Maoists following UML footprints
By Yuba Nath Lamsal
The meeting of the jumbo central committee of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) concluded recently. It came out with a set of decisions, which include, among others, the change in the organizational structure and leadership pattern of the party.
The party of the ex-rebels has created multiple positions in the central leadership. Earlier, the party had one-man leadership in which the chairman was the most powerful. Now, the party had created several positions including three vice-presidents, general secretary, secretary and treasurer. The reason to adopt the new leadership pattern is not clear but one can guess, as reported by the media, that this decision was taken under compulsion. Ever since the unity between the Maoist party and the Unity Center- Mashal was held, there had been a tough debate about the share in the leadership. Moreover, the factions within the Maoist party as well were bitterly fighting for the positions. The new leadership structure was adopted to accommodate all factions in the party and keep them happy.
The Maoists have gone for the multi-posts leadership pattern in the party just five months after the CPN-UML did the same. In a way, the Maoists are following the path of the CPN-UML in its organizational and ideological fronts.
This is so because the Maoists are inexperienced in an open and democratic politics. The Maoists were successful in creating an armed organization and they have little experience in functioning in open and competitive politics. When the Maoists were launching an armed insurgency, their entire focus was on guerilla warfare. During war period, one-man leadership and one man’s control over the organization was better suited. But such a structure is dictatorial, which is not suited in the democratic system.
The CPN-UML had faced similar difficulty when it adopted open politics after the 1990 political change. This party had also adopted multi-post central leadership structure when the CPN-ML headed by Madan Bhandari and CPN-Marxist headed by Manmohan Adhikari were united. But only two posts—chairman and general secretary—were created. The eighth convention of the party created chairman, general secretary, vice-chairmen and secretary in the central leadership. The Maoists followed this system to settle the dust among the party factions and leaders.
This is an indication that the Maoists are in the learning process in a new political atmosphere. They are slowly adapting to the new situation. In the process of learning they have been experimenting on many aspects. The multi-party democracy is not the choice of the Maoists. Their documents as well as behaviors have shown that the Maoists’ choice is the one-party communist system in which the communist party controls everything. In the communist system which Maoists believe, the party is controlled by a powerful general secretary or president. The multi-post system is not allowed in the communist party. The multi-post leadership is the character of a democratic party.
The communists believe that power should be captured through an armed revolution. In the communist system, there is no space for opposition parties. Only a communist party rules the roost. The periodic election to choose the government is also not allowed under communism. Nepal’s Maoists, too, believed in the traditional communist doctrine as was practiced in China after the success of Chinese revolution led by Mao Zedong in 1949. The Maoists launched armed insurgency condemning the parliamentary approach which CPN-UML chose more than twenty years ago. In the beginning, the UML also had the revolutionary approach to capture state power and it started class-enemy annihilation strategy in which several people were killed. This is known as the so-called Jhapa movement. These violent activities were suppressed by the state in which several of its masterminds were put behind bars for years. The UML also later realized that this approach was a mistake and changed its strategy thus deciding to adopt peaceful competitive politics or multi-party democracy.
Now CPN-UML is a communist party by its name. But in practice UML is a democratic party with socialist economic policies. The UML has arrived at the stage where the Nepali Congress was 30 years ago. In the beginning the Nepali Congress was a social democratic party and BP Koirala, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Nepal, tried to implement the socialist programmes during his tenure as the prime minister. The land reforms and some other progressive programmes BP tried to introduce were some of the reasons that led to his ouster from power. Although the Nepali Congress still talks of socialist policies in principle, it totally abandoned the BP’s socialism in practice and embraced the capitalist policies. In this way, the Nepali Congress is slowly moving towards the rightist direction. Now it is not necessary that UML should carry the communist tag. It should shake its old hangover and totally transform into a genuine social democratic party and establish itself as a centrist and social democratic party.
So far as the Maoists are concerned, they are too in the process of transformation. The Maoists had already in the parliamentary path. In the general election held in 1991, the Jana Morcha participated in the polls and won nine seats in parliament that had the strength of 209 seats. Coming to the second general election, their organizational strength had already dwindled due to factionalism. Jana Morcha split into two factions one led by Mohan Vaidya and the other by Baburam Bhattarai. As their organizational strength was weak, both the factions did not participate in the second general election. Later the two factions were again untied to form the Maoist party and decided to launch an armed insurgency.
The Maoists definitely achieved a lot during their decade-long insurgency. Beginning from a couple of districts in the mid-western Nepal, their insurgency spread throughout the country in a few years. But the Maoists were exhausted and were not in a position to sustain the guerilla war for longer. Thus, they had to negotiate and join the peaceful politics. What they needed a safe landing and they got this opportunity in the join movement with the parties against the king’s absolute regime in 2005.
The Maoists chose the multi-party political system as they reached a conclusion that it was impossible to capture power through the armed revolution. So the acceptance of the multi-party system was not their choice but a compulsion. CPN-UML had realized this 30 years ago while the Maoists came to this conclusion only recently. So the Maoists are genuinely following the footprints of the CPN-UML and their strategy is to push the UML towards further right and replace UML’s position in the national politics.
The recent decision to adopt the multi-post leadership pattern is its example. Slowly, the Maoists would also change their political programmes but it would take time. The central leadership is already convinced that there is no alternative to the multi-party competitive politics. But they are not in a position to accept it publicly as their cadres in the grassroots level and the PLA fighters are still carrying the old hangover of the ‘dictatorship of the proletariats through armed revolution’. In due course of time, the Maoists would transform their policies in such a way that there would be a thin border between the Maoists and the CPN-UML in terms of policies and programmes. The time will come when the CPN-UML and the Maoists would not compete but complement each other. It would be sooner than later.
