Democracy For Nepal

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Revolution Has Moved From Sadak To Sansad, It Has Not Stopped

Interim Constitution, Revolutionary Parliament (April 8)

Although I rooted for Chitralekha Yadav for social justice reasons (Chitralekha Yadav: Speaker), I am pleased with Subhash Nembang. Also the two Congress parties are less in tune with the revolution than the UML. Neither are officially for a republic yet. And it is Chitralekha's greatness that she made Nembang's unanimous election possible.

Guess who showed up on my computer screen a day before the Speaker decision! Madhav Nepal. We chatted on Google Talk, text chat. We talked about many things, but not the Speaker issue. I said, Everest, Buddha, April Revolution.

These actions do have to be taken now: "massively slash the power of the King, turn His Majesty’s Government into ‘Nepal Government’, bring the army under the purview of the parliament and change it into ‘Nepal Army’ [from Royal Nepalese Army], impose tax on the income and properties of the King and his family."

The revolution has not ended after April. It has not been postponed until the constituent assembly elections. It is very much on. It has merely shifted from the streets to the parliament. Then it will shift from the parliament to the interim government, from there to the constituent assembly, to the new constitution. It will conclude only after the country gets a new constitution and gets itself a new parliament through that new constitution.

Yo sadak bata sansad ma sareko kranti ho.

Maoists And Extortions

The Maoists have come out saying they do not engage in extortions. But that some people might be doing it pretending to be Maoists. The seven party alliance and the Maoists should stand by the Nepal Police as they take law enforcement actions against such extortionists. Report on them, cooperate with the police to nab them and throw them behind bars. The extortionists have been giving the April Revolution a bad name.

Maybe Not Federalism

I do think the three state idea in the Proposed Republican Constitution 2006 still holds water, but I also think the state can be designed to not have federalism. I am open to the possibility. But such a state should be fundamentally restructured.

Some provisions that might offset federalism are as follows.

Carve out 300 constituencies of roughly equal population. The largest may not be more than 5% bigger than the smallest. That is still an odd number of 299 because the Speaker does not get to vote. These constituencies should be close to circles or squares and should ignore district boundaries.
Have an upper House of 100 members, all directly elected. Three seats for the lower House make one for the upper.
Retain the 75 districts. Let there be direct elections for District Chairperson, Chief Judge, Chief Police Officer, and Attorney General.
Parties should not be allowed to raise funds. Instead they get state funds in direct proportion to the number of votes they earned in the last national elections. Parties that qualify are those that get at least 3% of the votes.
Direct elections for President of the country.
Three layers of government overall: central, district, village/town/city. Income tax collected centrally and then redistributed to the three levels according to the 50-30-20 formula. 20% of the overall central budget should be directly transferred to the districts based on population, and 5% to the 20 poorest districts, based on per capita income.
Seat reservations in the lower House for the DaMaJaMa.
The party president should not be allowed to issue tickets for elections. As to who will get a party's ticket should be decided by members of that party at or below the contested level of office.

King As Private Citizen: Property Issues

All that he owned before he became king should be his. The rest should be nationalized. The Narayanhiti should become the presidential residence and office.

In The News

‘Historic’ parliamentary proclamation to be presented Monday NepalNews it proposes, among other things, to massively slash the power of the King, turn His Majesty’s Government into ‘Nepal Government’, bring the army under the purview of the parliament and change it into ‘Nepal Army’ [from Royal Nepalese Army], impose tax on the income and properties of the King and his family.
Maoist detainees start fast-unto-death in Nakhu jail of the capital from Sunday demanding early release of all political detainees. ..... led by Krishna KC and Himal Sharma started fast-unto-death strike after organizing a relay hunger strike for a week. Maoist have been demanding release of all political detainees and publicizing the whereabouts of all people disappeared by the state as pre-conditions of talks. government has released nearly 100 Maoist cadres including two senior leaders Matrika Yadav and Suresh Ale Magar. However the Maoists want the government to release nearly 1,300 Maoist cadres from across the country. The government removed the red corner notice and terrorist tag from the Maoists as per the 12-point pact between them and the political parties.
Maoist leaders rule out rise of Communist dictatorship Maoist leaders said people should not fear the rise of a Communist dictatorship in the coming days and pledged to deal with those extorting money from the public in the name of Maoists... However, Maoist leaders said they should be allowed to accept donations from people since the party relies on public funds. Politburo member of Maoist Matrika Prasad Yadav said, "Our party runs through public donations and support and we do not take any international funding like the government." "We will give press freedom to the media but not to work against the people," he said.
Speaker Nemwang sworn in
Govt. parties discuss code of conduct, modalities of talks with Maoists
Army chief meets PM Koirala Thapa is in news headlines also for his daughter’s lavish marriage with an Indian citizen.
Government arrests five ministers former Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey, former minister of state for Information and Communications, Shrish Shumsher Rana, former minister for Local Development Tanka Dhakal and former Assistant Minister for Health Nikshya Shumsher Rana.

