OPINION (Spotlight Weekly)

CONSTITUTION DAY

Reminding The Lost Opportunities

By Bipin Adhikari

Nepal is in crisis. That's what many say. They think that the crisis has been produced and maintained by the politicians, largely the Prime Minister and key figures of the day, who have already sold themselves for foreign money, or for power and position, resulting from the obedience to such a foreign power. This is not true. Most of our leaders are not sold up; they are nationalist and democratic, and they do not intend to plunge the nation into crisis. While this remains the truth and also the strongest part of our character, it is also equally true that most of our politicians want to stay in power. They know where the real threat comes from to their power and position. They do not counter the threat by effective strategies. As such, they make compromises, and are used and re-used for that particular interest by the self-styled ringmaster, and finally thrown back into oblivion.

A Sincere Beginning : The first multiparty elections conducted by the Elections Commission; the initial set of local self government statutes and other parliamentary products; the first Prime Ministerial Government of Girija Prasad Koirala; the first parliament with a strong communist opposition; the first Supreme Court led by none other than Biswanath Upadhyay; the seriousness of the first constitutional functionaries; and a host of other political variables showed that Nepalese were more capable than the rest of the countries in the region to run democracy. Many new laws were enacted; old laws revised; policy alternatives reconsidered; and without much efforts, a polity accountable to the Prime Minister was achieved. The parliamentary form of Government and the doctrine of ministerial responsibility were materialised in the working of the system. The nation looked decisive in its approach to governance, foreign relations and diplomacy.

Indeed, Nepal's international donors poured in an unprecedented level of foreign assistance. Many new economic activities around the country started picking up. Many visionary proposals were written including the proposal to develop Nepal as a new centre for international financial services. Dreams inspired and motivated the people to keep going. The nation acquired an image of a matured society. As a matured people, they required the government to further stretch and grow. The western media never wrote so favourably about Nepal. The only worry was whether the King surrounded by many fabricating elements in the palace, often the disgruntled ones, would be able to adjust himself with the new system of governance. Not only he scored high marks and a thorough majesty of a stable Nepal, but the Prime minister also became successful in heralding an age that people wanted to get hurriedly in.

Constitutional Viability : The newly achieved democracy in Nepal, however, seemed only a part of a game-plan. Nepal's miraculous development was never planned in it. It was only meant to be a check on the King who had become a bit uncompromising, or a bit confident about his ability, and the common people. But, contrary to the game-plan, the newly restored democracy appeared more stronger, multi-dimensional, independent looking, with an acute sense of accountability. Nobody thought that Nepal could promulgate such a constitution, and could afford to implement it with this type of faith. The system accountable to the people was thus perceived as a threat to the game-plan for the continued exploitation of this country. The stage was thus set, for the history's most sinister tactical battles in Nepal.

The tactical battle was however not a new thing for the King and his new Government. For the Prime Minister G. P. Koirala, foes were more accessible than friends. He was always warned against the King, and the inputs of the King in the matter of governance [who already had become a bit shy to involve at his own initiation in the immediate background of 1990 movement], was not received. This situation was fully exploited.

First, he was advised to forcibly retire many senior bureaucrats in the civil service. A strong bureaucracy developed by the King over many years was thus destroyed. He was told that they were enemies of democracy, because they were the selection of the King. Then the Tanakpur treaty was signed. Immediately, he was advised to cheat the nation outright (by saying that it just was an understanding, and hence not amenable to the "rigorous" treaty approval process in the Parliament). Then came "the supreme leader" Ganesh Man Singh's letter bomb. The experience of scheduling fights between Matrika and B. P. Koirala was used in verbatim after about forty years. A strong Prime Minister became a weak man at once. His party strength was weakened substantially.

