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.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS