Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Dr Surendra KC, political analyst and Reader of History at the Central Department of History, TU

The October Fourth and February First royal steps have created a new political circumstances resulting in bitter political polarization process. Bowing down to the pressures from political parties, civil society, intellectuals and international commu­nity, Maoist leadership declared a three-month long unilateral truce and extended it by another month that too ended on 1st January 2006. And the govern­ment did not give any importance to it. Hence, in the backdrop of the evolution of a new "power equilibri­um", it seems that constituent assembly is the best of all available means to address the current critical situation. (This article was written much ahead of the emergence of the present situation-ed).

Nepalese context:

Constituent assembly is not a new lexicon to the Nepali politics. For the first time, Maharaja of Kaski and Lamjung and the then Prime Minister of Nepal Mohan Shamsher Rana in his proclamation made on 29 December 1950 mentions about the constituent assembly. It reads, "A constituent assembly shall be constituted soon through the ballots cast by the entire adults." It was also stated in the proclamation that the constituent assembly would hold its first assembly by 1953. But the ouster of 104-year-old Rana regime in 1950 could not materialize Mohan Shamsher's announcement. And King Tribhuvan's announcement about constituent assembly in 1950 also could not become a reality. Likewise, King Mahendra's constitution in 1959 also failed_ to work in less than one and a half year. Though taken as the 1990 constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal as the best one over more than a decade, it has too become inactive after the last royal takeover. But the need to form a new constitution is being increasingly realized to address power struggle and balance among the various constitutional forces, and if we want to reach that destination, constituent assembly can be the best of all options.

Constituent assembly's model

New trends and thoughts have evolved in national politics over the last 15 years. These thoughts are not purely political but also represent various religious, linguistic, social and ethnic dimensions. And the existing situation doesn't allow us to ignore those emerging thoughts and transforming the state into multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-tribal structure which is the need of the moment, then only nation's geographical unification can in real sense of the term transform into unification of the diverse sentiments. But the debate on what model of elections of the constituent assembly should be framed to represent 'egalitarian and equity-based thought' is not yet the issue of discussion.

Now the nation has 205 election constituencies. If the results of the last three general elections were any indication, the elected candidates could not represent ethnic, religious, linguistic and gender senti­ments. In the past parliamenta­ry polls, Dalits that cover 12 percent of the total population were not provided adequate parliamentary tickets to contest elections. In view of their population, they should have won in 25 constit­uencies. Likewise, nationalities in mountainous regions got only 13 percent spaces in the third election while they make up 23 percent of the total population. Madhesis constituting 29 percent of the population had only 18 percent representation and other nationalities like Rai, Limbu, Tamang, Gurung living in minority got nominal presence in the elections. To our utter dismay the women folks that constitute 50 percent of the total population had merely 3 and 6 percent presence in first-second and third general elections respectively. Like the seats in elections, their representation in both the Houses was also embarrassing.

Given the scenario, the consensus on making the state structure egalitarian and equitable is being enormously realized from all quarters. Models like the Westminster, Federal, Scandinavian, Swiss, and many others, are at our disposal. The debate on which structure must be used for the constituent assembly or for general elections or the continua­tion of the existing majority system is not also any less significant. Whichever models are adopted but there can't be any disagreement to make the struc­ture an egalitarian and representative one. Such systems can only address the aspirations of the nationali­ties, Dalits, women and Madhesis, and can provide just and proportional outlet to their diverse senti­ments. And the outlet should be based on political means but must not be expressed through sectarian way. It is the reality that some sort of centralism requires for a century having multi-religious and multi-ethnic set-up like ours. Secular democracy nan not alone address these issues. Moreover, it would be wise enough to go to a constituent assembly elections only after the settlement of these conflicting questions of multi-ethnicity, religiosity and culturality. To incorporate diverse senti­ments, a constitution drafting committee can be formed but a laser like focus on mainstreaming language, religion, race and gender ought to be also maintained. As far as questions of representation is related, political parties having the extent of represen­tation in constituent assembly can be given same amount of presence even in the constitution drafting committee.