The meeting of the jumbo central committee of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) concluded recently. It came out with a set of decisions, which include, among others, the change in the organizational structure and leadership pattern of the party.
The party of the ex-rebels has created multiple positions in the central leadership. Earlier, the party had one-man leadership in which the chairman was the most powerful. Now, the party had created several positions including three vice-presidents, general secretary, secretary and treasurer. The reason to adopt the new leadership pattern is not clear but one can guess, as reported by the media, that this decision was taken under compulsion. Ever since the unity between the Maoist party and the Unity Center- Mashal was held, there had been a tough debate about the share in the leadership. Moreover, the factions within the Maoist party as well were bitterly fighting for the positions. The new leadership structure was adopted to accommodate all factions in the party and keep them happy.
The Maoists have gone for the multi-posts leadership pattern in the party just five months after the CPN-UML did the same. In a way, the Maoists are following the path of the CPN-UML in its organizational and ideological fronts.
This is so because the Maoists are inexperienced in an open and democratic politics. The Maoists were successful in creating an armed organization and they have little experience in functioning in open and competitive politics. When the Maoists were launching an armed insurgency, their entire focus was on guerilla warfare. During war period, one-man leadership and one man’s control over the organization was better suited. But such a structure is dictatorial, which is not suited in the democratic system.
The CPN-UML had faced similar difficulty when it adopted open politics after the 1990 political change. This party had also adopted multi-post central leadership structure when the CPN-ML headed by Madan Bhandari and CPN-Marxist headed by Manmohan Adhikari were united. But only two posts—chairman and general secretary—were created. The eighth convention of the party created chairman, general secretary, vice-chairmen and secretary in the central leadership. The Maoists followed this system to settle the dust among the party factions and leaders.
This is an indication that the Maoists are in the learning process in a new political atmosphere. They are slowly adapting to the new situation. In the process of learning they have been experimenting on many aspects. The multi-party democracy is not the choice of the Maoists. Their documents as well as behaviors have shown that the Maoists’ choice is the one-party communist system in which the communist party controls everything. In the communist system which Maoists believe, the party is controlled by a powerful general secretary or president. The multi-post system is not allowed in the communist party. The multi-post leadership is the character of a democratic party.
The communists believe that power should be captured through an armed revolution. In the communist system, there is no space for opposition parties. Only a communist party rules the roost. The periodic election to choose the government is also not allowed under communism. Nepal’s Maoists, too, believed in the traditional communist doctrine as was practiced in China after the success of Chinese revolution led by Mao Zedong in 1949. The Maoists launched armed insurgency condemning the parliamentary approach which CPN-UML chose more than twenty years ago. In the beginning, the UML also had the revolutionary approach to capture state power and it started class-enemy annihilation strategy in which several people were killed. This is known as the so-called Jhapa movement. These violent activities were suppressed by the state in which several of its masterminds were put behind bars for years. The UML also later realized that this approach was a mistake and changed its strategy thus deciding to adopt peaceful competitive politics or multi-party democracy.
Now CPN-UML is a communist party by its name. But in practice UML is a democratic party with socialist economic policies. The UML has arrived at the stage where the Nepali Congress was 30 years ago. In the beginning the Nepali Congress was a social democratic party and BP Koirala, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Nepal, tried to implement the socialist programmes during his tenure as the prime minister. The land reforms and some other progressive programmes BP tried to introduce were some of the reasons that led to his ouster from power. Although the Nepali Congress still talks of socialist policies in principle, it totally abandoned the BP’s socialism in practice and embraced the capitalist policies. In this way, the Nepali Congress is slowly moving towards the rightist direction. Now it is not necessary that UML should carry the communist tag. It should shake its old hangover and totally transform into a genuine social democratic party and establish itself as a centrist and social democratic party.
So far as the Maoists are concerned, they are too in the process of transformation. The Maoists had already in the parliamentary path. In the general election held in 1991, the Jana Morcha participated in the polls and won nine seats in parliament that had the strength of 209 seats. Coming to the second general election, their organizational strength had already dwindled due to factionalism. Jana Morcha split into two factions one led by Mohan Vaidya and the other by Baburam Bhattarai. As their organizational strength was weak, both the factions did not participate in the second general election. Later the two factions were again untied to form the Maoist party and decided to launch an armed insurgency.
The Maoists definitely achieved a lot during their decade-long insurgency. Beginning from a couple of districts in the mid-western Nepal, their insurgency spread throughout the country in a few years. But the Maoists were exhausted and were not in a position to sustain the guerilla war for longer. Thus, they had to negotiate and join the peaceful politics. What they needed a safe landing and they got this opportunity in the join movement with the parties against the king’s absolute regime in 2005.
The Maoists chose the multi-party political system as they reached a conclusion that it was impossible to capture power through the armed revolution. So the acceptance of the multi-party system was not their choice but a compulsion. CPN-UML had realized this 30 years ago while the Maoists came to this conclusion only recently. So the Maoists are genuinely following the footprints of the CPN-UML and their strategy is to push the UML towards further right and replace UML’s position in the national politics.
The recent decision to adopt the multi-post leadership pattern is its example. Slowly, the Maoists would also change their political programmes but it would take time. The central leadership is already convinced that there is no alternative to the multi-party competitive politics. But they are not in a position to accept it publicly as their cadres in the grassroots level and the PLA fighters are still carrying the old hangover of the ‘dictatorship of the proletariats through armed revolution’. In due course of time, the Maoists would transform their policies in such a way that there would be a thin border between the Maoists and the CPN-UML in terms of policies and programmes. The time will come when the CPN-UML and the Maoists would not compete but complement each other. It would be sooner than later.
Comments
Post a Comment