The people of Nepal are justifiably proud that their country was never colonised, even though most other countries in the region were under the British. The joke in Kathmandu is that the British in India took one look at the mountains to the north, and didnât bother conquering Nepal because they found it ungovernable. The Chinese, too, invaded Nepal in the 18th century but headed right back because it just seemed like too much trouble to stay.
Given the political brinkmanship of the past month, it doesnât look like much has changed in the Himalayan kingdom-turned-republic. It is still ungovernable, and Nepalâs giant neighbours, India and China, are getting edgy about the prolonged instability.
Even the international media, it seems, has given up trying to make head or tail of what is going on in Nepal. The reports swing between alarmist and over-simplified headlines like âNepal on the brink of collapseâ to news of this yearâs mountaineering traffic jam on Mt. Everest.
After a pro-democracy movement in 1990 turned Nepal into a constitutional monarchy, Nepalâs Maoist guerrillas waged a ruinous ten-year war that left 16,000 dead. A ceasefire agreement in 2006 led to the Maoists contesting and winning elections in 2008 for a Constituent Assembly to write a new constitution. The monarchy was abolished and Nepal was declared a secular, federal republic.
With four rickety coalition governments in as many years, and three extensions of the constitution-making body, Nepalâs Supreme Court ruled that the assemblyâs mandate couldnât be extended beyond May 27 this year. On that day, last-minute attempts to strike a deal between Nepalâs four main political groupings on two contentious points in the constitution failed. Prime minister Baburam Bhattarai let the Constituent Assembly die a natural death, and abruptly declared elections for November. So, Nepal is in a limbo: it doesn’t have a constitution, it doesnât have a legislature, it has a lame-duck prime minister and a ceremonial president. The country is sailing into uncharted waters, with only a sketchy interim constitution that can be interpreted every which way. Any move the president or prime minister makes now can be interpreted as unconstitutional, and be legally challenged.
There were disagreements on two main provisions in the new constitution that led to the deadlock: on the boundaries and labels of future federal units and on whether Nepal should keep its parliamentary system of government or go for a directly-elected presidential system. Nepal’s political parties have wide disagreements between themselves, and even within individual parties about these provisions.
While the coalition of the Maoists and a group of regional parties from the plains broadly favour ethnic-based federalism and a directly elected president, the centrist Nepali Congress and the moderate left UML oppose federal units named after ethnic groups and fear that a directly-elected president could become a dictator.
Things got so polarised in the month before the constitutional deadline that the western part of Nepal was completely shut down by a month-long strike by groups with rival demands for a federal territory. Kathmandu itself saw an often-violent three-day shutdown in which vehicles were vandalised and reporters attacked.
The debate over the new constitution has boiled down to whether Nepal should have future federal provinces named after indigenous groups (and if so, how many), or have as few provinces as possible carrying neutral geographical names.
Proponents of ethnic federalism argue that it will devolve power to Nepal’s 100 or so marginalised ethnic groups, bring them into mainstream national politics and encourage autonomy and local self-governance. Opponents fear that ethnic federalism will weaken Nepal’s fragile national unity, fragment the country into warring ethnic fiefdoms, encourage conflict over natural resources and keep the country poor.
A Public Opinion Survey carried out by Himalmedia in May showed that nearly three-quarters of the respondents, including a majority from Nepalâs various ethnicities, thought federalism based on identity was a bad idea. A majority were also fed up with parliamentary democracy, and willing to give a directly-elected president the chance to take charge. Although there was widespread public disappointment that the new constitution was not written by May 27, many in Nepal also heaved a sigh of relief because the compromise worked out on ethnic federalism would have left everyone unhappy and would have spilled out into rival street protests.
It is doubtful elections can be held by November as announced by the prime minister. But there is an urgent need to end the political uncertainty by cobbling together a government of national unity, and for the parties to go back to where they left off on the constitution to try to find a workable formula on federalism.
This isnât insurmountable since those for and opposed to ethnic-based federalism had come to a compromise plan on May 27, and tweaking it could address the concerns of both sides. But for this, Nepalâs political parties need to show more responsibility and far-sightedness than they have exhibited so far.
Playing politics with identity is dangerous, but not redressing existing grievances and discrimination in Asiaâs most unequal country can be even more so. And that will make Nepal even more ungovernable than it was 200 years ago. (Inter Press Service, Rome)
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Very interesting beginning of this article.That reminded me of those huge investment plans Bhattarai’s government forcefully,in hurry signed with India and China,which already proves that plans were signed only on paper and like always will never have a deadline or fulfillment as projected as we are being pushed back by the government inability to complete one task for years,example ,constitution writing and governance system,forget about the signed projects by Dahal and main investors behind these projects.
