http://therisingnepal.org.np/news/4621
Constitution Writing: Obstacles Ahead : Nandalal Tiwari With the Constitution Drafting Committee's submission of the new constitution’s draft to the Constituent Assembly (CA) on June 30, it is now certain that the new constitution will be promulgated within one or two months. If everything goes well, the major parties which signed the 16-point pact on June 8, which in some way resolved many long-disputed issues, have planned to deliver the constitution by August 5. Discussion over the draft at the CA is expected to intensify and be complete as the Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal, which obstructed the CA for two days, has withdrawn its protest after the major parties confided that there would be no such language in the new constitution which could interpret religious conversion as a right. Although the immediate stumbling block to promulgating the constitution created by the RPP-N in the CA has been removed, there are other obstacles which demand serious attention. Grievances The most serious obstacle is, of course, about how to incorporate the voices of the Madhes-based parties and those Janajati parties and forces which want the provinces delineated before the new constitution is promulgated. These parties have already gone to the extent of burning the draft of the new constitution in their public programmes. On the day the draft was submitted to the CA, these parties tore the draft inside the CA. Now, if the new constitution is to be made acceptable to all or at least to these disgruntled forces, the four parties, Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, UCPN-Maoist and Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum (Democratic), which signed the 16-pt pact and broke the long-jammed way toward the new constitution, should listen to their grievances and address them. It would be best if the four parties could bring on board the constitution-writing process by somehow addressing the voices of those political forces, including the CPN-Maoist, which are outside the CA. It is good that the four parties have been holding internal discussions to speed up the constitution-writing process in an effective manner. In their meeting on July 4, they concluded that they should strive to promulgate the new constitution by August 5. But, they must also consider the implementation of their agreements, for instance, how the president will be elected after the new constitution is promulgated. As per the agreements, the president is to be elected by a college of voters comprised of members of the provincial assembly. Now, until the provincial elections are held, there will be no provincial members. But the parties have not made any agreement on when to hold the provincial elections although they have agreed to hold the local body elections within six months. Moreover, the provinces will also remain nameless until the provincial assemblies name them. Such a situation will demand some sort of provision in the new constitution, which makes it constitutional for the president, who is elected as per the Interim Constitution but remains even after the new constitution comes into effect. But for this to happen, a new kind of power sharing is needed between the NC and UML because when these two parties reached an agreement to form a coalition government last year, they had agreed that there would be election of the president ‘very soon’. In their 16-point agreement, the parties said that the delineation of the eight provinces to be made would be carried out by a commission to be endorsed by the parliament. But in this regard, the Supreme Court has already ruled against it. The Supreme Court has asked the parties to ensure that the naming and delineation of the provinces are carried out by the CA or as per the provision in the Interim Constitution. The Interim Constitution has it that the naming and delineation of the states will be carried out by the CA. Although the parties have been ignoring the SC verdict that asked them to stop implementing the 16-point pact, they cannot ignore the SC verdict for long for the sake of legitimacy. For this, either they have to amend the Interim Constitution or follow the given provisions. Promulgating the new constitution without delineating the provinces will create ground for the disgruntled parties to take to the streets. Such a situation will spoil the spirit of joy over having a constitution through the CA, which has been a political dream for the different forces for the last seven decades. Since the parties have agreed on the number of provinces, it would be better for them to take some time and get the provinces delineated before the new constitution. Now the parties must seek public opinion over the draft before the new constitution is promulgated. In their meeting on July 4, the four parties agreed that such a process should not take more than a week or so. But how people's opinion will be taken within such a short period in this mountainous country is a big question. Is the government providing helicopters to all CA members for collecting people's opinion? Therefore, if the people's opinion is to be taken, the parties must ensure that at least a fortnight is allocated for this process. It seems the four parties want the new constitution promulgated before the monsoon period ends. Given the scale of dissatisfaction by some Madhes-based parties over the draft, it might be their strategy to prevent immediate protests by the disgruntled forces because major street protests cannot be taken out during the rainy season. Reconstruction Alternatively, the parties' efforts to complete constitution writing can also be taken positively because the parties or the government should be focussed on reconstruction after the monsoon is over. Whatever the reason, the sooner the promulgation of the new constitution the better, because the people have been waiting for it for the last seven years. And because of the devastation caused by the earthquake in April, people want the government to be attentive to the needs of the quake victims and focus on reconstruction. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