US lifts travel warning to Nepal embassy staff Hindustan Times, India
Nepal's new parliament moves to quash king's powers Reuters AlertNet, UK
Maoists march to democracy Australian
Nepal Arrests 5 Who Served as Officials Under King New York Times
Out of cash, Nepal asks for global aid BusinessWeek
Nepal govt cracks down on conspirators NDTV.com
Nepal's Rebels Seek Talks With Premier New York Times
Nepal govt plans to curtail King’s power Indian Express, India
Update 2: Nepal Gov't Set to Curtail King's Power Forbes
Nepal moves to curb king's power Aljazeera.net
Nepal's new parliament to strip King of powers ABC Asia Pacific
Nepal king stays away from royal wedding DailyIndia.com, NY
Nepal king stays away from royal wedding NewKerala.com
Nepal govt to issue proclamation curtailing king's power Zee News, India

One killed, two seriously injured in bomb explosion Kantipur Publications
UML's campaign for CA and democratic republic in Dolakha
Maoists beat man to death
Maoists threaten two FM stations
Truce brightens tourism prospects
Nemwang unanimously elected Speaker
Three officiating security chiefs appointed
Tamrat Samuel in Delhi
No one tends Lumbini garden
माओवादीद्वारा पूर्वकार्यकर्ताको हत्या
शिखर वार्ताको नेतृत्व प्रचण्डले गर्ने
बोलाइएका राजदूतलाई अर्को पत्र
सभामुखमा नेम्वाङ
मुख्यसचिव कार्की निलम्बित
'जनआन्दोलनमा ३८ बेपत्ता'
सहिद लामाको परिवार संकटमा
साफ्मा-महासंघ सहमति
कुटपिट विरोधमा पोखरा तनावग्रस्त
जनइच्छा पूरा गर्न सरकारलाई आग्रह
ँविद्याभूषण प्रधानमन्त्रीले दिनुपर्छ’
जनमोर्चाबाट आचार्य निलम्बित
कारागारमा पाँच गुना बढी बन्दी
खल्लो भयो बुद्ध जयन्ती
अपराध र दण्ड
नियुक्तिको मापदण्ड
समावेशी र संघीय गणतन्त्र

Visitors

1.	14 May	04:52	Versatel, Netherlands, The
2.	14 May	04:53	Tiscali, Netherlands, The

8.	14 May	05:44	Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd., Nepal
9.	14 May	05:57	LINKdotNET, Egypt

11.	14 May	06:40	National Internet Backbone, India
12.	14 May	06:46	Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd., Nepal
13.	14 May	06:48	Swipnet, Sweden

18.	14 May	07:35	Communications and communicate, Nepal
19.	14 May	07:56	ETC, United Arab Emirates
20.	14 May	08:21	NTL Internet, Nottingham, United Kingdom

27.	14 May	09:07	Australia (tmns.net.au)
28.	14 May	09:29	Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., India

31.	14 May	09:52	Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd., Nepal
32.	14 May	10:10	Sify Limited, India
33.	14 May	10:18	Korea (ac.kr)

35.

14 May

10:38

Singapore (singa.pore.net)

37.

14 May

10:42

IP Planet Networks, Israel

40.

14 May

10:57

University of California, San Diego, United States

Page views yesterday166

Friday, May 12, 2006

Hamro Nepal: Free Membership

Discussions are on if Hamro Nepal should attempt to launch a political party in Nepal. Some think it is a good idea. Others think we should act a pressure group to get the seven party alliance to accept our agenda.

Federal republic is one. More important is the idea of launching a new kind of democracy, one that India and America don't have, one where parties don't get to raise funds, instead they get funds from the state directly proportional to the number of votes they earn.

We can try to pressure the parties. Or we can face the fact that they simply are not going to go for it, and do that well ahead enough that we do have time to launch a party. But even the pressure group will have to take the form of a political organization that could simply become a political party as a second step.

Hamro Nepal does need a presence in Nepal. You can not have an organization that has the word Nepal in its name but has no presence in Nepal itself.

And we do have to grow in the US.

The original idea was to charge a membership fee of $100. I brought it down to $10. Then Jay Mandal suggested we not have any membership fee at all. At first I resisted. But today I came around to it. I think this move will have a major positive impact on the membership drive. We can always host fundraisers on the side.

Growing to be a large organization with a vibrant Hamro Nepal Virtual Parliament in itself will be an achievement. We will host eConferences replete with audio clips. I think that will be a great way to bridge the gap between Nepal and the diaspora.

Hamro Nepal: Membership Drive
Hamro Nepal, Latest
Hamro Nepal: Draft Constitution
Organization: Hamro Nepal
Your Many Identities

Should We Launch A Party

I think yes. Only a revolution made the king change his mind. Similarly only a new party that will do well at the polls will help reform the other parties. The best way to reform them would be to pass laws that makes reform compulsory.

You can not expect an IBM to do Microsoft's work. You got to launch a new Microsoft. Sometimes a clean break is the only way to offer cutting edge ideas.

But it would be great to have a discussion on this topic at the virtual parliament.

How To Organize An eConference

(1) Pick a topic.
(2) Prepare a list of people - members or guests - that you want to speak on the topic.
(3) Invite them to prepare a five minute audio clip using Audio Blogger.
(4) Present a list of the names hyperlinked to the MP3 file of their audio clips at the virtual parliament.

UN Mediation Is Key
Land Reform, Truth And Reconciliation
Cat Outa Bag: Girija Koirala For Ceremonial Monarchy
Prachanda's Transitional Republic

One Central Committee Member For Every Million Nepali
The April Revolution Asks For A New Political Party
An Open Letter To Gagan Thapa

Visitors

1.	12 May	17:06	NTL Internet, Winnersh, United Kingdom
2.	12 May	17:07	The World Bank Group, Washington, D.C., United States

4.	12 May	17:09	Motorola, United States
5.	12 May	17:16	Smart Telecom Holdings, Ireland
6.	12 May	17:17	Bulldog Communications, United Kingdom
7.	12 May	17:17	AMD, Austin, United States

15.

12 May