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Open Debate-One: Federalism: Good or Bad for Nepal ?

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Debate: One: from our Guest Editor Kishor Shrestha
Federalism: Good or Bad for Nepal ?

1. There are more than 230 countries and territories in the world among which, 24 countries have federal systems. Nepal is set to soon become the twenty fifth country with a federal government system.

2. Federalism is related to colonialism, a method to unite divided countries or territories into one country.

There are 13 percent dalits (untouchable or lower caste) people in Nepal out of the total population, and 37.7 percent are minority or ethnic groups. There are 31.2 percent of the population living in the Terai, and another 4 percent live in remote areas.

4. If our country is divided into many federal autonomous states, it is clear that those people would be divided across many states. In this case the percentages might be reduced to as little as minus 1 percent. Inclusiveness & federalism are two different things.

5. Every autonomous federal state would have its own chief minister, governor, high court, parliament, police force, chief secretary, cabinet & so on.

Today, our country is not in a situation to bear the expense of the current large Constituent Assembly of 601 members. They are getting paid more than 40 thousand rupees ( USD $ 589.00 ) per member per month. Can we afford similar expense for more than 15 federal states?

The existing zone & district headquarters would be scrapped & restructured into the federal system within the next 5 to 10 years.

6. Federalism is best suited to a country which has one language & one nationality (race) as in Germany where 91.5 percent of the people are of the same nationality. All people speak the German language. In Argentina 97 percent of the people speak the same language, whereas in Australia almost 100 percent are English speaking and 92 percent are Caucasian.

Nepal's context is totally different. There are more than 103 languages and 59 government recognized ethnic communities. More ethnic groups are demanding recognition by the state.

7. There are 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria. It became independent from the British colony in 1900. It had a unitary system until 1954. The constitution of 1960 created three ethnic states, but the next day it was expanded to 4, thus encouraging people to demand more and the result is 36 states. Now they are fighting for a 37th state.

Sudan has also similar problem which began with 3 states and now has 26.

8. United States of America (USA) is made of 50 states. Originally, there were 13 colonies or states which rebelled against British rule and signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

9. India’s states rose from 11 to 28 and 7 Union Territories. Nepalese of Indian origin (Gorkha) are struggling to be the 29th state.

Spain has the same problem, Canada's case is complex, Bolivia experienced a similar problem in 2006.

10. These are a few examples of the results of dividing a country on the basis of ethnicity, caste and region.

11. Another question arises- how would national level political parties be able to implement their policies & programs in the states since regional parties might be stronger there?

12. I have serious doubt about whether we are going to gain anything better by dividing our country into a federal structure.

13. Do you have any better idea? Welcome to this debate. Let's start. Here. Now.

July 15, 2008, Kathmandu

Kishor Shrestha. Photo courtesy: author

-Kishor Shrestha, Editor, Jana Aastha National Weekly
Comments? 00977-1-4442552 (O.), 5542542 (R.), 4430088 (Fax)
GPO Box No.6630, Kathmandu

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