The outcome of CC
–Hisila Yami
Alas, the full Central Committee Meeting of United Communist Party (Maoist) UCPN (M) is over after nearly three weeks of discussion. Once again it has achieved synthesis through the process of thesis and anti-thesis without splitting the Party, much to the disappointment of those internal and external forces which wanted to see a split. This is one of the most important two-line struggles (2LS) after the one which took place in 2004-5. The big difference is that the one that took place in 2004-5 was during the war period and it took place in Rolpa, the epicenter of the People’s War, while the present 2LS took place during the peace process and it took place in Katmandu, the epicenter of peace. What is important is that in both the struggles the Party emerged out to be more matured and responsible.
The present 2LS is a natural outcome of the transitional period that the country is going through and its reflection in the party. Like any transitional period, the Party is going through a hangover of the past and anxiety of the future. The hangover of the past takes place when one feels nostalgic to go back and fight the old ways in order to accomplish revolution quickly. The anxiety of the future lies in the fact that the path to revolution taken by UCPN(M) is unique, Nepal specific, hence it has to go through many zigzags.
The Party had started with the aim of establishing a New Democratic system when the People’s War had started in the year 1996. As the war went on picking up from defensive to equilibrium to the final offensive stage, it was during the offensive stage that the Party decided to go for sub-stage of arriving at the transitional type of republic. The transient republic was neither a West-ministerial parliamentary republic often known as bourgeois republic nor a New Democratic republic. This republic was necessary to rope in all the non-monarchical parties when a coup by King Gyanendra took place in 2005. This was the background under which CPN(M) decided to go for signing 7 point agreements with the seven parliamentary parties. This agreement leads to Second People’s Movement lasting 19 days, thus preparing the ground for promulgating a federal democratic republic state. And when King was finally thrown out and constituent assembly election took place putting CPN (Maoist) as the largest party, the major debate started taking place within the Party as to consolidate the transitional republic or go for New Democratic revolution. Those who were advocating for the New Democratic revolution started alleging that the party leadership had abandoned the cause of revolution and was slipping into right deviation, indulging in luxurious lifestyles, creating inequality within the rank and file, minimizing the importance of ideology instead of being dragged to day to day practical works, etc. And those who were advocating restructure of the state explained that they too were struggling but a different form of struggle which may look right and reform in form, but in essence, it is not rightist nor reformist. This is because all these steps are being taken not to consolidate the old feudal and comprador-bureaucratic setup but to achieve a new, restructured state. It is in restructuring the monolithic state into federalism based on region, ethnicity, language, where the question of Dalit, class, gender will be addressed that the struggle lies in. The struggle also lies in taking the peace process to a logical conclusion thereby integrating Nepali Army (NA) and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into one new national army whereby both the Nepali army and PLA will be restructured, NA will be democratized while the PLA will be professionalized.
They alleged that those advocating the New Democratic revolution straight away are doing so from a dogmatist angle without realizing the ground reality. They explained that the nature of the struggle in peacetime will be different from war and that one had to be more dialectical while being revolutionary.
However, both the forces agreed that one should not be satisfied with what one has gained but to go on struggling to advance the state to a higher level. The differences lie in nature and the speed of struggle. What is important is neither to overestimate what has been achieved nor to underestimate what has been achieved. It is on this basis that synthesis took place. This means one should now move from the stage of the federal democratic republic (since the king has been removed) to the people’s federal democratic republic (which is anti-feudal and anti-imperialist). It was also agreed that the regressive forces within and outside the country wanted to see UCPN(M) taking the course of the bourgeois line while forward-looking forces wanted to see the party taking the course of the New Democratic revolution.
It was agreed that the enemy is trying to isolate the Party by pushing it to war thus the question of peace reaching the logical conclusion must be addressed. It was also agreed that civilian supremacy must reign over military supremacy as it is related to the restructuring of the Nepali Army which has been long due since monarchy reigned in Nepal. Similarly, there has been an attempt to make the exercise of constitution-making a dummy affair, thus the Party must make the constitution people-oriented and result-oriented. There has been an attempt to undermine the sovereignty of Nepal and disintegrate Nepal, hence it is the duty of the Party to unite all the patriotic and democratic forces to consolidate the nation. To achieve these it is important to rope in all those forces which oppose these regressive steps to form a national unity government under the leadership of the UCPN (M). It is understood that these steps will eventually lead to establishing the people’s federal republic system.
Thus the thesis that the Party has become reformist and rightist has been countered by anti-thesis that the present gains made so far have to be taken further on the basis of consolidating what has been achieved so far. Thus the synthesis arrived is the path to establishing people’s federal republic system which takes into account national sovereignty as well as participation and leadership of workers and peasants in federal governance.
At this point, it is interesting to note that two important 2LS that have taken place in Rolpa and in Kathmandu have revolved around one similar topic, namely that of over-centralization of leadership. Hence the question of reaching multi-post system with the Chairperson followed by vice-chairpersons, general secretary, secretaries and treasurer was called upon and solved finally. Also it is interesting to note that the first 2LS revolved around establishing federal democratic republic while the second 2LS is revolved around making people’s federal democratic republic.
(4 august,2009)