Government
The Constitutionality Question

By Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

POLITICAL leaders think that the current government is unconstitutional despite the fact that the government was formed pursuant to Article 127 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990. But they have failed to present their case with a correct constitutional approach to set up a constitutional government.

Demands

Instead of this, they have been demanding the most unconstitutional things, such as the restoration of the House of Representatives or forming the government pursuant to Article 128 of the Constitution. The political leaders have ceased to be the true leaders.

As US President George W. Bush recently said true leaders are those who faithfully serve the people and who strive for peace. If we accept this definition of true leaders, we have none. Rather than striving for peace, our leaders have created the rebels by way of their wrong actions, by serving some sections of the people better than others and by being motivated to act in their vested interest to remain in power.

They forgot the fact that they had received the electoral mandate from the people to serve all. For instance, Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala failed to serve all the members of his own party and treat them as equals. He favoured only that group in his party, which blindly supported him as the Prime Minister. Then it was Sher Bahadur Deuba's turn. Deuba, instead of striving for peacefully resolving the conflict, intensified it by imposing a state of emergency and deploying the army and the anti-rebel forces. Ultimately he suffered the consequences of his deeds.

If we take a look at the activities of another major party - the Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML), we will find that they fared no better. They simply wanted to grab the power by any possible means and then stay on in power as long as possible. The nine months of UML in the government in1994 and their participation in a coalition with the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) indicate this.

Both the Nepali Congress (NC) party and the CPN-UML ignored the people's wishes of forming the joint government of the NC and the CPN-UML in the mid-nineties of the last century. Instead they went ahead individually, with that obsession of grabbing power unabated. So they chose one leader or another of the RPP to snatch the power from the other. They not only made the mockery of the democracy but also the mockery of the people's mandate. These activities of the political leaders have considerably weakened the democratic system of governance and strengthened the hands of the anti-democratic activists.

Now the question is why the current government does not take the political leaders seriously. The current government is correctly thinking that the political leaders have been considerably weakened because of their undemocratic and unscrupulous activities during the last 12 years of democratic exercises in the country. So the government is not worrying much about the political leaders ignoring the call of the government for all party meeting to discuss peace talks with the rebels.

The political leaders, with their past image tarnished to some extent, are currently not interested in the vital issue of going to the people and seeking fresh mandate which will strengthen the democratic system of governance and the people's sovereignty. Their demands for the restoration of the House of Representatives or forming a government pursuant to Article 128 of the Constitution can be viewed in that light-in both cases either the NC or the CPN-UML will come back to power again.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the dissolution of the House was constitutionally correct. So resurrecting it means going against the ruling of the Supreme Court and against the constitutionally correct action.

Now let us see whether the question of forming a government pursuant to Article 128 of the Constitution is legitimate or not. Constitutional experts may argue for it, it may seem to be justifiable but again the question is who will be the person to be in charge of such a government. If we think logically the parliamentary leader of the majority party will be the rightful person to head such a government. However, the House is not there and we do not have the parliamentary parties. If someone argues for making the majority leader of the dissolved House, the Prime Minister of the government to be formed pursuant to the Article 128 of the Constitution of 1990, then Deuba is the one who will be the eligible person for the position. Again have the political leaders thought about it and will all the political leaders agree on it?

Obviously the political leaders have not thought much about the consequences of their demands for restoration of the House and or for the formation of the government pursuant to Article 128.
The third question is what will be the correct demand for the restoration of the democratic government?

The most correct thing to do for restoring the democratic system of governance is to call for general elections for restoring the House and then electing the government. However, most of the leaders have not come to the sense of demanding for the immediate general elections.

Excuse

They harp on the excuse such as the rebels disrupting the general elections. They do not dare to go to the people either because of the fear of the rebels or of the fear of people disliking their tainted images. This political phobia led the leaders to ask Deuba for postponing the general elections scheduled for November 2002, and ultimately to the fall of the elected Deuba government in October 2002.

Treasuring Every Drop

By Vijita Fernando

THE origins of harvesting rainwater in Sri Lanka go back a few centuries when Parakramabahu the Great, a fifth century monarch in Sri Lanka, said: "Let not a drop of water that falls from the sky flow into the sea..."

Evidence

Evidence of the use of rainwater of those early times still exists in the arid zones of the country, especially in Sigiriya, the rock fortress in the North Central province, which shows the reliance on rainwater in the network of storage reservoirs, swimming pools, artificial streams and fountains. That was many hundreds of years ago. Now, harvesting the bounty of the clouds is making a comeback in Sri Lanka.

Though Sri Lanka is blessed with an average annual rainfall of 2000m, most of this is wasted as run off. Ironically, there are many rural communities facing water scarcities in several parts of the island. But several rainwater harvesting projects are now providing simple solutions to the problem.

"Because ground water levels are falling, and over-extraction from perennial rivers is not practical, harvesting rainwater appears to be the answer," says R de S Ariyabandu, researcher and author of a number of publications on rainwater harvesting in the region.Among the national efforts to harness this supply, the Lanka Rainwater Harvesting Forum (LRHF) has taken the lead in the last six years. In November this year, LRHF won the Green Award from the Asia Pacific Forum of Environmental Journalists and the Sri Lanka Environmental Journalists for "contributing to empowering the people living in water-scarce areas with access to improved household water and food security through promoting rainwater harvesting technology".

