Why Parties Repeating Mistakes?
By Yuba Nath Lamsal
History repeats but it repeats more often in Nepal’s political parties. Our leaders seem to be so short sighted and a bad memory that they forget the events and mistakes immediately. They, therefore, keep on repeating the same mistakes over and over again.
This is a common and chronic problem in all political parties of Nepal. Now is the time that all political parties need to develop a common understanding and work in a collective and cooperative way so that the political mission with which the country is moving ahead can be achieved and accomplished. The Interim Constitution, too, has clearly stated that there must be collective decision, compromise and consensus among the major political parties to govern and take any decision that may have far-reaching impact on the life the country and the people. But that is hardly in practice when it comes to Nepal’s applied politics of today.
Parties are far apart on national issues. Nepal is passing through the gravest crisis in history. The law and order is at the lowest ebb. The feeling of insecurity has haunted the people. The problem is more acute in several Terai districts, some mountainous district of eastern Nepal and urban centers including the Kathmandu Valley. The cases of threat, extortion, bombing, robbery and even killing have been a daily phenomenon. The law enforcement agencies are weak and ineffective in curbing violence and criminal activities. As the government is weak and ineffective, people often resort to strike and closure to make their voices heard and to press for their demands. The frequent strikes are the product of this reality and mentality which have created tremendous problems to the people.
Having already felt insecure, the condition of the people is getting further complicated due to unbridled price hike of essential commodities. At times, the black marketers and hoarders create artificial shortage of daily essentials and services taking advantage from the poor law and order and country’s transitional period. As a result, the life of people is getting unbearable as their income is hardly sufficient to survive and support their family.
The economy is going down. The country is facing perennial power outage, which has not only made people’s life difficult but also had a serious impact on production and industrial growth. The UN human development report has put Nepal at the lowest rank in South Asia in terms of its economic, social and human resource development. If the present trend continues, the country is likely to witness further decline in its economic viability.
Looking at the political front, the scenario is further bleak. The country is now in the process of writing a new constitution as an important part of the ongoing peace process. The peace process began with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Treaty between the government and the Maoist party that had been fighting a guerilla war to establish a communist state. With the signing of the treaty, the Maoists gave up armed insurgency and entered into peaceful politics. This was a great achievement as this historic event provided a sense of optimism for peaceful, stable and prosperous Nepal.
However, things did not move ahead as expected even after the signing of the peace treaty. The peace process is faltering. The Constituent Assembly election, which was an important part of the peace process, was held after being postponed twice. Even after the Constituent Assembly election that put the Maoists on the largest position, has not brought about more optimism and enthusiasm. The hung Constituent Assembly invited more instability as we have seen the change of government in eight months. This is an indication that parties are interested more in grabbing and retaining power rather than working for the interest of the country and the people.
One thing must be mentioned here that people had almost lost their hope and trust on the parties in the past. The activities of the political parties in the 13 years after the 1990 political change made the people apathetic to politics as parties focused more on partisan and personal gains and did not pay due attention to the problems of the people. It can be substantiated by the poor show in the protest of the political parties when the then king Gyanendra took over power and imposed his direct rule. But people did not respond overwhelmingly. It was because the parties had lost faith of people due to their lackluster performance in the past. It was only after the leaders publicly apologized and expressed commitment not to repeat the past mistakes, did the people came overwhelmingly to the street that toppled the kings’ regime.
After the success of Jana Andolan II, people had expected that parties would change their behaviors. But people’s expectations were soon dashed as the parties and leaders again got bogged down in the dirty power politics instead of politics to empower people. This power game took uglier turn after the Constituent Assembly election. The government could not be formed for more than four months after the results of the election were out. The open chasm and sharp division appeared during the election of the president and vice president. Parties were polarized into two poles—Congress-led alliance and the Maoist-led front. In the election for the president and the vice president, the Maoists were defeated. This sowed the seed of breach of the unity among the parties.
The Maoist had the legitimate right to lead the government as it had emerged the largest party in the Constituent Assembly. But efforts were made not to let the Maoists to form the government. After much ruckus, the Maoists were able to bring together other parties and form the government. Although the Maoist-led coalition government was formed, serious efforts were made to pull down this government right from the beginning. At the same time, the Maoists were also not able to understand the feelings and concerns of the coalition partners and carry them along. There had already been some serious differences among the coalition partners on several issues and that difference broke out openly when the issue of the ouster of the army chief came to the fore. This broke the coalition and the Prachanda-led government collapsed. As a result the new government headed by UML leader Madhav Nepal is now in place. But this government, too, has been facing the similar problems the earlier government had faced.
The politics of unity and consensus has been broken. The breach of consensus politics is the breach of spirit of the Interim Constitution. The spirit of if Interim Constitution is that all issues should be settled through consensus among major political parties. In the breach of this constitutional provision, all political parties are responsible. The Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, UCPN-Maoist and Madhesi parties are to be blamed for the violation of the constitution. Now time is running short but parties still can correct their mistakes and again work together as per the constitutional provision at least until the new constitution is promulgated and the ongoing peace process is successfully concluded.
