The Essence of Change in Today’s Nepal: an Overview

Govinda Neupane

The government-Maoist negotiation exercise has provided a right platform for the meaningful debate, which may contribute immensely in the process of building a prosperous society and a strong nation. The debate certainly encompasses the need for several minor adjustments of short-term nature and enters into the structural areas of strategic significance. Appreciating this context, the government and the Maoists should agree to open a general debate to finalize the transformational agenda and leave the process to take a natural course for conclusion. It makes no sense to wasting time by talking on the issues of marginal significance.

The most important task for today is to identify the core issues, examine the importance they carry, develop new principles and values, and prepare agenda for national debate. All sections of the society including the negotiating parties should share this responsibility. Based on such understanding, here, an attempt has been made to present an overview primarily focusing on the essence of change. The issues mentioned below affect the strategic course of national reconstruction and development.

Rationalizing ownership as well as control over the means of production and establishing an equitable system of production relations among productive forces and classes;

Developing a design of a new mixed economy, identifying areas of competitive advantage and streamlining human as well as material resources to attain prosperity with equity;

Maximizing contributions of individuals, groups and organizations with the promotion of plural political and socio-cultural values, behaviors and practices by designing and implementing a competitive political frame-work;

Equitable sharing of power, resources and opportunities among nationalities;

Correcting, both, social as well as geographical imbalances through affirmative actions;

Providing an environment where the society guards against the external cultural envision, but promotes cross-cultural learning through critical examination and creative application; and

Protecting the national interests, strengthening capacities and enhancing visibility and dignified presence of the nation.

By addressing the issues of ownership and the production relations, a road map for an agrarian reform and fundamentals of a new mixed economy could be developed. The poverty and economic underdevelopment have two aspects – low production and unjust distribution. Therefore, the new vision, principles and the road map should address both aspects. The policies which will be developed and the programs follow afterwards would be guided by the thematic positioning of this historical period, when a new vision is being developed and the strategies are being crafted. Therefore, the principles and the inserted values should have clarity and operational worth. These principles should not be the cosmetics, such as ‘directive principles’. They should be there for implementation.

The question of designing a competitive political frame-work is something difficult to chew for the politicians and thinkers of the parliamentary school of thought and the westernized intelligentsia. For them, this is an already resolved issue. Their prescription includes allowing to form political parties, organize elections on regular intervals, allow to speaking and shouting till you finish your energy, protect the ‘lofty’ civil liberties and the ‘basic’ human rights, ensure the division of power among different branches of the state-system, put all these arrangements in a law-book named as constitution, and implement the provisions, in any style – British, Bihari or Bolivian. The polity they advocate does not consider any proactive role for a state-system to ensure citizen’s ability to participate in governance. At the same time, where the citizens have not a high degree of political awareness and the freedom from hunger, their ability to influencing the policy of the government and other political forces and enjoying the benefits of the arrangements mentioned above serve just as cosmetics. Today, this is true for a large majority of people. A small section of the society reaps nearly all the harvest. Therefore, that section of political elite, which includes professional politicians and amateur intellectual collaborators, try to prevent the debate related to designing a superstructure compatible to the existing reality of the society and the nation. Now, this has become a challenge for the leftist political forces in general and the Marxist intellectuals and communists scholars in particular to develop a superstructure, which promotes the plural political, cultural and spiritual values, and at the same time, ensures a large majority of citizen’s participation in governance. Also, the system should reflect the reality of the base or the society. The core issue here is that the state-system should liberate itself from the net of the upper class interests. Also, the state-system should stop discharging the role it plays just for the upper class as their protector, care provider and prosperity manager. Therefore, once again, it should be noted that designing a progressive polity and developing principles regarding the role of the new state-system are the major challenges for the leftist political thinkers and practitioners. They should study, debate and come forward with a design that addresses correctly the issues of political substance and the competitive system of governance.

Regarding the issues of imbalances, they are seen in four areas - nationalities, gender, caste and geographical region. Several Nepalese political and social activists have proposed a surgical process. The surgical process includes the end of Khasa domination, male chauvinism, Bahunbad and "Forget West and Neglect Tarai" syndrome. In reality, the centralized state-system has created a situation where no nationalities can benefit other than the Khasa (Newars are to some extent an exception). To correct this situation, a federal system of governance with full fledged autonomous regions of different nationalities should be established. Similarly, the provision of affirmative actions should be instituted to correct the male chauvinism. Now, the reservation as well as reparation provisions for Dalits have become their rights to redress the worst effects of Bahunbad. The regional imbalances could be rectified by reversing the "Forget West and Neglect Tarai" policy of the state for a certain period of time. The introduction of the federal system also will help to correct this imbalance. The cultural invasion, both internal and external, also is a major issue of concern. The indigenous cultural riches, values and practices should be best preserved, fine-tuned and contextualized. Preventing the negative effects of an invading culture is essential, but at the same time, cross-cultural learning should be encouraged. There is not an easy way out. Therefore, the debate on the regional and socio-cultural issues related to imbalances should form an integral part of the exercises centered on the formation of a constituent assembly.

The politicians, mostly the rightists and a section of the centrist block, use nationalism as a trump card to garner popular support by playing with people’s sentiments. "Curse India by words and serve India by deeds" is the motto of these ‘nationalist’ crooks. Therefore, the new polity has to create a platform where the politicians and the people alike "Serve Nepal by words and serve Nepal by deeds." The primary condition to build such platform is the protection of the nation’s sovereign right to make decisions. This should be an uncompromising principle of the foreign policy. Similarly, the other guiding principle should be to stand against any kind of foreign aggression in any part of the world and play a dignified role of a peace-loving nation.

These issues, together, may contribute to create a sound foundation for the prosperity that promotes equity, harmony, social justice and peace, and will form the basis of a transformational socio-economic and political agenda. Therefore, just limiting the discussion on sharing power among different political forces does not hold any significant weight in regard to resolving the problems, which the nation and the people are facing. The process of the nationwide debate could be best governed by the election exercise of the constituent assembly. During the course of the general debate, different prescriptions will appear to influence the masses and some of them will be endorsed by the people through the exercise of the general will. Finally, adopting a new constitution could institutionalize the collective will of the people. Although, the process is difficult, agreeing on the agenda and the principles could be a frustrating exercise and the election and the drafting of a new constitution could be full of obstacles, but only this course may lead to lasting peace, prosperity and justice through a political process. It should be noted that the essence of fundamental change is transformation of the society. If the political process fails to address this reality, the process of confrontational path of armed transformation will get acceleration.

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