Telling like It Is:The dark face of Communism by Vijaya K. Sigdel (Image Courtesy of tbwavietnam.[Disallowed String for - excessive promotions])   The Nepalese media, praising this lowlife bloody criminal, Prachand, with lofty words, is not only helping him stay in power but enabling him and his partners-in-crime to commit more atrocities against our people, and hastening our country’s demise. Communism is a monolithic and dogmatic ideology. Mao’s bloody revolution forever married violence and Marxism, providing justification to every extremist who wanted to achieve their revolutionary goals through glorified violence. The Maoists’ grotesque violence in Nepal was an exact replica of what Mao did in China, reaching a pinnacle of barbaric acts in history. Not only was the violence ghastly and despicable, but the Maoists’ ultra-radical beliefs are entirely incompatible with our people’s pluralistic vision for Nepal. Their poisonous policies are already corroding our society, perhaps to the point of no return. The Maoists, minutes after arriving in Kathmandu in 2006, shredded our democratic constitution, hastily throwing our hard-won democracy onto the funeral pyre. Six years later, they have brought Nepal to the brink of withering away. It is high time that we came to our senses and grasp this fact and act fast. Conventional belief holds that our media would be thoroughly examining, discussing in detail, highlighting important issues and exposing every monstrous crime that Prachanda and his minions perpetrated in Nepal. After all, it is the responsibility of the mass media in a free society to report without any bias by separating fact from fiction. They have this special obligation to uncover all the facts, producing solid evidence with the utmost fairness and highest integrity. This would profoundly go a long way in helping Nepal bring these violent felons to justice without further delay. Prachand may call himself fierce, but in reality he is merely a coward and thug. This evil tyrant neither risked nor sacrificed anything in his life – except our people’s lives, blood, treasure and liberty. To call this mad man brave or courageous is completely absurd. The Nepalese people are not deceived by this type of blatant falsification and outright misrepresentations of the glaring facts. Let the facts speak for themselves: Prachanda, along with the rest of his top associates, is a megalomaniac (otherwise called power hungry) tyrant. His main motive was to seize power by using the most ruthless violence and inhuman methods he could think of so that he could rule Nepal with an iron fist. He never had any thought of working diligently to empower the Nepalese people. Had he done so, he would have strived along a peaceful path to illuminate Nepal with the highest ideals of democracy: reign of freedom and rule of law. Rather, to quench his thirst for a totalitarian communist state, this wicked man was willing to say anything, promise anything, and do anything with no restraint on violence and no limit on other improper acts. He never had any moral qualms about anything as long as it justified his end. He acted as if neither written laws nor unwritten moral codes applied to him. By now, everyone should realize that he has no conscience. He is simply an evil, conniving, manipulating liar. Hence, the only way to describe Prachanda is that he is a cold-blooded mass executioner and a tyrant in revolutionary clothing. He was not a guerilla leader but the head of the death squad which was responsible for kidnapping, torturing and killing thousands of Nepalese people. He and his family, along with his close associates, were hiding in a safe and comfortable place in India, living off an abundance of money, lands and properties looted from our people. In the interim, he was sending young boys and girls, many of them underage children, on devastatingly deadly hit-and-run operations in Nepal. Consequently, we became the unfortunate generation which witnessed the biggest bloodbath, destruction and horror in our nation’s history. It was also a moment for a reality check of our moral fortitude and our commitment to our country and our fundamental values. Sadly, history will record us in blackest ink as the most disgraceful generation that did not do everything in its power to stop such horrific violence. We had a clear choice to do what was right for our country, but consciously chose not to do so. Unfortunately, virtue does not appear to be a part of this do-nothing generation’s DNA. Instead, to add insult to grievous injury, we accorded these criminals a red-carpet welcome as conquering heroes. Some people reacted as if Nepal’s guardian angels had finally arrived; reaching Nirvana was just a matter of time. Others celebrated as if it were the most joyful and merrymaking occasion that our society had ever experienced. A sizable number of skillful opportunists even managed to land some plum jobs. Subsequently, with pomp and ceremony, with our military