Democracy For Nepal: Who Will Tie The Bell Round The Cat's Neck

The monarchy is on its way to getting abolished. The army is being brought under the paliament, and will get restructured, and might even get abolished. Nepal is on its way to becoming a federal republic. All these are big, positive changes.

But there is no talk of reforming the political parties. There is no talk of reducing the powers of the political party leaders. This is alarming.

The goal of the April Revolution is to empower the individual citizen, not the political party leaders. And that has to get reflected in Nepal's next constitution.

Proposed Constitution

Direct Elections

All MPs in both houses at the federal and state levels have to be directly elected by the people, without exception. That also applies to all seats in the constituent assembly. This is a must. I see an unhealthy tendency among the political parties to suggest they should have the power to nominate a few members, and they are exploiting the social justice agenda to put forth that position.

I am all for social justice, but moving away from direct elections is to move away from social justice. Instead we should be looking at the idea of reserved seats. So if a seat is reserved for Dalits, all candidates in that constituency will have to be Dalits. You end up with a Dalit MP, but that MP is still directly elected by the people.

I feel strongly about the idea of direct elections, just like I feel strongly about the idea of democracy. Power to the people, not to the political party leaders.

State Funds For Political Parties

It is the misfortune for Nepal that its entire political class is beholden to either Karl Marx or to the British Magna Carta. If some westerner did not think of it before, it can not be done.

This is also a way to balance the first past the post, direct elections system. The one with the most votes wins. But all national political parties earn state funds in direct proportion to the number of votes earned. And that is the only source of money for the political parties. This has never been tried before. And this arrangement is the only idea that will do to true justice to the greatness of the April Revolution. Minus this idea the April Revolution will have been just another Third World hartal.

And of course all the book keeping of the parties will have to be transparent.

Reserved Seats

The Pratinidhi Sabha will have reserved seats for the four groups, Dalit, Madhesi, Janajati and Mahila, 5%, 10%, 9%, and 12% with some overlaps. Half of the seats for women will cut across that of these four groups as well. For example, of the 5% seats for Dalits, 50% of them will have to be women. And the 5% for Dalits will be half in the Terai, but that is not to cut into the Madhesi reserved seats. 5, 10, 9 and 12 are a quarter of the supposed shares of the populations of these groups, to be revised each census. When identifying the seats for the Dalit, Madhesi and the Janajati, the Election Commission will seek constituencies where the groups have their largest share of populations. No three contiguous seats may be reserved seats. The total number of reserved seats may not exceed 40% of the total. In addition to this formula, seats will be reserved so as to ensure women as a group get 33% of the total seats.

(Source: Proposed Constitution)

Democracy For Nepal

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Monday, August 14, 2006

Who Will Tie The Bell Round The Cat's Neck

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