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The bones of democracy

By Jane Rankin-Reid - posted Wednesday, 7 February 2007


Nepal’s greatest hopes for lasting peace began recently with the announcement of the interim government and the announcement by the CPN Maoists of its parliamentary membership.

It has been a long journey from the jubilant days of May 2006 and the signing of an historical agreement between the CPN (Maoist) and the Nepalese Government. After 11 years of the Nepalese people’s war, these last few months in Kathmandu had begun to feel like a lifetime in the fast moving times this ancient country has recently been catapulted into.

Indeed, the nation of Nepal is caught in the headlights of the urgent 21st century and the echoing rhetoric of a tangled chorus of ancient voices all jostling to be heard, while its decades-long journey towards democracy encapsulates many South Asian countries’ dilemmas and challenges.

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But for Nepalis and Nepal watchers alike, this time peace will be different. From the extreme make over of the country’s leading hard line Maoists (CPN Maoist), and NCP, the current Congress majority government (Nepalese Congress Party) into moderate open hearted constitutionalists, to the Nepalese Army’s agreement to participate in a UN monitored arms registry and troop cantonment, not to mention the submission of royalists, Nepalese politics are undergoing unimaginable reforms.

After decades underground, the CPN Maoists, led by the charismatic Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, are now seeking democratic legitimacy. But tremendous cultural difficulties remain, as contemporary political challenges steadily take shape. With thousands dead and thousands more still missing or displaced by the decades of violence and oppression, issues of citizenship, reparations and rehabilitation will dominate the Nepalese political discussions for many months to come.

Five years ago, when Crown Prince Dipendra pulled out a gun and killed eight members of the Nepalese royal family, he inadvertently began a final process which would effectively end the 238-year reign of the last Hindu monarchy in the world. Dipendra took his own life and in his wake, King Gyanendra assumed the throne, which now faces almost certain abolition after Nepal’s mid-2007 elections are concluded.

But the march of Nepalese history continues in spite of widespread uncertainties. Shortly after the May 2006 peace agreements were reached, the Supreme Court of Nepal quietly ruled to unbuckle Nepal’s historical status as the world’s sole Hindu nation, the mountainside kingdom ruled by King Gyanendra, into a secular democratic state. But much needs remains to be achieved before Nepal’s democracy can begin to benefit its people effectively.

Gripping poverty still rules the shape of most Nepalese citizens’ daily lives. Until recently, with King Gyanendra and his family acting as the nation’s main stockholder, Nepal’s per capita income was among the lowest in South Asia. With its GDP frozen in the dark ages, Nepal’s infrastructure and utility services are frequently paralysed by rolling labour strikes leaving the Nepalese people virtually helpless in an economic grid lock that is likely to persist for some time.

How do you house and re-deploy several generations of guerilla fighters inside the terms of 21st century democracy? Will Nepal’s Maoists, re-branded from their former identity as international terrorists, now democratic participants and parliamentary party strategists in the new interim government, make the journey towards becoming legitimate participants in politics and play a constructive role in the smooth running of the country?

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Reports of violent outbreaks of Maoist guerilla-style activity in remote rural districts (most vulnerable to stand over tactics) or collecting “taxes” from tourists on the Annapurna trekking trail, are of little comfort in this anxious climate. Rumours that the King is attempting to manoeuvre old guard royalists towards his cause ripple through the capital even as the new exercise of taxation and duty on the palace’s lavish foreign imports makes weekly headlines.

Indeed, contradictory messages resound. In a move that may also be a form of symbolic resistance in itself, the royal household is yet to collect its quarterly paycheck from the government this season.

Back in the capital, tensions ebb and flow. Maoist cadres roam the streets rattling ancient AK47s, issuing bogus proclamations and threatening strikes and constant fuel shortages - Nepal’s current account with its main supplier Indian Oil is in severe deficit - not to mention the unexpected recent violent uprisings and demands for inclusion in the parliamentary process from the Madashi people in southern Nepal’s Terai district all of which are adding to the newly formed government’s woes.

Indeed, Nepal’s current political climate often looks as if it will all fall apart. Yet with the liberalisation of Nepal’s restrictive press laws and the registration of several hundred new publications last year alone, public scrutiny and vigorous debate is at last beginning to affect the pace of change.