The following gets even more interesting or better say,it is too simple not to see, but the fruit is not ripe yet,so we play along with these ideas ,is an understatement.Here in place would be this explanation ,. So we all hold low key to see what main actors have in mind.
Therefore Bhattarai and Dahal are pushing with concensus government as we all want a conclusion and only wise choice would be to forge concensus but as you know,the purpose and the goals differ.
What we want from the government and our rights,duties responsibilites must be written in our Constitution by us.
Without our participation no ideas can have development and most importantly we must start where we left off as participating parties have to keep an open mind .We need to hear,see,listen and act on what maoist leaders do and say.They have simply chosen lies,offensive attitude.That who shouts louder is heard,that who tells first the lies is the righteous one,is the Dahal’s attitude and whichever way maoists play,is handy for Dahal ,Bhattarai and maoists.Does that make a sense?
I like this simple saying ”international media has given up trying to make head or tail ”not because of inability to understand what is going on, but respecting the Nepal’s SELFDETERMINATION AS THE sovereign state is my opinion and we would do better if we didn’t look everytime over our shoulders.
The other catchy words for me are” this yearâs mountaineering traffic jam on Mt. Everest.”
I wonder why,is it because Dahal’s son was made to reach peak with the help of his body guards.But here we must recognize one undeniable proof,the younger generation will always succeed,given support.It is worth thinking for King and his family.The idea of monarchy must be abondended,it has no future.Here too,too many big forces have joined together to make sure it won’t happen,however the new form of governanace is the future of Nepal and only forces behind this concept will be let succeed and are meant to succeed and older generation would be wise to let and support,is the reality of life and will keep everyone on tracks and have full circle of life.
Isnt’ it the whole purpose of development and life???????
The reason’s we argue ,disagree on are ;
”boundaries and labels of future federal units ”
”and on whether Nepal should keep its parliamentary system of government or go for a directly-elected presidential system.”
Why do we need to follow the suit?Just because most governments have divided their countries into federal states doesn’t mean we must adopt this way of governing as well.No matter how many federal states maoist or madhesi or other parties want ,it is not helping people in selfdetermination as we have more than 200 enthic groups.Therefore Bhattarai and Dahal ,IF YOU DO CARE, abandon this idea and bring in new and more sensible ,acceptable for everyone idea,have as few provinces as possible carrying neutral geographical names so that people of these few provinces can focus on development all around based and focused on the riches each province has and share it in community called Nepal and tread with outside world the exccesses.It must not deprive any province from the riches the whole country has.If one province won’t have hydro power station must not mean or exclude those other provinces from accessing or being able to use services and riches of the other ,as we are all Nepalese and whatever my country has in East ,I being in West must be able to have access too etc.In my opinion,it is the only open minded politics and economical development to be followed.The question here is,how do we connect?Possibilities for these obtion are tremendous with variety,positive results for all the people at all levels to get involved and use fruits of work.
The main stumbling stone was and is ”should we keep its parliamentary system of government or go for a directly-elected presidential system.”
Nepali Congress and the moderate left UML argue that directly-elected president could become a dictator and they are well thought out concerns and rightly so.
With the statements made by Dahal about NA ,one should really be alert.There are two posibilities and two developments possible.
All main players are trying to kill two rabbits with one shot ,but it certainly aren’t NC,UML,Madhesi or other smaller parties.
The answer is clear,who they are.My question here is only one.Do we want President or Parlamentary system.
Maoists want President.Why?If it works out and we choose President,there are two possibilities,one that Dahal will have outsmarted his sponsor behind and we know who they are or if he is being kept in the grip,he won’t loose anyway,as he will be as hes is now the right hand of his sponsors.Again ,the question is,do we want maoist Dahal or Bhattarai inforce their values,which have been till now,kill in the name of political power and further tell us that everything they slaughter or is for our own good,or we choose President as the head of the state and bring our own choice of President,which is possible,but knowing who is at politics and what are ordinary peoples daily errands ,we can never bring our choice forward,so the choice we are left is,either Maoist as President or members of ex King’s family.We all know the writer of this scenario.As the developments in the country show,it was only maoists that could go out of zone of comfort and they are being paid for by their sponsors to do the job.As you see,they are succeeding and therefore being useful and not even punished.We also must think that there must be always given a second chance.
