The CPN (Maoist) is becoming a forceful factor in the present political context. Although the Maoists still possess arms, they have entered into a dialogue with the government by accepting the principles of multiparty democracy. The recent people’s movement, initiated by the seven political parties, ended in an unprecedented solidarity with the support of the Maoists. However, the people are unclear about Maoists’ economic agenda. Politically, they are showing good intent to establish people’s sovereignty but the people and donors are very much suspicious about their economic philosophy called Maonomics.

According to the traditional communist philosophy, the economic power, among others, is centralised. The production and distribution is owned and controlled by the state whereas the consumers’ sovereignty is confined to the choice of socially useful commodities. As such, the pricing mechanism of various goods, the main element of a free economy, does not operate freely through demand and supply forces; rather it is controlled and regulated by the state. Since the Maoist leaders have, time and again, raised the issue of nationalisation of private education and health services, all this has come with a minor hope of compensation for the owners. If it is so, one can generalise that they might be in favour of public enterprises, which is proven inefficient in comparison to the private sector. Everybody wants the private sector to be made cost-effective whereas the quality of public sector should be strengthened.

Private property, profit incentive, differential treatment and market-driven pricing mechanism are some of the essential factors responsible for higher productivity and economic efficiency in an open market economy. But these are against communist beliefs. Looking at the economic development, the Maonomics influenced by Marxism could not be successful in mainland China. Also, the then Soviet Union could not visualise the core economic development approach and remained economically incompetent. The gradual liberalisation initiated by Deng Xiaoping became the milestone in the history of modern Chinese economy, which visualised the fundamentals of economic development and technological changes. The Chinese economy, which embraced the policy of liberalisation, has emerged as the fastest growing economy in the world today. On the contrary, if one refers to the extreme model of traditional communism, the existing situation in Cuba and North Korea is sufficient enough to evaluate the traditional approach of communism.

In the context of globalisation, a country like Nepal cannot prosper in isolation even with enough natural endowments. It, however, needs large-scale foreign capital and latest technology. Similarly, any radical thinking can restructure the policy path, but cannot deviate from global integration because the domestically available financial resources are hardly sufficient for recurrent expenditure whereas capital expenditure could not be imagined without the support of external assistance. In the present context, Nepal needs more and more financial resources for the reconstruction and rehabilitation works as well as to carry out fast track short-term development programmes. In order to fulfil the people’s long-standing aspirations, it will have to take up large-scale multi-sector development vision for medium to long-term. For this, the external assistance of capital and technology will have to be accelerated manifold. Also the notion of private sector-led growth is a proven fact for the broad-based and sustainable growth in modern development approach.

In this context, it is but natural for the people to eagerly wait for a systematic concept to come from the Maoists regarding their economic policy and development approach. There is confusion regarding how they could help in sustainable peace for the cause of convergence of major stakeholders. For this, they have to make clear commitments on the concept of wealth redistribution, role of private sector, relationships with major donor countries/agencies, privatisation/globalisation, etc. This is needed so that people and external forces can gain confidence on the future roadmap as long as almost all the mainstream political parties in Nepal are more or less in line with the universally accepted economic principle.

It is high time for the Maoists to gain public confidence on the issue of their economic roadmap and also learn a lesson from the land of their founder political pundit where the Maonomics dogma no longer prevails. However, looking at their commitment to multiparty democracy that most of the people believe in the 21st century, the Maoists surely know the ground reality and will have no option but to slowly change their theoretical/radical vision in line with the global wave. If the Maoists are to become a part of the political mainstream, they will have to make clear immediately their Maonomics and its operational framework.

Dr Paudel is ex-economic advisor, NRB