The UML started campaign against the Government with Marxist slogans. It was used to brand GP Koirala as anti-national. The campaign was then fuelled up by the underground elements as a most timely move. A number of Nepal Bandhs were organised. The UML called it; the ringmaster administered the call meticulously. Much like the Jhapa movement. C. P. Mainali still does not know who killed so many Nepali Congress people in Jhapa and adjoining districts, if he or his revolutionary colleagues did not do it. Many violent incidents continued to take place. Nobody including the UML leaders knew who did it. The bureaucracy was brought to a halt. The UML stalwart Madan Bhandari and his party colleague Jiv Raj Ashrit, who were the known nationalist after B. P. Koirala were killed in a very mysterious setting. These manoeuvrings were just like the drinks or starters in an average Thamel restaurant. The lunch was yet to be served. The Interim Prime Minister, Mr K. P. Bhattarai, who already had the honour of being used up in signing the joint communiqu and degrading the history of Nepalese nationalism was again used to break the Nepali Congress into two splinter groups at the time of voting on the policy paper of the Government. A Prime Minister who was helpless at the hands of his own parliamentary party colleagues had no choice but to dissolve the House of Representatives and call fresh elections. In the process, he was parted with, and attempts were made never to allow any strong Government in Nepal.

Failure of the Institutions : After this incident, foreign interference came to be accepted almost as a rule. Every attempt was made to stop the Nepali Congress from getting united and forming a stable government. What was expected was a house equally divided between major parties. The result betrayed the planner. The UML emerged as the strongest party. The ringmaster made a number of near overt attempts to bring the CPN (UML) minority Government - which had organised itself on the strength of nationalistic aspirations - down to its feet. The UML did not oblige. So again by using one segment of Nepali Congress and a willing coalition partner, the UML was pulled down. Only after it was removed from power that the UML came to know about the conspiracy. But instead of rebuilding on the earlier nationalistic strengths, it changed the course.

After that event, the UML started changing its colour as a lizard. It wanted power at any cost. The Congress already had a sense of deprivation. Power came to be the central purpose, and the deal was made at others' good office. The Congress was made to coalesce with NDP, the NDP with UML, the UML with NDP, with the effect that nobody could dare to plan to stay as a Government by challenging the good office. The Congress was virtually smashed. But the UML still had a possibility. The vertical split in the UML in 1999 was engineered only to prevent it from forming the Government again.

What has Gone Wrong? : Apart from the deadly compromises to stay in power, every Government in Nepal continues to suffer from a lack of skill, strategy, and Aafat or Barak-like leadership on the one hand and an unforgivable indifference to the management of such basic issues as space, time, money and other topics which can establish our competitive advantages over the countries of the region, on the other. It is true that fate cannot be changed; otherwise it would not be fate. We certainly have to bear with some compulsions as our fate because of our geo-physical situation. But political leaders, with strong commitment along with strategies, can change everything other than the fate. That is why a modern-minded people believe in leadership than resources. A people require a leader. A leader requires a beginning with the end in mind. That of course never happened. Another bonus to the game-planner.

What can a Prime Minister, who is not powerful enough to appoint his own personal assistants, deliver to the country?. If the leaders make compromises, what stops the bureaucrats from taking benefit from it? A huge amount of money circulates in the political process. With it, the causes of corruption run deep, beyond simple human greed.

The freedom of speech in the country has become the casualty of established newspapers and FM radios. News smells of conspired views. Most of the papers sustain themselves from the money they receive from the ringmaster. Anything that hurts the country, the national psyche, and the international image of the nation get priority. Planes hit by birds become the hot issue to be written. [Is there any country in the world where birds have not created problems to the aircraft?] Planned efforts get done to propagate that Nepal is no longer a tourist paradise due to Maoist insurgency. [Is there a single incident where the Maoists have attacked ,let alone killing, a tourist?] Devise some major projects, and initiate activities in order to enhance the capability of the country, some obstructions will be created [When the project is about to be signed, the Cabinet Minister will speak that big projects were not the choice of the Government. She will not care what was the Cabinet decision on that point just a couple of months before]. The press is there to justify the conspiracy in proper ways. And Ministers are there to serve the conspirators.

