Delay In Government Formation

By Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Even after four months of the election held on April 10, 2008 for the Constituent Assembly (CA), Nepalese political parties have not been able to form a new government. The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist) has the largest number of seats on the CA but not the majority; so, it could not form a government. The second largest party is the Nepali Congress (NC). It has the taste of power and prestige, so does not want to relinquish power so easily. The third largest party is Communist Party of Nepal Unified Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML) is in political dilemma; it has been taking a long time to heal the wound of losing the election for the CA. The newly emerged regional party called Madheshi People’s Rights Forum (MPRF) has been playing the role of bad boy in the politics probably taking orders from the neighboring relatives and friends as shown by the election for the president and vice president. The NC and CPN-UML have made an unholy alliance with such a MPRF for garnering a simple majority for electing the president and vice president. The candidate of the MPRF for the vice president is of dubious character. It is shameful to the Nepalese people to have such a person as a first vice president. For this the NC and CPN-UML are responsible, as they blindly supported him sacrificing their own candidates.

The three major political parties such as the CPN-Maoist, NC and CPN-UML have been exercising for forming a government acceptable to all parties. The CPN-Maoist leaders argue that they would form a government following the norms and values accepted by all parties when the NC was in majority and the CPN-UML were the second largest party and the CPN-Maoist was the third largest party. In this case the CPN-Maoist leader would lead the government and the Prime Minister would hold the portfolio of the defense. In addition, the CPN-Maoist would have the portfolios of Home and Finance as the NC has been enjoying so far.

According to the CPN-Maoist leaders and the CPN-UML leaders, the NC leaders have been adamant that they would not leave the portfolio of the defense, home and finance to any other political parties. If parties do not accept this condition they would not join the government led by the CPN-Maoist. After prolonged negotiations and discussion among the major political parties, the NC has come to the final decision that it would not leave the portfolio of the defense at any cost. This condition was not acceptable to the CPN-Maoist and apparently to the CPN-UML, too.

Maoist political leaders argue that it has been the tradition of the Prime Minister holding the portfolio of the defense since B.P. Koirala became the first elected Prime Minister in the late 1950s. So, they do not want to break this tradition. In this case, if the CPN-Maoist forms a government as a largest party on the CA its leader as Prime Minister would hold the defense portfolio. However it was not acceptable to the NC leaders.

The NC leaders say that the CPN-Maoist has its own People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and the Chairman of the CPN-Maoist is the Commander of the PLA; so, a single person would be the commander of the two armies: PLA and the Nepal Army. They do not want to trust the defense portfolio to the CPN-Maoist Chairman when he becomes a Prime Minister. However, General Secretary of the CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal speaking to the Radio Nepal on the program called ‘Antar Sambad’ in the morning of August 13, 2008 said that it would not be a disaster if the CPN-Maoist leader holds a defense portfolio, as we have several mechanisms such as security council, parliamentary committee and political parties’ committees to control the activities concerning the defense.

Speaking on the same program General Secretary Khanal said that the recent activities of the NC leaders have been dubious. They have started calling for forming a democratic alliance to form a majority government. However, his party and he believe that there is no alternative to a consensus government; any government without the inclusion of the Maoists would not be successful. It would lead to confusion and even conflict, and would not help to a peace process. However, this statement was contradictory to the alliance he formed with the NC and MPRF for electing the president of the NC and the vice president of the MPRF at the last moment of the election.

General Secretary Khanal also said that the current need is the politics for the national benefits not for the personal benefits hinting to the political activities of caretaker Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and probably former General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal of his own party, as his party sacrificed the political ethics proposing him for the first president of the country although he lost the election in both the constituencies he contested for. Khanal also said that he hates such politicians. This realization of the truth was probably too late, as the trust built among the major political parties was already destroyed by the political activities of the leaders for their own benefits rather than for the national benefits.

According to the political analysts, caretaker Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has been maneuvering the political situation for his advantage. He has already faced a great loss in the election for the CA, as out of the 22 candidates belonging to his family only two could get elected. He once said that the unification of the NC and NC-D was the main reason for the loss of his party. Some political analysts said that caretaker Prime Minister Koirala has been attempting to garner a support for forming a government under his leadership going against political ethics, as the president of Nepal has already asked the CA for holding an election for a Prime Minister after the political parties could not come to an agreement on forming a consensus government within the deadline set by the president.

