CJ-led Government-41

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

Finally, the eight political parties have signed a four-point agreement on December 24, 2013 paving the way to call a first session of the newly elected Constituent Assembly (CA). The eight political parties are practically the members of the previous four-party political mechanism. The Madhesi political parties instead of a single front came out as individuals to be eight-party alliance. This agreement is one of the greatest achievements of President of NC Sushil Koirala in particular and other political leaders in general. This agreement also is a frustration to the CPN-Maoist that has been advocating for an all-party roundtable political conference to build a consensus on a new constitution, and to the politicians that have been dreaming to drag Nepal to the previous system. This agreement would play a crucial role in crafting a new constitution within a year, and thereafter holding elections within six months.

Eight political parties such as NC, CPN-UML, UCPN-Maoist, Madhesi People’s Right Forum-Democratic (MRPF-D), Terai Madhesi Democratic Party (TMDP), Madhesi People’s Right Forum-Nepal (MPRF-Nepal), Sadbhavana Party, and Terai Madhes Sadbhavana Party signed off a four-point agreement on December 24, 2013. The four points are 1) the parliament setting up a parliamentary committee on studying and investigating the issues concerning the CA elections, and then submitting recommendations, 2) setting up a committee of top leaders of major political parties to assist in crafting a new constitution, and in completing the remaining work on the peace process, 3) preparing a draft of a federal democratic republican constitution following the contents of the 12-point understanding, Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and the Interim Constitution of Nepal within six months, and promulgating it within a year, and 4) setting up a commission on investigating whereabouts of disappeared people, and on truth and reconciliation.

The eight political parties are in fact the four major political parties in the past. The four major political parties in the past were UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML, and UDMF (United Democratic Madhesi Front). UDMF has been the five Madhesi parties in the current eight parties, and UCPN-Maoist moved to the third position whereas the NC moved to the first and the CPN-UML the second.

After this four-point agreement the eight political parties have signed off, we could anticipate that the major political parties understandably the eight political parties that signing off the agreement would sincerely work on crafting a new constitution. As a matter of fact, they have no choice but to work on it otherwise voters would punish them.

President of NC Sushil Koirala deserved credit for this four-point agreement. He smoothly steered the colleagues in his party, and then the CPN-UML, and then the UCPN-Maoist, and the Madhesi political parties to this agreement. NC and CPN-UML have many so-called leaders that wanted to go head-on collision with the UCPN-Maoist and the Madhesi political parties following the unanticipated election victory. They publicly said that the agenda of the UCPN-Maoist and the Madhesis were beaten in the elections. However, President of NC has kept the agenda alive compromising and negotiating with the defeated political parties, and he successfully took on board the UCPN-Maoist and the Madhesis to work on a new constitution. This compromise or the four-point agreement might be one of the greatest achievements of Sushil Koirala in his political lifetime.

The next thing President of NC Koirala has to do was to form an all-party government. It was not a big deal in comparison to building a consensus on going together to crafting a new constitution. However, the greedy politicians that have the habit of trading the mandate they received from the voters for money would not keep Koirala in peace. He has the choice of forming a government of his party and CPN-UML, of his party and UCPN-Maoist, and Madhesi political parties, and certainly of his party and the rest of the political parties. President of NC Sushil Koirala ideally needed to take the last option. However, how far, it would be practicable remains to be seen.

The best government would be the government of all political parties in the parliament. Will it be a reality? Certainly, it will be if Koirala would show his ability to steer all political leaders to building a new Nepal rather than letting a few vocal leaders grabbing everything possible from the state treasury and the people’s pockets. Even Chairman of CPN-Maoist Mohan Vaidhya said that his party would join the government if other political parties were to agree on a roundtable conference on building a consensus on crafting a new constitution. There was no lack of political parties joining the government; only thing Koirala had to do was to satisfy every political leader. That needed a skill that Koirala had already demonstrated to some extent reaching a four-party agreement among the eight political parties. He had to extend the four-party agreement to all political parties if possible to the CPN-Maoist, too.

One great lesson Koirala needed to learn from the past experience was that engaging in corruption disregarding the rule of law would create an environment conducive to the opposition political parties to launch a new movement. This time, the opposition movement would be against the NC and the CPN-UML. We have seen that the life of any regime has been shortened by the heightened corruption and the disregard for the rule of law. So, President of NC Koirala has a choice of choosing the one path or another: right one means the rule of law, and wrong one means moneymaking one. Koirala would have money, his relatives would be rich beyond recognition, and his colleagues also would be rich but his party would need to face the consequences of corruption and the failure of the rule of law.