The question to NC and UML,do we succeed in bringing out President and take this thin line and after giving chance to first Presidential elections choose the young,capable writer of this scenario or choose maoist signatures.As you see,Dahal,Bhattrai will do their job anyway and will be paid,for them people are just the steps to succeed for their individual needs.Was the Constitution of 1990 constitutional monarchy worse?No,not the content of the Constitution,but there is always a need to strive to higher standards and inclussion in our morales the best humanly accessable rights and duties and responsibilites for everyone and since we are writing a new Constitution ,this would be one life time opportunity to do so,however,only selfdetermination is possible only in democratic society,not in the maoist utopia.Let’s the maoist smart ideas rule the game,as Dahal said,we outsmarted you all and the attitude he has chosen to approach the people is,tell total truth of what he did,so that people see how smart he and his co- Bhattarai are and that nothing has changed in their ideology,is for his rival Baidhaya and his believers,to succeed in the CA elections and from there in first Presidential elections.Whichever way he pushes,he needs people to follow to win,but we must keep the bigger picture in mind,who do we want as President and when is the time to stop following ,stop or we keep Parlamentary system and push back country in uncharted water’s .The wave,the wave…………………Are we waiting for the biggest wave to catch the ship and let it sail????????????
So many times in my commentaries I explained the reasons of PLA integration,why it was done and what is the whole purpose to do so.My commentaries were not printed as they were telling the whole politics ahead of what was going on in the country and why.Is the media helping people to understand?No, or maybe constrast of opinions is the colourfullness of life or simply slow and steady wins the race.I just described three ways people work,ones that work hard and consistently everyday,ones that do not work and hope to outsmart by chance and the third ones,that do not care what is going on in life as long as they are not touched by uncomfort.
Governing ungovernable is the title of this article.The house is messy,so big deal,as long as one feels comfy in it.Those who have reached and found selffulfillment ,have come out of their shells ,but in the messy house there must be priorities,duties and responsibilities,only then we can hope for governing.
It is a simple conclusion to make.
The name of the provinces should reflect the existing demography,the composition of the people living in them,not based on one select group dominant(first ranking) or otherwise.
Kathmandu has 98 and Morang has 96 ethnic group of people living there. EvenKalikot which has least has 35 group.
The select seven do not represent all the group living in the country.
Minorities rights are to be protected in a dem ocracy.
Minorities are the kings.
So the names of the proposed provinces must be such that are acceptable to all concerned. If no why not from the marginalized or the endangered among the commuunity like the Rautes or the Kusundas etc etc ; and not from Newars or likewise.
Madhesis are demanding a centralized One Madhes ,not based on ethnicity in the Tarai. But they support ethnic provinces in Pahad. What is their rationale?Their demand is it not oxymoron?
Referandom for the names are the only solution.
Reply to respected DG
Division based on any kind of enthnicity,demography like you said,is exactly what must not happen.Why to tear apart something that has been settled long ago.People made their choice and they are happy.Why build walls between them?Lets respect every individuals self determination rights first of all from the basics,for a very simple reason,we are human race capable of thinking and living together in a community having common government languages,nepali and english .I hope everyone understands the reasons why these two languages.It doesn’t be little people knowing more languages,just the opposite..Does that make sense?It is not one man for himself or one region for itself,it is a community of Nepal interconnected ,sharing.The main problem here I see,is the centre Kathmandu still holding onto its will to control and distribute as they would consider.When the purse is in my pocket ,I control ,is the only ill mannered attitude of politicians and that must be pulled out as the weed.Carrying neutral geographical names, I see only as a peaceful ,respectful solution for our society, specially because it is so varied demographycally across the country.There are more important issues than dividing people according to demography,enthnical groups,or how ever you call it.It doesn’t mean that culture,language,will or must disappear,or that people of different castes,cultures can not live together respecting each other simply because we are humans.It doesn’t mean that there won’t be development or growth in all spheres of life.Neutral geographical names,divided in delopmental regions ,as of now .It must not be a question who has more of what or how much riches the land holds,each of the regions has something of its own what other region doesn’t have.Just because the governments till now never released and used fonds meant to development has led far west and east regions deprived.The concern must be on following through with fonds and budget,plans and distribution accordingly to the needs prioritized by the people of that region,prioritized by the necessities and possibilites of that region,prioritizied by the basic needs of every human being to a minimum of standards.For that you do not need to write in the constitution bauns,or nevars ,madhesis,chetris etc.Till now what government always did was patched the holes and freezed the money,by the way just saying freezed,there was no money to use,it was stitched and mainly misused .Its the ideology that worries this government the most.Ideology is not gone feed people,care for them ,or educated children ,or plant crops etc.nothing comes free,it is a two way street,government and people,duties,responsibilites equally divided.Referandum ,Parlamentary Elections and participation of the whole nation to elect the President are the steps to be taken to resolve these issues.These three steps in my opinion can resolve the problem,can bring compromise only if Maoist stance on Federal states based on ethnicity or demography are abandoned,as there is more leaning towards the President than Parlamentary system,eventhough UML and NC are concerned,however who we elect as a President is important.
