Democracy For Nepal: The Next Revolution Will Be At The Ballot Box

Saturday, August 12, 2006

The Next Revolution Will Be At The Ballot Box

Getting a total of eight million people out in the streets of every single town and village over a period of 19 days is remarkable. But you can not beat getting 15 million people out at the voting booth on a single day. No street revolution could beat that. And so I say, the next revolution will not be out in the streets. It will be at the ballot box.

The April Revolution was a remarkable exercise in non-violence. The constituent assembly elections will be a bigger exercise in non-violence. In some ways, in many ways, Nepal as a country will be born for the first time ever.

What Prithvi Narayan Shah did was bogus. Now the people will themselves come in unison. They will give birth to a country where all 27 million have a stake in the state.

All instruments of state powere are fair game. The monarchy can be abolished. The armies can be integrated, downsized, restructured. The army can be abolished. All three branches of government will be interim until then.

All Parties Should Hold National Conventions Before The Constituent Assembly Elections

A joint convention will be the best way to unify the two Congress factions. The UML is nearing its natural time for a convention. The Maoists have never held an open convention. The Sadbhavana needs it. Other parties need it also.

The parties should not do party maths on this one. Do it out of respect for the constituent assembly elections that are due. Hold conventions. Let your conventions decide what your agenda for the assembly elections should be.

Let your grassroots cadres have a say.

Think

Political Synthesis Nepali Style

The people continue to be ahead of the leaders. The leaders have not managed to capture the imagination of the April Revolution. Think outside the box. Think. Let the old paradigms fall by the wayside.

Some Alarming Trends

The monarchy can be abolished. I think it is guaranteed it will. (Federal Republic Guaranteed) The army will get restructured. The state apparatus will get restructured. But there is very little talk of reforming the political parties. The Maoists are flush with cash. So not even they are talking of fundamental issues like campaign finance reform.

What about all members of parliament being directly elected? And having reserved seats for the DaMaJaMa. The Congress paper says they will nominate the DaMaJaMa. That is like patronizing the DaMaJaMa.

What about reducing the powers of the party central leaders? Noone is talking about this.

Proposed Constitution

The Maoists are the only big party that have come with a proposed map for federalism. Why are the UML and the Congress dragging their feet on this one?

Civil Society

I believe the civil society is best positioned to act the watchdog to make sure the democratization process goes beyond the monarchy, and the army and the state to the political parties.

Direct Elections, One Seat For Every 100,000 People, Reservations, Primaries

In The News

China railways to sprawl across Himalayas Kantipur Publications Even before the proposed East-West and Terai railways crisscross southern Nepal, Chinese railways could come closer to India and Nepal hurtling up and down the Himalayan passes...... Barely 40 days after China opened its new 1,142-km railway linking Lhasa to Golmud in neighboring Qinghai province, authorities in Beijing have unveiled plans to extend the world's highest railway network in Tibet to remote Tibetan towns like Shigatse, the second largest city after Lhasa...... At 4,000-m, the ancient Tibetan town of Shigatse sprawls on the highest pass between Kathmandu and Tibet. It lies around 700 kilometers northeast of Kathmandu, which lies 955 kilometers southwest of Lhasa the Tibetan capital which, after July 1 opening of the railway, boasts a high-speed electric rail link with Beijing via Golmund...... the Chinese could complete the 270-km rail link to Shigatse within three years ...... Shigatse, about 600 kilometers away from Nepal, could change the dynamics of Sino-Nepal trade, thanks to the existing dirt roads linking Shigatse with Zangmu (Khasa, near Tatopani in Sindhupalchowk). But Nathu La in Sikkim, which was opened last July 6 after 44 years, is just 250 kilometers away from Shigatse. Already, the Chinese are understood to have a well-thought-out plan to connect Shigatse with Sikkim...... after completion of the new 140-km Siliguri-Nathu La highway that India plans to complete by 2009. In the immediate periphery, Lama added, "even Nepal and Bhutan can reap the economic benefits of China's ongoing 'Develop West' policy"........ They have also outsmarted the Swiss, who weren't too keen on winning part of the Lhasa-Golmund contract in around 2001. .... 53-km Janakpur-Jaynagar line - since 1937 ..... Possible development of Amlekhgunj-Kathmandu and East-West lines ...... Broad Gauge, 5.3-km Sirsiya-Birgunj dry dock opening shortly
दुई किमि सडकलाई ७६ करोड
धरहराबाट हामफालेर एमाले नेताद्वारा आत्महत्या
न्यायाधीश छनोट प्रक्रिया परिवर्तन गर्न सुझाव
प्रचण्ड र बाबुराम सिलिगुडीतर्फ
दलित होटेलमा घुइँचो
सरकार जनचाहनाअनुरूप भएन ः एमाले एमाले केन्द्रीय सदस्यहरूले सरकार जनआन्दोलनको भावनाअनुकूल नचलेको आरोप लगाएका छन् । उनीहरूले संविधानसभाको निर्वाचनसँग गणतन्त्रका लागि जनमतसंग्रह गरिनुपर्नेमा जोड दिएका छन् । जारी केन्द्रीय कमिटीको बैठकमा राजनीतिक प्रतिवेदनमाथि छलफलमा शुक्रबार सहभागी सदस्यले सरकार यथास्थितिमा अल्मलिएको आरोप लगाए । मन्त्रिपरिषद्बाट राजगद्दी उत्तराधिकारी ऐन पारित गरी संसद्मा ल्याउने तयारीप्रति उनीहरूले आक्रोश पोखे । स्थायी कमिटी सदस्य विष्णु पौडेलले 'ऐतिहासिक जनआन्दोलन सफल भए पनि क्रान्ति हुन बाँकी रहेको' उल्लेख गर्दै सरकार क्रान्तिकारी हुनुपर्ने धारणा राखे ।
सामान फिर्ता नहुन्जेल विस्थापित नर्फकने
धर्म निरपेक्षताबारे चीन
माओवादीद्वारा जिविसलाई कर उठाउन रोक

