Written by Laurence Brahm - Published by Review Asia on 08/01/2007

Review Asia's Laurence Brahm talks to Pushpakamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, the Mao Zedong of Nepal's seemingly anachronistic but immensely popular communist movement

Each time we met, it was in a nondescript safe house somewhere in the slums of Kathmandu, Nepal's capital. A motorcycle would pick me up on a street corner, deposit me on another, somebody would appear and guide me to a house and then someone else would step out of the driveway and lead me into an alleyway and then on to another．Finally, I would arrive at a house, empty save for guerilla guards anxiously standing on the balcony and stairway.

Minutes late, presaged by the entry and shifting of the guards, he would arrive．Pushpakamal Dabal—known by his guerilla name “Prachanda”, or the “very sharp one”--is chairman and “supreme commander” of Nepal's Maoists．During each meeting, he would enter the dimly room with the warm ebullience of a fatherly philosopher and the confidence of a revolutionary at the cusp of assuming political power.

"Nepal is rich in resources but lacking in political vision," he declared at the opening of our first meeting．"Our people are poor, so we want to use the resources to build a new Nepal for them."

While the Maoists have actually been fighting for just a decade, Prachanda was already organizing and planning the movement at least 30 years ago. Recognizing early the similar conditions in contemporary Nepal with those in China in the l920s and l930s—a feudal system of debauched royalists, landlords and serfdom with uneven distribution of resources and foreign control over certain parts of the economy—Prachanda saw in Nepal's rural mountain villages and urban slums a fertile ground for socialist aspirations.

A keen scholar aware of the ironies of history, he grasped how Maoist ideals and organizational techniques Could unite Nepal's rural-based and largely poverty stricken multiethnic society into a single movement and political force．At the same time, Prachanda is as much a pragmatist as an idealist, understanding limitations of circumstance and adjusting to ever-changing conditions.

The following are excerpts from an exclusive interview with the man determined to change Nepal.

ReviewAsia: Maoist imagery has succeeded in rallying Nepal's rural poor and urban intellectuals. Yes, Maoismcan work in inspiring revolution, but what about economic policy or political administration' If and when you ascend to power, will you adopt a one party totalitarian state as Mao Zedong did, or a democracy'

Prachanda: Mao tried his best [to build a new society] against many trends and complexities in his society. Mao tried to undertake a big experiment. We must learn from what happened and d raw as a conclusion that a multi-party democracy is necessary.

RA: Is it your vision for the Maoists to be accepted as a legitimate political party participating in the future parliamentary process of Nepal?

Prachanda: We wish to take part in the interim government and constitutional assembly to develop an entirely new government.

RA: So you are willing to compromise ultimate power to participate as a legitimate party in the coalition government? Prachanda: Even at the time of Mao, he gave the signal for formulation of a coalition government with [Republic of China president] ChiangKai-shekagainst the Japanese. It seems Nepal's Maoists are different from other communists in the world in that you not only accept democracy, but also aspire to have a multi-party transparent and competitive system.

Prachanda: We support clear and open competition between concrete candidates. We feel multi-party competition is necessary to develop within this new situation. Moreover, democracy is necessary to build both a new and vibrant society. By the way, if Lenin lived another two to five years, he would probably have realized the need for this multi-party competition within the framework of his own socialist constitution.

RA: [Karl] Marx said religion is the opiate of the masses. However, I have heard that Nepal's Maoists differ from other communists in that you are not against religion. In fact, you support freedom of religion. Is this true?

Prachanda: We are only against adverse influences of superstition and any attempt to use religion as a means to state power. All religions - Buddhism, Hindu and Islam - are part of Nepal's unified society and unique heritage. We are trying to revive Buddha and port ray him as a hero of Nepal and focus attention on social harmony and the higher values of mankind. I am keenly interested in Chinese President Hu jinrao's current efforts to forge a new nation al ideology of "social harmony" around Buddhist philosophical tenets now resurfacing in their society.

RA: It seems you yourself have now distanced your party from violence and civil war by placing arms in cantonments and disbanding your guerilla forces. In many ways, it seems the Maoists are the ones driving the peace process more than any other party now.

Prachanda: We can achieve leadership of the country. Of this we are confident. But we support doing so through negotiations with the other parties and absorbing different trends into a coalition. The peace process can resolve poverty, do away with feudalism and assure sustainable peace for a sustainable government.

RA: Then what is holding up the peace process?

Prachanda: Obstacles are there. The US administration is the main one, while the feudal class within our country remains the other. They are both aligned, and crying their best to sabotage the election process. We have a new experiment we are trying here. The US media does not try to understand us. The US administration has been trying to sabotage the peace process by preventing the Maoists from participating in the coalition government. We can only ask, why is US leadership against us?

RA: I understand election of an interim government scheduled for March 17 was postponed at the 11th hour on request of US diplomatic officers pressuring the current Nepalese government and monarchy out of fear that Maoists might enter the government popularly. They have continued to engineer postponement of the constitutional assembly. So it seems that US intervention has become the largest obstacle to democracy in Nepal. If such interference continues to delay the electoral process, might it force Maoists to return to the jungle to fight or, alternatively, launch an urban Orange Revolution type of moss protest [in Ukraine that led to the victory of opposition leader Victor Yushchenko in late 2004 to early 2005]?

Prachanda: After one year of this peace process, they [the US government and Nepalese royalist faction] have tried to sabotage it. We are going to manage anyway. We will succeed, either through negotiations or armed struggle. Millions of people will rake pan. And the leader of the masses will be the Maoists. Through the multimedia controlled by the US leadership, they have waged a war of massive propaganda against us. Unfortunately [for them], based on Nepal's concrete conditions, they will not be able to control our mass movement.

RA: The US-led media barrage against your movement has created many misunderstandings, particularly concerning your future economic policies. I understand it is your intention not to adapt communism or socialism perse, but rather a mixed economy maybe along the lines of the China model. What is your vision for Nepal's future economy?

Prachanda: The economic policies of China have been very successful. But the current line has also led to corruption and social poverty. I do not want to follow blindly the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and World Bank. China went from socialism to capitalism and we want to go from capitalism to socialism. For both, it is a matter of finding an economic middle way. We call it the Prachanda Path.

RA: It is clear that you reject the IMF World Bank cookie-cutter formulas. Many say it was the failed IMF-World Bank policies in Nepal that gave the Maoist movement its popular base. But through the so-called Prachanda Path, can you really find a middle way approach, an alternative model to the Washington consensus mainstream?

Prachanda: We a re not going to blindly follow one uniform prescription [for economic development]. We understand [the IMF -World Bank] line of globalization and privatization. We are not following that because we have another line. We want a mixed economy combining socialism and the markets. Globalization and capitalism we cannot ignore, [but] we can use market economics combined with socialism. This combination is necessary. We cannot copy any single method of either old socialism or old capitalism. We need a new model for this society.

RA: As chairman and supreme commander of Nepal's Maoists, are you concerned of being misunderstood by the West?

Prachanda: Mao was great because he unified his country. But we want to develop Maoism with a new label because the twists and turns of society require synthesizing experience. We share his original vision of the need to change society for the better, but in the 21st century, we must do so by being integrated with the entire world. We are trying to undertake a new experiment in political construction, to re-organize Nepal's state system through parliamentary process. We want a mixed economy. We wish to build a new Nepal.

Laurence Brahm is a global activist, international mediator, political columnist and author. He is the leading advocate of a fresh development paradigm - The Himalayan Consensus - an innovative approach to development.

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