Acting Honestly
The Only Solution To Crisis

By Yubaraj Sangroula

THE present situation facing the country can be called an outcome of the poor vision of the government led by former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. If someone closely investigates governmental affairs over the past decade, one can find that the obvious onslaught against political morality began during Deuba's last government. He was the prime minister who allegedly from the coffers of the nation, bribed a couple of MPs, sending them to Bangkok so that he could avoid a defeat in a no confidence motion. The political immorality in this manner started to become widespread since then and corrupt people in the bureaucracy and at other places exploited this momentum for optimum personal benefit.

Misconception

The country in the last 12 years was plundered due to the lack of political morality. Unfortunately, many people see this as a failure of democracy and the constitution though such assumptions are serious mistakes. It is not the failure of democracy or the political system but the lack of moral values in the few people who claimed to be the managers of the nation.

The present problem is therefore an outcome of the political fraud of a handful of people, who mostly found their nestle inside the Nepali Congress Party.

The dishonesty of some Congressmen scaled to such an unbelievable height that they even played a "drama" in the International Conference Hall and at the end declared the so-called hero of the "play" as their boss.

These people of the former PM inflicted harm to democracy from four corners. Deuba's ministers had been competing for looting the national coffer, and the crisis created by the Maoists was an industry for them to generate wealth. How much the Maoist gained out of their rudimentary style of revolution is difficult to estimate, but a number of Deuba's friends, who enjoyed the power of Singha Durbar, definitely gained handsome money in the name of Maoist crisis. The blow they gave to the democracy from this corner was more powerful and deadly than the one inflicted by the Maoists.

The conspiracy hatched and the play performed to dissolve the parliament was another blow given to democracy from another corner. The deceitful collapse of the local bodies was yet another powerful blow the Deuba government gave to democracy. Lastly, the persistent denial of seeking options for dialogue with the Maoist and the proposal to extend the election by one year in order to stick to power was the decisive blow that would hurt the nation.

Now it is the people, the intelligentsia in particular, who should judge the circumstance and play a role to determine the destiny of the country. The Nepalese intellectuals now have to stop sitting on the fence and act. Their hypocrisy should not prevail to defeat the need of the country - preservation of democracy with constitutional monarchy.

The constitutional practice is not wrong in itself, but the object and intent behind the practice is something, which counts significantly. It is not at this moment to suspect the intent of the monarch. The removal of the present government was essential, as it was making all efforts to rule the country in complete anarchy, and with complete disregard of the democratic values.

Deuba, with the support of people like Khum Bahadur and Chiranjibi systematically did away with the parliament when country needed debate on the issue of Maoist insurgency. The Parliament is necessary in such a situation in order to maintain the solidarity of the people, generate wisdom to resolve the problem. However, Deuba hit the most important institution of democracy, the parliament. He did so because he could not obtain a mandate from the party he belonged to. It was his problem, not the problem of democracy. So there was no justification for subjecting the House of Representative to punishment for the mistake, if any, made by his party president.

Secondly, very systematically he struck the local governance bodies and thus created a situation where the nation was without their elected representatives. This was simply done to collect ransom from municipalities and districts for their ill motives of wining elections. He was thus leading to the systematic death of democracy.

The question now is how to pull the democracy out of the present crisis. The King's exercise of the power under Article 127 of the Constitution has been fully justified by the cynical attempt of Deuba to rule the country without people's mandate. Now the country has come to a final intersection: should it go to absolute monarchy, or rescue the democracy with constitutional monarchy? The people in this age would not be ready to compromise with their freedom and other fundamental rights. The nation's problem can be addressed only by means of democratic process, and there is no alternative to democratic debate and dialogue for resolution of the problem. The failure to rescue the democracy will abundantly help people accept option marketed by the Maoists. Similarly other forms of politics of violence may start breeding from both the left and right wings. The penetration of Mafia and foreign elements would be strengthened in all sectors of governance, and the economy of the nation would necessarily go to the control of Mafia, which is already in the process. Therefore, now the Monarch, political parties and the people should unite to fight such elements.

The politics of the country therefore has only very few options, one being the revival of the parliament under the authority of the article 127. The introduction of the proportional electoral system with local autonomy in governance is the other way for consolidation of the unity of the people of various ethnic identities. To save the nation from deepening crisis, the political parties must cooperate with the monarch and the monarch must respect the political parties and people's wishes. The distrust of one to other will cause a great harm to the nation.

The constitution in no provision has prohibited constructing a government of national representation. Deuba's was a caretaker government, and it had no power to make a submission before the King to postpone the election. Deuba government's existence was dependent solely on election, and the only responsibility he possessed was to hold the election on scheduled date. By making a submission to postpone the election, he lost his legitimacy of the post. In fact, he should have resigned to boost up the political morality and for the good of the country and his own personality.

It has to also be understood that a national government can be formed to fulfil the objective of holding an election. Can the political parties be ignored? This is a vital question, where the suspicion largely looms around. There still is no strong trust built up between the monarchy and the political parties. But there is no reason for having no trust with each other. The political parties are afraid of the past and the King of the degeneration of morality of the political parties. But this is a time to make a fresh start. The question of national government is directly associated with "this issue of trust". If the monarchy and political parties find different ways to walk on, it may not be good for the country.

Realisation

The political parties need to be responsible and matured. If they realize that the uprising of Maoists was an outcome of their corrupt, irresponsible and immature performance in the past, they should self-criticise, and come out with commitment towards national development. For this, they have to demonstrate some courage and commitment and hand over their corrupt members to the authorities for punishment. We must intelligently face the crisis for the long lasting survival of the democracy and national integrity.

(The views expressed in the article are completely that of the author)

Other Story

• 'Destroy-And-Distribute' Policy