प्रधानमन्त्रीको सक्रियता बढ्दो Himal

अमेरिकामा काङ्ग्रेसको समानान्तर समिति आनन्द विष्टको संयोजकत्वमा १९ जेठ २०६३ (२ जुन) मा गठित नेपाली जन सम्पर्क समितिलाई पार्टीका कामु मुख्यसचिव शोभाकर पराजुलीले सादा कागजमा एक पत्र लेखी मान्यता दिएका छन् भने डा.सुरेन्द्र देवकोटाको संयोजकत्वमा ३२ असार २०६३ (१६ जुलाई) मा गठित नेपाली जनसम्पर्क समितिलाई केन्द्रीय सदस्य तथा अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय विभाग प्रमुख सुजाता कोइरालाले पार्टीको लेटरप्याडमा एक पत्र लेखी मान्यता दिएकी हुन्। यस विवादले अमेरिकास्थित काङ्ग्रेस कार्यकर्ताहरुमा अन्योल सिर्जना गरेको अमेरिकाबाट प्राप्त समाचारमा जनाइएको छ। डा. देवकोटा त्रिवि नेबिसंघ इकाइका पूर्व सभापति तथा अस्कलमा स्ववियू सभापति समेत भईसकेका व्यक्ति हुन्। र, उनको समितिमा रहेकाहरु सबै नै नेपालमा छँदा नेबि संघका विभिन्न पदमा रहेर कार्य गरिसकेकाहरु छन्।
पैदलयात्री मारिएपछि नयाँ बानेश्वर क्षेत्र तनावग्रस्त
अन्तरिम राजा सहितको अन्तरिम संविधान बुझाउने तयारी
सेना सरकारको मातहतमा रहेको प्रमाण एक–दुई दिनमैः प्रधानमन्त्री

अध्यक्ष प्रचण्ड र डा.भट्टराई अकस्मात झापामा

न्यायाधीश छनौट प्रक्रियामा आमूल परिवर्तनको खाँचोः न्यायाधीश शर्मा “न्यायपालिकालाई त संविधानले स्वतन्त्र स्थान दिन सक्छ”, २६ साउनमा राजधानीमा आयोजित एक कार्यक्रममा उनले भने, “तर, निष्पक्ष न्याय दिन सक्षम र निर्भिक न्यायाधीश चाहिन्छ।” ..... न्यायाधीश छनौट प्रक्रियामा आमूल परिवर्तन आवश्य रहेको ...... संविधानसभाको निर्वाचनमा जान भईरहेको ढिलाई तर्फ संकेत गर्दै भने, “पुग्ने लक्ष्य महेन्द्रनगर हो भन्दैमा यदि ड्राईभरले कहिले कान्छिको पसलमा त कहिले कहाँ, कहिले कहाँ रोक्दै, विसाउँन खोज्यो भने यात्रुले मान्दैनन्।”
गणतन्त्र कि लोकतन्त्रमन्तगाउँघरमा जनता माओवादी बन्दुकबाट पीडित छन् भन्ने तपाईँलाई पक्कै थाहा छ। भाषा र जातिका हिसाबले देशलाई स्वायत्त प्रदेश प्रदेशमा विभाजित गर्दा प्रत्येक नागरिकको आर्थिक र सामाजिक उन्नतिको सपना चकनाचूर हुन्छ .......

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