Nepal, the world’s newest republic, is set for more major change after the Maoist leader and former warlord Prachanda was appointed prime minister and promised to deliver a left-wing revolution.
The charismatic leader — whose nom-de-guerre means “the fierce one” — was overwhelmingly voted in as the impoverished country’s most powerful man in a vote by lawmakers on Friday evening.
His ascent from rebel to national leader clears the way for his band of ultra-leftists, who feature on a US terrorist blacklist, to plough ahead with their vow to radically reform the country.
PHOTO: AP
Nepal has already undergone momentous change over the past two years, which have seen the Maoists end a decade-long revolt and sign up for peace, unpopular king Gyanendra sacked, and a 240-year-old monarchy abolished.
Maoist number-two and top ideologue Baburam Bhattarai hailed a “golden dawn” — and more historic change.
“We feel that Nepal has found its hero. For any epoch-changing society, we need a hero,” he said of Prachanda, a 53-year-old former school teacher.
“After Europe’s capitalist revolution, Napoleon came along. To institutionalize socialism in Russia, Lenin appeared. In Nepal, to institutionalize the federal democratic republic after 10 years of People’s War and mass popular movement, Prachanda is here,” Bhattarai said.
“We have already finished destroying the roots of feudalism in Nepal. Under the leadership of Prachanda, the main agenda of the new administration will be nationalism, republicanism, economic and social transformation,” he said.
In April, Prachanda steered his party to victory in elections for a new national assembly, set up as part of a peace deal to abolish the monarchy and write a new constitution.
But as prime minister he will face huge challenges, including urgently dealing with soaring food and fuel prices that have paralyzed an economy struggling to recover from the civil war.
Millions of poor who backed the party will also be impatient to see quick land reforms that the ex-rebels argue are needed to lift much of the landlocked country out of grinding poverty.
There is also the issue of integrating the 20,000-strong rebel army, currently confined to UN-monitored camps, into the national army.
“The integration of the People’s Liberation Army into the Nepal Army will see lots of arguments and counter-arguments. The way they deal with the army is very crucial,” said Amit Dhakal, editor of the Kathmandu Postnewspaper.
“The Maoists will try to bring in populist and radical economic reforms. But financially they will have lots of constraints,” Dhakal said.
Prachanda, who was inspired by China’s Chairman Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and Peru’s Shining Path, has also had trouble shaking off his image as a ruthless warlord.
Critics say the ultra-leftists have yet to fully abandon violence and that their feared youth wing — the Young Communist League — must disband in order to prove they are committed to peaceful democracy.
The other candidate for prime minister who Prachanda defeated, veteran centrist politician Sher Bahadur Deuba, warned the ex-rebels that they would not be allowed to “incline towards autocracy.”
The first test will be the formation of a government, a process already in motion with the Maoists required to share portfolios with the parties who backed them in the assembly vote for Prachanda.
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