Behind the scenes, there are some remarkably unshakeable individuals patiently making their way through the issues that require resolution in advance of the securing of this nation’s full status as a democracy. Chairman of the Interim Constitutional Committee retired Nepalese Supreme Court judge, human rights activist and freedom fighter Laxman Prasard Aryal is one such person.

As one of Kathmandu’s interminable daily power cuts darkens the entire northern side of the city, I stand in this unassuming former judge’s freezing cold study, scanning his library with the light of my mobile phone. A fan balances on a pile of official looking papers. Stacked between well thumbed copies of Swami Mukertanda’s Play of Consciousness, and The Life and Sayings of Ram Krishna are battered leather bound copies of the Indian Penal Code.

Pathak’s Hindu Law and Constitutional Aspects, and a copy of The Glorious Quran jostle for space with numerous awards lining Laxman Aryal’s crowded study. The retired judge enters silently; barely visible in the gloom. He waits until I’m sitting comfortably and a candle is lit to write by.

As a commentator on Nepalese political affairs, Laxman Aryal has history on his side. A reserved man rarely known to make public statements, he’s nonetheless one of Nepal’s most trusted public intellectuals: his vision of parliamentary democracy for his beloved country is unwavering, in spite of the extraordinary experience of being at the drafting board of not one, but two democratic constitutions in the last 25 years.

There would be few legal professionals with Aryal’s advantaged pragmatic insight and a lifetime’s share of disappointments anywhere in the world. But the judge parses my initial question about whether he sees any irony in being in the same extraordinary situation for the second time in his professional life.

Our country is entering a new era. Obviously there are problems. It is easy to conceive of great ideals but much harder to achieve them. It’s always difficult to move from theory to practice, much depends on the practice. We’re at a stage of dynamic evolution and it is a unique situation for any country to be in.

The retired judge is passionate about South Asian legal history and an acute observer of modern Nepalese politics. He explains the May 2006 people’s movement in the context of the peace movement’s emergence in 1951 during organised resistance to the royal family’s autocratic rule.

It was during this initial period of civil unrest that Nepal finally adopted the British legal system replacing the Napoleonic French legal code which had been in existence for several centuries. Aryal sees this too as historic testimony to the Nepalese people’s continuing faith in the need for democracy in their country.

Although centuries of repressive Shah rule had finally been overthrown, the success of the people’s movement proved temporary. By 1991, the King regressed and the Nepalese people rebelled again, this time with more serious consequences. Aryal remembers those days clearly.

All the shops closed, people were afraid - democracy existed on paper but it could not be practiced.

He explains that in 1951, the “democratic” King Tribhuvan decreed that the constitution would be ruled by the constitutional assembly. But, although liberal at the beginning, Aryal believes he became “ungrateful to his people. Relationships broke down and he began to remember the glories of his ancestors. But he was mistaken. He’d forgotten he’d been freed by the people.”

After Tribhuvan died in Switzerland - his son Mahendra took over. Aryal describes the King as “the most cunning devilish shrewdest ruler in the history of Nepal. He withdrew all the people’s power, ruled arbitrarily and formed a government of yes men.”

By 1990, Nepalis had begun rebelling against oppressive royal edicts again and a new quest for democracy began. “We wrote a new constitution in three months,” remembers Aryal.

At the request of the then Chief Justice, Hari Prashard, Aryal also helped reform the judiciary during this period.

The judiciary is now the most consistent element of Nepalese democratic history, they’ve made revolutionary judgments - especially that the king is not above the constitution. The Supreme Court has upheld these judgments, stating that the king is under the constitution and can’t revise it. … but the practice of democracy hasn’t always been guaranteed by the legislature until recently.

In 1991, thousands were jailed during many anxious months of protest, and although the Supreme Court ordered their release, the King’s hand-picked government denied their authority. After 18 months, parliament was dissolved and Aryal’s vision of a reformed multi-party political system became little more than a well articulated dream.

He was jailed often along with a number of civil society leaders. “The police treated us well”, he remembers, even when at over 70-years of age soon after his retirement as a Supreme Court judge, Aryal was incarcerated for 18 days.

