Quality of Nepalese Political Leaders

By Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Nepalese people have repeatedly lost their sovereignty to the regressive forces headed by the monarchy several times in the past, and currently, it is almost at the verge of losing it again that the Nepalese people had taken it by sacrificing a number of beautiful lives and enduring unbearable hardship in April 2006. The coalition government of the seven-party alliance (SPA) and the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist) has been making the Nepalese people’s life harder than used to be instead of providing them with relief and peaceful environment conducive to make their living easily. This has been entirely due to the poor quality of the political leaders supposed to lead the Nepalese people to a prosperous and meaning living.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and his Nepali Congress (NC) lieutenants have been resisting the declaration of Nepal a republic and adoption of an electoral system that ensures proportional representation of all Nepalis in a to-be-elected constituent assembly (CA) for crafting a new constitution of democratic republic of Nepal. Without meeting these two conditions put forward first by Nepalese civil society and human rights leaders, not affiliated to any political parties, and later on by the ethnic and Madheshi Nepalis, the coalition government would not be in a position to hold an election for a CA.

The CPN-Maoist entered into the 330-member Interim Legislature formed pursuant to the Interim Constitution of Nepal promulgated by the House of Representatives on January 15, 2007, and joined the SPA government on April 01, 2007 agreeing on the Interim Constitution that provoked the wrath of the ethnic and Madheshi Nepalis, as it made the provision for a mixed-electoral system for the lection for a CA not the system that would ensure the proportional representation of all Nepalis in a CA.

The mixed-electoral system would ensure the election of 240 members of the candidates mainly put up by the political parties for the membership of a CA directly by the universal adult franchise, and another 240 of a CA indirectly by the universal adult franchise, as in this case Nepalis would vote for not an individual candidate but for a political party, and then the political parties in turn would send their representatives proportional to the votes they received. Thus, the Nepalese people marginalized by the 240-year dynastic rule would not have their representation in the CA. Even if some of them were included in one political party or another they would represent the party not the people of their community.

The constitution of a so-called new Nepal crafted by the CA that would have only the representatives of the political parties denying the representation of Nepalis of different origins would not be universally acceptable. For example, one of the representatives of the Madheshi Nepalis burned down the Interim Constitution immediately after the House of Representatives promulgated it on January 15, 2007 in Kathmandu to vent the displeasure of the people of his community. Since then, the ethnic and Madheshi Nepalis have been protesting the provision for the mixed-electoral system made in the Interim Constitution, and have been demanding an electoral system that would ensure proportional representation of all Nepalis in a CA for crafting a new constitution of New Nepal. Only such a constitution crafted by the representatives of all Nepalis would be acceptable to all Nepalis and would ensure a lasting peace.

Some political parties and leaders of such parties particularly the NC and its leaders have been telling the Nepalese people that if an electoral system for the election for a CA is made for the proportional representation of all ethnic and Madheshi Nepalis then the country would disintegrate into the ethnic lines. How could Nepal be divided into ethnic lines if the CA has the representation of all ethnic Nepalis? They did not explain it. However, all rationally thinking Nepalis believe that the country might have political chaos and conflict for many years to come and even might disintegrate into ethnic lines if the CA would not have the representation of all Nepalis.

The CPN-Maoist pulled its members out of the coalition government on September 18, 2007 as a protest against the government not meeting its 22-point demand that included the two main points such as declaration of Nepal a republic and adoption of an electoral system that would ensure the proportional representation of all Nepalis in a CA.

Belatedly, the CPN-Maoist must have realized the reality of the need for the representation of all Nepalis in a CA for formulating a new constitution acceptable to all Nepalis and then for ensuring a lasting peace. So, they must have thought that it was not rational to continue in the government that was not for such a system of election for a CA, and pulled its members out of the government.

Then, they must also have understood that they needed to fight peacefully and democratically for the representation of all Nepalis if they were to lead all Nepalis to a peaceful resolution of the political issues. So, on September 28, 2007, the CPN-Maoist along with other small left parties filed a petition to the Prime minister for calling a special session for discussing the issues such as declaring Nepal a republic and proportional representation in a CA.

The NC headed by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala was not for accepting the electoral system that would represent all Nepalis in a CA proportional to their population. It indicated how immature the leaders of the NC were. They could not foresee the probable political chaos that would be provoked if the government held the election for a CA based on the mixed-electoral system that would surely deny the representation of all Nepalis of different origins in a CA proportional to their population but ensure the monopoly of a few political parties on a CA that is suppose to craft a new constitution of Nepal for all Nepalis.

Judging from the political events happening in the terai areas, the ethnic and Madheshi Nepalis would not let the government hold an election for a CA following the mixed-electoral system, as they have been demanding an electoral system that would ensure proportional representation in a CA since the promulgation of the Interim Constitution on January 15, 2007. The ethnic and Madheshi Nepalis have been continuing their movement for making sure proportional representation of all Nepalis in a CA. They would certainly continue their movement until their demands are met.

NC leaders did not want to understand that the election for a CA was not possible without meeting the demand of the ethnic and Madheshi Nepalis for an electoral system that would ensure proportional representation in a CA. So, some leaders of the NC and the CPN-UML particularly the NC leader Dr. Shekhar Koirala and the CPN-UML leader Pradip Nepal have been publicly advocating for holding an election for a CA based on the mixed-electoral system ignoring the possibility of a civil war the government might need to fight against the ethnic and Madheshi Nepalis that have been demanding proportional representation of all Nepalis in a CA.

