The three-point pact between the three parties signed just before midnight on Friday reads like a UN resolution, and indeed what held things up till the last moment was semantics. They were haggling about whether the prime minister should “resign” or be “ready to resign”. There is nothing in it that couldn’t have been agreed on six months ago. Instead it was left to, literally, the last minute and the Nepali people were put through the pain and torture of indefinite strikes, neglect of the economy, apathy, lack of development, and the malgovernance that comes with shaky politics.
Still, we tend to always look at the bright side and say: “It could be worse.” A failure to extend the term of the CA would have been potentially much more disastrous. It would have been a victory for those who do not believe in the democratic process and the cynics who saw the CA members as a bunch of lazy parasites when it was actually the party leadership that was calling the shots. It would have encouraged the military and the militants. The extremists would have been ecstatic. If the CA term had not been extended, the country would have plunged into even bigger chaos. Once more, our political leaders have managed to extricate themselves from the quagmire they got themselves into. No one has any doubt that they’ll get stuck in the quicksand again, but for now they have bought themselves time.
The first order of business is to not forget how close we came to disaster. The three-point pact should be taken seriously. It means the peace process should be steered back on track, expediting the demobilisation of Maoist fighters, reorienting the YCL away from violence and returning stolen private property. Although the CA has been extended by a year, we should not wait one year to do all that.
The constitution has its own set of problems. One more year will allow time to resolve the contentious issues like government structure and the potentially implosive ethnic federalism proposal.
It doesn’t really matter who gets to be prime minister and who is going to be in which ministry. More than anything else, the new consensus government must turn its attention to rescuing a teetering economy, creating jobs and ensuring development. Only that will ensure that the government which follows will not be threatened by public anger and disaffection.
The Three-point Pact
1. We are committed to consensus and cooperation to complete the peace process and the historical responsibility of writing the new constitution.
2. We will extend the CA term by one year since we need to finish what we started with.
3. We agree to move forward by forming a government of national consensus after the resignation as soon as possible of the prime minister and his coalition.
how many more x_number-pacts to be made? 3 point, 12 point etc etc…the thing is, with the current political bunch, there is no *motive* of letting things happen…one can keep signing ‘pacts’ and postpone things on the 11th hour…but for how long? until there is a will, nothing is going to happen…and thats what these guys lack…I thought at least u folks writing and reading the nepalitimes would understand that…lets not write stupid things like ‘oh! a tragedy was averted by signing this 1000865643-point pact’, how does it matter, it’s like putting a band aid to a man dieing of cancer, can’t u understand that? why do u guys encourage such a move? why not take a stand LONG TERM and let these guys know we can’t let this ‘peace process’ linger on indefintey….mark my words…at this rate, next year, around this time, you’ll again be printing an article on how the ‘parties’ saved a ‘bigger chaos’ by signing a ‘I dont know how many’ points agreement….’things could have been worse’ you’ll say…
Pretty yacky stuff all this, no wonder my baby bulldog has been puking all morning!
well, just to note, the rant wasn’t against ure article Mr. Writer….I think you say in kinder words what I ranted about…but I couldnt help it…specially after reading the 3rd point of the agreement…you know, in every moderately successful project, be it a school project or a fortune 500 company project or anything, there is a time for ‘analyzing’ and a time to simply ‘go, get it done, even if the *analyzing* didn’t work’…this works because people set deadlines and work at meeting them…u must in your publication too…in Nepal (and all the articles/comments I read) we get stuck on the analysis phase and don’t move forward…analyze what I said for a bit
IT’s called Analysis Paralysis !!
Kunda’s view is positive. The blog is short and to the point. As you are doing all along, keep on reminding people that there are two roads hence forth. One is dismantling of the armed apparatus trained in totalitarian ideology. This road will, in time, ‘may’ persuade the Maoists that it should see all the other politial parties as friendly competitors and not the ‘class enemies’. They may see a light that the fossilized ideology they are carrying has been experimented and proved to be disastrous. Nepal cannot afford to run replicate experiments. If that happens and more or less democratic constitution may come in a year’s time.
