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While 'The World As We Know It Is Going Under', as the German bourgeois magazine Spiegel Online headlined today - related to the current US financial crisis (*) - the Nepali PM "Chairman Prachanda" presented two days ago an "alternative" way (**) how Nepal can avoid such calamities of capitalist societies:

PM for 'People's Republic' in Nepal (NepalNews, 9.17)

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said his party's long term projection is to establish People's Republic in Nepal but repudiated converting the country into traditional communist state.

Addressing a function organised by the Nepal-Bharat Janamanch in Delhi Tuesday, PM Dahal said the constituent assembly would discuss the issue of establishing People’s Republic for the next one and half years, adding his party's ideological conflict with bourgeois and feudalists would continue.

Fearing a dictatorship in Nepal, PM Dahal suspected possible intervention in Nepal by imperialists and bigger power centres.

He also sough support from Indian communist groups for establishing a different kind of governance system in Nepal.

But, as e-Kantipur reported yesterday, not everyone in Nepal (surprise, surprise!!) is happy about Prachanda's ideas:

Maoist obfuscation worries parties

Political parties have raised serious doubts over the Maoist commitment to parliamentary democracy after Maoist Chairman and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal's assertion Sunday that his party cannot remain within the traditional parliamentary system.

 "At this stage of political transition, we can neither immediately arrive at our goal of socialism," he told the Constituent Assembly (CA) on Sunday, "nor can we remain in the current traditional parliamentary system. This is due to our development process and various other compulsions."

The prime minister said the CPN (Maoist) is opting for parliamentary system only for now while its ultimate goal of achieving socialism remains unchanged. He echoed his 'hard-line' colleague Mohan Baidya, aka Kiran.

On Saturday, Baidya said CPN (Maoist) is in favor of establishing "non-parliamentary multi-party system" as parliamentary system is concerned more with competition among rival political parties to form and dissolve governments.

To other parties, which stand firm in their support for parliamentary democracy, the prime minister's statement Sunday was at best political obfuscation; at worst, a direct threat to parliamentary democracy.

Senior vice-president of NC, Ram Chandra Poudel, said recent remarks from top Maoist leaders have posed serious threat to parliamentary democracy in Nepal. "This is a serious attack against parliamentary democracy by ultra-leftist forces," Poudel said, referring to Dahal's statement, at a function organized by Human Rights Organization of Nepal (HURON). The last time such a vicious attack on parliamentary democracy was made was by late King Mahendra in 1960, he said.

In a press statement on Tuesday, 20 additional CA members from the NC alleged that Prime Minister Dahal's remarks have given clear indication that Maoists are trying to push the country into yet another conflict.

Other parties too are worried about the Maoists. Tarai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP) spokesperson Sarbendra Nath Shukla was more than surprised at the prime minister's remarks. "We are surprised all right, but Sunday's statement [by the prime minister] has now made us nervous whether the new constitution will be democratic. The constitution requires a two-third majority for endorsement," he said.

Not everyone is a doubter, however. Central member of CPN-UML, Shankar Pokharel, said there is no need to cast doubts, at least for now, against Maoists regarding their commitment to parliamentary democracy. He said Maoists have in principle agreed to abide by the parliamentary system right from the 12-point understanding reached between the seven major parties and the CPN (Maoist) in November 2005. "This has been reiterated even in the Interim Constitution and the government should be run in accordance with the constitution," he said.

Political analyst Krishna Pokharel asks not to over-read Dahal's statement, for the Maoists are a communist party after all. "Their ultimate goal is socialism. I feel that the prime minister has only been honest in saying that. In fact, I would be worried if he had not."

He advised opposition parties to be "cautious," but not anxious over the remarks of the prime minister. "Such a remark could have been aimed for the party's consumption," he said.

http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=160862

* But unfortunately, I'm supposing, that's not the final struggle for survival of the ruling capitalist "empire"!

** Well, I'm not sure if this is the most original way - especially when it is ordered just by a/the ruling party, even they're democratically elected.. Possibly a "People's Republic", i.e. the formation of a socialist society (as the tranisition to communism!!), can only be reached by the will (and/or struggle) of a majority of the people in a revolutionary process (not necessarily in a bloody revolution/civil war!!)