UCPN-Maoist is a party that believes in classical communism. It has a cadre base, a militia and a private army. The army – though technically under the domain of the four-party special committee – is fully loyal to the Maoist leadership. A secretive revolutionary organization until sometime back, ideology is both a strength and a weakness of the Maoists. If it produced Mohan Baidya brand of dogmatic leaders, it also pulled to them dedicated cadres and combatants from poor and underprivileged communities of remote and rugged countryside, where state machinery is almost non-existent.
Maoists’ belief that socio-economic changes are not possible in a democracy is erroneous.
Maoists recruited, indoctrinated and trained those workers to fight their ‘people’s war’ that took place between 1996 and 2006. During that period, they conscripted youths, captured properties of landlords to distribute it among the poor, killed or displaced antagonists, silenced skeptics with fear and intimidation and established their own local governments in large areas claimed as ‘liberated’. While corrupt, inept and carefree leaders of mainstream polity were busy fighting for power and state coffers in Kathmandu, Maoists made deep inroads in rural Nepal. They are perfect organizers, thus the huge and powerful party. They are master strategists too, thanks to the stupidity and short-sightedness of their adversaries from royals to NC to CPN-UML to MPRF. Their divide and win tricks have always been successful.
Since, Maoists have come a long way. They signed a peace accord in 2006 with the-then seven-party alliance and jointly staged with them a mass uprising that led to the downfall of monarchy. In the constituent assembly elections, they emerged as the largest party. Although their election success was a result of their popularity as well as terror, other contenders downplayed the rigging and gave in. They did so to buy peace and also because they were too weak to challenge the Maoists. Consequently, Maoists formed and headed a coalition government which lasted nine months.
Meanwhile, distrust between Maoists and the other parties was escalating as, among other reasons, hidden agendas of Maoists to ‘seize power’ were unfolding. It reached a climax when a video footage in which Dahal was shown explaining in detail to his ‘People’s Liberation Army’ combatants the ‘power seize’ plan got leaked. As a first step of the secret plan, Dahal attempted to sack the chief of Nepal Army (NA). However, he had to resign when the president intervened to reinstate the army chief.
In fact, liberal democracy had never been a Maoist goal. Maoist insurgency, which caused huge loss of life and property, and enormous damage to social fabric and economy of the nation was against democracy. They made no secret of it. They never regretted the ruin either, justifying that violence was just a means to establish an egalitarian order. The Maoists changed the means when they realized that NA was too strong – both in numbers and combat/professional skills – to be defeated by their army. Thus, the peace deal. Under the Leninist strategy of ‘use democracy to bring dictatorship’, their plan was to fully integrate their army into the national army and stage an urban uprising to seize power. However, the table has turned now as the video has exposed the whole plan.
Now, the Maoists are in a fix. They can neither seize power in the near future nor can they revert to the underground guerilla war, as their whole rank and file has become public. So, it is high time Baidya learnt and Dahal and Bhattarai admitted some simple truths. Time is not on their side and their brand of communism has been consigned to history. If dictatorship of the proletariat – the 19th century Marxian dream – could not survive elsewhere, it won’t survive in Nepal too.
The Maoists’ belief that socio-economic changes are not possible in a democracy is erroneous. In fact, change ‘with a human face’ is possible in democracies only. Yes, the change may be slow but in democracies there won’t be ‘great leaps forward’ that are destined to crash, such as Mao’s Cultural Revolution or Pol Pot’s Rural Utopianism. Safety measures like free press, independent judiciary, opposition, civil societies, an apolitical army and other checks and balances auto-corrects such misadventures. Democracy is the order of the day and the Maoists must honestly adopt it. If they don’t, they will always be a round peg in a square hole.
jeevan1952@hotmail.com
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