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Baluwatar Brainstorming
By SANJAYA DHAKAL
A huge crowd of people assembled in the street in front of eastern gate of Baluwatar residence of Prime Minister on Tuesday reflected the groundswell of popular expectation that the summit meeting going on inside would restore lasting peace in the country.
The crowd consisted not only of the civil societies and pressure groups but also a fair number of general public who wanted nothing other than peace and prosperity.
In a historic summit meeting between the top leaders of seven parties and the Maoists, all the issues related with political and socio-economic transformation of the country are being discussed.
The summit meeting, which was held on Sunday (October 8) and Tuesday (October 10) has not yet been able to reach broad understanding on key contentious issues. However, on Tuesday, the summit meeting was able to agree to hold the elections for the Constituent Assembly (CA) by mid-June 2007.
Other contentious issues such as management of arms, finalization of interim constitution, interim parliament, status of monarchy and so on remain to be settled. The summit meeting on Thursday (October 12) is expected to conclude on these matters.
On Tuesday, the meeting also decided to appoint commissioners at the Election Commission by mid-October for the purpose. It assigned the talks team of the government and the Maoists to engage in homework to identify points of common understanding and submit them at the next summit meeting.
“Tuesday’s meeting was significant in facing the challenges of the nation,” said Krishna Sitaula, coordinator of government talks team, addressing the press meeting after Tuesday’s summit meeting. Sitaula said the meeting discussed various issues including implementation of past agreements, major points of interim constitution, monarchy, interim parliament, interim government and modalities of CA.
On the other hand, Maoist spokesperson and coordinator of its talks team Krishna Bahadur Mahara said that this time the summit meeting discussed key issues of national importance in a more serious manner.
Mahara said that the leaders exhibited willingness to reach to understanding rather than stick to their positions. “The nation does not only desire peace. It also desires change, which means complete restructuring of state,” he said.
Management of Arms
The issue of management of arms has become one of the major stumbling blocks in reaching an agreement with the Maoists.
It has been a well-known viewpoint of not only the Nepal government but also international community that the Maoists must first disarm themselves and renounce violence for good.
But this viewpoint has been rejected by the Maoists who believe that their army is the genuine army. “There have been concerted propaganda to project the issue of arms management in a manner as to push us to a corner. We reject this,” said Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, second-in-command of the Maoists.
Dr. Bhattarai said that management of Maoist arms is not the ‘major issue.’ “Rather it is the restructuring of the royal army that is the major issue,” he said.
During the summit meetings also the Maoist leaders reportedly told their seven party counterparts that the question of managing their arms does not arise unless it is raised simultaneously with the issue of managing what they continue to call as ‘royal army.’
“During the meeting, Maoist leaders asked us why we were talking about disarming the same army that had helped in the People’s Movement II and in the restoration of democracy,” said Narayan Man Bijukchhe, president of Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP) said.
As leaders continue to search for common grounds the issue of arms management is likely to be resolved in a “package form.” “On Tuesday, there has been broad agreement among us all to search for its solution in a package form – that is to manage both armies simultaneously,” said Dr. Bhattarai.
Status of Monarchy
Another sticking point at the summit meeting has been the status of monarchy. Even among seven parties, there are various viewpoints about how to treat the monarchy, particularly during the interim period.
There is one proposal by the Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) to decide the fate of monarchy through a referendum to be held alongside CA polls. This proposal has drawn a wide support including that of the Maoists.
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Mahara (left) and Sitaula: All smiles |
However, two Congress parties have maintained that holding referendum would only help to activate the already inactive monarchy. They contend that the issue of monarchy should be left for the elected CA to decide. Especially NC president and prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala favor giving a ‘ceremonial’ role to the King.
The Maoists, on the other hand, have been pushing for outright declaration of republic in the interim constitution. “If some parties have reservations of doing so, then lets decide the fate of monarchy through referendum,” said Dr. Bhattarai.
The summit meeting is expected to decide on this matter also on Thursday. Analysts predict that the meeting might decide to keep the toothless monarchy in present state till the elections of CA and/or referendum.
Interim Constitution
The meeting of Sunday as well as Tuesday extensively discussed various aspects of interim constitution.
Already an incomplete draft of interim constitution has been submitted by the drafting committee formed by the seven parties and the Maoists.
The summit meeting is filling up the blanks in that draft constitution. Since constitution involves a whole lot of issues, Tuesday’s meeting has assigned the talks team of the government and the Maoists to identify points of agreement and submit them to the Thursday’s meeting.
The whole interim arrangement including interim legislature and government will have to be dealt with by the interim constitution. The division of parliamentary seats and government portfolios can also come under its purview.
Apart from the separate issue of interim parliament, the interim constitution has also been dragged into debate on the status of monarchy, independence of judiciary and so on. “We want all the judges to be reappointed so that they are loyal to the new constitution. Otherwise, there is a possibility of disturbances from the judiciary that has been groomed under feudal regime,” said Dr. Bhattarai.
Although many people think that the interim constitution does not deserve much seriousness as it would be there only for a short period of time, they could not be further from the truth. The fact that both seven party leaders and Maoists gave the drafting committee two weeks to complete the draft of interim constitution speaks volumes about the seriousness with which they treat this subject. This ridiculous decision later fell flat when the committee could not produce a complete draft even after two months.
“The interim constitution currently discussed by the parties is a project of the greatest possible importance. It is to regulate Nepal ’s transition to Democracy for a considerable period, a minimum of two and a half years including both the provisional arrangements before and during the period of elections for a constituent assembly, as well as the duration of the assembly itself. Under an interim constitution, the constituent assembly itself would be bound to procedural rules. If under these rules a new constitution is not successfully drafted and enacted, a new assembly would have to be elected still under the interim constitution that would then remain the country’s basic law possibly for another two years,” writes Professor Andrew Arato, an American constitutional expert in his article “The Interim Constitution.”
According to Professor Arato, being Nepal ’s constitution for this extremely important and extended period, if well designed, the interim constitution can solve three fundamental problems. “It can protect the country from dictatorship for the whole transitional period by subjecting all power holders both to its rules and to the separation of powers. That is why there must be an interim legislature and constitutional court in the document, and not just an interim executive as in older provisional government formulas. Second, being part of a two stage process it can provide the country important learning experiences with what works and what does not on the constitutional level so that the constitutional assembly can then design a better, more permanent constitution. And finally, if enacted through the inclusion of at least the main political forces and with the support of society, the interim constitution can solve the problem of how to begin legitimately a democratic order when a fully democratic beginning is impossible, since elections have not yet taken place and someone has to provide the rules and the framework for their organization.”
Given the high importance of interim constitution and its power to shape the nation’s destiny, Thursday’s summit meeting will have to weigh in all kinds of options and opinions when finalizing it. “If it successfully guides the democratic transition, it is the interim constitution that will establish Nepal ’s place among the most advanced forms of constitution making in the modern world,” writes Professor Arato.
Historic Summit
For obvious reasons, Thursday’s summit meeting is set to be a historic one. But there are enough apprehensions and reservations that compel one to become cautious about its outcome.
For instance, Dr. Bhattarai has warned that anybody who is demanding that the summit meeting of one or two days reach conclusion on all issues, is being naïve. “Although the King as the feudal leader has weakened, there are the feudal production relations that shape the mentality of major parliamentary parties. Therefore, this is a kind of class struggle,” he said.
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