Dear Maoist whole-timers:
Your leaders taught you to use violence for political change, but that lesson has proven irrelevant in Nepal's open society, which your party entered in early 2006. The Maoist leadership finally must have understood over time that it is peaceful politics that require true courage and steadfastness in comparison to armed insurgency. Unfortunately, it seems they are uwilling or unable to share this discovery and certain emerging truths with you – hence, this note. The Maoist leaders address the world and Kathmandu's intelligentsia in calm and democratic prose, in direct contrast to how they harangue the whole-timer activists with calls for a 'protracted people's war', urban revolt and ultra-nationalist agitation. One suspects a tendency to keep the cadre unaware of trends in international politics and national security. There is little doubt that there is a large contingent in-country and internationally that wishes to see the Maoists fail; but still, the bewilderingly weakened situation of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) today rests primarily at the door of the party leadership.
Multiple factors have weakened the party in the public's eye: the suddenly exposed divisions within the leadership, the adventurism and immaturity evident while leading the government until May 2009, and the nine months of meaningless agitation since resigning from government – including the seven-month closure of Parliament, incitement to revolt, and the campaign for 'civilian supremacy' (nagarik sarbocchata) aimed at the first president of the republic. Not to mention the continuation of violent acts, impunity, extortions, and national and regional shutdowns that keep the economy in chains. Additionally, there are the problematic utterances from the top leadership, including claims of AK-47s still in the hand, the seeking of full integration of ex-combatants into the national army, the tortured logic justifying ethnic federalism, the rejection of 'pluralism' by the largest party in the Constituent Assembly and – this recently from your chairman, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ('Prachanda') – the publicly professed willingness to "swim in the blood of a million citizens" to get what the party wants.
Saathiharu, friends, your party leaders seemed not to understand the parliamentary and constitution-making power that comes from having nearly 40 percent control of the Constituent Assembly-cum-legislature. It had near-total control of the executive until it over-extended its hand last spring by trying to oust Chief of the Army Staff Rukmangud Katawal without due constitutional process, thus creating conditions for the Maoist exit from government. The party would have ensured long innings in politics had the leadership chosen to democratise; but instead, your leaders consistently exhibit the intention to remain a radical, destructive force. For this reason, 22 out of the 24 other parties in the Assembly have consolidated into a single block, to form the current government under Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). Meanwhile, the two neighbouring countries of India and China, which seek stability in Nepal more than anything else, seem to have decided that they cannot trust Maoist adventurism, and therefore have steadfastly backed the Nepal government of Prime Minister Nepal.