Yes Vote Is A No To Terrorism

BY ratifying the State of Emergency, declared on November 26 last year, the House of Representatives on Thursday offered its solid backing to that move that was brought in by the administration of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to try to deal with an unprecedented law and order situation engendered by the Maoists’ unilateral decision to break off the then ongoing peace talks and resume terrorist activities. Lawmakers from the Nepali Congress, the recently-unified Community Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist), the Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Nepal Sadbhavana party voted for Mr. Deuba’s proposal with a thumping two-thirds majority. The four parties joined hands to give the proposal 194 votes with only seven votes, coming from three other smaller parties, going against it. Though there were some clear signals from the larger parties even before the House had convened for the current session that the vote would go in favour of the ratification, going by the typical parliamentary politics nothing could be certain. The general public, which had felt relieved at the improving law and order situation, could hardly consider the ratification as a foregone conclusion as there were also sounds of political discord over the emergency move. Any such fears have now turned out to be unfounded. As Prime Minister Deuba told press people after the resounding "yes" from the House, the approval of the State of Emergency showed that the Nepalese as a whole were united against terrorism. Indeed, as the House spoke and the State of Emergency got extended by a further three months, the general sentiments of the Nepalese people was seen to have been honoured and lawmakers earned for themselves a pat on the back for the wisdom they showed. The sense of solidarity between the ruling and opposition parties demonstrated in the overwhelming vote that the proposal received is not only an immediate gain for the nation’s collective endeavour to fight terrorism but can also be interpreted as a sign that when the present government gets down to the task of implementing reform programmes as promised there is an all-party common understanding on how to go about it. In his plea preceding the vote, Prime Minister Deuba had assured the House that the government would, on the basis of national consensus, initiate necessary homework and propose amendments to the constitution during the current session of parliament itself. As suggested by the Nepali Congress and opposition leaders, the government was going to bring in proposals for reforms in social and economic areas immediately.

These assurances by Prime Minister Deuba were meant to address the various concerns expressed by leaders of both the ruling party and the opposition parties. So was his assurance that the government would immediately adopt constitutional measures for the overall management of the emergency and for keeping the civl rights secure as well as working towards ending the emergency situation as soon as possible. The members of parliament, while showing understanding about the government’s difficult task to bring the nation back to normal, were at the same time concerned that the state activities under the emergency did not unduly infringe on the rights of the people, guaranteed by the present constitution and its democratic principles, which were a fruit of long and hard labour of the common people. Therefore, voices in favour of better managing the emergency period have been heard frequently. By respecting their demands for administering the emergency in a more effective manner, Prime Minister Deuba has made it plain that emergency period will not be marked by any action against the law-abiding institutions and citizens, but only against the terrorists. Of particular note is his statement that the process of all-party consultations will be activated to keep the press freedom intact and make sure that activists engaged in peaceful politics are not harrassed. The government’s commitment in this regard should serve as a source of shield against the emergency times trespassing upon the rights of the media and the common people and impairing in any way the principles of peaceful party politics.

In sum, by first pledging a series of actions and then receiving an explicit endorsement of the state of emergency, Prime Minister Deuba now has a clear mandate to pursue what he has set out to do. With the positive vote in its bag, the government can now direct all its energies and time to bring to fruition what it has pledged in terms of the law and order tasks as well as in terms of the social, economic and admnistrative reforms. The challenges are big and many. But there is no alternative to grabbing these challenges by their horns. The coming days and weeks should begin to see the earnest implementation of the plans and programmes to meet these challenges. The yes vote against terrorism should allow the government to have full confidence that the political parties and the common people are behind it in its tasks. The wide support thus received must be capitalised on to further the twin, inter-linked causes of both peace and development.