Nepal (MNN) — Thousands of former
Maoist rebels are going home. A truce
between political parties was the catalyst to talks on how to restructure Nepal.
The rebel stand down is significant considering
the elections in 2008 yielded not one, but five coalition governments.
Yet, no constitution to govern the
country is in place. Nepal's Constituent
Assembly failed to meet its own deadlines for a draft time and again. Lawmakers amended the interim Constitution
and gave themselves another allowance.
Danny Punnose with Gospel For Asia says
it's the last one. "What's happened so far is there's been deadlock for
years now. The Supreme Court and others have given extensions, and now it's to
the place where if they don't get this first draft even written, the present
government will be dissolved." The
deadline now to write the Constitution is May 30.
After that, if nothing is in place,
"You go back to no one leading the country, which is kind of a dangerous
thing right now."
The uncertainty has neighboring
countries jittery, especially in light of the chaos that comes with lack of
leadership. Punnose explains, "Usually,
when people get scared and things get out of hand, what happens is the first
default option is a strike or a national shutdown of everything. It does cause transportation difficulty.
Prices and goods go up. Our people can't travel to the churches and things like
that."
Aside from
the crisis of government, another issue cropped up. According to a report from Compass Direct
News, days before the deadline, the Nepal Defense Army (NDA)–a
militant armed group that has terrorized Christians and Muslims–set off an
explosive in front of a charity office, attacked
preachers, and razed a church building.
Christians are often scapegoats in
times of uncertainty. However, that
won't stop Gospel teams from working. They're
more concerned with the possibility that Nepal's Maoist political party will
call a bandh–a strike
enforced by threats of violence.
The
last time Maoists called a bandh, they threatened to continue it until they had
complete control of the government. To that threat, Punnose says, "I think
what we find is that they don't want to write the draft, because then whatever
they write as adding into freedoms of faith and those kinds of things, they
have to stand by it. It's easier to put it off than to actually uphold what you
know you have to do."
A bandh
makes it impossible for Gospel for Asia-supported missionaries to work. Church
services are also cancelled. "We need to pray that God would give
wisdom and grace to these political leaders to be able to write this
constitution and then uphold what they've written," says Punnose. Pray also that "when they write,
there would be freedom of faith within the constitution."
Elected officials say Maoists are
stalling and blocking any attempt to create legislation. Gospel for Asia
leaders in Nepal are asking for prayer. "Pray for the country as a whole,
that there wouldn't be a lockdown or a strike that just shuts down everything,
because it does hinder the ministry from going forward."
Punnose also asks for prayer that the
citizens of Nepal would have true freedom of religion and that the country
would not turn back to its old system of having a national faith. "Pray
for the protection of Gospel for Asia workers, plus the others what are working
there, that God would protect them."
