All-Party Meeting
Chance To Suppport Peace

By Bishnu Gautam

ALMOST after a month of the much-expected cease-fire, heavy discussions over how the peace talks should be made effective and fruitful are taking place both in circles of the political parties and the civil society. Different organisations are holding seminars and interactions to discuss the issue and float the ideas expressed by the noted politicians and social experts on it to the public. All the participants ranging from the representatives of the major political parties to social workers to economists to social scientists to Human Rights activists express similar views that the cease-fire should be translated into a lasting peace by applying possible measures to make the peace-dialogues successful. The common people who have been affected by the violence to a great extent in the last few years, want the same to happen.

Boycott

However, it sees the major political parties represented in the dissolved House of Parliament are hesitating to support the government in its effort to restore peace in the country through dialogues. They boycotted the all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand a few weeks back though they had welcomed the cease-fire announcement made by the government headed by Chand. But the individual leaders of these parties often urge their parties and the people to support the government's move to peace dialogues.

In Nepal Televison's Disha Nirdesh programme on Monday evening, Bam Dev Gautam, CPN-UML leader and former deputy prime minister made similar appeal to all. "If the political parties supported the cease-fire made by the government, they should not raise the question of constitutionality when the same government sits for peace dialogues," he argued in the TV show.

His arguments were directed towards the interest of the nation rather than on the petty interest of the political parties and their bosses. No leader of the major political parties had made such realistic comments on the ongoing peace process through public media in the recent weeks. Many people who watched the programme were found appreciating his bold arguments.

But the sad fact is that CPN-UML took action against Gautam next day by asking for a clarification from him for his arguments on NTV, which the party claimed, were against the party policy. This incident shows how the leaders of the major political parties are divided over the peace-dialogues. The situation of the Nepali Congress and Rastriya Prajatantra Party is not different from that of CPN-UML. RPP leader Kamal Thapa, in a programme reportedly criticised his party's decision to boycott the last all-party meeting called by the Prime Minister the other week.

It seems the political parties want to take the credit of the resolution of the problem and want an all-party government led by them to hold such dialogues. Otherwise, they should not hesitate to support the government's effort to free the nation from the clutches of violence.

Now the Prime Minister is reportedly calling an-all party meeting for the second time. This speaks of the government's will to receive political parties' support in the peace dialogues. Also, this shows the government is committed to translate the cease-fire into a lasting peace by holding successful peace-dialogues with the Maoists. On the other hand, the Maoists have become more liberal in their demands this time than they were during the previous talks, which they violated. Their open-mindedness regarding their demands indicates that they also want a peaceful solution of the seven-year-old problem this time.

As such, the people want that the political parties won't repeat the past mistakes by boycotting the proposed second all-party meeting being called by Prime Minister. The government also cannot bypass the major political parties while holding peace talks nor does it want to do so. The civil society wants the government should seek support from the political parties while holding peace-talks. In an interaction on Wednesday the representatives of the civil society expressed such views.

In fact, it is the common people who underwent several hardships due to the violence in the past. They were compelled to flee from their villages. Some of them lost their near and dear ones in the unnecessary violence. Others were kept behind the bars. As such, it is natural that they want a lasting peace, no matter how it would be restored.

The cease-fire has brought the rays of hope of peace to the affected people and they are returning home from safe cities of Nepal and India. Everyday we see or read about several people returning home from the cities and from India hoping for a permanent peace in the country. Even the Maoists are reportedly urging those who once left their homes for fear of the violence and started living in the district headquarters to return to villages.

Normalcy

Within a month of cease-fire the village people who have nothing to do with politics and power have felt a normalcy in their everyday activities. They are very optimistic about the restoration of permanent peace in villages. They cannot imagine that the present cease-fire will be violated like the last one because they have already suffered the consequences of the violation of cease-fire. As such no one should try to shatter the hopes of the common people by obstructing the peace process. The political parties need to realise what the common people want and cooperate with the government to restore a lasting peace in the country by keeping their petty interest aside.

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