MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA

If Nepal's political process were not so distressingly moribund, it would make for great satire. Entertainers would be hard-pressed to improve on the comedy of errors that is the Nepal ship of state.

More than five months after the CA was dissolved, that ship is leaking and rudderless, drifting into uncharted waters with a lameduck prime minister, caretaker government, no parliament, no constitution, no general or local elections, and now, no budget.

The parties that were elected in 2008 to take the peace process forward, write a new constitution, and ensure stable government and economic development are hopelessly tangled in a zero-sum game. In trying to keep rival parties and rivals within parties out of the power equation, the current cast of political characters cancel each other out. They had the holidays to strike a deal in informal meetings, they squandered that too.

Had successive heads of government behaved more like statesmen, instead of petty party bosses, we might not have got bogged down in this morass. If the opposition parties had publicly acknowledged, even indirectly, that it was their malgovernance over the years that contributed to the current crisis, and if they had fielded untainted, younger and more dynamic leaders, we wouldn't have hit rock bottom.

The only way out of the current crisis, as we keep saying here every week, is to go for fresh elections. What is holding things up is that just about every political party and their discredited leadership are terrified of facing voters.

Hence the hand-wringing, the delay tactics, elaborate legalistic excuses, and using the budget as a bargaining chip as everyone jostles for advantage to be incumbent in an election government. That is what it has always been about: since no one is prepared to face free and fair elections, they all want to be where there is power and money, to gain an unfair advantage.

The Maoists have not given up their goal of a one-party state. This is not fear-mongering, they've repeatedly said so themselves. The strategy is to wait till they are sure they can command a two-thirds majority in the next CA or parliament by using money, state security, coercion, and identity politics. No doubt, political exclusion of marginalised ethnicities needs to be addressed, but only fools would trust centralist Maoist communists with that agenda. The Maoists would have gone for elections by now had the party not split, seriously undermining their chance of gaining a two-third.

All political parties want power, that's a given, they would all love to have a two-thirds majority. But the Maoists are not just any other party. They may be de-listed terrorists, but they still espouse an ideology that belongs in a mausoleum. We haven't yet seen demonstrable evidence of them having given up on violence, confrontation, and an ambition to create a one-party people's republic. In government, they become thugs, blatantly bleeding the treasury.
There is a lot of chest-beating among pundits about this prolonged political 'deadlock', and a tendency to heap equal blame on the Maoists as well as on the NC or UML. But the stalemate is actually evidence of the ability of the parties with democratic values to keep those without from monopolising power.

True, the NC and UML leadership leaves much to be desired. Their methods are crude, their disunity disheartening, they are the same old faces, and they seem not to be able to say anything more inspiring than repeatedly demanding the prime minister's ouster. But at least they espouse the universal values of democracy, pluralism, and non-violence. And that is what it has come down to: a lowest-common-denominator struggle between those who aim to create a one-party state, and those who want to preserve an open society.

And, no, contrary to assertions of crony apologists of the Maoists, this has nothing to do with protecting the status quo. The lies, hypocrisy, and doublespeak have caught up with the Maoists, and they know it.

All the more reason for the democratic parties to finally wake up from their slumber. If not now, then when? The NC's Basantpur 'show of force' was a show of farce, with the party chief bursting into a silly song. The UML is showing slightly more gumption, but also seriously lacks statesmanship and focus.

The least harmful way forward now is for the opposition to join an election government, let Prime Minister Bhattarai continue if need be, and let a general and local election in May untangle this mess.