[R-G] An Exclusive Interview for MRZine with CPN(Maoist) Leader Prachanda

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/prachanda270508.html>
On The Eve of Republic in Nepal:
An Exclusive Interview for MRZine with CPN(Maoist) Leader Prachanda
by Mary Des Chene and Stephen Mikesell

It is 14th Jeth, 2065, [Tuesday, May 27th, 2008] in Nepal, the day
before the Constituent Assembly is to convene and declare Nepal a full
Republic.  The king remains in his palace.  The form of the new
government, who will lead it, whether the old parliamentary parties
will join in a Maoist-led government or, as they have indicated so
far, will boycott and try to isolate it -- these and other basic
questions remain to be resolved.  The following is an early morning
interview with CPN(Maoist) leader Prachanda, before he embarked on a
last intensive round of negotiations to try to bring the parliamentary
parties into a coalition government under Maoist leadership.

Kathmandu.  May 27, 2008.

Q. You may become Nepal's new head of state within a few days, but the
parliamentary parties are putting up a lot of blockades.  Yesterday
your party put forth a 9 point proposal to address the current
political impasse.

What are the main barriers to formation of a CPN(Maoist)-led
government at this point?  What are the challenges and what are the
proposals you've made to the parliamentary parties?

A. Intensive debate, discussion and struggle is going on, on the
question of formation of the government, and mainly on the questions
of the head of the state and the head of the government.  These
questions raise so many ideological and political issues, involving
the class interests of the parties.

Yesterday we had a very serious discussion.  The parliamentary
parties, mainly the Nepali Congress and the CPN(UML), want to have
their own person be the head of state.  They want to check, they want
to block our party from forming the government and filling the
position of head of state.  Therefore intensive struggle is going on
right now.  As we discuss these issues with the leaders of the other
parties, it seems to me that intensive and serious class struggle is
going on, on the level of ideology and political line.  Because we
have the status of the largest party through the constituent assembly
election, the initiative is in our hands, but nevertheless intensive
struggle continues.  I think that by tomorrow we'll not be able to
have consensus about the questions of the head of state and the
formation of the government.  Therefore right now we are thinking that
we'll make an agreement only for the declaration of the republican
system.  And on that there will be consensus -- there should be
consensus.

Q. Your party has a clear mandate from the election to form the next
government.  The transitional government of the past two years has
functioned on the basis of political consensus governed by the Seven
Party Alliance accords and other formal agreements.  From election day
onward you've stressed the CPN(Maoist) commitment to continue with
coalition government under those accords.  The major parliamentary
parties have set a number of conditions for participating in a
Maoist-led coalition government, several of which you've stated
directly contravene signed accords.  At this point, if a coalition
government under your party's leadership cannot be formed, what will
be the main reasons?

A. I think that before the elections the parliamentary parties,
especially the largest parliamentary party, the Nepali Congress, never
expected that we would become the largest party through the election.
Therefore they made so many agreements and compromises with our party,
like those concerning the questions of a two-thirds majority and a
simple majority [to change the government].  At that time they were in
the leadership.  Therefore they thought that a two-thirds majority
requirement for changing the government would be just fine.  But later
on, when they saw that the Maoists had become the largest party and
were going to lead the government and be head of the state, then they
changed their position.  Now they hold that a simple majority should
be the means to change the government.  Previously, up until the
election, they didn't expect that they would lose through the
election, and they thought that they could easily disintegrate our
organizational structure and exert control over the PLA [People's
Liberation Army] cadres and so on.  But now, after the election, they
think that it is going to be a very serious question.  Therefore now
they are making a proposal that our arms should be destroyed, and the
PLA cadres should be disbanded or they should join vocational training
or something like that.  They're trying to raise those kinds of
ridiculous things.  This is against the peace agreement.  This is
against the spirit of the interim constitution.

The major parliamentary party, the Nepali Congress, has changed their
positions after the election and are showing themselves to be against
peace.  It is going to be proved -- I think within some days, maybe
within one or two weeks -- it will be crystal clear that the major
political parliamentary parties are against peace, against any kind of
change, against forming a coalition government under the leadership of
the Maoists.  They are against the people's mandate, you know.  It
will be clear.  If they will not move ahead in keeping with the spirit
of the interim constitution, if they will not follow the peace
agreement we have already made and all the other agreements and
accords, ultimately it seems to me that it is a question of class
outlook.  The opposing classes are struggling in a very new contest.
And one thing that is quite clear is that the proletariat and our
revolutionary party have taken the initiative in our own hands.  They
[Nepali Congress and UML] are the losers.  Right now, in this battle,
in this electoral battle, they are the losers and we are the winners.
Therefore a big debate and discussion and struggle is going on.