The other road will be a dark tunnel when we led through it, we will reach Kim Jong Il’s Korea and Polpot’s Kampuchia. All the political parties and individuals who disagreed to Maoist ideology and ‘practice’, they will not allowed to run for office. They will be Killed the way Mukti Adhikari (a Sciece teach in Remote Nepal) and Ganesh Chilwal (former head-figure of Maoist Victim’s Association). Maoist will leave no stone unaltered to implement their out-dated Leninist and Maoist agenda, which will further make the country poorer. The remaining intellectuals such as scientists, engineers and doctors will take a flight wherever they can. Remember the open threat by Prachanda just few days back? A totalitarian thought based constitution will prevail. This will chain Nepal for next 50-or 100 years the way the Rana-regime chained Nepal.
Kunda is constantly warning all of us Nepalese to this danger. I hope he will not cease for a moment to do that.
just yet another farce! mark my word .. nothing will change. nc, uml knew maoists had no choice, so they knew no to give in. maoists created all the media drama so their uneducated cadres still believe that their so-called leaders are ‘revolutionaries’. the pact was there all along to extend c a, only an untold smirk on when to actually do it. if anyone believes that anything has changed in terms of getting a constitution, they are just fooling themselves.
Kunda, it matters who becomes PM and Ministers. Still, there are many sincere, honest, and dedicated political leaders who can be the ministers. If the political parties choose the same old corrupt hands, the people won’t get relief, bureaucracy will function the way they are doing till now. Nothing changes. Change demands that there be new faces, new ideas, and new sense of urgency with a strong will to bring results.
MAKUNE’s resignation has come at a time when the Maoists are defensive, they had to blackmail the coalition government to bring it down as they could not galvanize their party as they had done before and they have lost grounds in Terai and in Metropolitan areas. They have lost the faith of intellectuals, businessmen, and ordinary people.
The 3 point agreement was a face saving for the Maoists; not for other partners. It reiterates what had been agreed before and never fulfilled by the Maoists. It clearly reveals who is the culprit. For a year along, NC and UML had been asking the Maoists to filfill those promises but Maoists never listened and were never interested and actually they never wanted.
But the civil disobedience by Kathmanduites, intellectuals, business groups, and education system has exposed their might, their ability to harass others, and remain uncivilized and vulgarized. In short, this year has been their waterloo. They know it. They have lost grounds on all fronts.
Kunda, we need to continue expose the hypocrisy of the Maoists, as the civil disobedience did, and force the maoists to change. Otherwise nothing can be achieved within next year. We need to be vigilant, assertive and manipulative vs. the Maoists’s vulgarization of politics, plundering of natural resources, criminalization of society and creating a sense of helplessness against anarchy.
The three point agreement clearly demonstrates that NC and UML are ready to compromise and build consensus and move forward, but not the Maoists.
1. CA’s term should not have extended but they did it anyway. It was a shameful act. People elected (some were appointed by the political parties) CA members for the sole purpose of writing constitution. And they fail miserably. Now CA is extended for one year but there’s no guarantee that constitution will be ready within that extended period. I hope party leaders come into senses and go for fresh election to elect President, and members for National Assembly (1 member per district) and House of Representatives (1 member per 100,000 populations).
2. Since Maoists have published their proposed constitution, I think all the other parties should publish their proposals as well. This way the people will have a chance to see for themselves as to which one is more democratic. We will never have a perfect constitution but it could be changed to satisfy most people. Since party leaders are fighting for the post of the prime minister it’s high time to get rid of this post altogether. For interim period form the cabinet in the leadership of the current president. Nominate one minister for each ministry and one assistant minister for each department. Representation of the political parties in the cabinet should be decided by the percentage of their representation in the current CA.
“but for now they have bought themselves time” Isn’t this something that these so called “masters of society” have been doing all this while. I have arrived at this conclusion that these so called politicians are a bunch of Class A manipulative, delusional, schizophrenic and despicable goons.
It is amazing how we Nepalese are so myopic about giving our trust and hope to these preposterous politicians’ hollow promises.
