KNOWING FRIEND AND FOE IS HALF THE BATTLE WON
-Hisila Yami
Every central committee meeting of United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) UCPN(M) is always looked with great scrutiny, both within the country and outside. This is understandable considering that the Party had gone through war for ten years and is now hopping on and off from the government even while the peace process is yet to take logical conclusion. At present UCPN(M) is going through a full Central Committee meeting for another round of democratic exercise to discuss on the draft document presented by the politburo meeting. It is important to know what UCPN (M) stands for: for those who are sympathetic towards the Party and more importantly for those who oppose it. This is important for UCPN(M) too for letting foe and friend know what the Party stands for and what it is not.
First of all this Party or the movements associated with it is not implanted from outside. It is home grown affair unlike the Jhapa movement (1972s) which was direct outcome of the Naxalite movement in India. In the course of ten years of People’s War and peace the Party has avoided extremities: during war it has carefully avoided militarism by having political commissar above military commanders, by looking for peace option besides war. During peace-period it is carefully avoiding capitulationism by resorting to all forms of struggles (be it street struggle, struggle in the legislature house, struggle within the government) when the reactionary decisions are taken. The Party is also avoiding being sucked into vicious circle of deadlocks during transitional period thereby discouraging reactionary forces to strengthen. Hence decision to resume legislature house has been taken (so that budget may be passed) recently even while the question of civil supremacy and unconstitutional move by the president has not being addressed at the moment.
The second aspect is that its outlook is holistic. This is true during war as it waged total war by mobilizing all instruments of war: the Party, the army, the united-fronts, it mobilized internal and international forces. Even today during peace process it is looking at restructuring of the state holistically hence the question of restructuring of Nepalese army is being taken seriously which other Parties are not taking up.
The third is that it is not dogmatist like Masal Party who talk about class struggle without going for it when the situation demanded and nor reformist party like United-Marxist-Leninist (UML) who talk of being communist but are mired into reformism only to preserve the status-quo. Remember they joined royalist implanted government in the name of half-rectified retrograde move in the year 2005? The fourth is that it believes in defending, using and developing Marxism-Leninism-Maoism ideology. In today’s world where communist ideology is under attack especially after the down fall of socialist states, some Communist Parties have become dogmatist in the name of defending ideology, while other Parties have become pragmatist in the name of survival. There are also anarchic Parties which in the name of modernizing Marxism is nullifying the essence of Marxism. The correct approach is to defend, use and develop it. Hence the Party is prepared to tread un-treaded roads daring to make mistakes and rectifying them earnestly in course of its development.
The fifth is there are always vibrant democratic exercises taking place within the party. It is only on the basis internal democracy that centralism within the Party can be achieved. Amongst other reasons, it is the lack of internal democracy that has lead to splits within the communist movements and failure of socialist states. The specificity of UCPN (M) is that it allows all the tendencies prevalent in Nepalese society to express within the Party while leading them through ideological supremacy using the method of unity struggle and transformation. It respects minority view as it is aware that minority may have truth too. This is one reason there has not been split within the Party during 10 years People’s War and the present peace process. In fact today many left forces are joining this Party despite being in opposition.
Sixthly the Party earnestly believes in competition amongst anti-feudalist and anti-imperialist forces. This is important not only for the masses but also for self-rectification of the Party. The counter-revolution within the Party can only be checked through periodic competition with other parties.
Seventhly the Party always differentiates which are the main contradiction and the secondary. Hence it is able to use effective united front to isolate the main enemy while keeping at bay the secondary contradiction. It targeted monarchy as the main source of contradiction as it was upholding feudalism which was responsible for the backwardness of the country. The Monarchists had been blaming political parties fighting for democracy as anti-nationals. It is important to note that the question of democracy in communist movement has been wrongly associated with being pro-expansionist, and the question of nationalism associated with monarchism. Such concept had lead into allegation and counter allegation thus bringing split in the communist movement. UCPN (M) broke this vicious circle by asserting that it is the internal democracy and internal nationalism which will ultimately save the country from being in the hand of dictator and being sold to foreign countries. Hence the Party was aware of the importance of holding Constituent Assembly election to prepare ground for republic multiparty system (strengthening internal democracy). It prepared ground for federalism on the basis of ethnicity, region and languages for national integration of the country (strengthening internal nationalism).
Last but not the least the Party is aware of the dialectics of success and failure. Every success carries seed of failure likewise every failure carries seed of success. It is important to avoid being conceited while succeeding and avoid being hopeless while losing. In both the cases one should be holistic. Hence those who are speculating about the outcome of this central committee meeting may relax and wait for the final result.
July 9, 2009