During their meeting with Party President and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, directly elected CA members belonging to the NC lashed out at the leadership taking major decisions at the personal level for grabbing power projecting the image of the NC as the party of power-grabbers and greedy for power. "We questioned the authority of some central leaders who staked claim over premiership or the defense ministry, thus going against the party's decision not to be a part of a future government without fulfillment of the seven-point demand," said Dip Kumar Upadhyay, an elected CA member from Kapilvastu. "The PM is reported to have offered the Prime Minister's post, sometimes to CPN-UML and sometimes to MPRF, but nobody refuted the report," said Upadhyay. "Why are the leaders reluctant to make the party's position clear on the issue?" "Most of us urged top leaders not to demonstrate greed for power and to preserve the party's decades-long ideals," said Upadhyay. [1]

CPN-UML has decided to work for a consensus government involving the four major political parties until the last minute. The standing committee meeting held on Tuesday, August 12, 2008, stressed on the need for a Maoist-led consensus government said leader Ishwor Pokharel. "We have still two days left for consensus and hopefully we may reach agreement until the date of nomination for the Prime Ministerial post," he said. Even if the consensus was not reached, Pokharel said, the CPN-UML would take appropriate decision by that time. Former General Secretary of CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal said that most of the CPN-UML leaders stressed on the need for both the Maoists and the NC giving up the defense portfolio to break the political deadlock. He also said that the CPN-UML was not in favor of aligning with the Maoists to form a leftist government. [2]

On Tuesday, August 12, 2008, speaking at the Special Hour in the parliament, CPN-UML leader Pradip Gyawali said that any attempt to form a government based on numerical strength would not help bring the peace process to a logical end and write a new constitution. He said, "Maoists, as the largest party, need to play a greater role but should not try to push any party into the corner. Nor should the NC choose to be a spectator when the house is on fire.” CA member Pradip Giri of NC urged both the NC and the Maoists to show flexibility. "I emphatically say that a new constitution can not be framed if the parties failed to form a consensus government," he said. "Only those constitutions that are based on the ideals of life, compassion and emotions have lived for long. Those constitutions that were based on political ideology, be that of post-revolution of French or Russian constitution, have ceased to exist," Giri said. Suresh Ale Magar of CPN-Maoist said that the Maoists would not be handicapped just because it did not get the defense portfolio; the Maoists still wanted to retain that portfolio, as it was an ethical issue. He also accused the NC of not playing its part in implementing the peace process. [3]

On Tuesday, August 12, 2008, speaking at the Reporter’s Club-Nepal, spokesperson for the NC, Arjun Narsingh KC said that a terrible situation would develop if the CPN-Maoist would keep the Defense Ministry and tried to impose its army integration plan. Spokesperson KC suggested that the Ministry could be given either to the MPRF or to the CPN-UML to strike a balance in the government if not to his party. "We are apprehensive of imposition of the Maoist plan on the army integration, which will be intolerable for the international community and ourselves, and consequently there will be a terrible situation," he argued defending his party’s adamant claim for the Ministry if it had to join the Maoist-led government. Senior leader of the CPN-Maoist, CP Gajurel stated that difference in political ideology was the real cause of present political disagreement. "Defense Ministry is just a momentary barrier, the real barrier is the status quoits of the NC to the final goal of the republican setup, it does not think in the line of taking the nation ahead in the progressive line," he said. He, however, stressed on forming a consensus government. “Since we have to take the peace process to a logical end and write a new constitution with consensus, we have to try our utmost to form a consensus government." He made it clear that his party would neither give up claim for the Ministry if it had to lead the government, nor join any government led by other parties. "If other parties lead the government, we will support it from outside depending on merits. But we will not support a NC-led government." [4]

The defense portfolio has become a bone of contention between CPN-Maoist and NC, as it has to do with the Nepal Army of 90,000 professionally trained soldiers. “Maoists will try to integrate maximum number of PLA fighters into the army,” PLA deputy commander Barsha Man Pun said. “But we’ll work in tandem with other parties in this regard.” “They want this institution to collapse through heavy infiltration of politically indoctrinated personnel,” NC leader Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat said. “We can’t allow that.” The army leadership has long maintained that the verified Maoist combatants (about 19,000) can be taken in on individual and merit bases, but they will have to go through the standard procedures. Maoists want to skip the nitty-gritty and want mass entry of combatants. The integration issue, according to Pun, might be decided by the special committee formed by the cabinet to ‘supervise, integrate and rehabilitate the combatants of the Maoist army’ under Article 146 of the Interim Constitution. NC leaders doubt the Maoists’ intentions. Despite repeated assurances, the Maoists have not dismantled their paramilitary structures nor have they returned the seized property, said Mahat. Also, they have not discharged from the cantonments the 4,000-plus combatants disqualified by the UNMIN, he added. Most importantly, Maoists cannot command their own army and the national army in the political transition to peace, he said. “That depends on the position the CPN-UML takes,” said Mahat. “The CP-UML and MPRF share our concerns and it all depends on how they can pressure the Maoists.” [5]