Then, the only thing left for Koirala was to bring on board the CPN-Maoist to work on a new constitution. However, the CPN-Maoist has been sticking to its stand on not believing in the CA crafting a new constitution, and believing in an all-party roundtable conference on building a consensus of all political parties on a new constitution. President of NC Sushil Koirala has to negotiate and compromise with the CPN-Maoist and bring on board the CPN-Maoist to work on crafting a new constitution. Then Sushil Koirala could stand next to Nelson Mandela in Nepal. The right deeds for Koirala would be to be impartial to all, fire the corrupt politicians, and build a consensus of all political leaders on forming a new government, and steer the country to the political stability and build a new prosperous Nepal.

The four-point agreement could not encompass the Federal Social Party. It has been vocal for setting up a high-level commission on investigation into the flaws in the election process; and it was going along with the UCPN-Maoist and the Madhesi political parties for identity-based federal states, federalism, and inclusiveness. However, it did not show up in the four-party agreement signed off by the eight political parties.

The four-point agreement must have disappointed the CPN-Maoist leaders that have been very happy with the election defeat of its mother party UCPN-Maoist, and other Madhesi political parties. CPN-Maoist leaders have even been excited by the threat of boycotting the CA by the UCPN-Maoist and the Madhesis. They have even invited the UCPN-Maoist and the Madhesis to take the issues of the flaws in the elections to the streets under their leadership. The four-point agreement shattered the CPN-Maoist leaders that have been in anticipation of making their dream of proving the CA would not be able to craft a new constitution, and of making an all-party roundtable conference on crafting a new constitution a reality.

The four-point agreement also must have frustrated the political leaders that have been going against federalism, and the leaders dreaming to take the country back to the previous system. After the four-point agreement, leader of Janamorcha Party Chitra Bahadur KC must have a sleepless night, as his dream of the newly emerged NC and CPN-UML would scrap the federalism has not come true rather the four-point agreement has strengthen it. Similarly, the four-point agreement must have disillusioned the leaders believing in the NC and the CPN-UML introducing the constitution of Nepal of 1990 with some amendments to it. The four-point agreement must have smashed the dream of the leaders advocating for turning Nepal into a Hindu state. In fact, the RPP-Nepal advocating for making Nepal a Hindu state has received 24 slots in the newly elected 601-slot CA but it was less than 5% votes in the CA.

The four-point agreement was a victory for the UCPN-Maoist and the Madhesi political parties, too. It has kept the federalism, republican, inclusiveness, and secularism intact. The UCPN-Maoist and the Madhesi political parties did not need to find an excuse to take these issues to the streets and fight for those issues. They have then the issues of identity-based states, governance system, judicial system, and electoral system to fight for. They would not need to take those issues to the streets. They could resolve them in the CA, if not, they could go for a referendum on these issues, as the NC and CPN-UML leaders have been saying in public.

President of NC Koirala has successfully muted the loud voices of the CPN-UML demanding the elections to a new president and a vice-president. In the name of democratic principles and values, CPN-UML leaders have been demanding to elect a new president and a vice-president by a newly elected CA. Ignoring the provisions made in the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007, the CPN-UML leaders have demanded the sharing in the positions of president, vice-president, prime minister, and speaker demonstrating they have a little respect for democracy. President Koirala has forcibly diverted the attention of all political leaders from the power sharing to building a consensus of the major political parties on working on a new constitution.

Some of the leaders of NC and CPN-UML have said that the first provision made in the four-point agreement for setting up a parliamentary committee on studying and investigating the irregularities in the elections and then making recommendations for remedy was the face saving for the UCPN-Maoist and the Madhesi political parties that have lost the elections on November 19, 2013. It might have some truth but that was not all. It would set precedence for the future to resolve the issues of flaws in elections. In fact, the UCPN-Maoist and the Madhesi political parties used it as a bargaining chip for keeping other vital issues intact.

After the four-point agreement, the possibility of the president calling a first session of the newly elected CA within a month has been a reality. The Election Commission extended the deadline for the political parties submitting the lists of nominees for the proportional representation in the CA from December 25 to December 30, 2013 for five days. Then, all political parties including NC, CPN-UML, UCPN-Maoist and Madhesis would submit their lists of nominees to the EC. Then, the EC would submit the election results to the president within a few days. The President in turn would call a first session of the CA within 21 days of the EC submitting the election results to the president.

