Editorial»
Litmus test
AUG 19 -
The Maoist Advisory Committee’s recent meeting has called upon party leadership to convene a general convention at the earliest. According to committee members, the general convention is vital to end unhealthy factionalism and institute urgent reforms. The committee met as speculations about rifts within the party have been fanned with the country’s failure to elect new leadership a month and a half into the prime ministerial process. Of late, two distinct factions seem to have emerged in the Maoist party. The liberal camp led by Vice Chairman Baburam Bhattarai believes that the current path of the peace process, which was further consolidated by the CA election, should now see through completion of the constitution. On the other hand, the hard-line faction believed to now be led by Chairman Dahal (though Senior Vice Chairman Mohan Baidya is seen to be its proponent-in-chief) is reportedly disenchanted with the new democratic process and is again championing the “people’s war” ways.
The justification for hard-line politics is that the Chairman, as a leader of the party in transition, needs to cater to all interest groups, including the hard-line faction. But that’s a flawed approach. It is hard to see how that is going to help either the party’s transition to a democratic force or the country’s transition to a peaceful and stable nation. As we have emphasised in our editorials in the past, there is no alternative to staying the democratic course, difficult though it may be. Towards this goal, a consistent democratic language from top Maoist leadership, especially Chairman Dahal himself, would go a long way. We understand that the party is still in a transitional phase and not all the internal and external forces have remained consistent in their support for the ongoing process. The Maoist party perhaps even feels at times, not entirely unjustifiably, that the current politics is just not helping the party’s strategic interest. The repeated failures to elect Dahal, who heads the largest party in the CA, will only deepen the alienation. Still, the Maoist leadership will certainly not help its cause by resorting to undemocratic and contradictory political rhetoric.
Indeed, the advisory committee has rightly emphasised the importance of the peace process and constitution making over government formation. It has correctly urged the party leadership to stay in opposition if a broad national commitment can be extracted on peace and constitution. Its focus on the national convention is well placed. The party has gone without one for nearly two decades. It’s time the party leadership tested its mettle in the aboveground democratic politics. One of the reasons for Dahal’s reluctance to hold the general convention could be his fear of a strong challenge to his leadership. In this, Dahal could increasingly come to resemble other communist despots who, over time, systematically stifled opposition and dissent within the party to remain uncontested at the top. With all the charges of factional politics hurled against them, UML and NC stalwarts like Deuba and Oli owe their place in the party to aboveground elections.
Posted on: 2010-08-20 08:36
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