Democracy In Danger

Democracy In Danger

The acute politicisation of the state and non-state organs, a re-emergence of status quoists, and a nexus between the traditional elite, the state bureaucracy, and security agencies ail our young democracy. The police all-too-often suppresses minority voices, whose crusade against marginalisation and discrimination collides with the pursuits of those in power........... Major political parties want to politicise the security and government agencies so that these agencies can be used to suit their interests and torment opponents, even when the parties are not in power. This is one reason the political parties accord such high priority to winning elections and forming a government. Politicisation pervades all sectors, including the education sector. Our primary schoolteachers have been so politicised that they influence public votes during elections. Elections in our country, thus, are deeply flawed. Often, state employees deployed for work during elections are found to be serving the interests of the major political parties. They do so because the employees have received favours from these parties in the past or expect some in the future. ...... Nepal received remittance worth 23.1 percent of GDP in the fiscal year 2012/13 and 22.1 percent in 2013/14. But every day, dead bodies also arrive from the Gulf countries. The remittance that Nepal receives comes at a huge price when the exploitation of Nepali youth and women abroad is taken into account. The country’s economy now seems to be a coffin economy. By the time the new constitution is promulgated, Nepal might be drained of its youths. ...... The forces for change also need to think of bringing timely changes to the permanent establishment of Nepal (Army/police, and bureaucracy) who often serve the interests of the traditional elite. The business community, courts, and the media also do not seem to go against the wishes of the traditional elite on some important issues. Civil society has become a part of the power structure as well, with very few members going against the wishes of the power elite. If change-seeking forces do not adopt aggressive methods to safeguard new changes, counter-revolutionary forces may gain further ground.

Madhesh: Old Slogan, New Slogan

A LADY OF MADHYA PRADESH (Photo credit: sreeji..)

Old Slogan: Ek Madhesh, Ek Pradesh, Pachchees Madhesi Party

New Slogan: Ek Madhesh, Do Pradesh, Ek Madhesi Party

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If There Ever Was A Primitive Map

I was just reading an article by Sukhdev Shah in Republica. And the map caught my attention before I had even finished reading the first paragraph. If this is the map the Congress is going to try to push, the country will see major political upheaval. An anti-incumbency electoral wave can not be seen as a mandate against federalism. Decentralization, King Birendra style, is not federalism. Another attempt at it should not be made. The Madhesi Kranti of 2007 gave the country a clear mandate for federalism. That has to be stuck to.

The only debate as far as the Terai is concerned is if there will be two or four states in the Terai. Chipping off the far eastern, the far western and the central Terai districts is British style divide and rule. That will not stand.

I could live with four states in the hills and two in the Terai, or even four.

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The Anti Federal Alliance (AFA)

Baburam's Options
Broadening The Ruling Alliance

The FDRA hoping for some kind of a consensus with the Anti Federal Alliance would have been like the parties seeking consensus with the king in 2005. The polarization at that point was necessary. That is how progress was made, by making it the king versus the rest. The polarization today is also necessary. This is how federalism will be introduced in Nepal.

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संविधान सभा फर्केर आउने संभावना छैन

संविधान सभा फर्केर आउने संभावना छैन। चुनावमा जानुको विकल्प छैन। अबको चुनाव संसदको हुँदैन, फेरि  संविधान सभाकै हुन्छ। बरु त्यो संविधान सभाले संविधान लेखिसकेपछि त्यसलाई संसद बनाइदिन मिल्छ।

संविधान सभालाई तुहाएको नेका र एमालेले हो। नत्र भने संघीय संविधानकालागि दुइ तिहाई बहुमत विलय भैसकेको सभामा थियो त। त्यो सभालाई कामै गर्न दिएनन्।

पछिल्लो चुनावमा तराइमा नेका छोडेर थुप्रै मतदाता र नेता फोरम र तमलोपामा लागे जस्तै अब पहाडमा थुप्रै जनजाति मतदाता र नेता नेका र एमाले छोडेर नया जनजाति पार्टीमा लाग्ने ठुलो सम्भावना देखिएको छ। संघीय समाजवादी पार्टी राम्रो नाम पनि हो। ससपा। त्यो पार्टीले तराइमा थारु समुदायमा पनि छिर्ने सम्भावनाहरु छन्।

