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View Point: No More a Himalayan Kingdom
"When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
How Republic Was Declared
It
was 11:00 am, 28 May, 2008 and a hot day. Thousands of Nepalese people
outside the International Conference Centre (ICC) were chanting, dancing
and pressuring the assembly to declare Nepal a republic. My friends and
I were invited as a members of Legislature-Parliament since, as
provisioned in the constitution of Nepal; we were supposed to be
outgoing members after closing down the first sitting of the Constituent
Assembly (CA).The Honorable Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, hurried in at around 6:00 pm, but didn’t have the physical strength to listen to the new national anthem being played by a Nepal Army Band as he entered the Constituent Assembly Meeting Hall in ICC.
The band was already 8 hours beyond the scheduled time. After the voting was finished and the counting begun, the prime minister again left the ICC for his residence without taking the salute in his honor because he was feeling unwell. The Honorable Kulbahadur Gurung, 73, the oldest Member of the CA, who was presiding over the first sitting, declared Nepal a Republic around 11:25 pm, with 560 votes for the motion and only 4 against. Those votes ended the Shah dynasty after 239 years, eight months and three days of power. The Nepal government declared a three day public holiday for people across Nepal to celebrate in grand manner.
What Brought It
Nepal had been facing a very serious political, security and humanitarian crisis in which preventive measures were urgently required to prevent further deterioration. Nearly a decade of conflict between the Government and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) - led insurgency had left more than 11,000 dead and had had a major destabilizing impact on one of the world’s poorest countries.
Nepal also faced a grave human rights situation, with record numbers of disappearances, thousands of uninvestigated deaths and large-scale child trafficking. The justice system was barely functioning or effective. Mass illiteracy, ethnic and religious divisions and absence of government leadership in many areas had compounded the country’s problems.
The root causes of political instability and bad governance in Nepal had their origins in the political structure. The political culture was still in its infancy even though the country had had many years of years of democratic experience. This woeful lack of political culture and its poor governance had given birth to the history of ill-managed economic planning and unmanaged social mobilization. Moreover, the near absence or poor management of development planning had contributed negatively towards Nepal’s economic prosperity, rural development and poverty alleviation. Conflict- related human rights abuses had and still have gone unchecked. Dalits and indigenous ethnic groups had become isolated from the main stream of development.
What Is the Way Ahead
The historical CA Poll, one of the main components of the peace process was completed successfully. The CA Assembly is represented by 49 Dalits, 150 Medhesis, 191 Women and 201 adibasis-Janajatis (indigenous-nationalities) and by some other social groups as well. The Nepalese people want a new political system – an inclusive democracy, freedom from corruption, exploitation and discrimination, respect for human rights and a new society.
The women of Nepal, who voted in large numbers during the CA elections, want equal status in the society. The marginalized communities, the indigenous people (Janajatis), the Dalits, Muslims and Madhesis want an end to discrimination. They want a decentralized, federal system of governance which will guarantee their "autonomy" and their "culture, language and identity".
The people want the new government to guarantee their right to work, right to housing, right to water, health and education. Politicians, bureaucrats, and members of civil societies must have ideas about an appropriate model of restructuring the state Nepal should practice, and what post-conflict development approach they could implement so that greater freedom and security can be achieved.
Political leaders claim that the republic was happened so sooner in Nepal because of the now ex-king Gyanendra’s unconstitutional steps after the tragic massacre in the royal palace. Nevertheless, the Nepalese people have the federal republic in their hands now, abolishing the three thousand year-old feudal monarchy system from the soil of Nepal.
Now political leaders and peoples’ representatives must maintain attitudes and behaviors that are in keeping with the norms and values that characterize a federal democratic republic, for only then it can be long lasting and sustainable.
In short, the makers of new Nepal should have the vision and programmes to bring about holistic change, including the balancing of our foreign relationship with the two giant neighbors, China and India so that we can avoid Nepal becoming another Sikkim or Bhutan.
Fatik Thapa Magar. Photo: Ashesh Dangol for NepalDirectory.Org
-Fatik B. Thapa Magar, Former Member, Legislature-Parliament, Nepal
June 2, 2008, Kathmandu
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