Press Release
Make Constitution with Broad Participation
Ottawa, Canada, 14 February 2006: A constitution assembly must be inclusive of all sectors of society if the constitution made by such body is to win the hearts and minds of the people. Formulating a new constitution for a country is a special event in history and an assembly to write it need not be composed in the same way as a parliament elected under a permanent constitution. This was the conclusion that came out of an interaction program organized by Canada Forum for Nepal in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada on February 11. The interaction program was organized on currently emerging ethnic and constitutional issues of Nepal.
Although many ordinary Nepalese not belonging to any specific party contributed so enormously in the April uprising, people not belonging to the parties have essentially been sidelined in the constitution making process by the political parties. Although the parties had agreed to include people of all walks of life in the constituent assembly during the uprising, they wrote the interim constitution so as to have all the seats of the constituent assembly to the members of the political parties. The parties spent most of the time on fringe issues, such as arguing about monarchy, which the uprising wanted to abolish; lingering an old parliament, which people did not fight to revive; filling more party members in parliament, which was promised to include civil society figures, and writing non-inclusive interim constitution, which was promised to be inclusive. Grievances against non-inclusion are strong and the movement of Madhesh of January 2007 was fueled by those grievances. These were the assertions of the General Secretary of Joint Forum for Human Rights, Mr Gopal Siwakoti Chintan, who spoke in the interaction program.
On the same program, Mr Richard Harmston of South Asia Partnership Canada said that the current troubles experienced by Nepal were primarily streaming out of an “incompetence window” as opposed to a “conspiracy window”. Often times, when leaders find themselves incompetent to handle the situation, they end up throwing a conspiracy theory to make people tow their lines. If parties and leaders do not know how to run a democratic and fair system but rather be blinded by party interests and family interests, they could end up in the same situation as they were in the last ten years. Maoists had gained their relevance by fighting against palace, exclusion and chronic exploitation but they will also not find resonance to the populace if they do not repent for their past violations of human rights and stand strong on their other credible principles of equality.
In the future, it may be possible for the political parties to democratically rule the country as per the rules of reform, inclusion, representation and governance outlined by the people’s constitution. However, the process of making the constitution must involve the whole society. Because more than ninety percent people who do not carry party memberships are to be ruled by the same constitution, their strong role in formulating that constitution is ever more so important. The parties should urgently shed the traditional mentality that all affairs of a nation should be controlled by their own senior figures. They better give seats in the constituent assembly to various sectors of society. These were the views expressed by Dr Pramod Dhakal of the Canada Forum for Nepal.
There was a general consensus that the parties were passing the responsibilities of punishing the corrupt to the institutions like Akhtiyar. But the parties must not act like losers when they have no one to negotiate with in implementing the mandates of the people, said Dr Toya Nath Baral, a research scientist. Mr Bhuwani Paudel, a Geotechnical Engineer, told that fixed seats could be allocated in the constitution assembly for candidates from various sectors, and the parties could still compete for those seats if they have such candidates in the party. Dr Neeru Shrestha, an economist, said that Nepal should not neutralize the non-party voices in the constitution making process and should not behave like the owners of the country; they should rather behave like the representatives of the people.
All participants had almost unanimous view that the interim government should implement the Rayamajhi and Mallik commission reports swiftly. They shared a view that the interim parliament should scrap old 205 constituencies, formulate more fair election process, and use proportional representation system. The interim parliament should also amend interim constitution to enshrine fair representation for women, Dalit, Janajati, Madhesi, handicapped, remote communities, civil society figures, and professionals in the constituent assembly election.
For more information:
Dr. Pramad Dhakal
Executive Director
Canada Forum for Nepal
33 Bellman Drive, Ottawa, ON K2H 8S3 Canada
Phone: + 1 613 596-6692
Email: pdhakal@cffn.ca
Web: www.cffn.ca
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