Constituent Assembly Election: Erecting Milestone in a Rainy Day

Govinda Neupane

1. In the decade-long conflict in Nepal, three parties were involved - the monarchy, parliamentary political parties and Maoists. The popular uprising of April 2006 was effectively launched as a result of an understanding between the parliamentary political parties and the Maoists to get rid of the regressive monarchy.

The movement created some compulsions and some hype that led to a powering sharing arrangement among all three players - the king, the parliamentary political parties and the Maoists. The king agreed to go in hibernation, the parliamentary political parties agreed to share power with the Maoists and the Maoists agreed to halt their armed rebellion popularly known as people's war.

Gradually, all the political players modified their political positions and agreed to the new agenda of organizing the election of the constituent assembly to resolve the conflict and to address issues needing to build a progressive, democratic and prosperous Nepal. The core agenda of the constituent assembly opened floodgates of ideas, aspirations, demands and proposals. The agenda alone played significant role in giving birth to new movements. The issues of ethnicities/nationalities, regions, gender, class and sections got prominence. The entire society experienced upheavals of unprecedented nature, scale and intensity.

The political leadership in this historic juncture failed to lead the people proactively. As a result, there was bloodshed in several districts in Madhes and also in some places in hill areas. Also, the coalition government failed in crafting understandable strategies to govern the nation during the transitional phase.
Sometimes, the parties within the ruling coalition fought vigorously on petty issues including getting a few positions of ambassadors. Their war of words created pessimism among the people and overwhelmed them with frustrations. The behavior of the leaders of the ruling coalition was compatible to that of the king's cronies. But, the brave people fought vigorously in the building process of a new Nepal. As a result, some of the major issues were settled, at least in principle.

These issues included but not limited to the foundation of the new state as a federal democratic republic with regional autonomy. Furthermore, there is consensus on inclusiveness, gender equity, social justice and fundamental rights of the citizens.

2. Nowadays, the political atmosphere in Nepal is full of colors. The closer the day of election, the thicker are the violent behaviors of the political parties. In a single day, there are thousands of rosy speeches, hundreds of acts of threats and violence and a few deaths too.

At least, for the time being, democracy has been limited to 'winning' in the election by any means - clean or dirty. The parties and their leaders are not ready attitudinally or otherwise to participate in a process of fair competition, where people could choose their representatives. They are simply interested in imposing themselves by intimidation, false hopes and bizarre techniques. Organization of the election of the constituent assembly in a free and fair way is central to institutionalize the broadly agreed upon issues, to restructure the state by addressing practical as well as operational aspects of federalism, to formally declare Nepal a republic and to develop vision and values of the new multicultural federal state. The country at this moment has been passing through the critical phase of transition.

In a situation when creating fear, intimidating people and widespread acts of violence are the order of the day, it sounds that the election where people could exercise their right to elect the representatives of their choice is simply a mirage. Collectively as a mass, as a party, as an army; Nepali people are brave, but individually they most often become powerless, particularly when an organized force throws stone on them. Although, the percentage of people participating in the election may increase manifold in comparison to the local election organized by the king's coterie in 2005, the voters may have to face the same fate - voting to a person or party that controls their households, village or community; be it Young Communist League and its parent organization the Maoists, or the Congress and the law enforcing state machinery controlled by it or the CPN (UML) and its youth brigade.

3. Many observers are observing the election process. A few hundreds among them are the foreigners, who could play the role of covering agents to their local counterparts. Broadly speaking, they are ornaments and cosmetics. Thousands of local observers, funded by the resource-rich western charities or governments, have come from nongovernmental organizations, human right organizations, legal fraternity and temporary mechanisms created around some former judges or bureaucrats.

But, what the outside world doesn't know, or pretends ignorance is that in Nepal a cardholder of a political party has several hats and among them, the most sought after are the labels of a human right defender or an NGO activist. They are the active political cadres in disguise. The retired bureaucrats are also equally interested in getting lucrative assignments in future. There are a few exceptions, but that is too small in terms of number. Therefore, independent observation of the election is nearly impossible. Furthermore, the physical infrastructure doesn't support high mobility.

