Nepal: Ruling Parties Dream The World To Dance To their Tune

You dream that you make the world dance
To the tune of your own desire;
Suddenly your eyes open; you see
That things happen which you never wish.

Rabindranath Tagore in “The Waterfall”

The ruling political parties knowingly or unknowingly have been strengthening the opposition parties. For example, the ruling political parties such as NC, CPN-UML and RPP have bullied the opposition parties registering the proposal for the most contentious issues such as federalism, federal states, system of governance, judiciary and electoral system at the Constitutional-Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (CPDCC) of the Constituent Assembly on November 3, 2014. This action has pushed the 22-party opposition to engage in the political movement rather than bringing them to build a consensus on the disputed issues of a new constitution.

Registering the proposal for the divisive issues at the CPDCC, the ruling political parties had shown the take-it-or-leave-it attitude to the opposition parties. Taking the proposal of the ruling parties means the surrender to the ruling political parties for the opposition parties. Probably, they would never do so. Leaving it means the ruling parties would take the issues to the Constituent Assembly (CA) for vote. The ruling parties have the two-thirds majority in the CA. They could easily get the disputed issues passed through the CA, and then promulgate a new constitution. The only alternative to the opposition parties might be to take the issues to the streets.

However, such a new constitution would die at the CA if the two-thirds majority were to promulgate it. It would not have a chance to see the light of its life. The 22-opposition political parties including the UCPN-Maoist would not accept it. They would certainly boycott the vote for promulgating such a divisive constitution. Without the acceptance of the opposition political parties, a new constitution would be a meaningless document. Most of the opposition leaders and cadres would burn the copies of a new constitution on the streets while the CA promulgated it.

Nepalese constitutions had very short lives in the past. Life of a constitution depends on the acceptance of the people. A Rana prime minister called Padam Shumsher introduced a constitution in 1947. It did not last long as the people’s revolution in 1951 ended the Rana regime in Nepal. Then King Tribhuvan promulgated an interim constitution of 1951. His son King Mahendra gave a new constitution in 1958 but he revoked it in 1960 dissolving the duly elected parliament and killing democracy forever. He gave another constitution in 1962 that lasted for 28 years. Again Nepal has a parliamentary democratic constitution of 1990. It accommodated the king as a constitutional monarch. However, it became unacceptable to the then freak king Gyanendra. He scrapped it and took the absolute power in his hand in February 2005 only to lose it totally next year. The constitution of 1990 was dead. Currently, Nepal has the interim constitution of 2007. It would cease to exist once a full-fledged new constitution would come to exist.

The above constitution-making-and-breaking scenario has made it clear that the life of a constitution depends on the acceptance. Any constitution has no chance of survival if it were unacceptable to all the people means all the political parties. Some political leaders have rightly said that a new constitution should be a document of all the people. To make it the document of all, all political parties should build a consensus on a new constitution. Building a consensus means giving to all Madheshis, women, indigenous, and ethnic people what they deserved not what the majority leaders wanted to give them. It would not make sense if the takers were not to accept it. So, the ruling political leaders needed to make a new constitution acceptable to all if it were to be a long lasting document.

Registering the proposal for the disputed issues of a new constitution at the CPDCC, the NC, and CPN-UML had antagonized the opposition political parties. Even the ruling partners such as CPN-ML and Rastriya Janamorcha did not accept the proposal. So, even the ruling partners were not for such a proposal. It led us to assume that on the one hand the NC and CPN-UML were determined to promulgate a new constitution on January 22, 2015 on the other hand the opposition parties were sure to break it up. In fact, Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda declared at the mass rally held in Phidim, Ilam on November 4, 2014 that the people’s movement started off against the majority rule at Singhdurbar in Kathmandu.

The ruling political leaders have a tendency to forget that we are living in the 21st century. They would certainly forget it if they were to force a new constitution on the Nepalese without the people’s liking. Then, they might wake up that their existence has ended. Exactly this has happened to Gyanendra: the so-called former king. He took absolute power in 2005 believing that he was Mahendra: his father that had lived in 1960s. Gyanendra thought that he could impose his dream on the Nepalese in the 21st century. The NC and CPN-UML leaders had not realized it but it might be too late for them when they would realize it. Currently, they are for imposing their dream on the Nepalese.

Now, it is the take-it-or-leave-it turn to the NC and CPN-UML leaders. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and his colleagues such as KP Oli of CPN-UML have a choice whether they want to make a new constitution suiting to all Nepalese or whether they want to impose their political dream on the people. Certainly, choice is theirs. However, the country would be on the right path if they were to choose the right path of making a new constitution suitable to all the Nepalese. In this case, they have a chance of having the rein to guide the country to a sustainable democracy for some time to come. In other words, they could retain their supremacy in the administration. However, they have their dream that might not be fitting to the people. With the two-thirds majority, they could impose it on the people but it would have a very short life. Ultimately, the people would win the game.

Rana prime ministers had thought that they could rule the people indiscriminately and indefinitely. They thought that they were so powerful they could ride on the people forever. In fact, they rode on the back of the people 104 years. That had been possible when the people accepted their destiny rather than the oppressive rule of the Ranas. When Nepalese realized that it was not the destiny that had caused so much misery to them but the Rana’s tyrannical rule; Ranas had shucked everything out of the things they sweated over. Then they rose up against the Ranas. The rest was the history.

In 1960s, King Mahendra repeated the same mistakes of the Ranas. He thought that he could trick the people to his path. He did it so. The system he introduced lasted for 30 years because people thought that he sincerely was for the welfare of the people. Obviously, he was not. He was only for continuing the Shah dynastic rule with the absolute power. That became unacceptable to the people. Then, his son king Birendra had to surrender the power to the people in 1990.