Q. If they were successful in disbanding your army, how would that
affect the possibility of creating the republic?

A. It would be very difficult.  But I think they have already agreed
to implement the republican system from the first meeting of the
constituent assembly.

Q. Right.  But if your army was not there, then what force would you
have against the king [who] remains in the background?

A. We will not disband our army.  How could we agree to disband our
army or destroy our arms?  It has been formally agreed that both the
armies should be integrated and a new national army should be
established and organized.  And we have never agreed to go with DDR,
you know, this DDR formula [Disarmament, Demobilization,
Reintegration].  What we said is that, here in Nepal it is quite
necessary that both armies should be integrated to form a new army.
It is the essence of our agreement.  Now, when they see that the
Maoists have won the election, they want to change the previous
agreement.  Therefore at the moment we do not want to focus our
discussion with the parliamentary parties on the questions of
integration and so on.  We want to focus our discussions on the
questions of implementation of the republic and the republican system.
 It is quite clear, and the masses know it very well, the masses are
clear that the first sitting of the constituent assembly will
implement the republican system and even all the parliamentary parties
have already agreed to go with the republican system.  In this phase
of the struggle, we Maoists want to focus our whole effort to
implement that previous agreement.  I think that they cannot reject or
retreat from the previous agreement on the question of the republic.
If they hesitate to implement this republican system tomorrow then. .
. .  It is going to happen you know.  This is the historical turning
point against the feudal system.  If they will hesitate, I think that
they will be crossed by the masses.  The masses will not tolerate
them.  Because they have already lost through the election.  If they
hesitate to implement the republican system, then they will lose yet
more, you see.

Q. Tomorrow. on the day when the Constituent Assembly sits to declare
the republic, the Kathmandu District Administration has declared
restrictions on marches, rallies, and assembling on the streets
surrounding the convention center, the palace and other places in the
capital.  But many marches and cultural programs have already been
announced, and the people seem sure to come out, whether to ensure
that their will is carried out or just to celebrate.  How are you
viewing that move to restrict the people's movement?

A. We have already decided to hold rallies all over the country.
There will be mass rallies in all seventy-five district headquarters.
And here in Kathmandu there will also be a victory rally, a republican
rally.  It will be a great day for us, for the people of this country.
 But they will not go to encircle the palace, or go near the Birendra
International Convention Centre hall where the first meeting of the
Constituent Assembly is going to be held.  But they will be in the
streets, near Singhadarbar [the usual parliamentary venue] and in
other places.  They'll be chanting slogans in favor of the republic
and so on.  But there will not be -- we are trying our best not to be
in a confrontation tomorrow.  It would not be good, it would not be
proper to have any kinds of confrontation tomorrow.  We want to show
the masses who are in favor of the republican line.  There will be a
festive atmosphere.  It will be like a people's festival, a republican
festival.  It will be very big, and a great thing for our people.  But
some reactionary people, mainly those who are loyal to the monarchy,
they are trying to carry out some sorts of sabotage and some sorts of
terrorist activities.  Yesterday they exploded some small socket bombs
near the convention center hall, and in the houses of civil society
figures.  But I don't think they will be able to create some big
sabotage or anything.

Q. If you have to form a sole government without the cooperation of
the other parties are you ready to do that?

A. Yes.  If they are not ready, and if they want it so, then we'll
form our own government without their cooperation.  They may think
that within three months or a hundred days -- there's the saying that
100 days is the honeymoon -- that after the honeymoon they can
encircle us and dismantle our government.  They think like that.  But
we believe that once we are in the government we'll take so many
decisions, important decisions, in favor of the masses of the people
and in favor of our nation, and that those kinds of decisions will
allow us to have a broader mass base and broader organization and will
ultimately help us to move ahead.

Q. You've used the term "economic revolution" and said that after
forming the government the task is economic revolution.  Tell us a bit
about your first steps; the economy is in very bad shape.

A. Yes, I think that economic development and sustainable peace have a
very compact relation.  Without having development it is very
difficult to have a sustainable peace.  And here in our country there
are huge natural resources: for example, we have a huge hydro
potential, tourism can be a big industry in this country, this
beautiful country.  There are so many things we can do.

For the time being what we are seeing is that we should have to follow
a mixed economic system.  I also want to qualify that it is not
exactly a mixed economic system; we are trying to develop some new
approaches in our transitional economic policy.  We have not completed
the democratic revolution, you know.  We are in the process of the
completion of the democratic revolution.  But after ten years of
Peoples War we have achieved some political and some socio-economic
change, which is already in process.  Because that revolution is in
the transitional phase we are trying to develop some new tactics and
new policy according to the overall economic situation and national
situation of the first decades of the 21st century.  Therefore we
shall have to follow a transitional economic policy.  Not exactly the
economic policy of the New Democracy, not exactly the economic policy
of the bourgeois system, but something in-between.  We are saying that
this is a transitional economic policy, and we want to decide our own
priority by ourselves.

