Is Democratic Culture Flourishing in Nepal?

By Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

The ancient rulers of Nepal particularly the Malla kings were known for their benevolence and compassion. There was a time when Malla kings attended the funeral procession of every dead commoner. Users’ groups or community groups owned the public service projects. Ethics and morale of public service employees were high. Such high ethics of the army of the Malla king of Kirtipur saved the life of Prithivi Narayan Shah, as the soldiers believing in not ethical to kill the king by soldiers left him alive. However, after winning the war with the king of Kirtipur in the repeated attempt, he ruthlessly and inhumanely punished those soldiers who could have killed him if he was an ordinary soldier rather than a king. Thereafter, the Shah kings brought all national resources under control and denied Nepalis any sorts of development any humans are entitled. They used all national revenues for their luxurious lives forcing the Nepalese people to live in poverty. After the People’s Movement in April 2006, Nepalese people ended the monarchy once for all and made a strong foundation for the development of democratic culture in Nepal.

In 1951, Nepalese people finished off the ostensibly mighty autocratic family rule of Ranas and gave the power back to the king hoping that the king would honor the aspirations of Nepalese people for democracy and development. However, the king consolidated the power in his hands giving Nepalese people neither the democracy nor the development. Gradually, the king became one of the richest persons forcing the entire Nepalese population to live below the poverty line. The king became the despotic.

In 1990, Nepalese people launched another movement this time demanding the restoration of democracy. They did not demand the removal of the monarchy they simply wanted a democratic rule. Seeing the Nepalese people’s determination to fight to the finish, the then king bowed to the demand of the people. However, the king attempted to trick the Nepalese people into receiving his constitution, throwing his own version of the Constitution of Nepal instead of the constitution prepared by the experts and presented to the king for his approval. Immediately, Nepalese people coming out to the streets again against the king’s unscrupulous actions gave another small jolt to the king forcing him to agree to the Constitution of Nepal of 1990 that had made the provision for the two things such as multi-party democracy and constitutional monarchy irremovable.

On June 01, 2001, according to the palace version of the report on the massacre of the king and his family and relatives, the then crown prince shot dead his father, his mother, his sister, younger brother, uncle, aunts and so on in a frenzy of not allowing him to marry the woman of his choice, and attempted to take his own life. Then, he went into a coma, and remained in a coma for a few days. The Standing Committee of the Privy Council declared the crown prince in a coma supposed to be the murderer of his parents and other family members a king of Nepal, and his uncle called Gyanendra Shah a crown prince. Thereafter, the palace announced the death of the king in a coma. The Standing Committee of the Privy Council declared the crown prince Gyanendra a king. The newly crowned king did not show any concern with the people’s representatives and did not bothered to get his crown endorsed by the people’s representatives, rather dissolved the House of Representatives after some time, and then fired the elected government only to nominate a handpicked person to a Prime Minister of Nepal.

On February 01, 2005, Gyanendra dismissed even the government formed following his wishes, and suspended the Constitution of Nepal of 1990 abolishing the democracy and the constitutional monarchy, became the absolute monarch, denied the fundamental human rights to the Nepalese people snapping the telecommunication networks causing a huge loss to the national economy, controlled the media sending the soldiers to edit the newspapers, to oversee the radio and TV programs, and interfered in the judiciary forcing the then-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal to welcome his undemocratic actions, and appointed the supporters of his regime to the justices of the Supreme Court of Nepal.

A number of political parties in alliance had been protesting the regime of Gyanendra since he sacked the elected government. In June 2004, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML) had left the alliance to join the government headed by the president of the Nepali Congress-Democratic (NC-D), Sher Bahadur Deuba saying that the king reinstated the elected government. The NC-D had never joined the alliance to protest the king’s rule. After the king dismissed the so-called coalition government of the NC-D and the CPN-UML and took over the power on February 01, 2005, these two parties joined the alliance making it the seven-party alliance (SPA) to topple the king from the power. These political parties had representatives in the dissolved House of Representatives. So, these political parties were dubbed as parliamentary parties. The Rastriya Prajatantra party (RPP) had its representatives in the dissolved House of Representatives but did not join the alliance rather a breakaway from it formed a new party called Rastriya Prajatantra Party–Nepal (RPP-Nepal) after the February takeover, and joined the king’s government.

By February 2005, it had been already 10 years since the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist) had been waging a war with the government demanding the end of the monarchy and an election for a constituent assembly (CA) for writing a Nepalese people’s constitution. More than 13,000 Nepalis had lost their lives in this war. Both sides had declared a truce and sat for peace-talks in the past but both sides did not budge from their stand on their positions and the peace-talks did not succeed.

After the palace takeover on February 01, 2005, the leaders of the SPA having experiences in more than three years of unsuccessful street rallies to protest the direct and absolute undemocratic rule of the king, turned to the leaders of the CPN-Maoist. They met secretly in India reportedly with the blessings of the Indian leaders. The top leaders of the CPN-Maoist sneaked into India while the top leaders of the SPA went to India on one pretext or another to reach an understanding with each other to launch a decisive movement against the monarchy. The SPA and the CPN-Maoist leaders came out with a 12-point understanding on November 22, 2005, which became the first guiding principles to the future democratic federal republic of Nepal.

The SPA leaders for the purpose of the public and the official consumption denied any link with the Maoist leaders, as at that time, the then-government had declared the CPN-Maoist a terrorist organization, and its leaders carried price tags on their heads; then, they launched a protest against the autocratic rule of Gyanendra in the first week of April 2006, and ended it after 19 days finishing off the king forever. The people’s movement reinstated the House of Representatives, sacked its incumbent Speaker and then elected a new Speaker. The newly reinstated House came out with the declaration that effectively terminated all powers of the king, changed the name of the government from “His Majesty’s Government of Nepal” to “Government of Nepal”, and erased the word ‘Royal’ from all the state-owned organizations.

