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Democratic premium in Nepal is getting bigger and wider

Bhuwan Thapaliya - 4/6/2008

Even if things are improving slowly, they are, at best, not getting worse for the Nepalese. The chief reason is that the democratic premium in Nepal is getting bigger as the political parties are fighting for their stake in the upcoming Constituent Assembly election, which many doubted would never happen in Nepal.

The very fact that the CA election scheduled for April 10th will take place exemplifies that peace is not dead in Nepal , it is only in coma. Yet the toughest job of all will be to change Nepal ’s backward political culture and accept the election result, given that it is free and fair, and accept the political reality of Nepal upon the aftermath of the CA election.

The world’s largest diplomatic effort cannot overnight erase all evidence of a war that lasted for more than a decade. The Nepalese may ignore the past, but they do not forget it. But the doubt comes laced with optimism. No wonder, then, that the Nepalese has realized that different political sects could live in harmony. And why not?

The best way to get scars to fade is to leave them alone. It is pointless to dwell on the past over and over again. The better course, as so often in Nepalese history, is to ignore the past and concentrate on the future.

Nepalese must bind their wounds, recover their spirit and rebuild their country. To shape their future, Nepalese must learn from their mistakes. Whatever their political differences, today’s Nepalese share a common heritage – a freedom to speak, travel and make money that has no parallel in the Nepal of the past.

But these are not enough to rebuild a nation. If the Nepalese are to prove the pessimists wrong, they must take responsibility for their own mistakes and march on the road of brotherhood and solidarity to build a new Nepal they claim to be building.

But given Nepal ’s intrinsic weakness that is a forlorn hope. Whereas most nations have a sound and rigid political majority, Nepal has a rival minorities guarding their own party’s interests, if necessary by seeking outside help. Times and again, outside powers – India , European Union and the United States – are invited to play a meddling hand in the internal politics of Nepal .

That leaves the question of how the Nepalese will solve the political riddle of Nepal- and whether they will be able to do it’s on their own. The idea is to limit the dependence on the foreign government as much as possible, by relying on domestic consensus. The plan is ambitious, but it not impossible.

The question, then, is whether it matters; whether Nepal ’s ability to solve its own problem may cause any real concern for the West. The answer, clearly, is yes: they may not be able to encapsulate the imperial formula of “divide and rule.”

Those who benefit from the status quo have no reason to accept the Nepal’s problem solving capacity but the challenge before Nepal is to ensure that they do have to because Nepal’s future, like its past, should not depend on the outside world.

No wonder, therefore, that the Nepalese pin hopes on a peace and a political certainty after the CA election. Not only will it mean more boost for Nepal ’s sovergenity, it would also mean the departure of those who are fishing on the troubled waters of the Nepali politics.

Yet, the dangers should not be laced out. For example, what if Maoists refute the election result (if they lose) and took up arms yet again? If that happens, then the real danger for Nepal is that it will again fall prey to its deep –rooted internal problems and an obvious risk that other factions would oppose it.

In the meantime, the above raised question will remain a mere hypothesis only. And there are every chances of it remaining so. The best reason for optimism, however, is Maoists realization that its years of bloodshed, in the end, solved nothing. Today everyone is prepared to live and let live. Peace may make Nepal a more liberal place, and will certainly make it an economically more attractive nation.

The process is already on the way in Nepal . In the past Maoists were using bullets, but now they are pelting stones and it is not too long before they shall be pelting flowers. That’s the only option left before them if they are to come as a major political force in Nepal . Nepal is lucky that the Maoists are transforming, though the process is slow. But the very fact that they are transforming is a step in the right direction for Nepal .

In Nepal , the doubt over the CA election seems finally to have been settled. In times like this Nepal should seek to redefine her. The time is fast approaching when she need to take collective responsibility for her own internal disputes. So the ongoing series of political uncertainties may become an opportunity for her to re- examine her dependence on a foreign power.

Finally, amidst the global doubt over the possibility of the CA election, Nepal proved the world wrong by paving on its own: the road to the CA election. Hence, maybe, the time has come for the world to learn something from Nepal and its conflict solving capacities.