Democratic Exercises In Nepal

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Several rounds of elections to a new Prime minister have been the real democratic exercises in Nepal no matter what the Nepalese politicians have said and will say about such elections. Some of them have already said that such repeated elections have helped the regressive forces but the same regressive forces in the guise of democratic parties have also been exercising the democratic exercises, as they have no other options than such exercises. The Nepal Army has been heavily demoralized, as the past regime had used it against the Nepalis they are supposed to protect from the foreign invasions; so, the Nepal Army cannot do much to help the regressive forces. Concerning the People’s Liberation Army, Nepal needs to integrate the two armies into a single army to sustain the republic the Nepalis have set up.

We have seen that none of the political leaders of the four major power centers such as UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML and UDMF have been able to lead other parties to run a new government. UCPN-Maoist has almost 240 votes in the parliament, and claims for forming a government but the leaders have to garner the balance votes to get elected a new Prime Minister and lead a new Government. You have to show your skills in manipulating other political leaders to give you their support for you to be a Prime Minister.  Similarly, the second largest party holding almost 120 votes in the parliament cannot simply claim for its turn to form a new government but you have to have the support of your partners in the parliament. The third largest party CPN-UML has been creating an environment conducive to none of the major political parties could form a new government. UDFM has sufficient votes to form a government with the UCPN-Maoist but not with the NC and CPN-UML individually.  However, one of the leaders of UDMF has claimed to form a new government but he should demonstrate his skills in leading UCPN-Maoist or both the NC and CPN-UML together, as only their combined votes will help him to form a new government.

UCPN-Maoist has joined the mainstream so-called democratic parties such as NC, CPN-UML and Madheshi parties and other small parties in 2006 to topple the dynastic rule and make Nepal a republic and run it democratically. Since then its leaders have been following the democratic principles and trying to demonstrate that they have been really for the democratic system of governance. Their morale has been boasted by the peoples’ support for their party in the election held on April 10, 2008 for a Constituent Assembly-cum-parliament. However, the support has been short of the majority required for independently running a new government. This has been a blessing in disguise, as they can have more democratic exercises before going to the general elections. So, they have some time to tame their cadres and leaders as well at the various level of the party to follow the democratic values and norms.

NC functions as a party of dictators even though its leaders claim for it being the most Democratic Party. After the reinstatement of democracy in 1990, most of the time it has ruled the country but could not live up to the democratic principles and values. None of its leaders except for the Supreme Leader of the People’s Movement in 1990 Ganesh Man Singh has been ready to sacrifice for building Nepal. Unfortunately, Commander of the People’s Movement Ganesh Man Singh has sacrificed the power he could have used for making a new Nepal to make the most indiscipline unscrupulous Girija Prasad Koirala a Prime Minister that has done nothing but destroyed his own party and democratic principles and norms in Nepal during his several terms of Prime Minster for almost fifteen years, and let flourish corruption in the state governance and in his party, too. So, currently, most of the corrupt persons even indicted by the Special Court have been sitting on the Central Working Committee of the NC rather than in a jail. What can Nepalis expect from such a party. Naturally, leaders of such a party cannot lead other political parties to run a new government. Aptly, it has served the interest of the most crooked and unscrupulous and defeated in two constituencies man called Madhav Nepal: leader of the CPN-UML to be the Prime Minister. This is part of the democratic exercises. It has shown that even the man rejected by the people can be the Prime Minister.

CPN-UML has badly done in the elections held on April 10, 2008, as it has moved to be closer to the NC ideologically and physically sacrificing its own ideology. Now, it cannot stay on what it stands for ideologically. It has lost the attraction of the people. The thirteen-month term of Madhav Nepal as a Prime Minister has deteriorated its position, as the Madhav government has done nothing but amass a huge wealth for himself and his party and spoil the image of a democratic country. Currently, he has been able to influence his party and even the whole democratic system even pulling back the candidacy of his party’s Chairman Jhalanath Khanal from the Prime ministerial contest without the consent of the candidate seeing the chance of Jhalanath getting elected even in the first round of the election to a new Prime Minister. What can you anticipate anything more than such things from the man defeated in the elections?

