The new old

The new coalition government in Kathmandu might be made up largely of the discredited old guard, but it has an opportunity to bring the country together through effective government and pushing the peace process. Its members just need to stop bickering amongst themselves.

The 4 May resignation of Pushpa Kamal Dahal ('Prachanda') from the prime-ministership ushered in a period of high spirits in Nepal, even jubilation, among the Nepali Congress, the centrist Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and other political forces in Nepal opposing the Maoists. These parties (the Congress in particular) had entered a period of despondency and demoralisation following their poor showings at the Constituent Assembly elections in April 2008. During the nine months the Maoists were in government, this had developed into a frustrated helplessness bordering on rage. Much of the reason for this was the fact that the Maoists quickly made it clear, through their words and actions, that their interests lay largely in using their newfound position of power to expand their control over society – rather than in continuing with the peace process, which has as its major tasks the drafting of a new constitution and the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants. Meanwhile, however, the other parties had made few efforts towards 'rehabilitating' their own party machineries, or developing a political vision in line with the aspirations of the people. Thus, fear that their very survival was at stake pervaded the old parliamentary parties during much of the Maoist tenure in power.