Nepal Reality Check III: Cloudy Political Environment and CA Election

Nepal Reality Check III: Cloudy Political Environment and CA Election

- Govinda Neupane

1. After the "Spring Thunder 2006", Nepal has entered into a new political amphitheatre called democracy. To institutionalize democracy, every political party and almost all of the sensible individuals talk about the election of the constituent assembly. The term "democracy" has become extremely popular. Even common men and women in the street are familiar with this word, though they may not know its operational definition and practical relevance.

In this environment, the political parties are busy in expanding the size of their entity. The Nepali Congress, as usual, has been busy bullying other parties. The party has all ingredients of the qualities of a feudal lord. The Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist or UML) has been playing its evergreen role of being both - the government and opposition, at the same time. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has been ferrying its politico-military boat in an environment of heavy turbulence. Their unpredictable landing in Kathmandu surprised many people including their own cadres, supporters and sympathizers. The transition from a leader of the grassroots revolutionary transformation process to a political entity championing the sober evolutionary agenda, perhaps, has become too difficult to manage. The other small parties are anyway smaller and their impact is also quite limited on national politics.

2. The nationalities and regions have been forwarding their list of demands. The most prominent among them are the Madhesis and Janajatis. Among the Madhesis, all factions of the Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha (Democratic Tarai Liberation Front) have been busy in fire fights. They have been pursuing the separatist agenda. The Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum (Forum for the Madhesi People's Rights) has no strong cadre base or organizational strength. Therefore, the recent agreement between the Forum and the government may not solve the problem and the movement will continue a bit differently. The Sadbhavana Party is busy in its in-house business of splits and unifications. May be, it will also come out of its cocoon and will participate in the struggle to realize the Madhisis' dream. Now, if the Madhesi people and organizations sit together to give a decisive push in regard to political awareness and common demands, they are in a position of strength. The Janajatis also are quite organized and have formulated their demands and could create tremendous pressure. But, the NGO-like Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities may not have the charisma, vigor, vision and strategies to mobilize its constituencies to launch a decisive struggle. Their recent agreement with the government shows their limitations. The Madhesis and the janajatis have rightly raised the issues of proportional representation, federalism and national autonomy. Until the Khasa rulers in Kathmandu ignore these demands, the reconciliation among different nationalities could not be attained. Are the Khasa rulers listening? Are they ready to relinquish their superior political position? Are they ready to come out of their Khasa chauvinist mind set?

The Dalits too are more organized than they were in the past. Still they have no nationwide Dalit organization (except Dalit NGOs) and also have not crystallized their demands like that of Madhesis. They could organize themselves nationally around four issues - reparation, reservation, national minority rights and preferential treatment to mainstream.

3. There is a big gap between distribution of slogans and capacity to deliver. The government in Kathmandu is just a de'jure government in the broader sense of governance covering entire Nepal. The parliament and the cabinet are nothing more than the rubber stamps of the council of Superior Political Generals (SPGs) of the eight-party political coalition, which makes decision outside the parliament and the cabinet. The parliament and the cabinet just endorse, if and when the political bigwigs (particularly the Big Three SPGs representing Congress, UML and Maoist) want them to do so. The parliament is not a real legislative house today. It has its ornamental value in clapping 'to pass' some of the bills tabled and has provided chairs, prestige and perks for several politicians and their friends. Some parties in government also run separate government of their own. Particularly, the Maoists are running the parallel government in the large part of Nepal. Even in Kathmandu, their writ runs effectively. They have their own tax collection systems to justice delivery mechanisms in place. The other important development is that the Maoist cadres at the grassroots have not abandoned their ideals, zeal and practices. This has been seen in the 'much criticized acts and activities' of the Young Communist League (YCL) and many more local units of the party and its other sister organizations.

4. Now, Nepal is passing through the situation of uncertainties, upheavals, turmoil and turbulences. The lead actors, who confront within and outside themselves include the parliamentary political forces represented by the Congress and the UML, the radical reformist forces represented by the mainstream Maoists, the forces for socio-political justice and equity represented by several Madhesi, Janajati, Dalit and women groups and the transformational forces represented by the grassroots radical cadres and groups spread all over the country. All these four groups are trying to maximizing their influences through legitimate or illegitimate means.
The common people are imagining that the election of the constituent assembly will solve all their problems. For them, he or she who casts a shadow over it is a villain. Naturally, no main stream political force likes to show as playing the role of a villain. For this reason, all the main stream political forces are collectively talking about the constituent assembly with or without any personal or organizational sense of responsibility. One among the main political actors has already started to talk privately about converting the present parliament into the constituent assembly and get the constitution ratified through the referendum. The second actor has been suggesting postponing the election for another half year. And, the third actor has an internal assessment that the election could not be organized in time anyway (?); so harvest all benefits pretending that it is the only force fully committed for the election. They should abandon such thinking, if they say that they value the importance of people's mandate.

In reality, the socio-political and economic base of our society has its limitation in producing a large critical mass. The critical political awareness among the masses is in its infancy. The organizational infrastructure at the grassroots is in its initial phase. The fast changing reality of a Village Nepal, particularly in area of literacy, certainly, has been speeding up the process; but still lacks the minimum ingredients to cook a tasty as well as healthy socio-political meal. Until and unless the foundation for democracy has been build through education, socio-political awareness and wealth creation, there may not be any sustainable arrangement for vibrant democracy. To build and sustain functional democracy, we have to go through several rehearsals, exercises and experimental acts and activities. The same is happening today. The election of the constituent assembly could be one such exercise. Therefore, irrespective of what the other actors wish, whatever small the critical mass is, the critically aware and socially responsible citizens should continue to press for the election making the objectives clear that this could be a great opportunity for educating the masses, bringing out the specifics of their aspirations and designing a system that would be at least better than what we have today. So, individually as well as collectively, we should recollect, chant and follow the famous Vedic hymn - Charaibeti, Charaibeti (Move Forward, Move Forward!).

September 01, 2007