Baburam Bhattarai last week won a seat in Nepal’s constituent assembly by a landslide, winning 46,272 votes against his closest rival’s 4,894. Mr Bhattarai, 54, is a member of the central secretariat of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and is said to be number two in the party, after Puspa Kamal Dahal, chairman. He was in charge of the party’s underground government during 10 years of insurrection and is seen as a favourite to lead the new government. He outlined his party’s policies in an exclusive interview, conducted in English, with Binod Bhattarai of the Financial Times in Kathmandu on Wednesday.
Financial Times: Congratulations. Had you expected such an outcome?
Baburam Bhattarai: We had expected we would do well and that we would emerge as the largest party. The exact numbers, the margin of victory, nobody could have predicted that.
Financial Times: What do you think helped you to get this type of victory?
BB: This is the first [constituent assembly] election in Nepalese history and not an ordinary parliamentary election. This is an election to a constituent assembly. A constituent assembly (CA) is a mechanism to institutionalise a democratic republic after the abolition of feudalism and monarchy. In that sense our party fought relentlessly and consistently against feudalism and monarchy and we waged 10 years of armed struggle, then a 19-day people’s movement [in April 2006].
The people acknowledged our contribution to this change. That’s why the people wanted to give us the opportunity to implement the political agenda we had brought forth – the constituent assembly, republicanism, federal restructuring of the state and socio-economic transformation. This is the political agenda put forward by us and the Nepalese people wanted to give us the responsibility to implement this.
Financial Times: How do you plan to go forward from here, in a coalition or a one-party government?
BB: Our understanding is that the CA’s main function is to draft a new constitution. For that, we would need political consensus. We will have to work with other political forces. So we are fully committed to building a good coalition with other political forces.
Financial Times: In government, you are required to be responsible and that can be difficult. What would you do to ensure that your party would not be like other communist parties -- for example the Unified Marxist-Leninists, which is accused of compromising ideology while trying to balance present day realities?
BB: We are in a different context. The UML participated in the old state structure, which was a monarchical set up with a different state and economic and social system. In our case, we are participating in a new state system, which will be democratic, republican and federal. Our challenges will be different than those faced by the UML and others. The people have very high expectations from us and there will be challenges to fulfil them. But given the support we have got from the masses, the people we think we can meet their expectations.
Financial Times: At this day and age, when even China has realized that economic policies are vital for bringing in the socialism you plan, how do you plan to balance your economic ideals with the realities like the policies pursued by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund?
BB: Every country has to follow its own policy to suit concrete conditions. In our case, we are doing away with feudalism and monarchy. So our main political and economic agenda is to build a republican, democratic set up and a developing industrial economy. In that sense, our immediate agenda is not to build socialism but to build a strong economic foundation which will pave the way towards transition to socialism in the future.
Our immediate agenda is to develop industrial capitalism to abolish all remnants of feudalism. In that sense, we can develop economic relationships with every country including China but we will have to face reality ourselves.
Financial Times: What do you think will be the main challenges of the new government?
BB: One will be on the political front. The defeated reactionary forces may try to create trouble and political instability. So we have to guard against that, mobilise the masses and constantly be vigilant against such disruptive activities.
Second will be the high expectation of the masses for rapid economic development. We want rapid socio-economic transformation, so the challenge will be quite strong. And given the support of the masses and the people and the goodwill of the international community, I think we can face that.
Financial Times: Have the Indian Naxalites [a Maoist group] commented on your victory? They were against your past policies [of joining the peace process)].
BB:. Not against our policies, but there are certain debates and that is quite natural. Apart from the ideological political relations, we don’t have any other relations with them. So it is up to them to comment whether they will like it [the Nepali Maoist approach] or not.
We are following our own path of revolution and our own path for political change. In that sense, what our friends say in India or elsewhere, we will note that carefully, but we will follow our own path.
Financial Times: Have they congratulated you?
BB: It is too early but I think they will congratulate us.
Financial Times: How do you expect foreign governments to react to everything that is happening? The United States has congratulated the Nepalese on the election but has said nothing beyond that.
BB: We expect we will have very normal relations with all countries including the US, European Union, India and China because we have gone through a democratic process and have got the people’s mandate. These governments have stood by democratic principles and have at least said they would stand by democratic principles. In that case there should be no reason why we cannot have good working relations with them.
Financial Times: Now the first order of business is abolishing the monarchy and the integration of the Nepal army and the Maoist fighters. How difficult or easy will that be now that you are headed to lead the government?
BB: We will try to build a political consensus on all major issues. We have already decided to go for a federal republic. It has been decided and it will be implemented by the first meeting of the constituent assembly. I think it should be done. On the restructuring of the state apparatus, including security sector reform, administrative sector reform and judicial sector reform, on all these also we will try to build consensus and go forward.
Financial Times: Do you think there will be an extended role for the UN or can Nepal do all that on its own?
BB: I think we can do it on our own. The UN was invited for a limited period of time and a limited mandate. We will discuss with the stakeholders on this question and take a decision.
Financial Times:: Now you might also have to deal with armed groups in the Terai [Nepal’s southern plains]. How do you plan to deal with the problems we have there?
BB: We will try to have political dialogue and solve all those problems. We don’t see why the problems cannot be solved through dialogue. We are quite confident we can solve the problems.
Financial Times: Do you have anything to say to people who are worried now that there has been a Maoist victory?
BB: There is no reason to panic because we have put forward our political and economic agenda in our commitment or manifesto. Our main intention right now is to abolish all remnants of feudalism and build the way for having a developed, industrial, capitalistic economy in the country. That means there will be full scope for the private sector and nothing will be nationalised or socialised.
Right now the private sector will play a very important role and the government will play only a facilitative role to create a conducive environment for investment. In that sense there is no reason to panic. We will welcome all investors, national and international, for economic development of the country. We are already in contact with some of the major stakeholders. Today [Wednesday] we are having a meeting with businessmen and industrialists. We will make our position clear to them and that will clarify whatever apprehensions they may have.
Financial Times: Finally, how do you plan to address atrocities committed on both sides during the 10 years of conflict?
BB: We have already agreed that we will have a commission for peace and national reconciliation. First we will constitute that commission and wait for its report. After that we will implement whatever the commission suggests. That we will do on the basis of political consensus.
Financial Times: Do you have anything you want to say?
BB: I would like to thank the FT for disseminating our ideas internationally. I would like to appeal to the international community, all the major political power centres, especially the US, the European Union, the UN, our immediate neighbours India and China, [to say] that Maoists coming to power in Nepal will build the way for good diplomatic relations with all the countries concerned. We want to have to have good relations with all of them. In the days to come, we look forward to have good working relations with all of them.
(Sorce:The Financial Times Limited 2008)
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