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| Kathmandu Monday March 18, 2002 Chaitra 05, 2058. |
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Politics, democracy and
constitution
By NAGENDRA PRASAD SHRESTHA
Politics, which is popularly known as a
science of the statecraft, means rajniti is necessary for the maintenance of moral order
in the state. Moral order is the very essence of our dharma (religion). In the absence of
moral order there will be no peace, justice, prosperity and happiness in any country. That
is why, we have so many incarnations of God at different times in the history of men as
examples in our scriptures for purifying unrighteousness of rulers and politicians and
relieving people from their injustices. Thus, we see that our dharma shastras treat dharma
not only the centrality as a life force in people’s life but also make it a strong
foundation in creating and establishing monarchy. There are numerous references and
several examples of great kings including Lord Rama, setting practical examples to the
rulers and politicians about moral character in life and moral orders in the state.
Truly speaking, politics without moral order
and politicians without moral character are like stinking dead corpses, which are fit for
only to be burnt. Of course, the route to the power of governance is difficult. Because,
it is an accountability of responsibilities to the people and country rather than personal
gratification. Naturally, to have a responsible government, which is known as good
governance, the county needs men of moral character showing purity in their lives. Such
persons are free from vices and become virtuous, honest and patriotic. Otherwise, power is
what men seek and any political party or group that gets it will ultimately abuse it.
Hence, the same old dirty story of politicking and game of cheating and lying to the
people will be repeated.
Obviously, dharma is the soul of politics in
our oriental culture. Whereas in the west, during its medieval European history,
resentment against the domination of Pope in all the Christian countries on education,
taxation and deciding issues on war and peace gave birth to the concept of secularism,
separating religion and the state. Nevertheless, the West developed the practice of civil
religion for ordering public life to mitigate the difficulties of secularism. No such
situation exists in Hinduism or Islam. All religions are equally respected in the
philosophy of the East. Therefore, in a cultural sense, our politicians and their politics
have miserably failed to qualify themselves on those values and their politics are without
moral foundation and dharma.
Our politicians are still shamelessly
continuing their disgusting political scenario in the name of democracy continuing the
misrule in the country, politicising vital institutions and causing economic mess, rampant
political and bureaucratic corruptions and anarchy including Maoist violences,
destructions and terrorism. The nation is bleeding with all these unrighteousness with
mountains of national crisis upon crisis and instabilities. Perhaps, leaving no
alternatives to resolve them. Perhaps the only hope, now left to the people is to look
again, after 12 years of the restoration of democracy, to their own historical monarchical
institution which is the keeper of national conscience based on the foundation of dharma.
Democracy places man at the centre of its
philosophy. Therefore, sovereignty lies with the people. Hence, the government of the
people, by the people and for the people clearly indicates the purpose and legitimacy of
the people to form the government. The fundamental principles, values and conditions of
democracy are liberty, equality, co-existence and non-violence. Democracy believes that
every man’s soul is a part of God in substance and all men are created equal. So man
must get freedom and no one should be subjected to destruction, discrimination,
exploitation, torment or enslavement. It means, putting an end to all inequalities, giving
equal opportunities of voices and considerations on political, religious, economical,
social, human and other rights granted by the constitution and so forth. The right of
co-existence means respecting the life and rights of others. Non-violence is the essence
of democracy. Because, truth is a multifaceted element. One should not force others to
accept his own thoughts or belief. We should be tolerant and must be able to try to listen
to other’s views. In a broad sense, the multifaceted truth, tolerance, liberty,
equality and co-existence are all expressions of non-violence. To implement all these
promises, hopes and dreams of democracy in developing countries are tremendous challenges
and difficult tasks even to the true democrats and politicians. So is precisely the case
with Nepal.
The social structure of Nepal is composed of
four varnas of Hindu, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and more than 61 ethic communities
with their distinctive characteristics of ethnicity, language, culture and race making a
strong heterogeneous society. Most of the backward communities, including Dalits, suffer
from illiteracy, poverty and backwardness in many respects. Decades of exploitations,
abuses, deprivations and denials of equal rights and opportunities have virtually impaired
their capacities to compete with historically privileged communities to utilize the
opportunities of democracy. Government policies, planning, programmes and projects
including legislations and rights granted by the constitution are almost beyond their
reach.
In such circumstances, injustice results not
only when equals are treated unequally but also when un-equals are treated equally. Hence,
the principle of reciprocity always breaks down. And, these poor people although having
their sovereign rights to represent themselves can never avail this opportunity in
constitution assembly, parliament and local bodies which are also meant for them as
promised by our democracy. How are we going to resolve these inherent difficulties of
least developing country like Nepal to stabilise the democracy? What are the alternatives?
What are the ways to correct these injustices? What are the equitable mechanism to provide
basic necessities of life to our poor citizens like food, clothing, shelter, health,
education, public transportation, employment and other essentials. It demands strong
national commitments, visions and imaginative skills from our politicians and bureaucrats.
As morning shows the day, where is the silver lining or trend? Where is the national
approach in relieving sufferings and developing the life of backward communities living in
mountains, hills and villages? Where are the massive structures and measures of
employments and austerities?
No country in the world has ever developed
only with foreign aids or loans. We need to labour ourselves. We must learn to honour the
labour. Man is great by his action and not by birth. It is the saying of our holy shruti.
We belong to the nation and nation belongs to us. Therefore, it is our common
responsibilities from where we cannot escape without resolving them. We must reflect and
ponder over where we have gone wrong before it becomes too late. We must search within
ourselves so that we may be enlightened. We may find our conscience to guide us. We need
national conscience and national consensus to cure our national and democratic ills. We
must save our nation, monarchy, democracy and people as our common heritage.
There is definitely a solution to stop
bleeding the nation and settle the political storms. If we accept democracy and
sovereignty of the people, then how can we deny their ipso facto sovereign right to make
their own constitution? In fact, we never have had a people’s constitution
promulgated by the monarch. It is, now, the time. Democracy demands it. Late King
Tribhuvan proclaimed it. And, it is absolutely necessary to have Constitutional Assembly
to do justice to our people. The present constitution has no legitimacy of the people. It
is completely a bi-product sponsored by the Nepali Congress, the UML and the monarch with
a lot of squabbles among them. Even if we deny forcibly the right of Constitutional
Assembly, the question is bound to rise time and again opening painful national wounds
repeatedly.
With all the fairness, we must honour people
and their sovereign right to have the constitutional assembly within the framework of our
common heritage; Fair election systems to our heterogeneous society removing the current
plurality of electoral system which is absolutely absurd and allows to capture majority
seats by minority votes in the Lower House of Parliament and in the constituencies;
constitutional safeguards to backward communities including Dalits to represent in
constitution assembly, parliament and local bodies; binding provisions for checking
political and bureaucratic corruption having no nexus with foreign hands and criminals;
provisions for national governments on specified national crisis including general
elections of constitutional assembly and of parliament; and constitutional power to the
monarch to exercise upon government and political scandals to probe and decide by the
Supreme Court on the recommendation of privileged committee of parliament, if one-fourth
members of both the houses request it.
The present constitution could be utilized as an
interim constitution to achieve and facilitate all these above mentioned requirements and
others including Maoist violences to resolve peacefully having suitable amendments in it.
For this, we need sincere national dialogues to move forward with national conscience,
understanding and tolerance with the current major political parties under the guidance of
monarch. Shall our government initiate and facilitate this? Otherwise, the nation and
people are not safe if they are left only in the hands of our politicians and to their
politics.
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