The Government of Nepal signed a comprehensive peace deal with the CPN-Maoist officially and effectively ending the war and confining the combatants of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in cantonments. They invited the UN mission to verify the PLA combatants and store their arms and the arms of the Nepali Army in equal number.

The 205-member House of Representatives promulgated the Interim Constitution on January 15, 2007, and ended its own existence for making room for a new legislature to be formed following the Interim Constitution. The Interim Constitution constituted a 330-member Interim Legislature. All political parties having representation in the House of Representatives got the number of legislators in the newly created Interim Legislature-parliament in proportion to the number of representatives they had in the House of Representatives. The CPN-Maoist got 83 slots in the Interim Legislature-parliament. Thus, the rebels fighting against the state ultimately entered into the parliament on January 15, 2007.

After several political maneuvers and negotiations with the SPA, the CPN-Maoist members joined the coalition government of the SPA on April 01, 2007. Not being happy with the functioning of the government and seeing the helplessness of its members in the coalition government, the CPN-Maoist submitted its 22-point demand to the government with the deadline of meeting its demand on September 17, 2007, or else its members would quit the government for a peaceful street movement against the government.

The government headed by Nepali Congress (NC) President and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala did not meet the 22-point demand put forward by the CPN-Maoist; so, four members out of the five in the government (one had already left) went out of the government on September 18, 2007, and attended the mass meeting called by it at the open theater in Kathmandu.

Negotiations among the political parties in alliance began for meeting the demand put forward by the CPN-Maoist. The CPN-Maoist did not take its cadres to the streets but remained in continuous negotiations with other political parties particularly the NC that had vehemently opposed the two main points such as the declaration of Nepal a republic by the Interim Legislature-parliament and the electoral system ensuring the proportional representation of all Nepalis in the to-be-elected CA. The parliament became the mute spectator of the negotiations going on among the seven-political parties in alliance, as the sovereignty of Nepal has been in the hands of those parties since the Nepalese people’s movement in April 2006.

On December 23, 2007, the leaders of the seven-party alliance reached a consensus on the 23-point agreement that has formally ended the monarchy and declared Nepal a federal democratic republic. The first session of the CA to be elected in mid-April 2008 would endorse it. The king would remain as suspended until the election for a Constituent Assembly was held. However, if the king attempted to disrupt the election for a CA then two-third of the legislators could terminate the monarchy immediately according to the provision made in the Interim Legislature.

On December 24, 2007, the Cabinet meeting held at the Prime Minister’s official residence at Baluwatar, Kathmandu approved the 23-point agreement signed by the leaders of the seven-party alliance. The Government of Nepal presented the Bill on the third amendment to the Interim Constitution to the Interim Legislature-parliament. On Monday, December 24, 2007, the Interim Legislature-parliament held three hectic sessions to expedite the amendment to the Interim Constitution to accommodate the 23-point agreement the seven-party alliance leaders reached on Sunday, December 23. On December 29, 2007, the parliament declared Nepal a federal democratic republic to be stamped by the first session of the CA. Until then, the suspended king could remain in the palace if he chose to be there.

The seven political parties in alliance have five-declared communist parties and two other political parties. The two other political parties such as the NC and the Nepal Sadbhavana Party (NSP) are the parties of bourgeois the term the communists often like to use for them. Among the five communist parties, the CPN-UML has been more democratic than communistic, other parties particularly the CPN-Maoist are in transition to a democratic party. Other smaller parties continue to hold on to the communistic ideology jealously.

All these seven political parties in alliance hold on to remain together despite an extreme dislike of each other. This might be either for fear of losing the people’s sovereignty they have been holding on to and or for fear of somebody might grab the power if they break up the alliance and fight against each other. This political situation has been in favor of developing democratic culture in Nepal. If they continue to remain in alliance and hold an election for a CA scheduled for April 10, 2008, and write a new constitution of Nepal, then democracy might take a root in Nepal.

Human rights organizations, other civil society organizations and professional organizations particularly the Nepal Bar Association and the Federation of Nepalese Journalists have been gradually strong and vocal against anybody going against democracy in Nepal, and have been successfully fighting for the rule of law and democracy.

The independent media such as the private print and electronic, and the Internet have been gradually strong and independent, and have been vocal for democracy and the rule of law and human rights. They played a significant role in support of the Nepalese people’s movement in April 2006.

The judiciary is still weak in Nepal. It dos not match with the political development. Anybody could influence on it. It has been so, as it is not sufficiently exposed to the democratic mentality of doing business. The judges hold on to the age-old mindsets. According to the Nepalese media, corruption is rampant in the judiciary. Even the legal professionals accept it. For example, on January 17, 2007, talking to the morning talk program called “Rule of Law” on the Sagarmatha FM Radio, a lawyer said that the judges openly ask for bribes, and the several-times deferral of the hearing of the case filed by the Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) against former Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (Central Bank of Nepal), Bijaya Nath Bhattarai at the Special Court is the clear indication of bargaining going on between the defendant and the judges. So, it is necessary to make the judiciary independent to make it contribute to the rule of law and to the development of democratic culture in Nepal

Thus, Nepal is heading to set the democratic culture. Democracy will take roots soon if the leaders of the SPA could return the ethnic and Madheshi Nepalese to the fold, and hold the CA election to the satisfaction of all Nepalis in an environment free of fear and intimidation. They have been demanding an amendment to the Interim Constitution to include the provision for the autonomous rule and proportional representation of all Nepalis in the state affairs.