History repeats but it repeats more often in Nepal’s political parties. Our leaders seem to be so short sighted and a bad memory that they forget the events and mistakes immediately. They, therefore, keep on repeating the same mistakes over and over again.
This is a common and chronic problem in all political parties of Nepal. Now is the time that all political parties need to develop a common understanding and work in a collective and cooperative way so that the political mission with which the country is moving ahead can be achieved and accomplished. The Interim Constitution, too, has clearly stated that there must be collective decision, compromise and consensus among the major political parties to govern and take any decision that may have far-reaching impact on the life the country and the people. But that is hardly in practice when it comes to Nepal’s applied politics of today.
Parties are far apart on national issues. Nepal is passing through the gravest crisis in history. The law and order is at the lowest ebb. The feeling of insecurity has haunted the people. The problem is more acute in several Terai districts, some mountainous district of eastern Nepal and urban centers including the Kathmandu Valley. The cases of threat, extortion, bombing, robbery and even killing have been a daily phenomenon. The law enforcement agencies are weak and ineffective in curbing violence and criminal activities. As the government is weak and ineffective, people often resort to strike and closure to make their voices heard and to press for their demands. The frequent strikes are the product of this reality and mentality which have created tremendous problems to the people.
Having already felt insecure, the condition of the people is getting further complicated due to unbridled price hike of essential commodities. At times, the black marketers and hoarders create artificial shortage of daily essentials and services taking advantage from the poor law and order and country’s transitional period. As a result, the life of people is getting unbearable as their income is hardly sufficient to survive and support their family.
The economy is going down. The country is facing perennial power outage, which has not only made people’s life difficult but also had a serious impact on production and industrial growth. The UN human development report has put Nepal at the lowest rank in South Asia in terms of its economic, social and human resource development. If the present trend continues, the country is likely to witness further decline in its economic viability.
Looking at the political front, the scenario is further bleak. The country is now in the process of writing a new constitution as an important part of the ongoing peace process. The peace process began with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Treaty between the government and the Maoist party that had been fighting a guerilla war to establish a communist state. With the signing of the treaty, the Maoists gave up armed insurgency and entered into peaceful politics. This was a great achievement as this historic event provided a sense of optimism for peaceful, stable and prosperous Nepal.
However, things did not move ahead as expected even after the signing of the peace treaty. The peace process is faltering. The Constituent Assembly election, which was an important part of the peace process, was held after being postponed twice. Even after the Constituent Assembly election that put the Maoists on the largest position, has not brought about more optimism and enthusiasm. The hung Constituent Assembly invited more instability as we have seen the change of government in eight months. This is an indication that parties are interested more in grabbing and retaining power rather than working for the interest of the country and the people.
One thing must be mentioned here that people had almost lost their hope and trust on the parties in the past. The activities of the political parties in the 13 years after the 1990 political change made the people apathetic to politics as parties focused more on partisan and personal gains and did not pay due attention to the problems of the people. It can be substantiated by the poor show in the protest of the political parties when the then king Gyanendra took over power and imposed his direct rule. But people did not respond overwhelmingly. It was because the parties had lost faith of people due to their lackluster performance in the past. It was only after the leaders publicly apologized and expressed commitment not to repeat the past mistakes, did the people came overwhelmingly to the street that toppled the kings’ regime.
After the success of Jana Andolan II, people had expected that parties would change their behaviors. But people’s expectations were soon dashed as the parties and leaders again got bogged down in the dirty power politics instead of politics to empower people. This power game took uglier turn after the Constituent Assembly election. The government could not be formed for more than four months after the results of the election were out. The open chasm and sharp division appeared during the election of the president and vice president. Parties were polarized into two poles—Congress-led alliance and the Maoist-led front. In the election for the president and the vice president, the Maoists were defeated. This sowed the seed of breach of the unity among the parties.
The Maoist had the legitimate right to lead the government as it had emerged the largest party in the Constituent Assembly. But efforts were made not to let the Maoists to form the government. After much ruckus, the Maoists were able to bring together other parties and form the government. Although the Maoist-led coalition government was formed, serious efforts were made to pull down this government right from the beginning. At the same time, the Maoists were also not able to understand the feelings and concerns of the coalition partners and carry them along. There had already been some serious differences among the coalition partners on several issues and that difference broke out openly when the issue of the ouster of the army chief came to the fore. This broke the coalition and the Prachanda-led government collapsed. As a result the new government headed by UML leader Madhav Nepal is now in place. But this government, too, has been facing the similar problems the earlier government had faced.
The politics of unity and consensus has been broken. The breach of consensus politics is the breach of spirit of the Interim Constitution. The spirit of if Interim Constitution is that all issues should be settled through consensus among major political parties. In the breach of this constitutional provision, all political parties are responsible. The Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, UCPN-Maoist and Madhesi parties are to be blamed for the violation of the constitution. Now time is running short but parties still can correct their mistakes and again work together as per the constitutional provision at least until the new constitution is promulgated and the ongoing peace process is successfully concluded.
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