Its declaration, preamble and dissolution:

As a part of tradition, the King has declared almost all the constitutions in Nepal. Now as a practice, the would-be chief of the constituent assembly can also declare the new constitution. And also in the preamble of the constitution, it can be written that "We the people of Nepal formed this constitution and declare our sovereignty through the constitu­tion on behalf of all Nepali people," instead of writing that the king has granted us the constitu­tion. When the constituent assembly finishes the task, it can be transformed into the House of Represen­tatives without dissolving it. This can be the best option in country like ours because going for fresh elections will cost higher.

Conclusion

Nepal is facing unprecedented crisis with political-­ideological polarity getting more and more acute than before. And it feels that king is in one block and parties including Maoists are in the other camp. But existing 'power equilibrium shows that none of these forces can defeat each other completely. And the current political rigidity not to shed off stubbornness can lead the nation into further quagmire of violence. For all, it would sound politic to go in for constituent assembly polls making the constitutional monarchy as its meeting point. At a time when political parties, civil society and the intelligentsia have more or less agreed on consensus for constituent assembly its inevitability is looming larger than in the past.

In the backdrop of the emerging situation, the process, modality and general consen­sus for constituent assembly has become the issue of debate. On this question, political parties civil society and the intelligentsia have held deliber­ations and come up with practical and beautiful sugges­tions too. Many of them have agreed on modality of the constituent assembly polls being similar to that of House of Representatives' elections. Number of constituencies can be 205 and voters will be the adults of 18 and above, But the constituency's number can be either decreased or increased as per the need based on consen­sus. Moreover, political parties require sending proper represen­tatives of the hitherto sidelined Dalits, nationalities, Madhesis and women into the constituent assembly on proportional manner. If participated like this, not only the Maoists but various ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic communities can also have their aspirations and sentiments ad­dressed. But the commitment of all political parties on making governance modality proportionally participatory and representative needs to be made. Only such modality entails the strength to make our society equity-based and lends social justice that in turn can help reducing social conflicts. And it is the best of all available means to open up avenues to rescue society from conflicts and terminate ongoing-armed Maoist conflict.

Text courtesy: "Good Governance, January-Februarv 2006 issue. Printed by the permission from the author-ed.

Practicing Banjhankri

-Trishna KC, Nepal

"Tantrism" also known as Shamanism is becoming very popular, and moreover, I have found foreigners more interested in it rather than Nepalese," says Guru Kedar Baral, a Banjhakri at Battisputali.

There are lots of shaman practices going on in Nepal and among such is one inspired by Kedar Baral. Initially belonging to Okhaldungha, Baral is presently based in Kathmandu. He had come here in the year 1995 and since then he has been very popular in Nepal and foreign countries for the shamanism power he has. He is also famous as foreteller. All the prediction he has made till date has been very true. In the year 2005, he also received Gorkha Dakhshin Bahu from the King.

He practices `Ahsram Nepal', where facilities such as spiritual healing, fortune telling, cure for alcoholic problems, drug addiction, smoking, infertility, exercises spirits invading human body and Shamanism teaching are provided.

At the age of seven, Baral was taken away by his Guru and from then on he has been blessed with supernatural powers of healing and curing people.

Sangeet Deuja, a student of B.Sc and now the follower of Guru says, "In the past one year there has been vast difference in my life. I had some problems for which I went to the doctors but my problem did not get solved. I never had faith in such things but when I came to Baral slowly I am getting cured."

He further adds, "A kind of strength is there otherwise why would I have such feelings. Some spirits have invaded in my body."

From doctors to scientists, all have been his followers till date. One doesn't believe in such supernatural powers but after his healing and treatment many people have benefited from it and have now started believing in this. He has the knowledge of 16 different languages of Nepal and can treat people belonging to different caste and ethnic group.

