Consequences Of Not Extending Term of Constituent Assembly

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Nepalis have elected a Constituent Assembly-cum-Legislature-Parliament on April 10, 2008 for building a New Nepal. Building of a new Nepal includes the Constituent Assembly (CA) writing a new constitution and then promulgating it for institutionalizing the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, and includes the smooth functioning of the legislature-parliament for running the administration of the country until a new legislature is elected after the promulgation of a new constitution. The term of the CA is coming to an end on May 28, 2011 but the promulgation of a new constitution has not been done, yet. Some political parties are for ending the CA while others are for extending the term of it for a year. Let us see what the legislators and political parties can do and what will be the consequences of not extending the term of the CA.

During the last three years, the CA members have done remarkable jobs taking the questionnaires to the people and asking them what the people really want to include in a new constitution. Then, the members of committees on several subject matters have prepared their draft reports and have submitted to the CA. The CA in turn has passed those reports and passed on to the Constitutional Committee (CC) for preparing a final draft report on a new constitution.

However, about 20 contentious issues are there to resolve, yet. The sub-committee of the CC has been working to resolve these issues. The CC has set up a Sub-committee on resolving contentious issues. It has resolved more than two hundred contentious issues. So, the CC has extended its term of office until May 27 to resolve the remaining 20 contentious issues.

Among the 20 contentious issues are three major issues such as type of administration, restructuring of state, and modality of elections have been the most contentious issues. The four major political parties such as UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML and the Madheshi political parties need to build a consensus on these three major issues.

Thereafter, the CA members need to go back to the people with the draft of a new constitution and get the feedback from them to finalize the new constitution before the CA promulgates it. Chairman of the CA has estimated the time required to do so is 46 weeks means a year short of six weeks. So, the life of the current CA needs to be extended for a year to complete the process of writing and promulgating a new constitution.

The coalition government of UCPN-Maoist, CPN-UML and Madheshi People’s Rights Forum-Nepal has decided to extend the term of the CA for a year and has submitted a proposal for doing so to the CA.

The NC and Madheshi political parties that are out of the government have been for not extending the term of the CA but they have not presented an alternative to the extending the term of the CA, too. So, the leaders of these political parties have no concept of what they are really for. Some of them have said that they want to end the term of the current CA and go for general elections for a fresh mandate. For what, again they are not willing to say.

The NC has put forward 10-point demand to be met by the governing parties for extending the term of the CA for six months. The two main demands are to empty cantonments where the combatants have been staying, and to provide the victims of the conflicts with justice by May 28, 2011, General Secretary of the NC Krishna Prasad Sitaula has told the reporters on May 17, 2011. The other conditions are only three to five thousand combatants out of nineteen thousands currently staying in various cantonments to be integrated in the security forces, turn over the weapons put in the cantonments to the government and the government security agency to manage the cantonments by May 28.

Talking to the anchor of the Radio Nepal in the morning program of May 19, 2011, one of the Vice-chairmen of UCPN-Maoist Narayan Kaji Shrestha has said that the 10-point conditions put forward by the NC for extending the term of the CA is impossible to meet in the time it has specified; so, the NC is just making an excuse for not extending the term of the CA.

At the same time, NC leaders have started off meeting with the leaders of small political parties to garner the support for not extending the term of the CA. On Tuesday, May 17, 2011, NC president Sushil Koirala went to Bhaktapur to meet with Nepal Workers and Peasants Party’s President Narayan Man Bijukchhe for his support for the NC party’s policy. However, Mr. Bijukchhe has already told in public the need for extending the term of the CA.

Talking to the reporters at his residence in Kathmandu, General Secretary of NC Prakashman Singh has said that the bottom line of the NC is not to extend the term of the CA without the credible proposal for completing the peace process and the crafting of a new constitution.

On Wednesday, May 18, 2011, laying foundation stone of a party building in Tanahu, NC parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Poudel has said that completion of the peace process and writing of a new constitution will not be possible until Maoists return the properties seized during the conflict, evacuate the cantonments and turn over the weapons to the government.

Some political leaders have charged the NC leaders with doing nothing during the coalition government of the NC, CPN-UML and some of the Madheshi political parties headed by the most infamous man called Madhav Nepal of the CPN-UML. During the 20 months stay in the office of Prime Minister Madhav Nepal and his NC colleagues had done nothing to promulgate a new constitution and institutionalize the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal and the norms and values of democracy but had grabbed everything possible to enrich them making the people poor.

Some CPN-UML leaders have said in public that if the government cannot build a consensus on extending the term of the CA for a year then it should go for a two-thirds majority for extending the CA.

Talking to the Radio Nepal anchor just before the 7:00 AM news, one of the cadres of the NC Bimalendra Nidhi has said that his party is not for extending the term of the CA without meeting the 10-point demand it has put forward. Then, answering to the question of the anchor what will happen if the term of the CA is not extended, Mr. Nidhi has said that then the political parties will build a consensus on national issues.

Mr. Nidhi’s intention is clearly for not extending the term of the CA; after the end of the term of the CA, the status of all political parties will be unknown. The existence of small parties will disappear if the term of the CA is not extended. Even the Madheshi political parties will have difficulty in finding their status in the national politics. Only the three major political parties such as UCPN-Maoist, NC and CPN-UML will have the major say on the national issues; effectively their rule will continue for some time to come. As a result, most of the CA members-cum-lawmakers of small parties that have been showing their strength either in the CA session or in the parliament will either need to go to the streets or remain mute in the political issues. This is what the NC leaders and some cadres of the CPN-UML want today.

