Source: Federal Nepal by Sumit Pokharel
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Saturday, September 02, 2006
All Members To The Constituent Assembly Must Be Directly Elected
The Bahuns in the eight parties are really dragging their feet on social justice issues. When the UML organized a meeting of Dalit leaders, on the surface it looked positive. But the meetig steered by the UML Bahuns concluded the need of the hour is a democratic republic, as in you don't need Dalits to make that point, the Bahuns are doing it already. The Maoists recently formed a 10 member committee. You would think it looks good that there is a Madhesi up there. But the truth is social justice says four of the 10 should have been Madhesi. There is only one woman on that committee. Half should have been women.
Along the same lines the Congress and the UML have been pushing what they are calling a mixed system. Half the MPs would get elected directly. The other half would get elected by the parties depending on each party's vote share. And in that second category the party leaders would make attempts to select representatives of groups that have been marginalized.
That is a bogus idea. That will create two classes of MPs. That will give too much power to the party leaders, the entrenched Bahuns. That second category of MPs will be beholden to those who selected them and not to the people, not to the groups they are supposed to represent. They will become like the few Madhesis who held positions of power during the Panchayat decades. They looked Madhesis alright, but their loyalty was to the king, not to the Madhesi masses.
People talk of Israel when they talk of the proportional representation system. What they don't realize is there is major discontent in Israel regarding that system. Ariel Sharon made a major push for direct elections.
Anything away from direct elections is a deviation. As the modalities for the constituent assembly are to be finalized soon during the summit talks, this point has to be made absolutely clear.
Once you decide you are going to hold direct elections for all seats in the constituent assembly, the next question is how many seats there will be, and how will they be drawn.
I think we should have one seat for each 100,000 people. So for a country of 27 million, you are looking at 270 seats.
How will they be drawn? I think the constituencies should disregard the district boundaries. Each should be as close to a circle or square as possible. The demarcation should be mathematical.
The idea that the entire country should be one constituency and people should vote for parties is bogus. That will be akin to going back to Rana rule. About a dozen Rana brother type party leaders will end up with all the power. That will not be people power. That will be diluted democracy. That will be sham democracy.
The next issue is party finances. They should be transparent. All parties have to tell the people how much money they have. They should make public their incomes and expenses.
Then comes the issue of reserved seats. This is key. This is fundamental. There has to be a formula to bring in the DaMaJaMa. You still have direct elections, but you have constituencies that are reserved. If there is a Dalit seat somewhere, all candidates in that constituency is going to have to be Dalit. Having such direct elections will also lead to ferementations in the population. Imagine all the non Dalits having to struggle to choose between a whole bunch of Dalit names. You deprive the country of that priceless fermentation when you have the party leaders selecting the DaMaJaMa MPs.
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In The News
No arms management before political solution: Maoists NepalNews warned that his party would reconsider the idea of joining an interim government if the SPA government “continues to violate the agreements”. ........ the central committee meeting, which passed chairman Prachanda’s political report ‘Historic Possibilities and Historic Challenges” with amendment, has worked out the policies and plans for a ‘people’s movement’ in two phases if the SPA fails to move towards unconditional elections to constituent assembly and democratic republican system........ isolated cases of violence and abductions were being exaggerated, the meeting decided to take strict measures to stop extortion and abductions at the lower level and make donations to the party completely voluntary. ....... 10-member committee .... Prachanda .. Dr Baburam Bhattrai, Ram Bahadur Thapa ‘Badal’, Krishna Bahdur Mahara, Dev Gurung, Pampha Bhusal, Dina Nath Sharma, Matrika Yadav, Nanda Kishor Pun ‘Pasang’ and Khadga Bahadur BK...... offices would be set up in district headquarters to facilitate the return of properties seized by the Maoists and help the displaced people return to the villages.......
Summit meeting within a week: Minister Gyawali the summit meeting would settle the political matters, the King’s position and the arms management issue ....... the upcoming summit meeting would also arrive at an agreement on the structure of the interim parliament and the process of constituent assembly. ...... complete settlement of the armies and the arms of the Maoists would become possible only after the election to constituent assembly and that the stance of representatives of some friendly nations that the rebels should be disarmed right away was not workable.