Everyday many people visit him to get cured for their problems. He has lots of students and followers too who have been learning from him about shamanism.

He informs, "Banjhakri is a follower of lord Shiva. Till date I have trained 35 students among which there was a doctor from America and a Scientist from Germany.

Besides that there are lots of followers from Japan too".

He further adds, " it is not a thing that everyone trusts and it is not mandatory for everyone to believe. Faith is a feeling which comes from within and people after becoming helpless from other treatment come to me. I have even treated people going to hospitals. Those who need the help of medical science need to go for it otherwise supernatural power is there."

Ram Prasad Chaulagain, a Computer Engineer who teaches in a reputed college is also the student of Guru Baral. He says, "I had come here as a visitor but got interested in this knowledge and wanted to know about it. Even I was treated by Guru and that made me impressed. Now even I have the knowledge of shamanism and have gained the power to heal people's problems. An external force or a kind of power is there which can be cured by shamans. Even medical sciences have not been able to understand about this matter.

Similarly, Rashmi Jha, a staff nurse by profession and a visitor says, "My brother was suffering from past 7 years and medical science had not been able to restore his health. I visited guru two months ago and my brother got cured after coming here. Being a nurse I myself have been stunned and now I have been regular visitor of Guru."

Ganesh Khatry, a student of Science, says, "It has been more than ten years since I knew Guru and I do believe in spiritual matters. There is a kind of supernatural strength which science cannot find."

Every year a competition is also held at Gosainkunda among the shamans. Baral has been winning the competition for the last four years. A shaman from France is also seeking knowledge from him.

There are many shamans in Nepal but those who have been taken by Banjhakri are more powerful. The students and followers of those shamans are practicing the knowledge. Besides that lots of foreigners are also coming to Nepal to know about this and have been practicing it.

Baral has also set an example in a society where only Tamangs are regarded to be shamans. Baral has plans to organize fair, which will promote the shamans of Nepal not only nationally but internationally too. Calling shamans from other countries will give an exposure to Nepalese shamans as well.

Text courtesy: Nepal Traveller, March/April 06 issue. Thanks the author and NT-ed.

Steaming out adverse political thoughts

Rajeeb Lal Satyal, Kathmandu

I try to avoid using clichés in my write ups. But here in this case, I won’t, to make myself understood: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”(however disgusting it may be to you, to complete the cryptic implication) That is the exact phenomenon everyone in Nepal seem to follow or go through, to avoid adversity. In fact, that makes sense with another cliché: hul mul ma jyan jogaunu (“save yourself in the crowd”). So we all are doing, following and subscribing to ideas, practice, and belief we may not really believe for the fear of being alienated. It is inherent in our national nature to seek mass approval for anything we think or do. We clearly need a psychological revolution to empower people.

 Another cliché I am using is the “The emperor’s new clothes” the new clothes here being “democracy”, which everyone pretends to understand the meaning of. But this time, the clothes are not the emperor’s; it is the political parties’ new invisible clothes which can hardly bring any peace and prosperity to commoners. It will surely bring more power and prosperity to same old political parties, handful of rich supporters to meet their recently developed quest for media attention and secure distinct position in society. The people who are protesting on the street will be abandoned and no substantial improvement will come in their lives. They will be devoid of even the most basic necessities, while their leaders will gain power. While a handful of leaders of student unions will become ministers, members of parliaments (owls), majority of students who are forced to join street agitation will disrupt their education, and consequently, their career. These are the bitter truths.

