Democratic Exercises through Interim Legislature

By Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

On Thursday, October 11, 2007, leader of the CPN-Maoist parliamentary party, Krishna Bahadur Mahara submitted the proposals for declaring Nepal a republic, adopting a fully Proportional Electoral System (PES); and amending the Interim Constitution of 2007 for incorporating the provisions for changing the mix-electoral system into a fully proportional system for the election for a Constituent Assembly. Interim Legislator of the CPN-Unified, Pari Thapa, and the CPN-United-Left-Front, Ganesh Shah seconded the proposals submitted by the CPN-parliamentary leader.

The CPN-Maoist and its partners CPN-United and CPN-United-Left-Front have petitioned the Interim Head of State for calling a special session of the Interim Legislator to discuss the subject matters that the SPA and the CPN-Maoist could not settle. Obviously, they wanted to follow the democratic norms and values going to the people’s representatives for resolving the serious problem of declaring Nepal a republic and adopting an electoral system that would ensure the representation of all hill, ethnic, Madheshi, dalit, women and minority Nepalis in a constituent assembly (CA). However, the Nepali Congress (NC) party headed by Interim Prime Minister claimed to be the most Democratic Party shied away from doing the most democratic things such as proportional representation of all Nepalis in a CA.

Certainly, it is a great opportunity for all the interim legislators to demonstrate they are truly the representatives of the Nepalese people following their aspirations for republic and inclusive democracy. All logical-thinking Nepalis anticipate that legislators would seize the good opportunity of declaring Nepal a republic and adopting a proportional representation of all Nepalis in a CA.

Some so-called political thinkers expound the idea of losing the personal rights if we adopt a system for a proportional representation in a CA. Either they did not understand what the proportional representation or wanted to suppress the idea of the proportional representation attempting to divert the Nepalese people’s attention from the most important issue to something else. If these people are from among the under-privileged and excluded community then they would understand why we needed a proportional representation in a CA. Without the representation of all Nepalis in a CA, the few political parties would monopolize the crafting of a new constitution that would certainly fail in addressing the burning issues of the excluded Nepalis.

The chief whip of the NC said that if we adopted a system for the proportional representation in a CA, the country would break up into the ethnic lines. The chief whip has correctly predicted but in an opposite manner. The country would certainly disintegrate into the ethnic lines if we failed in adopting the proportional representation of all ethnic people in a CA based on their population.

None of the legislators have dared to speak against declaring Nepal a republic except of course Interim Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and his clique who had betrayed the Nepalese people’s trust in him taking the side of the king. Before the people’s movement in April 2006, the then-former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had repeatedly told the Nepalese people that he would work for the people in general if the Nepalese people would support the movement against the despotic ruler. However, as soon as he took the oath of the Interim Prime Minister from the king instead of from the people, he had started working for the palace. So, he had been deadly against taking actions against the culprits that suppressed the people’s movement, that made innocent people disappeared and that killed 13,000 people during the insurgency. As a result, the political leaders, the security people, army people, the king and his henchmen responsible for breaking laws and rules have been enjoying freedom with impunity.

On Wednesday, October 10, 2007, in a statement, Dr Devendra Raj Pandey of Citizens Movement for Peace and Democracy (CMPD) called on the seven- party alliance (SPA) to rise above both the political and partisan interest and decide in favor of the people. He urged the SPA to adopt the democratic republicanism and the election system for proportional representation in a CA at the special session of the Interim Legislature set to begin on October 11, 2007. He also called on the Maoists to improve their working style and asked the NC and other political parties in the Interim Legislature to act in favor of fully proportional system. CMPD asserted that the country would not lose anything adopting a fully proportional system for an election for a CA. “Or else there would not only be a danger of achievements of the democratic forces going down the drain but also would allow royalists and external forces an opportunity to become more active as demonstrated by the recent events,” said Dr Pandey. [1]

If the democratic forces are serious to bring the totalitarian parties to the democratic fold then they have to work as democrats rather than pretending to be democrats. The democratic forces such as civil society leaders, professional organizations such as Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) and Nepal Bar Association (NBA), and human rights organizations should function entirely based on the democratic norms, and should not function with bias views based on the affinity of the leaders with the political parties.