The award is well deserved. During the last six years, the Forum has been able to persuade a number of communities to adopt simple rainwater harvesting technologies in a bid to overcome their water scarcity problem. It also goes a long way in contributing to food security.

"Reluctance to drink rainwater is a stumbling block in the free use of rainwater. However, awareness programmes by LRHF have changed the situation somewhat through training and giving the people the message that the only snag in drinking rainwater is that it lacks minerals. Users should introduce minerals into their food if they depend totally on rainwater," says Tanuja Ariyananda, LRHF chairperson.

Vinivida in the north-west of Sri Lanka faced large-scale water problems till quite recently. "Only 55 per cent of the families in this area had access to drinking water. And even this supply was erratic. From July to October, they had to go long distances to collect water, especially the women," says K D Peiris of the Vinivida Volunteer Society, an NGO.

In Suriyawewa, where rain is sometimes just a dream even when other parts of the country experience floods, rainwater harvesting has enabled the community to store the little water that falls from the skies, says W T Thilakalatha of the Women's Development Federation of Suriyawewa.

Other agencies, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the government's Janashakthi Programme, have built on the information and initial know-how given to the women by LRHF. The cost of a tank is too high for this economically backward community and with financial assistance from these agencies, they have been able to build several underground tanks.Rainwater is collected as an alternative source even in areas where water is not a problem. Harvesting rainwater from rooftops using indigenous temporary gutters, off tree trunks and open air harvesting on to large polythene sheets left in the open during rains are some methods. The water is then collected into small household vessels. Many collect rainwater  purely for drinking, as they believe it is better than other ground water sources during the monsoons.

In the southern district of Moneragala, the community is happy with the large tanks built under the supervision of LRHF. The large volumes of rainwater collected save time and labour for the families, especially the women, says Shirani Vaidyaratne. "Depending on the bounty of nature is always a challenge," notes Ariyananda. Harvesting rainwater depends mainly on the rainfall pattern, the catchment area, the capacity and methods of storage, and the demand from users.

"This last factor calls for changing ingrained habits. One must weigh the disadvantages of fetching water daily, the use of water from polluted sources and resultant ill health against the advantage of water at hand in one's own compound," she says.

Internationally too, rainwater harvesting is fast gaining ground. Gourisankar Ghosh, Executive Director of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) said recently that it is high time rainwater harvesting is taken as seriously as any other project for surface groundwater development.

Important

"The rainwater harvesting community must look beyond mere technical issues. These activities must be recognised as the most important movement towards household water security and the entry point for decentralised water management and poverty reduction," says Ghosh.

Women's Feature Service

The Buddha Story Re-told

By Sudeshna Sarkar

THE birth of one of the greatest religions in the world began with the birth of a young prince in Lumbini in Nepal, spread to Bodh Gaya in Bihar across the borders, then to Sri Lanka across the seas and finally, the rest of the world.

The life, time and teachings of Gautama Buddha is to be recreated by a documentary that will trace the footsteps of the prince who gave up his kingdom from Lumbini to Bodh Gaya, from renunciation to Nirvana.

A four-member team headed by French documentary maker Paris-based Martin Meissonier has been in Kathmandu to shoot "In the footsteps of the Buddha", a documentary on the founder of Buddhism.
Besides shooting the sites associated with the Sakyamuni, the documentary, Meissonier says, will also talk with "lots of people, including scientists".

Funded by European Cultural TV, the documentary in English, French and German will be an attempt to "familiarise Europeans with the Buddha". There's always been a lot of interest in Europe in the Buddha, he says. Bertolucci's film The Little Buddha is a case in point.

However, Meissonier says there are no documentaries on the Enlightened One. So the director, who has won awards in France for his musical films, decided to fill in the blank.

This month the team plans to travel from Nepal to Bodh Gaya to complete the shooting. The schedule of the unit was a tight one in Kathmandu, with the crew leaving for distant destinations like Nagarkot at five on a freezing morning with a mist swirling.

Meissonier, a 46-year-old director with 15 years in the profession, is fond of "Invisible War", the documentary he made on uranium poisoning during the Gulf War. The man behind the camera is Dominique Gentil, who was nominated for this year's Academy Award for cinematography for his work in a documentary on the migration of birds. The soft-spoken, diffident Gentil was refreshingly modest, preferring to leave the talking to the director and leader of the team.

This is not Meissonier's first trip to Nepal. He was here last year on a recce for the film.

It also happened to be before the ceasefire and he found himself bang in the middle of a bandh called by the Maoists. But it left him unfazed.

He says he finds Nepal a safe destination with no danger to travellers like him.

"There was no tension at that time," he says. "Besides, where the subject of my documentary is concerned, it can't give offence to anyone. I am not afraid to be in Nepal. If you carry fear as your baggage, you end up going nowhere."