Currently, the CPN-UML has been deadlocked on forming a new government. The two major factions of the party have been pulling each other to the opposition direction. One faction wants to support the NC and form a coalition government of three parties such as NC, CPN-UML and UDMF; another faction wants to be with the Maoist to form a new government. Both the factions are equally strong and pulling each other to the side of their choice. Ultimately, this pulling force might split the party into two factions even though the leaders know that the split will not do any good to the both factions.

Madhav Nepal has been so strong in his party he has put forward three conditions such as take actions against Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam suspending him from the position, make Madhav Nepal the Acting Chairman of the CPN-UML and nominate leader KP Oli the member of the Constituent Assembly (CA) for making Jhalanath Khanal a Prime Minister, the nepalnews.com quotes the Annapurna Post Daily on September 14, 2010. You can imagine how strong Madhav Nepal has been in his party once defeated in the elections. So, this is also the democratic exercise in Nepal.

UDMF is the jumble of four major Madheshi political parties that have risen in the elections to the Constituent Assembly in 2008. The four Madheshi political parties are also the jumbles of the leaders having poor political morale so they have been after an opportunity of taking advantage of the political situation. Some of them have believed that they can carve out a ‘one Madhesh one province’; however, most of them don’t believe it.

The Madheshi political parties have been successful to make two Madheshis the first President and Vice-president of Democratic Republic of Nepal. Now, one of the Madheshi leaders claims to be a next Prime Minister. If the man defeated in two constituencies in the parliamentary-cum-constituent elections Madhav Nepal could be a Prime Minister why not one of you to be a next Prime minister. However, claiming for the Prime Ministerial position is not enough; you have to demonstrate to be a crook politician, as Madhav Neal has been to trick everybody to make you a new Prime Minister. Repeating the Madhav Nepal’s trick will certainly not work for you; so, you have to invent a new one.

Concerning the regressive force, the elements of the regressive force are in the parliament; so, Nepal has not moved fast to the democratic path. The democratic forces in the parliament want drastic changes in the political, economical and social systems prevailing in Nepal whereas the regressive force has been putting a forcible brake to the changes. They love status quo because only the status quo will serve their interest.

The most visible regressive forces are some leaders of the NC. They have openly come out against the changes, the previous government has attempted to make. So, they don’t want changes in their party, too. Most of the young generation leaders want to change the party statute to make it a democratic one but the leaders of old generation have stopped them from doing so. It is also a democratic exercise.

What you say about Kamal Thapa of Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal and Khum Bahadur Khadka of NC that have been advocating for the return of the monarchy. These guys have no choices but to support the monarchy. They cannot go back to the people to get elected; so, their only hope to stay on in the politics is the return of the monarchy, as they won’t need to go to the people if they can put the monarchy back in the country.

Kamal Thapa and Khum Bahadur Khadka will continue to do whatever they can as long as the money they have illegally amassed last for them to do so. Kamal Thapa has even dared to hold a mass rally spending millions of rupees he has accumulated during his term of Home Minster of the monarchical government. He will continue to talk about the monarchy as long as the money lasts. Khum Bahadur Khadka is much more conservative in spending the money he has illegally amassed during the term of minister in the NC government. He has been pining hope in the former monarch to get some money for spending on the campaign for reinstatement of the monarchy but the stingy monarch turned into a commoner is not for giving his money away to the politicians rather he spends money on visiting various powerful deities hoping the deities will return his lost power. As everybody knows that it is not going to happen in the democratic system of governance. However, such activities are also the democratic exercises.

Concerning the Chairman of Nepal Workers’ and Peasants’ Party Narayan Man Bijuckchhe, he feels that he is a very smart guy but he is not rather he has been a political joker. He has been fit in the company of any political party if he senses it will serve his interest. He has been anti-Indian throughout his political career. He has publicly said that the President directly writing a letter to the then Chief of Army Staff is against the constitution in 2009; so, the President needs to either take back the letter or resign but later on he has said that the President has done it a right thing to save the democracy. Now, he has been saying that the President needs to impose a Presidential rule to break the political deadlock. He does not understand what is democracy. However, not understanding the democracy he has been enjoying the democratic exercises. What more you want than such things in the country? We have some other similar political jokers such as CP Mainali, Pari Thapa and so on that have no democracy on their minds but have been enjoying democratic exercises.