saluting, we handed over the reign of power to a terrorist gang. Thus, to engage in murder and violence with impunity in order to capture state power has become the new supreme law of the land. The so-called peace process has been nothing but a mega circus or tamaasaa. Call it what you wish. Prachanda is the supreme clown in this; he talks and acts like one. No doubt. But the difference is that a circus clown is funny and amusing. Whatever Prachanda utters from his mouth is pure rubbish, ridiculous and vile. But underneath the belly of this beast he has an insatiable penchant for violence and blood. To this day, he has kept his deadly weapons, away from anyone’s reach. He will not hesitate to use them if he feels that he is losing his grip on power. Furthermore, it was never a people’s war. It was a war against our people and country, pure and simple. For the same reason, it was not a people’s liberation army; it was a death-squad and a demolition team that has successfully littered Nepal with its own people’s blood, rubble and ashes. Lo and behold, either our conscious blindness to the truth, outright arrogance or both have prevented us from admitting that Nepal is now a failed state. By any definition, we have fallen off the chart among stable and peaceful countries. It will require a herculean effort to regain that normalcy that once we enjoyed so much not too long ago. The biggest criminal gang has rendered mind-boggling problems for us. But the biggest burden and pain will have to be borne and swallowed by coming generations. They are the ones who will have to deal with the consequences of malice, travesty and neglect bequeathed by this generation. With deepest sorrow and sadness they will lament, “How could they? How could they?” until their dirge reaches a crescendo. Indeed, it will take many generations for us to recover, to heal the wounds, to relieve the pain, to clear the ruins and remove the dust of shame and the scars of violence. But make no mistake, as long as Prachanda or Lal Dhoj and other hooligans who follow or collaborate with them are in power, we will never have that desperately needed opportunity to begin afresh – a process of healing, a time for restoration and a spirit for renewal. Now, the only thing Prachanda is afraid of losing is the opulence-soaked good life he has relished in Kathmandu since he arrived. This is not the image he was giving while running the killing fields, an image of a humble man living in a hut, working to lift the lives of poor and despised. What a cruel irony is that Prachand’s overwhelming majority of the victims were poor peasants, ordinary citizens and their precious little children! With this bloodshed in the countryside, the Maoists easily broke the corrupt power elite’s will in Kathmandu. These selfish power-mongers showed no real spine to fight against the Maoists and readily displayed the white flag of surrender. Now they are living on their bended knees at the mercy of the Maoists. On the other hand, the Maoists, being fully aware that these people have no principles, no brains and no power, feel that they can do whatever they wish in the country without any repercussion. Meanwhile, Prachanda is not going to part with his present lifestyle, a triumph beyond his wildest dreams, so easily. He has finally attained everything he wanted: power, privilege, daily admiration and adoration. Undoubtedly, he is scared that the goons he trained to kill and to be killed might return to haunt him. They are already demanding some serious answers from him about the lies, schemes, coercions, blackmails and false promises that he made in order to commit his terrible crimes. In many ways, they were also the victims of his cruel oppression, maddening carnages and awful abuses. On the larger scheme of things, a battle over the spoils of victory has just begun among the rank and file in the Maoist’s terrorist organization. It is not surprising here that Prachanda is using our Army to control his opponents so that they could never get an opportunity for retribution against him. Our Army may coalesce with Prachanda to disarm or control his enemies. Who, then, is going to restrain and disarm this evil monster? So far, there is no evidence that we have a real mai-kaa-laal in Nepal. If truth be told, we all are responsible for giving this despot what he wanted, by not firmly standing against him every step of the way. My fervent hopes and prayers are that one day we will come to our senses and finally declare that justice may come late but cannot be denied forever. Let us face it, without justice for our people, who have faced unspeakable brutality and horror, there will be no peace. And, without peace there will be no democracy. Finding peace, in and of itself, is going to be a long and difficult process. But, to use a metaphor, cursing at the moonless midnight is not going to remove the darkness. We must act with an enlightened sense and righteousness. Telling the truth is the first step.