Overreaction

The ruling 22 political parties have strongly objected to the recent statement by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and have dubbed it “interference” in the internal affairs of the country. The ruling parties have also said the statement is “against the spirit of the UN Charter and violates the mandate of UNMIN in Nepal.” Briefing about the decision of the coalition partners to the media, prime minister’s political advisor, Raghuji Pant, told media persons that it was for the Nepali people and the political parties to decide what kind of government to form, how to form it and under whose leadership. As we see it, the ruling parties have overreacted to the statement of the UN secretary general, which was given out of goodwill and with an intention to exert moral pressure on the ever-disputing political parties of Nepal.



There was nothing as such in Ban Ki-moon’s statement that would qualify as a pointer of UN’s interference in Nepal. The statement just said this: A government of national unity remains desirable for timely promulgation of the statute and for successful integration and rehabilitation of Maoists fighters. First, it just said that the government of national unity was desirable; it didn’t say it was necessary. Second, even if it had used the word necessary, it would still have been a politically-correct statement unless it specified under whose leadership. The 22 parties could have interpreted the statement as a call to the Maoists to join the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led government to give it a shape of a national unity government. But the parties interpreted it as an indirect call from the general secretary to form a national unity government under the leadership of Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal. This has, in a way, only exposed the self-doubt of the ruling coalition about its own legitimacy.



The ruling parties seem to have concluded that the statement was directed against them simply because similar statements never came in the past when the Maoist party was leading the government. Well, it’s also true that the situation wasn’t as bad then as it is now (currently there is not only a protracted political stalemate but the Maoists are threatening a revolt and ruling parties are talking about crackdown if the situation goes out of hand). Nor was the deadline to write the constitution so close then. Another important factor that could have prompted the statement at this point is the expiry of UNMIN’s mandate in the next few months and lack of progress in the integration/rehabilitation of the PLA combatants. United Nations’ Security Council seems less and less willing to keep on funding the Nepal Mission partly because of the lack of progress here and also because of the growing need of UN’s help in the other regions of the world. But the ruling parties failed to see the statement in this broader context and by overreacting to it, they only exposed their own narrow-mindedness and lack of confidence.

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