Total of 106 seats out of 189 constituencies-till now, leading in most of constituencies where counting continues and expected to have more then 50% of the total members in the house, in the world history it is hard to find Rebels turned into government with huge majority at such a short period. Although I am not very well acquainted with the world politics but would not be amazed if there is a great deal of discussion in Foggy Bottom (metonym for the United States Department of State) Washington and Secretariat Building South Block in New Delhi about this surprising result of CA election.
Most of us might be wondering what led Maoist get the win in such a majority by defeating major parties in Nepalese politics and moreover Nepali Congress so called Goliath of the game. Analysts’ prediction about the election result has turned upside down; it’s been like a fairy tale story come true for Maoist because not even in real sense Puspa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) would have imagined his party will win in such a manner. We can see this scenario of vote cast by people in various angles like; Did Nepalese wanted a change from same old head of politicians and their unimplemented ideologies? or Did they dared to take fruitful risk by giving the chance to Maoist? Because maoist striked hard by their campaign which was focused on minorities. I am sure that Nepalese are not so immature to vote without rational thinking and neither are they naïve in nature to vote forgetting what Youth Communist League so called brother group of Maoist party has done in past (some good and many bads). The views piles up as it differs from person to person, and who knows anything I quote will disappoint either of the parties. :D
I am not writing my thoughts to criticize the failure and appreciate the winner but I am wondering what will be the scenario now because the results are unexpected. Washington still has the tag of “terrorists” on the head of Nepalese Maoist even though they signed a peace deal with mainstream parties in late 2006 ending a 10-year of insurgency and declared that they were ready to embrace democracy, but the tag still pops up. There are many things that might change (can be bad or good) but there are certain major issues that is still hunting in our mind like; what will be the view point of International donors who serve as the life blood for the financial condition of the country and the NRN organization that has been formed for overall development in the Nepal because these organization focuses to boost foreign investment and if real communism is expected to follow then self sufficiency notion will shadow the country’s economy.
Future will determine whether people were rational enough or not and anything that’s not par with the expectation will surely disappoint us (Nepalese). So let’s hope for the best and prepare for the worst cause things are changed now.
Picture source (http://blog.com.np/united-we-blog/2006/11/25)
Sketch by Dewen via Kantipur
4 comments:
well nice thinking ashutosh..well even i wonder how will the maoist led government be accepted to international community.. and the things to remember is that mr prachanda has promised to make switzerland through economic development... but where's the economy going to come from.. Do international community believe in maoist govt ? And communism rising in the eastern world, western world will be reluctant to pour donation and aids..this is my view point.. so when there's no economy how will be the economic growth...thats the most challenging thing for mr prachanda...
Things have changed a great deal. Communism in words is a very ideal practice. The word ‘egalitarian’ itself sounds so good that anyone wants to have that ideal state of being. But for me communism means:
1. End of culture, values and practices that have helped us stand out among others in the world
2. Autocracy to a more severe level where countrymen are supposed to count their breath to the number specified by the state
3. You don’t own anything resulting in lack of will to achieve more
4. So you work as you have to
Its easy to snatch from people but its difficult to rule their hearts.
There is a quote by George Bernard Shaw- “you will never have a quiet world until you knock patriotism out of human race”. And I was shocked at the depth of the words… if the world was one country, then we’d all be citizens of one country, hence no wars, no prejudices and no segregation (no 1st world or 3rd world countries). This can never be as similar to the ideal communism.
I was surprised with the results too. But as I tinker about it more, I found the results more plausible. Nepalese public tend to go for change immediately: Congress got the majority first, and then UML was the largest Party next. So Maoist’s were always in the cards as the next option. However, their modus of operandi before signing the peace accord might have lead to people having reservation towards them. But the bigger mistakes of us leading to be surprised were:
1. Expecting the current situation to be similar to that of 10 yrs before
2. Comparing Maoist with the fraction of UML (ML led by Sahana & Bamdev), who didn’t win single seat in the election before. ML was just a fraction, but Maoist’s were the true agent for this CA election (it was their agenda from very first).
3. The bigger parties failed to understand the sentiments & awareness of the people since last 10 yrs. They thought that they would get away with a month of campaign, and with the same old lame & corrupt faces. We too thought they would win like they always did.
4. Finally, simply believing leading media houses and basing our expectation on it. The media houses giving their opinions without any statistical confidence level.
I am hoping that Maoist don’t win insurmountable majority out of 601 members, because constitution must be representative.
I’m not a Maoist supporter, but if they get their act straight, and lead other political parties in successfully drafting an inclusive constitution, I would definitely root them for upcoming general election, let’s have five years of stable one party government. Nepalese public finally has given the verdict that either the parties try becoming more accountable or else they’re going to get the boots. Same will be true for the Maoist if they fail to honor this verdict.
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