And we want to encourage the national capitalist, or 'national
bourgeois' as we say, we want to encourage them to invest and to
generate employment, and to invest in the industrial sector, which
will create some new possibilities.  And through them we want to
attract the foreign investment, but according to our decision,
according to our priority.  Until now, all the decisions have been
taken not by the Nepali people and the Nepali government, but by the
foreigners and international institutions, like the World Bank.  But
this time we want to change that pattern.  We want to decide our own
priorities, we want to encourage our national bourgeois to have a
conducive atmosphere for investment and generation of employment, and
through them we want to attract the foreign investors according to our
decision, according to our priority.  In the rural area and in the
hydro sector we want to have small hydro projects, medium level
hydroprojects, and big hydro projects.  Not just the large ones.

Q. One problem is that you are being handed over a practically
bankrupt state, one heavily in debt, and that won't leave you much
leeway, at least if you work in the old terms, so how are you going to
address that?

A. I think it is a challenge, and we are taking it as a positive
challenge.  The first question is to mobilize the millions of the
masses to rebuild this country.  Until and unless we mobilize the
masses, nothing can be done.  We will transparently divulge everything
to the mass of the people: this is the situation here in the country,
the world government and world state has led this country to this
bankruptcy.  Now, if everyone of this country, every citizen of this
country will not make a commitment to go ahead to build the country
themselves, it will be very difficult for us sustain and undertake
development.  Therefore our first priority will be to educate the
masses of people about the real situation of the government and all
these things that have happened in the past.

The second point is that we will try our best to mobilize the national
bourgeois, the national capitalists.  There are so many people who can
contribute.  If we draw up a scientific plan, an economic plan,
according to our situation, we can mobilize those industrialists and
those national capitalists or national bourgeois to invest in a more
productive way.  And I also think that, because we are in between
China and India, both of which have very fast growing economies, we
can benefit from their growing economies.  I myself have tried my best
to have serious discussions with China's communist party and China's
government.  How can they help to rebuild this country?  How much will
they be able to contribute, and how far can they mobilize their
peoples to invest here in our country?  And we were also talking with
the Indian parties and Indian government officials: how can they
contribute to our efforts in rebuilding this country?  So I think that
from both these countries, according to our plan and according to our
priorities, we can mobilize positive economic input.  This is
something challenging, we know it, but this is something beneficial
for this country.

Q. What about the role of the youth of this country in all of these
plans?  The thousands who are migrant laborers outside the country,
now the thousands and thousands who are unemployed here, and the Young
Communist League, your own youth organization?

A. Yes, we are working on drawing up a plan to mobilize the youth in
rebuilding this country.  Our YCL has already been mobilized:
thousands and thousands of youth were mobilized before the election in
a political mobilization.  Now we are going to mobilize them in the
constructive work, in economic development.  And we are also trying to
make a connection with all the people working outside the country.
Non-Resident Nepalis are there, and the organization of NRN; those
people can contribute more in rebuilding this country, and we want to
invite them to invest here in Nepal.  We have already developed a plan
for how we can mobilize thousands of peoples who are outside the
country, who are doing business elsewhere.  Some of them have done a
very good job, they have earned substantial amounts of money, they can
invest here, and we can contact them.  And also I think that we can
bring back youth who are in Arab countries and all over the world, if
we have a plan for building this country.  I have already discussed
some hydro power, medium level hydro projects.  And if there will be
five, six or seven of such kinds of projects all over the country, we
can mobilize thousands and thousands of youth in that kind of project.
 And when they see that there are jobs in our own country, they will
come back and we can mobilize that kind of youth.

Q. And what about bringing young people back into agriculture, which
is the base of the economy here?

A. Yes, we have already agreed to carry out scientific land reform.
Here in Nepal there is a different situation in the Tarai [lowland
plains], in mountainous areas and in the hilly regions.  We have to
make a complete plan of land reform for the hilly region, for the
Himalayan region and for the Tarai.  But the main focus of this
scientific land reform will be the Tarai because the bulk of the
agricultural land is there.  There should be land ceilings and the
land of absentee landlords should be redistributed among the peasants.
 But our main focus will be commercializing the farming.  Without
commercialized farming we can't develop the agriculture.  And we want
to establish agro-based industries.  We can't mobilize the youth in
the agricultural sector with only the traditional ways of farming.  We
have to create something new by creating jobs in agro-based industry.
And that will ultimately commercialize the overall farming, and it
will be a revolutionary step to raise the living standards of the
people.

Stephen Mikesell and Mary Des Chene are anthropologists who study
Nepal's economy and politics.
-- 
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>