Kathmandu Post

Editorial»

Unwilling to budge

JAN 22 -
The political process has once again reached a phase where there is very little communication between the Maoist and the non-Maoist parties. Ever since the parties were unable to reach an agreement on the form of government and the Nepali Congress refused the Maoist demand for some senior positions for their combatants in the new Nepal Army directorate, the Maoists seem to have come to the conclusion that there was no point continuing with negotiations. The Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal felt that he had

compromised too much already, but that the other parties were unwilling to give anything in return. Making progress on the peace process and constitution no longer became a priority for him, and instead, he spent his energies in repairing relations with the alienated hardline faction of his party. Dahal has refused to take part in formal negotiations regarding the new constitution. In informal conversations, he has now demanded a new package agreement on integration, the constitution and government formation.

The strategies that the various parties are currently following are very familiar to anyone who has been following the peace process over the past few years. The Maoists have now, like many times in the past, set forth a set of demands which they claim are non-negotiable. If these are not met, they claim, they will continue to refuse to cooperate. The intention is to try to create some fear among the other political parties that the peace process will get derailed so that they will accept the Maoists’ demands. The other parties, on the other hand, like many other times in the past, also feel that they need to stand firm and not budge an inch on their positions. The idea is to slowly erode the Maoists’ will to maintain a firm stance. There are many in the Congress and UML who feel that this is the best strategy to deal with the Maoists. They feel that the Madhav Nepal government was successful in isolating the Maoists, weakening them and making them more amenable to the demands of the other parties.

While strategies such as these may suit the interests of the political leaders, they are damaging to the rest of society. Over long periods of time over the past five years, politics has been occupied solely with efforts by one side to prevail over the other by sheer obstinacy. The efforts to remove any government which comes to power by hook or by crook has created a great deal of political instability. The functioning of the state bureaucracy has suffered as a result. The results of the parties’ obstinacy may be even worse than in the past this time around: With the Supreme Court ruling that the CA can’t be extended after May, there is a grave chance that a major political crisis will emerge if a constitution is not drafted by then.

Posted on: 2012-01-23 08:25

---