While an oversimplification, it seems like if one side is demanding ethnic federalism with a presidential system and the other side is pushing for a parliamentary system with geographic-based federalism, the compromise lies with each dropping their first demand. This then leaves Nepal with a presidential system coupled with geographic-based federalism.
Something along these lines appears to be the only way out. Now that the Baidya faction has broken off, there is no way this secondary Maoist party will accept a parliamentary style system. But accepting a presidential system a la United States will allow these hardliners to offer their constituents a fig leaf to tide them over in accepting geographic-based federalism. The Maoists themselves know that they have opened Pandora’s box by demanding ethnic federalism and this will allow them a face-saving way of retracting it.
Never colonised or civilised ? all colonised countries are better off in the meantime, be it in Africa, America or Asia. Nepal as an independent state doesn’t exist, it was a invention of the Shas and Ranas tolerated somehow from North and South. My father in law used to say, I am going to Nepal when talking about Kathmandu. Some years ago, we asked one of the leading factories if they would be interessted in a joint venture in Nepal, no thanks was the message from the HQ
If these lying idiots can’t write the new constitution then so what? Just revive the old 1990 Constitution and throw out all these louts! If they’re not happy, tell them to go back to the jungle and fight. We will fight them back tooth and nail too!
That’s the spirit with which Nepal was created and defended from the British and Chinese. This crap editor doesn’t know what he’s talking about when he says Nepal was ‘ungovernable’ back then. On the contrary, it was so well-governed that we were strong enough to repel any foreign invaders. That’s the truth.
Nepal has only become ‘ungovernable’ under the Bahun leaders of today and their Bahun yes-men in media and ‘civil society’. Just get rid of them, get rid of this ‘new constitution’ crap and REVIVE THE 1990 CONSTITUTION! We were better off under that system than a ‘new’ one promised by these politicians!
As a frequent guest in your country, I hesitate to venture specific opinions. I am very grateful to Kunda Dixit for his precis of Nepal’s recent history and his moderate proposals for a resolution to the present problems. I plan to share this column with friends I have introduced to your beautiful country and its generous people.
#foreigner, That’s double daft: getting colonized or civilized! You are gotten to be hoist with your own petard!! Freedom has no price. We prefer a bird free to fly away in the sky than confined to a cage. The same thing applies to the human beings as well. No human being with consciousness wants to be colonized by an unknown foreign power and be enslaved for decades and decades. But if we quote Abraham Lincoln,”The money power prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy.”
You talk about civilization, what civilization? The technical know how has instead of spreading socioeconomic harmony it has augmented the gap between the haves and the have nots.
Let’s be humble, if you please!?!
So is Afghanistan, ungovernable.
Like I always say, Nepal needs –
A. Sniper Rifles
B. Snipers
C. Sniper for Dummys
There is a time and place for addressing grievances. Now–during the process of creating our federal republic—is not that time. There are something that cannot be done together; they have to done chronologically. Once label-neutral States are formed, the ethnicities that seek more empowerment need to work on ensuring that constituency boundaries for the national assembly adequately represent them. Infusing any ethnic label on the 14 or the 11 proposed States would have sowed the seeds of fragmentation–alienation of groups that did not land the labeling right, reservation of opportunities for the ones with the labeling right, etc–and our federal republic would never take off. And that is exactly what happened. However dysfunctional our governance may appear, the system worked perfectly! It did not allow our federal republic to be constructed on weak foundations. And we have been in a State of introspection, debates, confusion, void, limbo, whatever you may want to call it–but its all part of the process, a democratic process. The only element that can step into this void–the army–has restrained itself so far, and we should really be proud of it. Our federal republic is working, lets be patient..
Great post. It is not ungovernable, Nepal needs a strong government with vision creating jobs for future.
In the spirit of cooperation parties will manage nicely. No one will read newspapers, watch tv as we imagine. It.