UN warns Nepal to form new government

Updated September 9, 2010 13:24:44

Nepal's parliament has for the seventh time failed to elect a prime minister, leaving the nation in political limbo for months.

Once again, the Maoist candidate and former prime minister Prachanda leads over the Nepali Congress contender, Ram Chandra Poudel, but he has failed to get the necessary 300 votes. But the ongoing deadlock has led the UN to warn that it will pull out its mission unless a new government is formed soon.

Presenter: Kanaha Sabapathy
Speakers: Achuyut Wagle, editor, Economic Daily; Krishna Rajan, former Indian ambassador to Nepal

SABAPATHY: Since June 30, Nepal has been without a government because Madhav Kumar Nepal, under pressure from the Maoists, stepped down as prime minister. And over the past two months the political parties have neither been able to agree on the shape of a new administration nor choose a prime minister. At the heart of the issue is the refusal of the Maoists, who hold the largest number of seats in parliament, to accept a multi party system.

Achuyut Wagle, the editor of the newly launched Economic Daily, says the Maoists would like to keep prolonging the inconclusive votes for a prime minister to justify their position.

WAGLE: By prolonging this process they have publicly declared that this is the reason [they think] parliamentary democracy does not work. It is just a farce.

SABAPATHY: Meanwhile, the continuing political stalemate is being reflected in the virtual collapse of government and law and order.

Krishna Rajan, a former Indian ambassador to Nepal, says the situation is extremely serious and reflects a growing malaise in the country.

RAJAN: Unfortunately, Nepal has all the attributes of a failing state and the main stream or traditional political parties and the Maoists are simply not able to get their act together because of a complete absence of trust and any semblance of a consensus relating to what the country's priorities should be.

SABAPATHY: The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, now says a withdrawal of the UN mission in Nepal, UNMIN, may be considered if Nepal does not form a government soon.

Formed in 2006, after the civil war ended, UNMIN came in with a temporary mandate to monitor the Maoist and national armies and to assist with the peace process.

Nepal has now formally requested for a four month extension of UNMIN's term, which ends on September 15, but Achuyut Wagle says UNMIN has never served any purpose.

WAGLE: Nobody is alarmed that UNMIN could be pulled back because it is doing nothing to contribute to the peace process. One very major thing that we were expecting when the UN came in was that its bottom line of working would be to bring the Maoists into the political mainstream and convince them to work under the multi party political framework. But it actually did not happen.

SABAPATHY: Ambassador Rajan says in the current political environment there is very little any agency or government can do to help stabilise the situation in Nepal.

RAJAN: There is an absence of leadership with vision, determination and capacity, on the part of any of the political parties or the Maoists. All of them, unfortunately, are very seriously discredited and there is no trust between them and in fact very little unity even within each political party. And in a situation where there is very little prospect of a Nepali owned peace process or a process towards writing a constitution and resolving the various problems confronting the country, there is only that much that any outside agency, including the UNMIN, can do.

SABAPATHY: For several decades Nepal lurched from feudal rule to absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy, and now to a republic, and all through this process it has failed to establish an equitable system.

Ambassador Rajan says even the Maoists, who promised their rural supporters a more fair representation, are failing to do so now.

RAJAN: When they emerged as the largest party in the government in the last election they had a chance to really show to the people that they meant what they had said about a new Nepal which would be more inclusive, more equal. Instead, they have behaved exactly like the other parties before them. And in terms of corruption, in terms of poor governance, in terms of a totally self serving agenda, which has nothing to do with the kind of promises they had made, I think they have failed too.