बाबुराम भट्टराईले संविधान सभाको आयु सर्वोच्च अदालतले समाप्त गरेपछि ल्याएको रोड म्याप नै ठीक रोड म्याप हो। चुनाव गराउने भनेको यसै सरकारले हो। बरु क्याबिनेटमा एक दुई जना नेका र एमालेको राखिदिए हुन्छ। चुनावपछिको प्रधान मन्त्री फेरि पनि बाबुराम भट्टराई नै हो। मेरो जन्म थलो बिहारमा नितिश कुमारले जे काम गरेका छन्, त्यो काम नेपालमा बाबुरामले गर्ने हुन्। मैले त्यस्तो आशा राखेको छु।

कर्णालीलाई कर्णाली न भनेर खसान राज्य भन्ने विचार राम्रो विचार हो। नेपालको संघीयता बारेको बहसमा मलाई सबैभन्दा घत लागेको दलितहरुकलागि non geographic राज्य। त्यो हुनै पर्छ।

संबिधान सभाले संविधान लेखेपछि त्यो सभा संसद बन्छ। त्यसपछि राष्ट्रपतिको प्रत्यक्छ चुनाव हुन्छ। त्यो राष्ट्रपति भनेको प्रचण्ड हो। त्यत्रो alliance बनाई दिया छन्। फेडेरल alliance भनेर। देशको पहिलो निर्वाचित राष्ट्रपति बन्ने formula त्यही alliance हो। अनि तुरुन्तै state र लोकल election गराई हाल्नुपर्छ।

त्यस पछि को एक मात्र मुद्दा आर्थिक क्रान्ति हो। त्यो क्रान्ति 30 बर्ष सम्म लगातार चलिरहन्छ।

दलितहरुकलागि non geographic राज्य र महिलाकालागि एक तिहाई आरक्छन यस्ता बुंदा हुन् जिन्ले  नेपालको लोकतन्त्रलाई भारत, बेलायत र अमेरिकाको लोकतन्त्र भन्दा cutting edge बनाई दिन्छन।

तर ती दुई भन्दा पनि महत्वपुर्ण अर्को एउटा बुँदा छ। Turning Nepal into a multi-party democracy of state funded parties. कुनै पनि राजनीतिक पार्टीले जति मत ल्यायो त्यसको आधारमा समानुपातिक किसिमले नेपाल सरकार बाट पैसा पाउने। त्यस बाहेक उसले कुनै पनि fundraising गर्न नपाउने। त्यति गर्न सके नेपाल दुनिया को नम्बर 1 democracy बन्छ। Then we export revolution all over the world, we export revolution to India, to Britain, all the way to America itself. We export the multi-party and free speech concepts to China.

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Finally A Janajati Party

Image via Wikipedia

Republica: Lekhi launching new party Sunday: Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (Nefin) President Raj Kumar Lekhi is all set to announce a new political party called Nepali Citizens Party (NCP) .... a seven-member central committee with representatives from indigenous groups, Muslim comunity, Dalits, women and other backward classes of society. ..... the new party will form its organization in about 35 district in the first phase. ...... Bijay Danuwar, Nagendra Rajbanshi, Chandra Kumar Chaudhari, Tajmohammed Miya, Chandrakala Gurung, and Raj Kumar Regmi. ...... Danuwar is an ex-secretary of Nefin while Miya is the chairman of Nepal Muslim Federation. Similarly, Rajbanshi is Nefin vice chairman and Chaudhari is the chairman of the Tharu Welfare Council. Likewise Gurung is ex-chairman of the National Indigenous Women´s Federation and Regmi is the chairman of Society of Parliamentary Affairs Journalists. ..... Nefin, an umbrella organization of indigenous nationalities, had elected Lekhi as president last year.

This was long overdue. There was a need for a national political party that was lead primarily by the Janajatis. The Janajati organization NEFIN had been banging its head against the wall as a pressure group. That was a dead end. Now some meaningful progress can be made, one hopes.

I am happy for this development.

I hope the party works hard to get Dalits and Muslims into its fold. Those are two clear underrepresented groups.

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A Roadmap For The Maoists

Image via Wikipedia

The politicians in Nepal suffer from an inferiority complex across the board that makes them believe a political thought has to be thought somewhere else first before it can be tried in Nepal. Nepal is too backward a country to be the originator of new political thoughts and new political experiments. Marx has to first think it in Europe, Mao has to first apply it in China, some Socialist has to first talk about it in India. The Maoists are as guilty as anyone else.

Back in 2005 I appealed to the Maoists to act less dogmatic, and more thinking. They responded well. But this year they have been in an ideological rut.