Nineteen were dead at the end of the 1991 uprising and Aryl blames King Mahendra personally.

He was inhuman, he should be accountable for these deaths. Civil society has played a commendable role here, they have no political game to play except the well being of the people, and the country.

It would take another 16 years of fear and constant political instability before the Nepalese people could reclaim their rights. Between 1961 and 1990 Nepal had no formal party system, no rule of law and no press freedoms. Mahendra could and often did override the Nepalese judiciary’s initiatives to create a multi-party system and a transparent legislature but his tyranny would take its toll.

Today, Aryal maintains that while peace in the wake of the mid November 2006 interim government agreement signed by both the government and the Maoist rebels appears to be fragile, it will hold.

Nepal is in a quagmire. After a long protest and hunger strikes, students’ dissatisfaction with the standard of their educators convinced the courts that competitive testing was vital to maintaining standards. I don’t disagree with them, democracy is a system of checks and balances. There’s no room for autocratic pressures here now.

He says this in spite of the chaos their daily strikes are causing. Elsewhere, Maoist led labour unions recently threatened a dozen banks with strikes and the atmosphere on the streets of Kathmandu remains tense as traffic crawls at snails pace. Will the calm hold long enough for the UN to complete its arms registry and for the mid 2007 democratic elections to be accomplished?

Aryal’s spiritual practice and readings of Vedic history guides him daily and is clearly the intellectual and philosophical base for his conscience and commitment, not just to shaping the languages of democracy, but to implementing them. He remains optimistic about the present situation in Nepalese politics.

The PM is doing a very good job, he and Prachandra sit together often, it’s a quiet miracle seeing them together, working through problems.

Critical to even the most temporary form of political stability in Nepal are the terms of governance covered under the Interim Constitution. Unsurprisingly, this too is receiving criticism under newly liberalised media laws. Why did Aryal’s committee not take the opportunity to reform anti-homosexual laws for instance?

The Interim Constitution is interim. We can’t change the structural boundaries of the current Nepalese laws; it’s a human rights issue that requires political consensus and peace.

But many basic reforms will be enforced henceforth nonetheless.

Yes, health is now a basic human right, as is the right to life and the fact that the court is now mightier than the military.

Constitutional safeguards have been also strengthened. Political consensus is vital in this period of transition Aryal believes. Consistent progress in election reforms and the multi-party system is urgent in advance of the mid 2007 democratic elections he feels. But clearly Aryal’s proudest achievement is in gender justice, with the institutionalisation of female representation in the allocation of one third of all parliamentary seats to women, while within all Nepalese political parties females must constitute 33 per cent of elected positions.

“I personally feel women will begin to flourish in this country henceforth”, Aryal muses.

Women should be the owners of their own bodies. Consent must be compulsory. It’s possible that Nepalese women’s legal rights are now better than their Indian sisters.

Aryal’s Interim Constitutional Committee’s other major breakthrough, he feels, is the implementation of special laws on untouchability to punish wrong doers. “A crime against untouchability is now a very serious crime against humanity”, he says proudly.

Indeed, Aryal believes the Nepalese judiciary has played a commendable role in social equality but economic reform has yet to come. Both major parties are committed to promoting industry and economic development but only time will tell if Maoists can become good business partners in free market commerce.

Still, revising the King’s monopolies on the state’s main utilities and services is underway. The King’s property is currently being placed in public trust and much of his personal property will be confiscated. The Interim government is searching for his bank balances abroad, Aryal notes somewhat gleefully.

Overall the situation here is moving in the right direction although ministers and the old machinery are slow, even these processes are being revitalised and peace and prosperity will eventually prevail.

All things remaining equal Aryal feels, the King is unlikely to survive but will the Nepalese want another royal to fill the gap?

“My country is beyond a king now.”

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Excerpts from this article were first published in Tehelka.



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About the Author

Jane Rankin-Reid is a former Mercury Sunday Tasmanian columnist, now a Principal Correspondent at Tehelka, India. Her most recent public appearance was with the Hobart Shouting Choir roaring the Australian national anthem at the Hobart Comedy Festival's gala evening at the Theatre Royal.

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