Nepalese society confront each other, if the right succeeds by the
point of a gun and the crack of lathi it will a temporary victory because the
problems, divisions and manifold injustices that provoked the People’s War will
have not been resolved. If the left and its allies succeed it will be a
decisive stage in that unresolved revolution.
Finally: on the face of it below is a picture of a nondescript scene taken
in Tundikhel Park, Central Kathmandu on September 23rd. On the left
you can just see the red banners of a huge CPN-Maoist boycott rally and
foreground, centre and right, seemingly unconnected are over a thousand small
hawkers and traders plying everything from Ray-Banns, Nike shoes, Louis Vuitton
T shirts, pots pans, and assorted bric-a-brac. Haggling here would be callous
because firstly, the prices are so low and secondly, more importantly, the
sellers’ lives are so precarious. They are a small section of Nepal’s huge
sans culottes, rural and urban and what connects them with the rally and
the cause is that they are all Maoist supporters. I found this is out through
meeting S., a watch stallholder there, who is an active young Party member. He
took me along the stalls saying: vahalaai Kiran man parcha (“He likes
Kiran) - party card were flashed - clenched fists went up with shouts of ‘Kiran,
Kiran’. It was like fucking Spartacus and one of those moments that make your
life seem worthwhile.
What have they and their peers got to vote for?
More of the same?
No - whatever the headline outcome of the upcoming charade, the CPN-Maoist
and its allies represent a critical mass of the Nepalese people who are not
catered or cared for, who are not going away and who are definitely not lying
down.
Lal salaam, Peter Tobin October
4th 2013
PS There will be countervailing voices in the English-speaking world
supporting the boycott; Kasama, Democracy & Class
Struggle, Serve the People, Second Wave, among many and they
have a proven track record in relation to the Nepalese revolution.
There will now also be a special edition of Red
Front produced in Kathmandu to supplement these voices and the
official English language publications – such as People’s Voice – of the
CPN-M.
We have already articles and interviews committed from: Kiran, Biplav,
Gaurev, Bastola and many more from across the party and movement. There will
also be an international section and we have committed articles from David
Seddon on South Africa and Paulo Babini on the world communist
movement.
What we are asking for is support for and distribution of Red Front in
Europe and the Americas. In this respect we would like a commitment for copies
and – equally important – to help ensure their launching, distribution and
promulgation. Also spreading it through social networks will be very
helpful.
Any suggestions for further dissemination would also be
appreciated.
There will a fuller version of this RF notice when all contents are
decided.
Prem Darnal (Bikelpa), Chief Editor
Peter Tobin, Senior Editor
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