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Kathmandu Thursday March 08, 2001 Falgun 25, 2057.
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Seize
this chance
Some four months after the fiasco over talks
between the government and the Maoists, the authorities seem to have come around to making
a serious attempt at parleys to tackle the five year old insurgency that has already
claimed at least 1,563 lives and called into question the very future of Nepal as we know
it. The government has made public the names of rebels in its custody in compliance with
one of the conditions set by the Maoists. Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel, who
had a hand in the earlier fiasco, has now come out saying the government is dead serious
this time. Human rights groups have also teamed up to help foster the right atmosphere for
dialogue. Padma Ratna Tuladhar, who brokered the earlier talks that aborted, is again
leading the effort at dialogue facilitation. And with springtime in the air, this is a
great time to make a new beginning and seize the opportunity to put the Maoist genie back
inside the bottle where it belongs so that the country will have another chance to get its
collective act together.
Seizing this opportunity means the government
should learn from its past mistake and come to the negotiating table with genuine
sincerity of purpose and good faith. It should not be engaging in talks about talks just
to fend off public pressure or extract political mileage, score points against political
rivals or buy time while it hones its armed police force. This is a government that has
floundered on every front. But it can still redeem its name if it but delivers on the
Maoist front. Seizing the opportunity also means the Maoists themselves should realise
that they have made their point and it is about time to cash in on the moral high ground
that they have staked out. The way to do that is to sit down with their interlocutors and
put their cards on the table, out of full appreciation that what they and the government
both have or should have at heart is the interest of the people and the county.
Transplanting a Maoist, Stalinist, Leninist or Marxist model onto Nepalese soil and clime
could literally cost us the earth. The catastrophic consequences visited on Cambodia by
just such an approach should not be forgotten, however exaggerated or biased the portrayal
of that catastrophy by the western media might have been. There is indeed some inkling
that the Maoists may have come to realize this, with their talk now of something called
Prachanda Path. Stepping back from the brink, stopping short of letting loose the dogs of
war and giving the doves a genuine chance is a chance that this country fully deserves.
The human rights groups, which are attempting to broker the peace effort should for their
part put behind them whatever bitterness might have resulted from the government’s
less than honest intentions in the past and make redoubled effort so that peace really has
a chance in these troubled times when nothing else seems to be working for this hapless
country.
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