You think that the Nepal Army can interfere in the Nepalese politics but not. It has been highly demoralized by its actions. It needs to erase the reputation of disappearing innocent people, killing many innocent people labeling them as insurgents, raping innocent women and so on: all sorts of the human rights violations it has committed under the previous commands and directions of the then despotic monarchical ruler. The Nepal Army unlike the armies of Bangladesh and Pakistan is not a decisive single army. To counter any army interferences, the UCPN-Maoist has 20,000 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) paid by the Government of Nepal. PLA has improved its professional standard to the level of any professional army during the last four last years they have been staying in cantonments.

Some of the army commanders of both the armies have been facing the court cases. Human rights activists have been advocating for taking actions against the army men responsible for committing grave crimes and abusing the human rights. The UN peace mission has returned Major Nirajan Basnet from its mission abroad finding the Kavre District has issued a warrant to arrest him for killing a minor. However, the Nepal Army has continued to cover him up. Such action has been detrimental to improve the image of the Nepal Army.

The Nepal Army has been against integrating the People’s Liberation Army; the most irrational Defense Minister of officiating Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has been against the integration of the two armies. Madhav Nepal has done nothing during his term of thirteen months of Prime Minister for integrating the two armies.

Recently, the international community has put high pressure on the Nepalese political leaders to integrate the two armies. So, they have at least agreed on starting integrating the two armies on September 17, 2010. It remains to be seen how it will work.

The UNMIN has called off the meeting of Joint Monitoring and Coordination Committee (JMCC) scheduled for August 26, 2010 following the decision of Nepal Army (NA) boycotting it. JMCC is set up for the joint monitoring of the Nepal Army and the People’s Liberation Army, and has three members each from the Nepal Army and the People’s Liberation Army. One of the members of the UNMIN presides over it.

The Nepal Army that has boycotted the JMCC meeting has recently attended the meeting. Political leaders such as Sushil Koirala of NC, Madhav Nepal of CPN-UML have been against extending the term of UNMIN in the past but recently they have remained silent in extending the term of UNMIN. Clearly, the international community has put major pressure on the Nepalese politicians to complete the peace process and the writing of a new constitution.

If the NC and CPN-UML leaders want to politically weaken the UCPN-Maoist they need to let the Maoists run the government in the current political situation in which they really cannot do much for two years then they will fall down under their own misdoings. However, so-called political leaders of NC and CPN-UML cannot understand these simple but basic political things happenings elsewhere in the democratic countries, and have been doing everything possible even without considering undemocratic principles and disregarding the rule of law to stop the Maoists from forming a new government. These things have been detrimental to the NC and CPN-UML and blessings to the Maoists.

The CPN-UML and UDMF legislators staying neutral in the repeatedly holding Prime Ministerial election is nothing wrong but is forcing the NC and UCPN-Maoist to find a common path for going together to one direction. So, neutrality of these two power centers will certainly contribute to correct the past mistakes the political leaders have committed and is certainly not bringing any political chaos many political pundits like to portrait.

Some Nepalese leaders like to say that the Nepal’s sovereignty has been in a grave danger. This is an excuse of any leader for not being able to manage his or her leadership in the party or government. We don’t see any visible assaults from both the bordering countries on Nepal. So, practically no danger to the sovereignty of Nepal from any country is visible so far.

Concerning the foreign interferences in Nepal, no country in this world is immune from the foreign interferences in one way or another. Not only other countries interfere in our country but we also interfere in the business of other countries particularly the neighboring countries. You like it or not knowingly or unknowingly we are also interfering in the matters of India and China, too.

On September 15, 2010, the Security Council has voted to wind up the United Nations mission supporting Nepal’s peace process in January next year after the country’s opposing political groups have reached an agreement earlier this week on completing the final tasks of the stalled process by that date according to the UN NEWS SERVICE. The UNMIN was set up in 2007 to monitor the two armies complying with the agreement. On Monday, September 13, 2010, Nepal’s caretaker Government and political parties have reached an agreement to complete the remaining tasks of the peace process by January 14, 2011. In response, the Security Council has decided unanimously to extend the UNMIN’s mandate set to have expired today until January 15, 2011, after which the mission is to leave Nepal.

