Now that the two biggest festivals - Dashain and Tihar - of Nepal are over, it’s time to wake up from the festive slumber and get back to work. Because all’s not well with the peace process: the constitution isn’t ready, the Maoist “army” remains in temporary cantonments and new armed groups continue to rampage through the country’s restive southern plains. In short, it’s time now to work hard and meet the deadlines.
Away in New York, the UN officials are closely monitoring the situation in Nepal. Like the UN, several friendly donor countries are also closely watching Nepal. But all of them continue to express their concerns about the rather slow - and often “disturbing”- traits of the three-year-old peace process.
Back in July, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recommended the Security Council to further extend the term of United Nations Mission In Nepal (UNMIN) - that is monitoring the peace process in Nepal - by six months. But he made it clear that the progress in Nepal’s peace process was stalled due to misunderstanding between the political stakeholders. Frustrating it may sound, but the political stakeholders haven’t made any progress whatsoever; the face-off continues.
Most recently, the UN secretary general’s special representative for children and armed conflict, Radhikha Coomaraswamy, appealed for swift and orderly release of the 2,973 Maoist army personnel identified as minors. “These children have a right to start their lives anew and help build and peaceful and prosperous Nepal,” she said. Peace Minister Rakam Chemjong says work is on to release the rehabilitate the minors.
If that happens, that will set the stage for rehabilitation and integration of the 19,000-plus Maoist ex-combatants, who waged a decade-long war in the country against the previous governments.
Equally important, the UNDP is concerned about the fact that Nepal may fail to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs seek to fight hunger and poverty, besides seeking to significantly reduce illiteracy, lack of access to health care, besides meeting other development targets by 2015. On a recent afternoon, youth leaders congregated at the Open Air Theatre in the capital and appealed to one and all to join hands to fight urban poverty, achieve MDGs.
The tasks look Herculean. And there shouldn’t be any room for complacency. That means Nepalis and their foreign helping hands need to get down to business, work toward achieving MDGs, all the while taking the country’ peace process to its logical finish.
In the higher echelons of power, all the 601 members of the Constituent Assembly (CA) need to catch up with their mission.
They’ve got to make sure that all the committees tasked with preparing concept papers for the new constitution meet their deadlines and submit their reports. For, it is only seven months to go. By May 2010, the leaders of the popularly elected CA have promised, the country’s new constitution will be readied.
But even before that process gets off to a flying start, the top leaders of the major parties need to put their heads together, discuss what’s right and what’s wrong, find an amicable solution to the president’s move reinstating the then army chief. That way, they can start it afresh. Seems unlikely, but the parties have no choice but to get the process going. The politicos need to go beyond tea party diplomacies and photo calls.
Fresh from Beijing (and surrounding provinces of China), Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) chairman Prachanda has indicated that he is in a mood to do business, that he’s willing to hold fresh talks with his political rivals and work toward consensus.
His emphasis on positivism on his return from Beijing - where he held crucial talks with President Hu Jintao, who is also the general secretary of Chinese Communist Party - could finally help. If that spirit is kept intact, the three-party talks could bear fruits.
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