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Kathmandu Tuesday January 08, 2002 Paush 24, 2058.
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Military victory and economic
reform
By Nagendra chhetri
After a month-long emergency and army
mobilisation, the Maoists particularly their leaderships are surely left to stew in their
own brew. They must be pondering what has become of their grand designs to remake the
whole of South Asia and ultimately the whole world. The leadership strongly believed that
Nepal would be the first building-block in a radical communist-militant empire that would
stretch, eventually, across this whole planet. With this ambitious objective and lofty
ideals in mind, the Maoists involved themselves and encouraged and forced their followers
and young cadres in day-to-day looting, killing, maiming, torturing and perpetrating of
dreadful outrages over the last six years. The government kept on displaying unprecedented
magnanimity and all humanly possible ways and means of bringing the so-called Maoists into
the greater national political mainstream. Meanwhile, it used limited force, ie civil
police, to try to curb the Maoist reign of terror. All segments of Nepalese political
parties wanted to use persuasive political power rather than the power of the bullet.
After the declaration of emergency and
mobilisation of the army the security forces seem to be cautious but extremely vigilant
and are constantly arresting and interrogating the terrorists and their active supporters
with the use of minimum force and trying to find out what the Maoists are doing to stop
them from doing such illegal things. But what people in Nepal should understand by now,
given the experience to date, is the Maoist terrorists will have no mercy on any citizen
whether he is weak, feeble, old or sick. These terrorists can attack any one, at any time,
at any place and can use any techniques. It is humanly impossible to provide government
security to every family or to defend every place at every moment of the day or night
against all conceivable techniques of Maoist terrorism. The only way the government can
seriously deal with it is to honestly try and improve the quality of life of the
downtrodden and those living below the poverty line. The security forces can hammer home a
devastating blow using their lethal weapons to root out the terrorist leadership with the
help of law-abiding local citizens. But the legitimacy of the action, the legal provisions
and human right abuses will have to be kept in mind so as not to use excessive and brutal
force against those who surrender and those found innocent. Wiping out terrorism is going
to be an expensive business and a long drawn out battle of hearts and minds. The wining
side will be the one which can plan well and fight the intellectual battle for the hearts
and minds of those who have actually suffered either from ill governance or terrorist
torture. Propaganda, media coverage, pro-active assaults with operational information and
responding to the genuine grievances of the people will be the deciding factor for winning
the insurgency battle. To support these various legal operations of the security forces
there must be a total commitment of all the political forces and their cadres.
In any insurgency operation military victory is
essential but along with it there must be a political and economic package to lure the
people and reform their social status. The only reform that can win the hearts of the
people is economic reform. But where is the economic reform after the emergency and army
mobilisation? What have people gained to change lifestyle during the emergency? The army
is out in the bush to suppress and tame the terrorists but where is the economic reform
package to accompany the military success for ensuring two meals a day and employment to
those who surrender and to the rest of the needy people? Yes, the Nepalese people as a
whole are terrified by the very idea of what a Maoist communist dictatorial regime would
be like! The phantom of the past proletarian regime in the former Soviet Union and its
satellite East European states, which disintegrated and collapsed in 1990 after a trial of
seven and half decades, is plaguing the democratic minded Nepalese people.
In any insurgency operation a marching army is
not the solution. The only solution lies in political commitment, clean and honest
administration, an effective and efficient delivery system and development agencies which
can help restore good governance. The army can provide a cushion, create conducive
conditions for the politicians and civilian authorities to negotiate from a position of
strength. The authorities can use and exploit this favourable situation to impose its
constitutional will on the terrorists. The terrorists on the other hand, will find no
excuses but to accept the terms and conditions laid down by the government.
The real root causes of the Maoist insurgency,
as all political leaders have said time and again, are the political misconduct, the
rampant corruption in every sector, political horse trading and the political infighting
within, between and amongst themselves. This resulted in their inability to stabilise and
consolidate the democratic procedure and its institutions which in turn created a big
vacuum in the system. This ultimately bred frustration which changed into public anger
giving birth to violence in the form of the Maoists. The Maoist leadership seized this
opportunity to propagate their radical ideas and rhetoric promising sweeping changes in
the day-to-day lives of the deprived, downtrodden and unemployed. These lofty ideals and
promises along with high-sounding slogans impacted on thousands of young minds like an
unchecked wild fire in the remote villages of poverty-stricken Nepal. Prachanda became a
hero like Hitler who was praised for his vision and strength during the 1930s. Many
children were named after him. Military victory is essential as Hitler was eventually
defeated, but a Marshal plan is also needed to build and rebuild the economy.
As the democratic institutions and their
branches failed to reach the remote villages to activate both the local delivery system
and the development agencies and make them more effective, people-oriented and efficient,
the Maoists found fertile ground eagerly waiting for radical communism. The readily
available fodder was so well used by the Maoists, particularly during the dialogue phase
that the democratic leadership could not imagine how quickly public frustration and anger
would be exploited and changed into violence. This incompetence has dragged the country
into limbo today.
In such a grave situation when people across the
country felt insecure and untold damage was done to public property, the government had no
choice but to declare an emergency and mobilise the army. Since the mobilisation the
security forces have achieved expected results despite meagre resources, hostile terrain
and inclement weather. The army proved to be well motivated and the morale remains very
high. The recent message from none other than the supreme commander himself, ie the king,
read out by the army chief must surely have bolstered the morale of the security forces to
the highest level. It was a well thought-out and timely message particularly to those who
are facing the hardships of battle in difficult terrain away from all ease, comfort, home,
family and friends. They are fighting and sacrificing their individual ease and material
comfort and happiness in order to restore peace and order in the country, secure and
protect the fundamental rights of the people and strengthen and consolidate democratic
institution and human values. Despite all the adverse conditions in the field, the display
of unquestioned traditional devotion to duty and unchallenged loyalty to the country with
its constitutional monarchy has strengthened the credibility of the army in the minds of
all Nepalese people. Even those who were against maintaining a regular army and were quite
apprehensive of its motive and role are now convinced of the apolitical nature and
effective role of the army whenever the state needs it. The army brass, however, has to be
careful not to overreact and embarrass the public in the process of cordon and search
operations. Common military discipline and decency demands that every action has to be
legitimate and justified in the eyes of the public in general and in their own eyes in
particular. Even the SAARC summit has taken place when the whole region is plagued with
extremist terrorism and Nepal is under emergency rule. Today this has been possible
because of the confidence of the political leadership in the ability of the army. Today
the whole nation should stand behind the security forces led by the army which is
advancing slowly but surely to achieve the goal.
Although military victory is essential the
national political will to dig into the real root cause of all misery including Maoist
insurgency is the demand of the day. It demands a bold decision to lay an undeterred hand
in the corridors of power to tame those unbridled horses, who cheated the people and
tainted the system thereby resulting in overall ill-governance. The key to solving the
Maoist problem is economic reform. Without economic reform military victory would be
short-lived. There must be a national political will and a national consensus for economic
reform.
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