The FNJ and NBA were not serious about the proportional representation of all Nepalis in a CA as these professional organizations had scant representation of other Nepalis traditionally excluded from the mainstream development. If some of them knew the pains and pangs of the exclusion some ethnic and Madheshi Nepalis had to suffer from during the years of the dynastic rule then they would understand the need for the proportional representation in a CA.

Some so-called leaders of political parties such as the CPN-UML are not shy to say that proclaiming Nepal a republic by the Interim Legislature is undemocratic. For example, on Friday, October 12, 2007, speaking at the Reporters’ Club in Kathmandu, one of the leaders of the CPN-UML, Jhalanath Khanal said that it would be undemocratic to declare Nepal a republic through the Interim legislature. Probably, the CPN-UML leader with the totalitarian mindset did not want to understand what were democratic and what were undemocratic but would always like to impose his-own idea of democracy.

On October 10, 2007, addressing a press conference at his office in Kathmandu, special representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, Ian Martin said the political crisis in Nepal was the result of the failure to implement agreements on certain key issues. Mr. Martin stated that lack of progress in discussing the future of Maoist combatants, in ensuring adequate conditions in the cantonments and commencing serious parleys on security sector reform have all contributed to the Maoist concern about the government not fulfilling its commitments. “This is a moment when the political parties, civil society and all Nepalis should not just consider a new election date, but should focus on sustaining and deepening the peace process as a whole and develop a road-map of measures that are necessary to create the conditions for credible polls,” he said. He said this requires dialogue not only among the seven parties but with marginalized groups, civil society and all democratic forces; cooperation at the local level to establishment effective governance and public security; addressing the future of Maoist combatants and the security sector; more effective implementation machinery operating by consensus; a renewed commitment by all to non-violent and democratic political activity; and independent monitoring of all peace process commitments. He also pointed out that Nepal’s traditionally marginalized groups remain concerned about the commitments made to them were not kept. [2]

Pursuant to the Clause 3(A) of the Article 159 of the Interim Constitution, the Interim Legislature could abolish the monarchy if it proved of creating obstruction to the CA polls. However, the NC leaders had been using all their efforts on safeguarding the monarchy; and the CPN-UML leaders were for declaring Nepal a republic only by the first session of the to-be-elected CA.  Thus, the CPN-UML leaders had been simply following in the footprints of the NC leaders.

The Special Session of the Interim Legislature was the answer to the undemocratic activities of the Interim Head of State and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala who had been going against the popular aspiration for republic and inclusive democracy riding on the support of the international community and the Nepali Army, and had been shamelessly carrying the carcass of the monarchy on his tainted shoulder.

The seven-party alliance (SPA) and the CPN-Maoist have been holding the sovereignty of the Nepalese people since the success of the people’s movement in April 2006. They should have functioned following the aspirations of the Nepalese people as demonstrated in the April movement. However, the interim government had been doing everything possible to save the monarchy at the cost of the people’s movement.

Major political parties such as NC, CPN-Maoist and CPN-UML have been holding extensive consultations with each other to forge consensus on the proposal submitted to the Interim Legislature and to keep the seven-party alliance unbroken, as they believed that the reactionary forces have been conspiring to divide them and weaken them for their benefits.

NC parliamentary party meeting held at Baluwatar on October 12. 2007, decided to stick to its stance on rejecting the proposal submitted by the CPN-Maoist for declaring Nepal a republic and adopting a fully proportional system. The NC's parliamentary party meeting decided to keep its position on the earlier agreements reached among the seven parties and the constitutional provisions.

The NC leaders were shamelessly sharing power with the leaders of the political party still remained as the terrorist party on the list of the US government. Either they should request the US government for removing the political party from the list or they should refrain from sharing power with the leaders of such a party. However, they enjoyed co-working with the political party listed as a terrorist party for serving their own interest.

Historically, the NC had been instrumental to remove the Rana regime only to re-establish the Shah dynastic rule in Nepal. So, the leaders of the Panchayat regime had propagated for 30 years that King Tribhuvan was a sole personality that brought democracy in Nepal. The Shah dynastic ruler put the bust of King Tribhuvan above the busts of the four martyrs such as Sukra Raj, Dashrath Chand, Dharma Bhakta and Ganga Lal at the Shahid Gate in Kathmandu. That was a great insult to the martyrs that spilled their blood for democracy and development of all Nepalese people. So, there should not be room for the bust of Tribhuvan among the martyrs.