Without going through the proper induction and rigorous selection process, how would one expect these politicians to run the country. Taking oath they did but with lies and deceit they play the game. They love to give talks and when they do they burst their lungs out but the sad reality is that, in the end it hold no substance.
What is it that these politicians really want? Is it the demise of our nation? Is it the wealth of the poor? What is it that they need? Can’t they see the needs of our brothers and sisters? It is a sad reality to see our own people playing such a dirty game on our own soil. Shameless they ought to be but thick skinned is how they are. It is sad to see our people suffering in pain and hunger but looking at these fat, rosy dumb politicians i see nothing but empty nutshells.
Almost all the commentators over here are feudalists. I would have bared them even if they are capitalists. but not they are not they are all pure feudalists with all traditional views. They term maoists with all negative arguments. They need to know who real nationalists are. You all are opportunists.
I fully agree with Kunda, its a again a new start for Nepalese people.
Yes, there is nothing in the three points that could not have been agreed six months ago. But instead of insisting that the peace agreement be carried out and the constitution drafted (point 1) and that the failed government of MKN resign (point 3), Kunda Dixit like other anti-Maoists campaigned for a completely different three points raised by Congress and UMLs, demanding that PLA be disbanded while Nepal Army remains unreformed, that YCL surrender to the criminal gangs that have continued attacks and that peasants “return” their land to landlords instead of carrying out land reform. Result was that CA deadline expired so in ADDITION there had to be a point 2 for extending it. Having learned nothing from the wasted six months, all resulting from not accepting the other two points, Kunda Dixit can do is pretend that the 3 points actually agreed “mean” the 3 points he wants to keep pushing which got nowhere in the last six months and still won’t get anywhere.
The leaders of nepalese political parties are a bunch o f mesochists who simply go and hit their head on the wall for the simple pleasure they get afterward. They have no sense of purpose, they pour the beans on the floor and collect them back on the tray and pour again and collect again , and go round and round like an obedient daughter-in law of a feaudal household of the past.
Mr. Arthur, being a Maoists yourself, it is so natural for you to plead and support the Maoists. I can’t blame you for being so blind and out of tune with people and democratic principles. I have been to Cambodia and East Timor. You love Pol Pot of Cambodia. I love the guerillas of East Timor who never tortured any civilian nor any East Tomorees even if they were with the government of Indonesia. I like South Africa which despite more than 25 yrs of armed rebellion, never had to face the brutality of the Mogabe regime which you like and follow so much.
This is the difference between you and me. For you power comes from gun (terror) for me power comes from serving people and with reconcilation. I have talked to people who survived polpot’s atrocities, I know how a the cowardly revolutionaries killed a son infront of a mother as you people did in Nepal in the name of cleaning society of enemies. You have never denounced those activities and so I still think that you adhere to those philosphies. Unless you renounced/ denounced those activities and philosophies, we are not going to believe you and your henchmen.
I am sorry if I am not polite.
NT duped again!!
Is Kunda really suggesting that he had even a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of doubt that the CA term would not be extended? Did you actually sit down and analyse what the advantage/disadvantage would be to the various parties if it wasn’t extended? Or did you just assume it?
Or did you chose to believe that there was a possibility that it would not be extended because it was good for sales?
The Maoists had everything to gain and not a lot to lose by extending the CA term. They were simply trying to get some more bargains in the process.
The Maoists bluff should have been called ago. With gullible people like Kunda and NT around it has been made unnecessarily difficult.
Repeat performance of the past two years for one more year. And the same drama repeated at the end of next year!!
In the past you have had a 16 point agreement and 11 point agreement and and don’t remember all the other numbers, 40 and 33 and many more, yet nothing was ever implemented with any noticeable results. Now you have THREE, that should be a manageable number as all the political parties can count this high. Maybe not the Maoists as they are refusing to sign it ? Perhaps that is the purpose for their existence, not to agree with anything to make sure nothing gets done and then complain about nothing being done ?
Can we trust the politicians any more????????
Luba Svrcina – Nepali politicians can only count up to I.
To Jange : Well, you might be right. The problem lies in the fact they can’t agree who the “1″ is and you can’t have three “number ones”. That woud truly be a very new math.