Another king Gyanendra took over the power in 2005. He also thought that he could rule the people. His dream was a total failure as of other immature rulers in the past. Ultimately, he needed to relinquish the crown his ancestors had earned for him to become a common folk. He needed to bow down to the people’s desire for him to quit the palace. All these things happened because they wanted to impose their dream on the people.

The question was whether the current ruler Sushil Koirala and his partner KP Oli wanted to face the same fate of their predecessors that had gone against the people’s aspirations for democracy and development or they wanted to craft a new constitution that would provide all the Nepalese with the opportunity of earning decent living, and of having due dignity and respect in the society. They might say that was not possible for all Nepalese. Then, they needed to take the example of the developed countries that had made their constitution inclusive and appropriate to all the people living under the statute. So, they could not have any excuse for not making a new constitution inclusive and democratic for meeting the aspirations of all the Nepalese.

Any constitution would be inclusive and democratic if it were to give an equal opportunity to all the people belonging to different ethnic groups and gender, and if people were not have to accept the repression of anybody; if people were not to remain underprivileged and abused; if they were treated as humans. In the 21stcentury, any repressive elements would not last long even for six months. So, those elements should not attempt on imposing their dream on the people, if they were to do, they would invite a strong political storm that would end those elements indiscriminately within a few months not even a year.

Proposing the contentious issues at the CPDCC, and anticipating passing those issues by the two-thirds majority at the CA, the NC and CPN-UML leaders have shown their political immaturity. No matter how large their political parties had been after the elections to the CA in 2013, these parties could shrink to minor parties if they were not for serving the people that had put them to power. They needed to think that the two-thirds majority was not the absolute but it was a temporary mandate given them to craft a new constitution suitable to the entire population. People in general would not keep the political leaders in peace if they were not to serve them. Be wise and wake up to the reality, and craft a new constitution for all the Nepalese to enjoy the life of equality, of brotherhood, of harmony and of peace.

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala had repeatedly said that he was for crafting a new constitution building a consensus on it but he came out false after he became a part of the proposal that had threatened the Nepalese to impose the dreams of a few political leaders not of the people in general. That would be the last thing they could do before their end. They had been devising their own end through the proposal. Their political death would not wait them for long. They were bound to die as their predecessors did.

Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda had already charged the political leaders with reviving the constitution of 1990 by proposing the unrealistic proposal for federalism, governance system, and electoral system. Madheshi leaders had said that they would not accept such things at any cost. The 22-party opposition had already started the campaign against the two-thirds majority parties. The opposition had already braced up for the worst thing to come.

The proposal might be the wickedness and snares of an unscrupulous politician that had developed the ambition of getting the job of a prime minister. If it were so it was not the right path to get the position of a prime minister. Following this path, any shrewd politician might get it but it would be short-lived. It would be disastrous not only to such a politician but also to the people in general. Common folks might need to suffer for the foolishness of such a politician.

The proposal registered at the CPDCC might be in fact for delaying the crafting of a new constitution. Creating confusion about crafting a new constitution, the current coalition government could prolong its life for some time to come. So, they did not want to promulgate a new constitution on January 22, 2015 but they wanted to delay it for some years. The proposal was only a tool to do so. These politicians might not be so immature to propose the things that would be rejected. They had different things in their minds. So, they say one thing and do another.

One thing everybody should know was that politicians could not go on deceiving the people all the time. Nepalese knew that the flip-flop politicians had been deceiving them; they were corrupting the national life and they made money at the cost of the State. Consequently, the reputation of the politicians as the thugs had been prevailing among the people in general. These politicians gladly accepted this reality but they wanted to stay on power by any means. The time would soon come when the people in general would rise up and finished off such insincere politicians once and for all.

The proposal might antagonize the people. Various nationalists, ethnic and indigenous people might find the proposal of the NC and CPN-UML threatening to exclude them from the mainstream life of the nation, abuse them and make them underprivileged, and treat them not as humans as had been in the past. They might fear that they would again be the support citizens. They had been downgraded and excluded from the mainstream national life for more than 240 years. They were not for being excluded for any more. They might rise up for their rights to live perfectly on a par with all other Nepalese.

The recent events in Ukraine might be a good lesson for those politicians that wanted to impose one language and one religion in Nepal. Immediately after the new politicians took over in Ukraine, they stopped the use of the Russian language at the parliament and for the State business. That alienated the Russian people in general. The result was disastrous. They lost the Crimea to the Russians, and they have the political crisis in the Eastern Ukraine where the majority of the people were the Russians. KP Oli one of the most despicable political characters needed to learn from the Ukrainian experiences. Mr. Oli had been for one Nepali language for all Nepalese.

Everybody would win a political game if a new constitution were to protect the interest of Nepalese including Madheshis, ethnic people, women and underprivileged people. Such a constitution would be strong enough to withstand any sorts of the political weather in the future. Nepalese in general would protect such a statute. Nobody would dare to burn it down or tear it down. It would be a long lasting document.

Although, the proposal presented by the NC and CPN-UML at the CPDCC has poisoned the political environment, there is a remedy to clean it up. That is to listen to all stakeholders in a new constitution, and to give nationalists, Madheshi, ethnic people, women and underprivileged what they really deserve in the 21st century. This human world is really a heaven; let us not spoil it by the selfish nature of some ambitious politicians at the time when every politician needs to sacrifice for building a nation for the bright future of all the Nepalese.

ENDS

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