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Nepal’s political situation was unstable before and it still is. But the instability before the Constituent Assembly is different from the instability after the Constituent Assembly. Before, the government failed to serve a full term due to internal reasons of the parties. Later, many political parties were formed through the inclusive system. The trend of small parties ruling over big parties began to emerge.
The hope of society seems to be shattered. It is dangerous to leave any society in a state of despair. Therefore, bringing back hope to society should be a topic worth discussing. It is the responsibility of the parties concerned to prevent disappointment, despair and escape.
But how do we overcome disappointment? Nothing will happen if we don’t do something. We are who we are and we are right. So something should be done to arouse hope. First, there is a need for a constitutional, legal and political review of the reasons for our failure.
In this context, the initiatives taken by the two major political parties (the Nepali Congress and the United Marxist-Leninist Party) to change the society’s hopes should be viewed positively. Although this cooperation also involves power, it has also received different comments.
But let’s not view this collaboration solely through the lens of power cooperation. Let’s see hope amid despair. It’s important to consider and discuss some facts to bring hope to despair.
Geopolitics
If we take geopolitics as the source of instability, we think that Nepal’s stability problem is a difficult task. In this sense, it is a “factor”. We read that geopolitics is also related to the change of Panchayat Prime Minister.
Politicians of the time have written about the reasons behind the departure of one prime minister and the coming of another. Although the political system at that time was a one-party system, there was instability. This instability had the effect of geopolitical conflict. After the Constitutional Convention, the geopolitical influence increased, but we will not talk about it now.
Democratic Culture
Another theme is the creation of a democratic culture. We were wrong about this. We have made democracy so widespread that there is nothing left to exploit. The National Independence Party said they would also select candidates through online surveys. After that, what is left of the experiment?
But we have a culture that chooses who we like no matter what method we use. In order to influence people to some extent, we talk about the legal system, but there is a culture that does it based on interests when choosing. Everyone is the same. Therefore, cultural construction is an important issue.
Rebellious consciousness
In the context of attacking the old political parties, we should see where our weaknesses are. Our protests against the state have been going on for nearly six years. We have taught the people to speak out against the state.
When we established the people’s state through the promulgation of the constitution by the people, we did not teach the people to represent the state. Therefore, the people and the state were not connected. As the people and the state were not connected, the challenge turned into despair. We failed to connect the people with the state. All parties should make it a common agenda to connect the people and the state in democracy.
Social anarchy
Looking at the current situation, social chaos has become a challenge. People are attracted to those who speak the loudest, like butterflies under a black light.
Durga Prasai has more hihi than the leader who has been fighting for 6 years. What a joke on Nepali democracy? Nothing happened. Durga Prasai herself is a professional loser but she has become a celebrity. This aspect should be taken seriously.
An attack on the spirit of the Constitution
We built inclusive democracy. But we didn’t focus on implementation. We started building electoral coalitions. We ourselves violated the rule that leadership positions at the local level must be held by women.
When you form a coalition, inclusion is not necessary, so we conduct various exercises in the name of the coalition. Rights activists object to this approach. People are angry about the message sent by a political party that violates the constitution.
Disobeying Authorization
In looking for reasons for frustration, one cannot ignore the disregard for orders. We have repeatedly violated the political promises made during elections. Having received the people’s mandate, we advocated implementation for five years.
Even after the 2074 elections, the Maoists and the UML could not be separated. But where the quarrel reached, the people wanted to remain in opposition for five years and form a government under the leadership of the Congress Party. This was also not in line with the mandate, whatever had happened recently. In that sense, we failed to respect the electoral mandate.
Weak side
All the outcomes I mentioned occur when parties are weak. When parties are weak, unfair compromises have to be made. Therefore, democracy needs strong parties, not many parties. In countries that are economically and socially successful, parties are strong. Building strong parties starts with policy debates.
Even the candidates do not discuss the election manifesto with us. How the election manifesto is made, we publish it once and then forget about it. There is no policy debate among the people. Since there is no legitimate debate, the parties are not going through the process of polarisation.
Political instability has begun to disintegrate social values. Social anarchy, disintegration of cultural values and ongoing economic crisis characterize the current state of Nepali society.
Without policy debate, power cannot be created through political results. If we want to strengthen the country’s democracy, we need strong political parties. A strong party means a strong country, and a strong country means a rich people. In this direction, we should approach the legal arrangements of the Constitution.
Constitutional issues
But our constitutional approach has weakened parliamentary democracy itself, and we are suffering the consequences. The way we have framed and used Article 76(5) of the Constitution is against parliamentary democracy. This has weakened the party system.
Who starts to see the dream of paragraph 5. So constitutionally it does not mean that everything is fine. Some constitutional arrangements are weakening parliamentary democracy. To help do that, there is a provision in the law relating to political parties that allows the use of the whip even if there is no national party. Even if there is no national party, one can claim to be the Prime Minister because there is a whip.
It is this party-related system that is behind the creation and collapse of the power equation. Because if 10 seats elect the prime minister, why not 14 seats? Why not 21 seats and above? This will lead to a coalition replacing the prime minister. People believe that this coalition will become a cause of instability.
Finally, political instability has begun to erode social values. Social anarchy, disintegration of cultural values and ongoing economic crisis characterize the current state of Nepalese society.
So even now, if we don’t mean it and say the right things everywhere, people won’t believe us. So policymakers have to deal with the problem of injecting hope into despair.
(Edited excerpts from a speech delivered by Nepali Communist Party-Marxist General Secretary Pokharel at an interactive event on “Political Instability and Possible Options for Mitigation” organised by NITI Foundation in the capital on Monday.)
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