CPN (Maoist) To CPN (Deng)
When I heard rumors recently that the Maoists of Nepal might change the name of their party, I was hoping they would become CPN (Deng Xiaoping).
Mao was a disaster in power. He was terrible for the Chinese economy. The numbers show.
The Chinese Success Story
Deng Xiaoping - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Deng never held office as the head of state or the head of government, but served as the de facto leader of the People's Republic of China from 1978 to the early 1990s. ........ instrumental in introducing a new brand of socialist thinking, having developed Socialism with Chinese characteristics and Chinese economic reform, also known as the socialist market economy and partially opened China to the global market. ..... generally credited with advancing China into becoming one of the fastest growing economies in the world and vastly raising the standard of living. .......... Deng changed China from a country obsessed with mass political movements to a country focused on economic construction. ...... China's significant economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s was largely credited to Deng's policies. ........ Deng Xiaoping's policies are among some of the most successful industrializations in human history, comparable to only the rapid industrialization of Japan, the Soviet Union and the homeplace of the industrial revolution itself, Britain. In a little over 30 years, his policies was able to move China from the peasant society it once was to an industrial superpower whose industrial output is only second to that of the United States and is said to become world leaders in the economic market in just a few decades. ...... Favouring joint-ventures over domestic industry, Deng allowed foreign capital to pour into the country. While some see these policies as a fast method to put China on par with the west, Chinese hardline communists criticize Deng for abandoning the Party's founding ideals and selling out China.
CNN In-Depth Specials - Visions of China - Profiles: Deng Xiaoping "Poverty is not socialism." He encouraged the creation of a market economy and capitalist-like enterprises, and by the early 1990s his reforms had helped lift an estimated 170 million peasants out of extreme poverty. ..... Born in 1904 to a prosperous landowner in a village 65 miles from Chongqing in the south-central province of Sichuan, Deng turned to revolutionary thought early, and his résumé as a Communist is almost as long as Mao Tse-tung's. ...... Deng's pragmatic ideas for economic development, however, often put him at odds with Chairman Mao, who emphasized egalitarian policies and revolutionary zeal. ....... Mao once complained that Deng treated him "like a dead ancestor" and later quipped, "Which emperor authorized that?" when Deng ordered the turnover of collective lands to individual peasants to help relieve the famines of 1959-62 that resulted from Mao's failed Great Leap Forward that began in 1958. ....... three political purges. Fellow revolutionaries ousted him in 1933, but he was back in good standing a year later. His 1966 fall from grace would last far longer. Responding to the famines induced by the Great Leap Forward during which an estimated 30 million people died, Deng proposed major reforms, such as free markets for farmers and incentive bonuses. In short order he was denounced as a "capitalist roader," held under house arrest for two years, paraded in a dunce cap through the streets of Beijing and forced to wait tables at a Communist Party school. ...... One of Deng's first reforms was to abolish Mao's rural agricultural communes and allow peasants to cultivate family plots. Grain harvests quickly increased ...... City dwellers were allowed to start small-scale businesses, ordinary Chinese were allowed to buy consumer goods, and Deng actively courted international investors.
TIME Magazine | 60 Years of Asian Heroes: Deng Xiaoping Deng has come to be linked to China's astonishing economic development, and to the steering of China away from its Leninist and Maoist organizational straitjacket into a wider world of technological growth and international trade. .......... the pragmatist, as the man who introduced a new economic dynamism with his striking phrase that it did not matter whether a cat was black or white as long as it could catch mice. ........ the nation's long-dormant entrepreneurial spirit had to be encouraged, not inhibited, and that the capitalist nature of some of the needed changes had to be openly accepted ......... there was the need to revamp the educational system, especially universities and research institutes; the military had to be streamlined and professionalized; lawyers had to be trained in the intricacies of commercial and corporate law, and be able to have cases heard in a viable and expanded judicial system; more Chinese had to be permitted to study overseas, and foreign students and tourists to come to China ......... Leading China down the capitalist path, Deng relaxed all manner of economic controls and launched Special Economic Zones—free-trade enclaves that demonstrated the prosperous potential of a liberalized economy. These initiatives helped transport millions of Chinese out of poverty in the space of just a few decades, a feat unprecedented in history; transformed China into the global manufacturing behemoth that it now is; and heralded the country's arrival on the world stage as a major geopolitical and financial player. ........ Deng could never forget that it was a Maoist vision, however flawed and ruthless, that had helped unite China after its decades of fragmentation. Mao might have pulled the nation together, but it was Deng who pushed it toward prosperity and modernity, and a future as one of the world's great powers.
Switzerland
There is also a lot of talk of Switzerland, as in Nepal should get itself a constitution like that of Switzerland. I find the direct democracy models of Switzerland not too practical for Nepal. We have a hard enough time holding free and fair elections. The low literacy rate will complicate the process further.
Politics of Switzerland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia the closest state in the world to a direct democracy. ...... The Swiss executive is one of the most stable governments worldwide. ...... Switzerland has a rich party landscape. ..... judges elected for six-year terms by the Federal Assembly ....... Although it has a diverse society, Switzerland has a stable government. ...... among the least corrupt nations. ....... Together with seven other European nations, Switzerland leads the 2005 index on Freedom of the Press ....... The energy generated in Switzerland comprises 55.2% hydroelectricity, 39.9% from nuclear power
Demographics of Switzerland Switzerland consistently ranks high on quality of life indices, including per capita income, concentration of computer and internet usage per capita, insurance coverage per individual, and health care rates. ....... 2007 7,593,500 ...... Total population was projected to stagnate in 2036 at around 8.1 million
Switzerland's Political System: Decentralisation, Federalism and..
I am all about learning from the Chinese success story. But just like Deng did not stop at Mao's teachings, the Nepali Maoists need to have the guts to go beyond Deng himself. Deng teaches good stuff on the economy. But he fails on the political front. The Nepali Maoists have the option to embrace political pluralism in an ideological way.
The Maoists did win an election. And I do intend to respect the people's verdict. They did so well electorally in Kathmandu Valley. I don't feel they bulleyed the people in the valley into voting for them.
The two biggest winners of the April 10 elections have been the Maoists and the MJF, neither of which had much of a presence in the 1990s. That shows the Nepali people were looking for new faces, new parties. The Congress and the UML got punished for their old thinking, old ways.
Law And Order
There can be no strong economy without basic law and order.
10,000 MW In 10 Years
That goal can not be achieved if the Maoists keep scaring away the foreign investors like they have. The economy losing 70,000 industrial jobs due to bad behavior by the Maoist trade unions is not how you lead the economy.
Peace Talks And The Terai
The armed Madhesi groups are a symptom that if you integrate the Royal Army, and the Maoist Army, you end up with a Pahadi Army.
What Shape Federalism?
That is where the primary contention is going to be in the constitution making process.
Transition Challenges
राजेन्द्र महतोसंग-04.01.09