The NC leaders in power had been tolerating the criminal activities of some political parties including the Young Communist League (YCL) cadres believing in defaming them. However, it had backfired the NC leaders as the NC leaders in power letting such criminal activities with impunity simply demonstrated the inability of enforcing law and order in the country. 

If we followed the principle of anyone in power not punishing culprits would become a culprit, then the NC leaders in power could be the culprit for not taking punitive actions against the criminals, and for perpetrating violence against the family members of the missing people not making their whereabouts despite the pressure put up by the family members, civil society leaders, national and international human rights organizations.

The Interim Government headed by the NC President Girija Prasad Koirala had ignored the decree issued by the Interim Legislature stating to take actions against the suspended king for violating the interim constitution by addressing the nation on the Democracy Day. Is this Interim Government following the basic norms of democracy ignoring the parliamentary decree?

Prime Minister Koirala had failed in working following the people’s aspiration for peace, republic and inclusive democracy. Chaos and violence have been increasing in terai because of the stand taken by him on not declaring Nepal a republic and not adopting an electoral system for a proportional representation of all Nepalis in a CA. We do not know where Mr. Koirala would lead the Nepalese people in this way. He just was perpetuating the status quo. This was not what the Nepalese people wanted; they wanted drastic changes in governance, structure of the state and the society. He got the position of the Prime Minister not by the favor of the king but by the sacrifice of numerous Nepalese people including those killed in the people’s Movement in April 2006. If Mr. Koirala is not working for those people, then he is no more the Nepalese people’s Prime Minister. He has no rights to remain in the official residence run by the Nepalese taxpayers’ money.

President of Nepal Nationalities Federation, Pasang Sherpa urged the government to form a new government including representatives of all ethnic groups and independent civil society leaders and set a date for a constituent assembly election, as the current government had failed in holding an election for a CA twice.

On Wednesday, October 10, 2007, Former Foreign Secretary of India Shyam Saran came to Nepal as a special envoy of Indian Prime Minister to make an assessment of the latest political development in Nepal. Neither the Indian envoy nor anybody he had met disclosed to the public what they had discussed. However, his visit had increased the morale of the regressive forces that had been deadly against the proportional representation. It was a sad story that the envoy of the largest democracy had done something that was not democratic at all in Nepal.

On October 12, 2007, after completing the meeting with the Prime Minister and other political leaders in Kathmandu and before returning to his motherland, Indian diplomat Shyam Saran told the reporters that (1) it is not appropriate to declare Nepal a republic by the Interim Legislature, (2) so, it is necessary to get the fresh mandate of the Nepalese people to declare Nepal a republic; hence, it is necessary to hold a free and fair election for a constituent assembly, (3) the current government would lose its legitimacy if it would not hold an election for a constituent assembly for long, and (4) assured the Prime Minister of Nepal of assisting the Nepalese government in curbing the violence in terai areas.

The Indian envoy came to Nepal just one day before the special session of the Interim Legislature was opened on October 11, 2007. Probably, he was in Nepal to give different appropriate advice to the different leaders of various political parties that had been advocating for and against the proportional representation in a CA, and for or against declaring Nepal a republic from the Interim legislature. Rational-thinking Nepalis were irked by the unwanted and undesirable activities of foreign diplomats that had been going beyond diplomatic and democratic norms for saving the monarchy that had been the cause of creating sufferings for under-privileged Nepalis excluding them from the development opportunity.

Nepalis are sovereign people. They would do what are good for them. They have reached the point of declaring Nepal a republic. If the Interim Legislature did not declare it then the CA would do so. Foreign diplomats probably influenced by the money power of the palace had been attempting to take the Nepalese people to the king’s rule against their desire giving strength to the regressive forces working for the king.

Footnotes

[1] Nepalnews.com ag Oct 11 07, ‘CMPD asks parties to go for ‘democratic republicanism’

[2] The Himalayan Times’ of October 10, 2007; Nepalnews.com ia Oct 10 07