The first thing the CA would do would be to elect a Chairman of CA also the speaker of the parliament, as the CA also work as a parliament for governance. Then, the CA would work both as a constitution-making body and as a parliament for electing a prime minister, and legislating new laws or amending the constitution and so on. CPN-UML members of the CA could propose an amendment to the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 for making provision for freshly electing a president and a vice-president. They needed to garner two-thirds majority in the CA to this end.

UN Secretary General Ban Kin-moon held a telephone conversation with Chairman of Interim Election Council of Ministers Khilraj Regmi. Secretary General Ban congratulated Chairman Regmi on holding the elections to a new CA successfully without a hitch. Secretary General Ban said that the completion of the elections has ensured the peace and prosperity of Nepalis, and thanked the voters for their high participation in the elections. Chairman Regmi in turn thanked Secretary General Ban for providing Nepal with the assistance in the peace process, and in the elections. Chairman Regmi also informed Secretary General Ban on the political parties moving ahead on building a consensus on crafting a new constitution, on calling a first session of a new CA, and on forming an elected new government soon. (Source: gorkhapatra of December 25, 2013)

It was clear that the international community accepted the elections to a new CA as impartial, transparent and without flaws. The Carter Center-Nepal also said that the elections to a new CA were without irregularities. None of the election observers have said any major irregularities in the elections to a new CA so far. So, the first provision made in the four-point agreement for setting up a parliamentary committee on probing into the irregularities in the elections would in fact be the face saving, as some of the leaders of NC and CPN-UML have claimed.

The central committee of NC set up a ‘suggestion collecting committee’ on December 25, 2013: the day after the signing off the four-point agreement by the eight political parties. The committee would collect suggestions from the constitutional and legal experts. It would make the party to have its clear objectives and views to be presented at the CA at the time of crafting a new constitution. (Source: gorkhapatra of December 26, 2013).

President of NC Sushil Koirala needed to think twice before letting forming such a committee, as the committee might be for tricking Koirala to deviate from the four-point agreement he has so cleverly reached with other political parties. The committee has come immediately after the four-point agreement. So, the suspicion was that the committee might be for sabotaging the four-point agreement. NC has enough so-called leaders that have the objective of dragging Nepal to the previous constitution with some amendments to it. They could do so with the two-thirds majority in the CA.

President Koirala needed to steer all the political leaders and the members of the CA to dwell on the disputed topics of federal states with names, system of governance, electoral system, and the system of judiciary. They could discuss those issues, build a consensus on them or go to voting by the two-thirds majority or even to go for a referendum on those disputed issues to settle. The CA has no time to diverge from the previously agreed topics. If the CA were to start everything from scratch then what the people have saying, “the 601-CA is the gang of Alibaba and 600 thieves” come true. The CA would never be able to craft a new constitution, and Nepal would go ahead to being a failed state.

If President of NC Sushil Koirala were to miss this time to lead other political parties to the right direction, and to have the political stability with a new constitution and new elections thereafter, rather the NC leaders indulge in infighting for their benefits, the NC would met with another political misfortune as it had met with one disaster after another since it had successfully tore down the despotic regime in 1951. The NC could not run administration even for a full elected period several times in the past but the Congress Party in the southern neighboring country successfully set up a dynastic rule for more than sixty years during the same period. Where has our NC gone wrong?

The NC had been taking the monarchy on its shoulder in the past. The monarchy saw the NC as the rival. Naturally, the monarchy had been for destroying the rival, and succeeded to destroy the NC to some extent for some time until the monarchy created an environment conducive to hit it. The NC and the communists put the democracy back in place in Nepal in 1990 but they failed to remove the monarchy: the enemy of democracy. The monarchy rose again to power in 2005 only to die quietly in 2007. So, if the NC were to fail this time to institutionalize Nepal as a republican state, democracy, and the rule of law by crafting a new constitution, then, the NC might need to take many political hits as it did in the past.

The electoral victory had been a curse for than blessings to the NC in the past. This time, too, leaders of NC have been squabbling over the selection of nominees to the proportional representation. The electoral victory had brought the infighting in the NC. If the local media were to believe, then every one of the three senior leaders such as Sushil Koirala, Sher Bahadur Deuba, and Ram Chandra Poudel wanted a major share in the pie of 91 slots the NC received through the votes for the proportional representation in the CA. It has been the bone of contention.

December 27, 2013