 Another device I’m using is an oxymoron; political leaders are following an oxymoronic paradox whereby they are unknowingly empowering the king in the process of de-empowering him; the more pressure they put on King to commit to constituent assembly, the more recognition they are giving to his power. Even when the King has proclaimed that he will handover power to the people, instead of cashing in to exercise their political power to form an all-party government, revoke the parliament, and finally declare elections to the constituent assembly, they are still avoiding to do so on some lame technical pretexts and are further extending the agitation. They seem to lack the moral power to do that, as they lack genuine alliance-culture: unity and political skill to lobby with foreign allies and lead the country without blaming each other. May be they fear the possible failure. The question here is “If the SPA can not trust the King’s open proclamation, which was internationally recognized, broadcasted and witnessed, what is the basis for the common people to trust them to achieve something they could not do during their 12 years of rule, especially when they are still looking at the King to solve all their problems even before they form their democratic government? It only shows their parasitic nature to thrive on others’ power –the King, the insurgents, or people on the street. They have become champion of agitation, protest, opposition and dirty politics.

 Using another cliché here, “survival of the fittest”, only god knows which one of the agitating parties (including ones outside the SPA) will survive the thirdcomplete democratic movement (awarded in form of a republican state) after those of 2007 and 2046 BS. This country may surely become a republican state; but run by one party, fittest of all. Because the SPA has a roadmap to win the regime; but they hardly have roadmap (or vision) to provide the very basic necessities to people, let alone bring prosperity. How will they bring economic, social and cultural democracy so that everyone will get a house, two daily meals, clothes, basic education and equality? It looks unlikely and too much to expect any of these things from the present leaders unless the third generation, and not the second, takes over the country. All the present intellectuals, members of civil society, and leaders who are pretending to fight for democracy will be the one to flee the country first if that happens, leaving the poor public at the mercy of their own faith.

 One last cliché: “A wise enemy is better than a foolish friend”, as a lesson to be learned. It has always been those foolish friends who have succeeded in destroying their friends. It has always been proven true as much to the monarch as it is to the political leaders who have been misguided by their sycophants. People can hardly forget rampant corruptions that happened during their rule.

 Even before aspiring for democracy in the country, the SPA need to revisit themselves first, to openly review their own past mistakes and make a public commitment similar to one they expect from the King. They need to vow to reform their own ethical and moral conduct.

 Here is some rhetoric questions one would want to think about - how will these political parties recover the money they have spent in organizing the agitation? What assures the public that there won’t be misuse of pubic funds once they come into power? They should be able to come up with a clear vision and a transparent modus operandi to convince the people.

PS: Its high time we all including media, stopped fuelling the agitation for our petty interest and started playing positive and responsible role of reconciliation.

Received via electronic mail-ed.

YOUNGSTERS TRAPPED IN THE NET OF DRUG ADDICTION

- ROSHANA KARKl, Kathmandu

Drug abuse or drug addiction is a growing and frightening problem of this century, not only for the developing but also for the developed countries. Opiate-also called heroin- is the most common type of drug currently in abuse the world over.

Drug is an addictive substance, one that is habit-forming which influences the health and mind of an individual(s), making them psychologically and physically dependent on the use and reuse of it. The international classification of disease -ICD-9- defines drug addiction as a "State psychic and sometimes also physical, resulting in taking a drug, characterized by behavioral and other responses that always include a compulsion to take a drug on a continuous and periodic basis in order to experience its psychic effect and sometimes to avoid the discomfort of its absence. Tolerance may or may not be present."

An individual with the habit of using drugs tend to become so much obsessed to it that his/her only next motive is about how to get the next dose. The addiction of a drug is so high that it compels a person to do anything to get the money required to buy it. This kind of activities lead towards the illegal acts and crime in the society. It has been seen, more often than not, that a particular person may be dependent on more than one drug. The young adult with immature personality as he is, whose frustration is at the low level and is adjudged to have minimum tolerance power, is more prone to develop this addiction due to help of peer group pressure and curiosity.

Drug dependence not only causes immense sufferings to the individual but invites misfortune to the person, family, and ultimately to the society and the entire nation. Social crimes like; theft, violence, murder, robbery, blackmailing, pick-pocketing, smuggling and suicidal rate are, as a matter of fact, increased due to compulsive need to get the drugs immediately. AIDA, viral hepatitis, injury, accidents etc. are some of the noted physical complications of this addiction.