There are other factors too. Coercion takes place at household level, village level or at small towns, where no superficial mechanisms such as election observation could function in practical terms. Therefore, full scale rigging of the election through a mix of several tricks is what Nepal will experience once again. An unfortunate but good thing is that there are multiple riggers this time. The greater the rigger is, the larger the size of his/her party members in the assembly.
This phenomenon is not unique to Nepal as the same could be seen in most of the developing countries. In countries like Nepal, the social as well as political infrastructure that includes political awareness among voters is in its infancy; political culture among the political parties is in its childhood and state machineries behave as teenage hooligans. All these acts inhibit democratic practices. The same is true for Nepal. Hence, limiting expectations to the lowest level would be quite wise.

4. The above analysis presents a mixed picture. On the brighter side, the people to a large extent participated in defining the agenda and offered solutions through writings, plays, public debates, representations and popular movements. This was the most wonderful process to observe. As a result, the country will have federalism with regional autonomy.

It would be a democratic republic. First time in the history of Nepal, multiculturalism, gender equity and proportional representation system got state endorsement. This happened primarily due to the great debate centered on the agenda of the constituent assembly.

Although, there is plenty to clarify, design, develop and institutionalize; any party or parties getting any number of seats may not be at liberty to alter these basically settled issues. On the darker side, the violence has been continuing, though in different form and intensity. The resolution of the armed confrontation is still a distant dream. No one can predict that the election will end the Maoist people's war effectively. There is no probability of being the election free and fair. The election is going to be just a technical act of assembling a battalion of 601 'representatives'.

The national economy will have to bear additional burden to satisfy the needs and wants of these 'representatives'. Seeing the level of confidence among political parties, it sounds certain that no party is in a position of 'winning' a majority in the constituent assembly. All these acts of threats, intimidation and violence are nothing other than the manifestations of their weaker positions. In a way, this is good as the constitution making process will have to pass through more dialogue, debate and accommodations.

Although, composed through unfair and rigged electoral course, at least there would an assembly. That assembly could be a bit better than the existing nominated House of Representatives.

Neither Nepali people could import Nelson Mandela nor could they recreate Thomas Jefferson. Therefore, whatever they could get, they have to bring out from this battalion of 601. This is just a compulsion imposed on the Nepali people by the historical development process. Nothing is surprising as the hungry peasants eat extremely sour fruits or rotten potatoes to survive. Knowing this reality well, the people, collectively, should exert pressure on these 'representatives' to add flesh and blood on the skeleton of evenhandedness, multiculturalism and federalism by a) giving shape to provinces and determining the degree of autonomy, b) developing power sharing arrangements between the federation and the provinces, c) eradicating monarchy and settling the issue of the Presidential or Prime Ministerial form of government, d) inserting vision and values as instruments of governing culture of the new Nepali federation, e) ensuring inclusiveness by incorporating social justice issues, f) establishing rule of law and creating enough space for the judiciary where it could function independently, g) addressing issues of grassroots transformation through structural realignment, and, h) incorporating fundamental rights including right to employment, secondary level education and basic health care.

There is still some possibility of postponing the election again. If the ruling political parties will postpone the election, they will loose their credibility whatever they have now. On the other side, if the constituent assembly comes into existence, still there is no certainty that a new, prosperous, progressive and democratic Nepal will emerge through this exercise alone. But, certainly this will be a major milestone. The Nepali people should be extra careful as they are erecting the milestone in a rainy day.

Note: For more information and analysis on Constituent Assembly, interested readers are welcome to visit my website: www.neupaneg.com, blog: www.parivartannepal.blogspot.com and to read my article "Maobadi Andolan ra Sambidhan Sabhako Prastab: Mahabadvibadko Khancho" published in Himal Khabar Patrika, www.nepalihimal.com/2057/falgun1-15-2057


Posted on: www.nepalipost.com on March 29,2008