Thesis - Antithesis and Sythesis by Hisila Yami

Hisila Yami, member of the Polit Bureau, UCPN (Maoist), on the outcome of the recently held month-long meeting of the Central Committee.

The full central committee meeting of the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) concluded after nearly three weeks of discussion. Once again, it has achieved a synthesis through the process of thesis and antithesis without splitting the party, much to the disappointment of internal and external forces which wanted to see the party torn asunder. 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 in 2004-5, the war was going on and the venue was Rolpa, the epicentre of the People’s War. The present 2LS took place during the peace process and it was held in Kathmandu, the epicentre of peace. What is important is that in both the struggles, the party emerged more matured and responsible.

The present 2LS is a natural outcome of the transitional period that the country is going through and its reflection on the party. Like during any transitional period, the party has a hangover from the past and anxiety of the future.

The hangover is a result of the nostalgia 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 the UCPN (Maoist) is unique and Nepal specific; hence it has to go through many zigzags.

The party started out with the aim to establish a new democratic system with the launch of the People’s War in 1996. The war intensified from defensive actions to a state of equilibrium and finally to offensive assaults, and it was during the offensive stage that the party decided to go for a sub-stage of arriving at a transitional type of republic. The transient republic was neither a Westminster-type parliamentary republic, often known as a bourgeois republic, nor a new democratic republic. This republic was necessary to bring on board all the non-monarchical parties. Then in 2005, King Gyanendra mounted his coup.

This was the background against which the Maoists decided to go for signing the seven-point agreement with the seven parliamentary parties. This agreement led to the 19-day-long People’s Movement II which prepared the ground for promulgating a federal democratic republic. The king was thrown out and the Constituent Assembly election took place in which the CPN (Maoist) emerged as the largest party. Subsequently, a major debate started within the party whether to consolidate the transitional republic or go for a new democratic revolution.

Those who were advocating a new democratic revolution started alleging that the party leadership had abandoned the cause of the revolution and that it was sliding to the right, indulging in a luxurious lifestyle, creating inequalities within the rank and file and minimizing the importance of ideology. And those who were in favour of restructuring the state explained that they too were engaged in a struggle, but it was a different type of struggle which may look rightist and reformist in form but that, in essence, it was neither 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.

The struggle lies in restructuring the monolithic state into federalism based on region, ethnic heritage and language where the question of Dalits, class and gender will be addressed. The struggle also lies in taking the peace process to a logical conclusion thereby integrating the Nepal Army (NA) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into one new national army whereby both the armies will be restructured — the NA will be democratized while the PLA will be professionalized.

The ones favouring restructuring the state further charged that those advocating a new democratic revolution straight away were doing so from a dogmatist angle without realizing the ground realities. They explained that the nature of the struggle in peace time would be different from what it was during the 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 should go on struggling to advance the state to a higher level. The differences lie in the nature and the speed of the struggle. What is important is not to overestimate or underestimate the achievements. It is on this basis that a synthesis took place. This means that one should now move from the stage of a federal democratic republic (since the king has been removed) to a people’s federal democratic republic (which is anti-feudal and anti-imperialist). The full central committee meeting also agreed that regressive forces within and outside the country wanted to see the UCPN (Maoist) taking a bourgeois line while forward-looking forces wanted to see the party taking the course of a new democratic revolution.

It was agreed that the enemy was trying to isolate the party by pushing it to war thus the subject of bringing the peace process to a logical conclusion must be addressed. It was also agreed that civilian supremacy must reign over military supremacy as it was related with restructuring the Nepal Army which has been long due since the monarchy reigned in Nepal. Similarly, there have been attempts to make the exercise of writing the constitution a dummy affair, thus the party must make the constitution people oriented and result oriented. There have been attempts to undermine the sovereignty of Nepal and break up the country, hence it is the party’s duty to unite all patriotic and democratic forces to consolidate the nation.

And in order to achieve this aim, 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 (Maoist). It is understood that these steps will eventually lead to establishing a people’s federal republic system.

Thus the thesis that the party had become reformist and rightist has been countered by the antithesis that the gains made so far have to be taken further by consolidating them. Thus the synthesis that has been accomplished is the path to establishing a people’s federal republic system which emphasizes national sovereignty and the participation and leadership of workers and peasants in federal governance.

At this point in time, it is interesting to note that the two important 2LS that were held in Rolpa and Kathmandu revolved around one topic, namely over centralization of leadership. Hence the question of creating a multi-post system with the chairperson followed by vice chairpersons, general secretary, secretaries and treasurer was raised and finally solved. Also, it is interesting to note that the first 2LS revolved around establishing a federal democratic republic while the second 2LS focused on creating a people’s federal democratic republic.