When people are involved in illegal acts they tend to become anti-social in the society and they are dubbed as the "addicts".

According to Earnest. L. Abel, "Drug abuse is the non Therapeutic use of drugs to the point where it affects the health of an individual or impact adversely." Some of the commonly abused drugs worldwide are opium, heroin, cocaine, alcohol etc.

The person who has been addicted and feels guilty after addiction may feel like;

A blow of air brought joy and happiness. A storm of wind turned life into sadness. It had put me on the veil.

Behind which I couldn't see the hail.

It showed me happiness in the face of mirror, which broke into pieces and made my life terror. All my dreams add happiness scattered. I found no point to bring them together. No one was there I was all alone,

As if I was living in the world of unknown. Nothing was left except desperation,

Because I was trapped in the net of drug addiction.

This is the inner feelings of the person who is trapped in the net of drug addiction and we must keep in mind that drugs do not cause only mental effects but it can also cause many incurable diseases like HIV AIDS and hepatitis which is transmitted from one addicted to another through the use of contaminated syringe to inject the drugs. These diseases are more prone to transfer through the contaminated syringes which contains body fluids like; blood, serum etc. and the rate of transferring these incurable diseases among addicted are very high which has been proved by many surveys and data.

Detoxification and rehabilitation of such patients are two main approaches of treating this problem; Frustration, tension, fear, jealousy etc. Emotional effects along with physical effects can make the addicted person lifeless. So, to help those to re-establish their family relationships and to help them learn effective coping mechanism(s), we can provide them "detoxification and rehabilitation" therapy, which will help them to regain their life.

During rehabilitation therapy, we can keep the environment free from drugs and administer prescribed medicines to decrease anxiety and restlessness; provide the patient and his family members counseling services and as soon as patients (mental as well as physical) condition shows improvement can encourage them to go in for group therapy and occupational therapy. Teach them how to perform relaxation exercises and always honor and accept them as they are and be polite and firm while dealing with these addicted patients.

We all need to keep in mind that drug addiction is not the fatal condition, it can be well treated and addicted person can also enjoy his normal life through the help and kind consideration of the medical practitioners and of the family members and thus never let the addicted person embrace death in search of help and treatment. We can think it this way as well that the next addicted person can be from our own family; can be your own brother and sister so never try to neglect the drug addicts but instead try to neglect the drugs from your society. So, we all now need to take a promise to help ourselves and to help others in the struggle to free our society from the deadly grip of addictions.

Nepalese Conflict and Institutional Setup

Jagannath Ojha, Nepal

Until the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990, internal conflicts in the scale as we see today were quite unknown to Nepalese people. During the last four decades while many countries of South and South East Asia passed through a phase of turbulence and conflicts, Nepal stood an exception and enjoyed a long era of peace and stability unparallel in history. However, the country could not take any advantage in economic front by utilising this peaceful situation. Poor social and economic infrastructure, unavailability of the resource for investment, lack of education and human resources were the causes being the stalemate situation of economic stagnant. The stunted growth of the organised sector has resulted in the prominence of unorganised sector dominating the economy where disguised employment is common feature.

A large number of public institutions were established in Panchayat era with the help of bilateral agencies but the system also failed to encourage the private sectors investment. Most of infrastructure, industrial, trading, banking, power, transport even consultancy services were controlled by the state. The monopoly of government intervention limited the growth of private sector. As a result the state became the only sector involved in basic services delivery. After the restoration of multiparty system in 1990 the successive governments adopted the policy of economic liberalization which resulted in the privatization of state owned industries. However, without creating sufficient environment for the flow of private or foreign investment, these governments also privatised the public industries which were key producers of basic goods and services. This further worsened the distribution system.