Speaking at a press conference held in Kathmandu on Wednesday, September 21, 2010, Chief of UNMIN Karin Landgren has appreciated a gentleman's agreement reached between the Government of Nepal and the UCPN-Maoist signing the four-point agreement on completing the remaining task of the ongoing peace process. She has said that she is pleased to underline the significant development in the peace process during the past 10 days: the four-point agreement and the resumption of Special Committee working on transferring the chain of command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to the Army Integration Special Committee (AISC) and the decision on forming a secretariat under AISC for management of the PLA.

In her reporting to the Security Council on September 7, she has said that there has not been any real progress in the peace process for much of 2010 as the parties have been paying insignificant attention to the process, and on the unfounded criticism of UNMIN's work.

Some of the so-called Nepalese leaders and the Government of Nepal have had objected the report on the peace process in Nepal, Secretary General Ban-ki Moon has presented to the Security Council. In the press conference, Landgren has clarified the Secretary General’s report on Nepal the Nepalese leaders and the government have failed to understand.

After the United Nations Security Council by its Resolution 1939 has extended the term of UNMIN with the previously agreed mandate for four months, on September 16, 2010, the British Embassy on behalf of the Embassies of Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Republic of Korea, Russia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and also the European Union Delegation, the Canadian Cooperation Office and the Netherlands Development Organization has released a press statement welcoming the extension of the term of the UNMIN and the commitment of the Government of Nepal to complete the peace process in the coming four months, and has assured the Government of Nepal of their continued support for the peace process and the writing of a new constitution.

On September 23, 2010, officiating Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has said that the peace process has been on track and it should not be delayed by entangling with the government formation and the Constituent Assembly; he has also said that the term of UNMIN's will not be extended even if the peace process is not completed in four months ‘The Himalayan Times’ online reported quoting the state-run news agency RSS.

Mr. Nepal needs to understand that the UN Security Council will not extend the term of UNMIN even if he bangs his head on the door of the UN, as the Security Council has voted for extending the term of UNMIN for a last time this time. His tone of saying indicates that he is not much concerned with the completion of the peace process.

On Wednesday, September 22, 2010, addressing the fourth convention of Nepal Guardians’ Association, Standing Committee Member and Chief of Foreign Affairs Department of UCPN-Maoist Krishna Bahadur Mahara said, "If we fail to complete the peace process within four months before the expiry of the tenure of the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), the country will have a dire situation as there would be no independent body to monitor the peace process," according to ‘The Rising Nepal’ of September 23, 2010.

On September 16, 2010, President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav has consulted with Vice-chairman of National Planning Commission Jagadish Chandra Pokharel, Governor Yubaraj Khatiwada and Finance Secretary Rameshwor Khanal about the economic issues currently the country has faced against a backdrop of the political deadlock and no elected government according to the nepalnesw.com.

Has the officiating Prime Minister recommended the President to consult with the economic experts concerning the current economic situation? If no, the President is again overstepping the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007, and threatens to the democratic system of governance in Nepal. This is the real threat o the democracy and the sovereignty of Nepal.

After establishing Nepal a republic, the greatest threat to democracy and the republic has come from the President that has abused the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 directly writing a letter to the then Chief of Army Staff and saving his job at the risk of the republic and the democracy. The indiscipline president has continued to look for another chance to abuse the constitution consulting with the economic professionals and showing his concerns about the political deadlock he has brought and the economic downturn thereafter.

The next greatest threat to democracy and the republic has come from the corrupt legislators that have elected the Madhav Kumar defeated in the two constituencies. The legislators have sold their votes to Madhav Kumar that has been rejected by the voters in the two constituencies in the elections to the constituent assembly-cum-legislature on April 10, 2010. Mr. Madhav Nepal has unscrupulously run the administration for thirteen months with the support of the corrupt legislators.

A probe by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR-Nepal) found “credible allegations of unlawful use of lethal force by security forces” in the deaths of 57 people in the country’s Terai region between January 2008 and June this year. In a report released today, OHCHR-Nepal said the investigation showed that in at least 16 of the cases the victim had been arrested before they died. No thorough investigations or criminal prosecutions have been undertaken in almost all cases, the office said according to the UN NEWS SERVICE of September 23, 2010. Human rights violation by the state security force is also the major threat to democracy.

September 24, 2010.