Prachanda, Order Your Cadres To Live
After Ganapathy, A Ceasefire
For The First Time In A Decade, Permanent Peace Feels Possible
Militarists Attempting A Doramba Repeat To End Ceasefire
Prachanda, Extend The Ceasefire By Three Months

Prachanda, through his intransigence, and lack of creativity and imagination, has been able to bring about a political coalition in Nepal that is not in the best interests of his party, short term or long. What would be a roadmap the Maoists might want to follow?

Needed: An Ideological Leap

The Maoists went for a unilateral ceasefire in 2005, and that paved way for all the good things that happened afterwards. But their transition from Power Flows Through The Barrel Of A Gun to Power Flows Through The Ballot Box is not complete. They might no longer kill and torture, but they still beat people up. They need to get over that hangover. And they can't as long as they keep talking of an eventual revolution. When they talk of an eventual revolution, their talk of leading a government as a minority party sounds like a ploy to somehow garner a majority on their own, which would be a stepping stone to doing away with multi-party democracy altogether. That flawed line of thinking comes from the Maoists not willing to engage in a fusion of the two major ideologies of the past century. The result of such a fusion would be a multi-party democracy of state-funded parties. That state can be created through the current constituent assembly. And once such a state is created, there is no more revolution, there are only elections.

The Maoists have to come out saying their end goal is to turn Nepal into a multi-party democracy of state funded parties. After such a creation there would be no more revolution, only elections. This they can do unilaterally. The ideological leap they can make on their own.

The step before that big step would be to pass a law that would require all political parties to make and keep their book keeping public. The people have a right to know. The Maoists themselves might be opposed to such a move because then they have to tell everyone how much money they have. Over the years the Maoists have exhibited mafia tendencies to extort money to sustain a certain living standard for their leaders. That thought has also made it possible for the regressionists to bring a lot of money into play into their political operations. The Maoists thought they moved from Power Flows Through The Barrel Of A Gun to Power Flows Through Sacks Of Money. That might have made short term material sense, but it makes no sense for a party that started out dreaming of a classless society.

Give One More Year To This Constituent Assembly

The Maoists should agree to give one more year to this constituent assembly. And it is because the work on the constitution is not done yet. If they don't cooperate, the assembly will expire, and the president might have to turn the current government into a caretaker government to hold elections to a new constituent assembly. So instead of a government that answers to a parliament where the Maoists are the biggest party, you will have a government that no longer has a parliament to answer to. That is an undesirable outcome at a few different levels.

The Maoists declaring a new constitution from the streets would be a stupid move and Prachanda's third big mistake. (Prachanda's Second Big Mistake?) For one, it would not come into effect. It would be just a document, dead upon arrival.

Try And Form A New Coalition Government

If Prachanda does not make the mistake of not giving one more year to the constituent assembly, and he does not make the mistake of declaring a constitution from the streets, then the MJF will likely come back into the fold of the 10 party coalition led by the Maoists. That coalition had almost 280 votes. All the Maoists would need to do after that is work with the Madhesi parties on their Ek Madhesh Ek Pradesh agenda, and they would have a happy majority government. Maybe they don't need a national unity government. They just need to push the UML and the Congress out of power. These are two parties that were opposed to the very idea of a constituent assembly for the longest time.

But for the Maoists to do business with the Madhesi parties, they will have to make these other moves first. Declare you end goal is a multi-party democracy of state funded parties, that after that there will be no more revolution, only elections. Agree to extend the term of the assembly by a year. Then work to build a coalition that includes the Madhesi parties.

Ek Madhesh, Ek Pradesh

The Maoists were originally an Ek Madhesh, Dui Pradesh party. West of Rapti river was Tharuhat. Rapti to Mechi was Madhes. After the Madhesi revolution, their anti-Madhesi Pahadi Bahun chauvinism got the better of them and they broke that Madhes state on their map into five different states, all of them lead by Pahadi Bahuns inside the party structure. Chitwan was now no longer part of the Madhes. After they cooled down a little, they had their original Madhes state as two states minus Chitwan. The least they could do is go back to their original map of two states in the Terai with Chitwan being part of the Madhes state. And they should be willing to consider Ek Madhesh, Ek Pradesh. Why not? On the other hand, the Madhesi parties should be open to the idea of Ek Madhes Do Pradesh. Why not? Chitwan is part of the Terai and has to be part of the Madhes state.

The Maoists Have Won
The Maoists: Thinking Or Dogmatic?
An Appeal To The Maoists
Prachanda's Second Big Mistake?
The Peace Process Is At Its Most Fragile
Nepal Seeing Major Political Crisis
A 10 Party Government In Baburam Bhattarai's Leadership
Adhikaar: International Women's Day

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