Institution in a broader sense is an organization which functions within a constitutional or legal framework. Such institutions are formal organizations. But in sociological perspective, institutions in society have broader areas and more focused on informal actions, which are based on social customs and culture. Family, marriage, relatives etc are social institutions and Parma (exchanges of labour), Guthi, etc are economic institutions. The institutions are formed to fulfil the needs of people and society. This paper does not explain about formal and informal institutions and their functions but tries to utilise both from the perspective of delivering goods and services in rural part of the country. The state is treated as a set of institutions which manages the provisions of public goods and services for the society. Politically, this view has been the centre of analysis among liberal/pluralists.

The country has been trapped in internal conflict between state and the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) since 1996. The displacement of people from rural to urban centre or even outside the country has been accelerated. Because of the strong presence of the Maoists in rural areas, the government's services are limited only to urban and suburban areas for security reasons. More and more people of rural communities have been deprived of basic services like health, education, communication, electricity and drinking water. Serious impact is seen in the supply of food grains to those districts which are known as food deficit districts especially, the high hills of western Nepal. The politics of subsidy on food has a long history in these high hills where government owned Nepal Food Corporation is responsible for supply and distribution of food grains under the supervision of CDO. Similarly, Agricultural Input Corporation is responsible for the supply of agriculture inputs such as fertilizer, seeds, insecticides/pesticides and equipments. The conflict is also affecting the individual households whose livelihood is based on subsistence agriculture. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that the conflict has had an adverse effect on agricultural and livestock production, partly as consequences of the rural exodus and partly as a result of lack of inputs (Seddon and Adhikari: 2004).

Judged from the conflict classifications Nepalese internal conflict is mainly "Manifest Conflict" and partly "Structural Conflict". "The government-Maoist conflict in Nepal until recently assumed structural features". (Dahal: 2003, 12). The numbers of factors are responsible for the conflicting parties to enter into the armed conflict. The social factor such as deprivation of certain services due to caste division, limited access to economic opportunities for rural poor, mass corruption, education and its enhancement, external forces, social mobilization, and political openness are the main causes of conflict. Among these causes exploitation of deprived people in social and economic opportunities is the accelerating factor. The iceberg of discontent was discernible only in 1995 when a dissatisfied faction decided to dissociate from the political mainstream and took up arms against the democratically installed regime. The armed conflict is an outcome of all these disparities and therefore has not been erupted all of sudden.

The involvement of state into development of social and economic sectors in Nepal does not have long history. The role of government was limited only to security and taxation matters before 1950. The intervention into agriculture, trade and commerce, education, industry, health services, etc. has been started only after democracy. Before democratic regime, the communities themselves established their own societal institutions through which they executed their societal responsibilities by setting societal norms which were also a part of their culture. However, most of these institutions were backed by the strong feudal society such as Mukhiya, Jamindar, Pujari, Pandits, etc. Naturally, educational enhancement, social mobilization and extension of communication have changed the beliefs towards these feudal institutions. The armed conflict weakened or say more or less destroyed such societal institutions which were functioning as part of our society. Therefore, the country now has been plunged into a chasm of institutional existence in rural areas. The challenges ahead are to provide the basic services to rural part of the country by establishing the proper institutions and approaches which could function even in the conflict situation. There are no hard and fast rules to do so, and therefore depend on different ecological zones with different communities.

Political situation of the country in the recent years has badly affected the business sector. The political and administrative instability, lack of practical planning, institutional capacity, reliance on unsolicited proposals, difficulty in obtaining commercial loans and lack of government support arrangements have been the major impediments to stronger private sector participation in the context of industrialization of Nepal (Dahal et al, 1999: 15). The formation and execution of policy has not been consistence. Most of the institutions have been established with political interest, rather than economic one without considering their economic values and sustainability. For instance, National Trading Ltd. a public sector company was established in such a period of time which could have left to the private sector.

It can be realised that infrastructures are the main components of service delivery. Nepal, one of lowest road density in the world is facing acute food shortage in high hills. Karnali, the zone with no road access has always remained in the food deficit cluster. It can be perceived that the level of governance is more or less the same in all ecological zones but the people without transport network are facing acute problem. This is an indication that the transport network is the most effective means of development.