State Affairs Committee undecided on the issue of Head of the State the Parliamentary State Affairs Committee (SAC) could not decide on whether to remove the terminology ‘His Majesty’ or replace it with the ‘Head of the State’
Right activists criticise Katawal’s appointment Katawal played important role to suppress pro-democracy movement ...... rights activists have accused Katawal of penning anti-democracy articles under the pseudonym Ajya P Nath during the people's movement.......
Nepal Police publicises whereabouts of 55 people: Report security forces have released 47 individuals who were on the commission’s disappearance list ...... Three individuals are in custody at detention centres while five were killed in clashes between Maoists and security forces....... there are still about 600 unresolved disappearance and 100 abduction cases with the commission
Maoists to return captured land The Maoists have admitted to capturing 1,200 bighas of land belonging to 80 individuals in the district ..... meeting also decided to form a joint task force to encourage the activists of different political parties to return to villages, chairman of Joint Marxists, Siraha, Chandra Dev Kamat said
Nepal government caught 'lying' about arms cargo the multi-party government began denying having any knowledge of it, records showed both the government and the army were very much aware of what was going on. ..... Kosmos' transporting plane was scheduled to fly from Minsk in Belarus through Burgas in Bulgaria, Baku in Azerbaijan, India and then land at Kathmandu from where it was scheduled to depart for Rastovna-donn in the former USSR. ..... the army too feigned ignorance with the spokesperson of Nepal Army, Brigadier General Nepal Bhushan Chand, telling the media he was 'unaware of any such consignment meant for the army'..... the manufacturers of the consignment are a Belarus company, Sue Orsha, and a Bulgarian firm, Emco Ltd..... Apparently, Nepal's government decided to refurbish its arsenal despite holding peace talks with the Maoists and finance minister Ram Sharan Mahat's assertion that the government would slash military expenses.
Nepal king’s vast business interests uncovered in probe Indian Express besides owning several pieces of prime land, forest areas and farms, the king had shares in luxury hotels, a tobacco company, hydropower plants, travel agencies, food factories, textiles and tea estates. ..... amount to billions of rupees (millions of dollars) ..... Gyanendra had transferred the property of his slain brothers in the name of his wife Komal. .... and only allowed to own certain amount of land like everyone else
Nepal king’s vast business interests uncovered in probe Indian Express besides owning several pieces of prime land, forest areas and farms, the king had shares in luxury hotels, a tobacco company, hydropower plants, travel agencies, food factories, textiles and tea estates. ..... amount to billions of rupees (millions of dollars) ..... Gyanendra had transferred the property of his slain brothers in the name of his wife Komal. .... and only allowed to own certain amount of land like everyone else
Nepal's communist rebels warn street protests against government International Herald Tribune, France
Maoists to launch campaign for peace
Rs 1,000 cr budget for border development schemes in 2007-08
Britain may halt development work in Nepal Peninsula On-line, Qatar
Nepal will be peaceful, prosperous, democratic: minister People's Daily Online, China
Maoists will lead protests if talks fail to reach political consensus: Prachanda Kantipur Publications
Before Disarming the Maoists
Deuba to meet Koirala soon to discuss unification issue
Summit meeting this week will decide on king and arms: Minister Gyawali
Flood victims block highway, relief programmes in high gear
NA shows concern over Maoists' act of taking army man in custody
Rare cry for Bhutanese refugees in New Delhi
MPs divided on king's interim role
Donation drive spares not even students
MPs urged to formulate policy for loan recovery
NPC to publicise interim plan
माओवादी दबाबले कार्यक्रम फिर्ता
'हतियार मगाउने को हो ?'
चन्दा दिन नसकेपछि राजीनामा
माओवादीद्वारा पुनः बेपत्ता
प्यूठानमा एफएम
कैलाश-सेती राजमार्ग
आरक्षण विवाद
महिला पर्यटक ट्याक्सी चालक
सय मेगावाटको परियोजना बन्ने
खराब कर्जा उठाउन कानुनी व्यवधान हटाउन सुझाव
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