On August 13, 2008, General Secretary of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal said that forming a new government excluding the NC could lead to different challenges. He said so when Chairman of CPN-Maoist Prachanda proposed forming a government excluding the NC at the meeting held at the Khanal’s residence on Wednesday morning, August 13. General Secretary Khanal stressed on the need for forming a consensus government turning over the Defense Ministry to some political parties other than the CPN-Maoist and NC. [6]

On Wednesday, August 13 NC leaders were sure to stay in opposition, as none of the political parties such as CPN-Maoist and NC were willing to give up the claim for the defense portfolio; however, the NC would contest the election for a Prime Minister to prevent any party winning the position of Prime Minister unopposed. During the central working committee (CWC) meeting held at the Prime Minister’s official residence at Baluwatar; majority of the NC leaders opined that the NC should not join the next government. The CWC members also advised the NC leaders to put pressure on the Maoists for meeting the seven-point conditions if they wanted the NC to join the government. Talking to reporters, spokesperson for the NC, Arjun Narsingh K.C said the CWC meeting to be held tomorrow would make a final decision on whether to field a candidate for a Prime Minister or not. The CA is holding an election for a Prime Minister on Friday, August 15, 2008. Political parties need to file nominations of their candidates on Thursday, August 14, 2008. [7]

On Wednesday morning, August 13, 2008, at an informal meeting held at the Maoist secretariat, the Maoist leaders decided to make more efforts on bringing the NC on board the coalition government spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara told reporters after the meeting. They discussed the ways to involve NC in the next government. They also discussed the party's strategies to be adopted in the unfolding political situation and the probable alliance with CPN-UML, MPRF and other small communist parties in the CA. [8]

On August 12, 2008, speaking on the State-run Radio Nepal’s morning program called ‘Antar Sambad’, leader of Rastriya Janashakti Party Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani said that the CA has been wearing two hats: one of the CA and another of parliament; when the CA works as a parliament we need an opposition party otherwise the government would be dictatorial; if the large political parties form a consensus government then the small parties would need to work as an opposition party to steer the government to the right direction.

Leaders of the newly emerged regional party MPRF could play a major role in building a new Nepal. However, recent activities of its leaders particularly on the language issue have shown that the neighboring relatives and friends guide its leaders. They want to make Hindi one of the national languages of Nepal. The most controversial former judge and discharged on the corruption issues became its candidate for the vice-president and won the election. He translated the oath administered by the president in Nepali into Hindi making the mockery of the discipline of the second highest position in Nepal. It was a shame not only on the MPRF leaders but also on the entire Nepalese people.

Shamelessly, the NC and CPN-UML leaders have made an unholy alliance with the leaders of such a MPRF for garnering a simple majority for electing the president and vice president. They knew that the candidate of the MPRF for the vice president was of a dubious character; however, they supported him disregarding the political ethics. In order to meet their own benefits NC leaders sacrificed their vice-presidential candidate and CPN-UML leaders sacrificed their presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

Probably, these political leaders without moral and political ethics might do the same thing as they did in the election for the president and vice-president in the election for a Prime Minister, too on Friday, August 15, 2008. Then, it would be hard to predict what the new government would do and where it would lead the country. The country would face an uncertain future due to the deceitful tendency of the political leaders.


Footnotes:

[1] Kantipuronline.com, August 12, 2008, “NC’s elected CA members rap top leaders”

[2] Nepalnews.com ps Aug 12 08, “UML to work for consensus govt till last minute”

[3] The Himalayan Times, August 13, 2008, “CA Members Stress on Consensus Govt”

[4] The Rising Nepal, August 12, 2008, “Defence for Maoist terrible, says KC”

[5] The Himalayan Times, August 12, 2008, “What’s triggering tug-of-war over Defence”

[6] Kantipuronline.com, August 13, 2008, “Govt without NC will trigger problems: Khanal”; Nepalnews.com sd Aug 13 08, “Prachanda meets with Khanal as race to form govt heats”

[7] Kantipuronline.com, August 13, 2008, “NC contesting PM poll to prevent unopposed victory”; “Nepalnews.com sd Aug 13 08, NC may field its candidate for prime minister”

[8] Nepalnews.com ia Aug 13 08, “Maoists still trying to convince NC to join govt”