Nature of Compromises : Every compromise that the Government has made to this day is a credit to the strategy of gulping down Nepal's nationhood. The compromise may be economic, political, diplomatic, military, cultural, linguistic, and so on. Resist the temptation of compromise, and the access to the sea is obstructed; or some Nepalese will be arrested abroad, some violence will erupt in a remote district of Nepal; or one of the political parties will start violent demonstration; or civil servants will start sit-in; and hunger-strikes of the nominal parties will start with a threat to turn Nepal into Sri Lanka. There are very few politicians of some worth in Nepal who are not used, or who resisted such attempts. So the egotiation starts. A compromise becomes inevitable. Anybody who resists is silenced. A dark room some where in the Kathmandu city is thus usedto draw up the social, political, legal, and international boundary of Nepal ñ with a faceless figure holding the pencil.

All major events that occurred in Nepal including the 1950-51 revolutionhave been influenced in one or the other. Some examples that followedthe opening up of the effectively guarded international border: the appointment of the last Rana Prime Minister as the first Prime Minister of democratic Nepal, the arrival of a foreign military mission in 1952, the subsequent attempts towards garrisoning foreign troops or joint,military xercises in the country, the 1954 memorandum providing for the joint co-ordination of foreign policy, the instability between 1951-59 and repeated change in Government, the royal coup against democracy in 1960, the imprisonment of the first elected Prime Minister B. P. Koirala, the direct rule of the King and the Panchayat system, the 1965 secret accord giving a foreign power monopoly on arms sale to Nepal, the bombing of the royal palace. Social, cultural, economic and political identity of the Nepalese nation is being eroded under the pretext of the "security concerns".

Having failed to push up revolutionary forces of the day in order to compel the King to bow down to its unethical demands, the country was placed under a blockade of about one and half years, yet the King and his Government resisted it by all strength. The restoration of democracy was as much a sincere desire of the Nepalese people as much the strong response of the King to bow down to the people rather than to the extraneous forces. It is due to this reason that the King became congenial to the new constitutional system, but the new found democracy on the pretext of which the ringmaster misled (or rather used) the revolutionary forces in its interest for about thirty years could not do it. Of course, the King was also used at times.

Recent Efforts : After a process that went through forty years, the game-planners seem to be implementing final episodes in recent days. K. P. Bhattarai, the interim Prime Minister in 1990-91, was used as the first renegade to sign a joint communiquÈ that King Birendra and BP Koirala resisted even in the weakest moments of our national history. The recent situation, following the arrival of Bhutanese refugees, deceit in the Tanakpur case, the fabrication of Mahakali Treaty, the international border encroachment, the occupation of Kalapani, the Laxamanpur type of excesses and so on explains the level of interference, and the resources poured in for that purpose. Coming to the year 2000, the ringmaster has become successful enough to get even a legislation which allows virtually every person back home to qualify for the Nepalese citizenship should he/she desire it. Nowhere in the world is there any law so generous to foreigners, and indeed, the issue of who is foreigner in Nepal has come to an end for all practical purposes. There is no demonstration in the streets of Kathmandu because there is no such plan in the game.

There is a rampant fear everywhere that the country is not safe in the hands of present day leaders. This fear is not only the product of lack of standards in public life, but also various malafide attempts of the political leaders of this country to get used in instalments with premeditated hardihood. Even the Maoist with the slogans of janbadi kranti had no comment on such issues like the current amendment to Citizenship Act. The Cabinet which approved the suicidal draft, the Minister who introduced it in the Parliament, and the legislators who adopted it are all enjoying happy returns of the day. The intention of

some Maoists might be nationalist, but the Maoists do neither have the capacity nor the clout to reach the position they have reached. It is unthinkable that armed rebellion can take place in Nepal without taking the ringmaster in confidence - that too by a lot which describes themselves as of Chinese origin. That explains a lot of unexplainable things about Maoists. In general, therdee is a consirable doubt over the sincerity of the political opposition. The Maoists, particularly the top figures like Dr Baburam Bhattarai and Comrade Prachanda cannot be an exception at this critical juncture of foreign manoeuvrings. Additionally, the CPN (UML), which did pretend some character and strengths during 1991-94, seems to having brain-death.