The UN and other members of the international community also have been supporting Prime Minister and President of NC, Girija Prasad Koirala that has been irrationally rejecting the demand of the ethnic and Madheshi Nepalis for their proportional representation in a CA, and have been putting pressure on him to hold an election for a CA no matter whether the ethnic and Madheshi Nepalis would have proportional representation in a CA or not. The international community including the UN supposed to be advocating for a lasting peace, and putting so much of energy and resources for the success of the ongoing peace process in Nepal has been provoking a civil war pressing the SPA government for holding an election for a CA without ensuring proportional representation of all Nepalis in it.

If the international community were serious about a lasting peace in Nepal it should have advocated for participatory democracy not exclusive democracy. If Nepalis would have participation only in voting for one candidate or another or one political party or another for representation in a CA as devised in the mixed-electoral system then it would be exclusive democracy. If all Nepalis were represented in a CA proportional to their population then it would be participatory democracy. Only the new democratic constitution crafted by a CA that would have the participation of all Nepalis would be acceptable to all Nepalis.

Also the international community should be careful of indirectly supporting the regressive forces by pressing hard the government of Nepal to hold CA polls without meeting the aspiration of all Nepalis for democracy and development. The two-and-a-half-century rule of the Shah dynasty had denied majority of Nepalis to their fundamental human rights and had marginalized ethnic and Madheshi Nepalis through the denial of their rightful participation in governance. So, rationally thinking Nepalis in general and ethnic and Madheshi Nepalis in particular would not tolerate such things in future any more no matter what prices they would need to pay for that matter.

The regressive forces headed by the monarchy have been raising the heads to suppress the voices of Nepalis people for their equal participation in the mainstream development of Nepal. Some irrational political leaders have been hinting to support them while others have been directly supporting them. For example, General Secretary of the CPN-UML, Madhav Kumar Nepal while receiving the guests of honor to the tea party held by his party at the party office Balkhu in Kathmandu on October 27, 2007, told the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Rukumangad Katuwal that he was for cooperating with him even not letting him complete to say that he was seeking Mr. Nepal’s cooperation. Probably, the COAS was not seeking the cooperation from the General Secretary Nepal for the Nepalese people but must be for someone else that we could only guess.

Happiness shown by the NC and the CPN-UML leaders in the company of the former Pancha leaders at the tea parties held by the NC at the international convention in Kathmandu on October 26, 2007 and by the CPN-UML at its party office on October 27, 2007 has indicated that the NC and the CPN-UML leaders are not much different from the highly tainted former Pancha leaders. Some of them would have been behind bars if the NC government had implemented the Mallik Commission’s report in 1990s and the SPA government had implemented the Rayamajhi Commission’s report in 2007.

Behavior of some political leaders has demonstrated that the palace people directly have influenced not only the NC but also the CPN-UML leaders, too. For example, the CPN-UML nominated one of its leaders, Khadga Prasad Oli for the portfolio of Foreign Minister and for the title of Deputy Prime Minister in the SPA government formed immediately after the People’s Movement in April 2007. After having the ministerial job, Khadga Prasad Oli popularly known as KP Oli did nothing but defended the monarchy for all the time he was in the cabinet. KP Oli was not behind bars for long and enjoyed freedom whereas most of his colleagues were behind bars or were under the house arrest during the People’s Movement in 2006.

According to the Nepalese media reports, the palace people had offered large sums of money to the Maoists’ leaders in an attempt to buy their support for the monarchy, and provided huge sums of money to the members of the Central Working Committee of the NC for making the agenda of the NC going republican a failure. The palace people have been trying their best to breakup the understanding reached between the SPA and the CPN-Maoist, and have been dreaming to take over again.

The NC and its leaders have been doing everything possible to save the monarchy. As a result, monarchists such as Rabindranath Sharma and his party called Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-Nepal) not needed to do anything to save the monarchy but watch how the NC and its leaders would successfully save the monarchy. RPP-Nepal is the only second party after the NC that has been openly defending the monarchy.

Supreme leader of the democratic and united left forces, Ganesh Man Singh did successfully launch the movement for restoration of democracy in Nepal in 1990. However, he could not realize that the monarchy was always contender for power, and any democratic party would not be able to keep power for long until such a monarchy would exist. So, his focus was only on pulling down the Panchayat system that the former king had set up for governance without the participation of any political party. As a result, the king remained and became the killer of democracy again in February 2005 repeating the history of December 1960.

Founding father of NC, BP Koirala not only could envisage the monarchy and democracy would not go together but also did not learn a lesson from the coup staged by the then king in 1960. In 1977, Ganesh Man Singh and he came back from the self-imposed exile to India with the slogan of reconciliation with the king, and accepted all the political evils imposed by the king and his system of governance.

BP Koirala did not raise any voice against the delay in counting the votes that Nepalese people cast in the referendum on choosing between the improved Panchayat system and a multi-party democracy in 1980. The then government headed by one of the most unscrupulous politicians, Surya Bahadur Thapa deliberately took more than one month to count the votes. That was one of the reasons why the votes did not go in favor of the multi-party democracy despite the fact that Nepalis had overwhelmingly voted for it.

Some Nepalese politicians of the old generation believed that they could easily manipulate elections in their favor while they were in power. So, the current government headed by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala must have the same thinking and wanted to hold an election for a CA no matter what the ethnic and Madheshi people would do. Probably, Prime Minister Koirala and his clique must have great belief in suppressing the movement of the ethnic and Madheshi Nepalis by the armed forces. If it were so then the NC leaders and any other leaders for that matter would go wrong and would need to face grave consequences.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007