Some Madheshi leaders certainly except for Mr. Nidhi have been correctly saying that the three major political parties such as UCPN-Maoist, NC and CPN-UML have been for denying the rights of the Madheshi. Leaders of these major parties have been not only for denying the rights of the Madheshi people but also of the entire Nepalis. So, Nepalis need to rise up again against such tendency of the major political parties. However, the most unfortunate thing had been that the same Madheshi leaders after getting into power had been silent on denying the Madheshi people rights to proportional representation in the state employment and to the autonomous rule.

Now, the question is whether the three major political parties such as UCPN-Maoist, NC and CPN-UML can build a consensus on the national issues. In view of the activities of these parties, nobody can anticipate that they will go together and work for institutionalizing the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.

The past history of the NC clearly shows that the NC could neither institutionalize the democratic system nor has followed the democratic norms and values even though its leaders have been parroting that they are for defending democracy. However, they never have bothered to define what is the democracy they understand.

For example, as early as in late 1950s of the last century, the NC leaders had power to hold elections to a CA and then write a constitution but the then NC leaders did not bother to do so rather engaged in the power politics consequently losing the power to the despotic rulers of that time.

Again, the NC leaders gained the power in 1990 but instead of institutionalizing the democratic institutions and norms and values, they institutionalized the corruption in the administration and the politics again losing the power to the new despot.

Then, the NC, CPN-UML and other five small political parties together with the then CPN-Maoist defeated the absolute ruler and reinstate the parliament dissolved by the NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, and set up a new parliament with the representation of the CPN-Maoist. Again the NC leader Girija Prasad Koirala led the government and under heavy pressure from the then CPN-Maoist held the elections to the current CA. Voters made the then CPN-Maoist the leading political party in the CA-cum-parliament causing great embarrassment to the NC and CPN-UML leaders.

After four months of horse-trading ultimately, the NC and CPN-UML leaders ceded the power to the CPN-Maoist leaders and the parliament elected Prachanda the prime minister of a new Nepal. Only the NC lawmakers out of 601 members did not vote for Prachanda.

Instead of following the rule of law and going to the Supreme Court of Nepal for correcting the actions of Prime Minister Prachanda on firing the Chief of Army Staff, on May 03, 2009, NC and CPN-UML leaders taking the members of small parties headed by current Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal went to the residence of the president begging for taking actions going beyond the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 for saving the job of the Chief of Army Staff.

President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav of new Nepal instead of asking the so-called democratic leaders for following the rule of law abused the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 writing a letter to the Chief of Army Staff and ordering him to stay on in the job. Thus, the democracy brought by the people shedding so much blood and sacrificing lives has been again in crisis.

The hard owned democracy has been in further crisis making the man rejected by the voters, Madhav Nepal the second prime minister of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. NC leaders could sleep quietly only after they put Madhav Nepal in the office of prime minister following the flaw they had already institutionalized in the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 replacing the provision for a consensus rule with the majority rule.

Madhav Nepal became the prime minister from May 2009 to January 2011. During this period, he has ruled by the decree of his cabinet rather than following the rule of law. NC leaders had patted Madhav Nepal for all his misdeeds and kept him in power until they saw the possibility of grabbing power again.

The Supreme Court of Nepal annulled one decision after another made by the cabinet of Madhav Nepal not following the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 but the NC leaders that claimed to be defending democracy had nothing to say about Madhav Nepal not following the rule of law and democratic norms and values.

Now, the NC leaders are again for taking the country to the political confusion letting the CA elected by the Nepalis to die prematurely, and rule by the so-called leaders rejected by the people. Even though they say that there is no alternative to completing the peace process and the crafting of a new constitution they have not sincerely engaged in completing these two noble tasks rather have engaged in power politics disregarding the democratic norms and values they say so dear to them.

Everybody can see the so-called leaders rejected by the voters in the elections held to the current CA-cum-parliament on April 10, 2008 have been running the NC and CPN-UML. These guys want to dissolve the CA and again have their say on the Nepalese politics, and not to complete the writing of a new constitution and not to promulgate it repeating the history of the 1950s. This will be the second time, the NC leaders have disrupted the writing of a new constitution and promulgation of it if they forcibly dissolve the current CA-cum-parliament and take the country back to anarchism. So, Nepalis need again to rise up for setting up the rule of law and institutionalizing democracy and its norms and values and need to understand the enemies of democracy and put them in confinement means out of the politics following the rule of law and democratic norms and values.

The Interim constitution of Nepal has not clearly stated what will happen if the term of the current CA is not extended, and has left everything to the discretionary interpretation of the so-called constitutional experts. So, some people say only the president will remain in office while others say both the government and the president will stay on after the end of the life of the CA, and some others say that the term of the president and the government comes to an end, too after the end of the CA because both the president and the government are elected by the CA-cum-parliament. So, the country will be in political crisis if the term of CA is expired not completing the promulgation of a new constitution.

Concerning the dissolution of the People’s Liberation Army, the NC leaders can take the stand on dissolving it before going to the elections to the parliament or whatever a new legislature will be after the promulgation of a new constitution. Now, the NC leaders need to forget everything and engage in promulgating a new constitution and then go for general elections if the NC leaders are sincere to democracy and institutionalizing the democratic norms and values and to the rule of law rather than creating anarchism dissolving the CA.

If the NC leaders defeat the government’s proposal for extending the term of the CA for one year in the legislature-parliament means they are indirectly turning over the power to the coalition of the UCPN-Maoist and CPN-UML or for forcing the president to declare a state of emergency and then impose a presidential rule provoking the people’s uprising once again and taking the country to the uncertain political future.

May 21, 2011