(Courtesy: Krishna Giri)
Post CA election Nepal has witnessed a series of political dramas that only few people get to see in their lifetime. Some of these dramas are provocative, some are reprehensible, some are revolting and some are unpatriotic. The beauty is they are all happening in the name of democracy. I am fascinated by this term "Democracy"; "Prajatantra," "Loktantra," "Ganatantra," etc. If we just go back 60 years, we can find the following models of democracy in Nepal:
1. Shree 3 Rana's Democracy (until 2007)
2. Shree 5 Tribhuwan's Democracy (2007-15)
3. Nepali Congress's Democracy (2015-17)
4. Shree 5 Mahendra's Democracy (2017-36- in my view)
5. Shree 5 Birendra's Democracy (2036-46)
6. NC/UML's Democracy (2046-57)
7. Shree 5 Gynendra's Democracy (2058-62)
8. SPAM's New Domocracy, New Nepal & Loktantra (2063 onwards)
Not a bad record where exercising democracy is concerned.
In my own understanding we have always wanted more and more but never really comprehended what precisely we desire. We have always tried to import democracy as a commodity but have always failed to scrutinize the fact that democracy is customizable, but commoditize-able. We have always eyed American or Western European styles of democracy but have always failed to understand our own position from a global perspective. The feeling is somewhat like an army Private aiming to become Filed Marshall within 5 years.
Not that ambition and for title or position are necessarily bad, but shooting for the sky without understanding how to get there (i.e., process), is necessarily chaotic and haphazard. A soldier has to go through standard processes to be promoted. When processes are made up along the way, people like Idi Amin are "born" under the guise of democracy.
Consistent "winners" are those people who have followed standard processes (and challenged processes from within the system) and proved themselves capable. American and European democracies function because they consist of processes, checks and balances (also processes). We must not forget that Western nations too had their fair share of civil war, occupation, expansion, revolution etc. These nations have travelled a long durable enclosure to arrive at their level of sophistication. They got here through processes that were established, customized, improved-upon and meticulously implemented. These nations have are where they are today, also because of visionary leaders and a set of circumstances that permitted such leaders to effectively lead.
Democracy is not some concentrated, ready-made mixture. It takes time to flourish and it needs serious care and love. We have either expected western democracy to be mixed up in our society like a ready made mixture or we wanted a mature and flourished democracy that can guide us towards prosperity rather than us guiding the democracy for our prosperity and wellbeing. We have repeatedly insulted democracy and we have proven history of such abuse. All the major parties and their leaders have failed to refrain from individual and partisan interests. They are always engaged in short term goals and interests rather than working towards the future of the country and its people.
Not just the leaders but we also have amazing people. People describe their association towards some party by blood or some relation rather than their own judgements. Furthermore; almost everybody is associated with some political elements. This is not expected in democracy. Does this happen in the USA or Western Europe? Sovereign people exercise their sovereignty by gratifying or punishing political parties (during elections) rather than joining a party. We need political cadres to help democracy function but if every body is a political cadre, then democracy cannot function because there is no one left to judge the parties.
The very basic rights of democracy will be apprehended if the business of politics is the only business around. For example, the CA had failed to appoint a Prime Minister; the executive head of Government, for more than 3 months as the nation stood by calmly as though such inter-party bickering on a issue like the head of the government, was perfectly normal.. But the way people reacted when a pro-Maoist business man was killed, was pretty stunning.
This is one simple example of how people are so used to or so motivated to rally behind political cause. Why are our cities and streets are so calm even after repeated and horrific acts of political drama? Where are the people to pressurize our leaders to do their jobs? When will the time come when our leaders will work hard for fear of living up to the peoples' expectations rather than the other way around? When will we stop ourselves from treating politicians like warlords?
Democracy and civilisation can neither be bought nor be imported. They have to develop from within and that is not going to happen overnight. We have to fight for a cause. We have to fight for objectively, guided by morals and conscience. We have to fight for the achievable and aspire for the ideal. We should stop fighting based on hearsay and speculation.
Let's look at democracy in our neighbourhood and beyond. We are sandwiched between the largest Democracy and the largest People's Republic. Can we ignore either of them? No. If we move to the East and South, we have Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. If we look to the North, we have Mongolia, Russia and the two Koreas; and in the South we have Sri Lanka and the Maldives. If we go towards West and North-West, we have Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Is there substantive, liberal (Western style) democracy any where in our immediate or expanded neighbourhood? My answer is 'No'. Every country listed above has tried to define its own form of democracy. China argues for its democracy, so does Bhutan, Myanmar, Maldives, Pakistan and Syria. We should do very sincere home work to identify the type of democracy we want and the type that is most conducive to our country - not what has worked best somewhere else.
Rather than importing democracy, we need to compose our own democracy. We can identify the goods of all democracies and analyse whether they fit our socio-political and economic contexts. In the good old days, people used to call it 'research'. We should work to make Nepal just a Nepal, not New Nepal or a Switzerland in Nepal. We would always remain Nepal and Nepali and let's be proud of that.
Osho once described life as "full of hopes and misery." Let's move away from making the lives of Nepalis full of hopeless hope and non-stop misery..
Related Texts:
Endless Possibilities in the Republic of Nepal
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2008/05/endless-possibilities-that-accompany.html
An Open Letter to Fellow, Nepali Compatriots
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2008/07/open-letter-to-fellow-nepali.html
All the Right Agendas
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2008/04/all-right-agendas-nepali-national.html
Kanak Mani Dixit The Nuanced
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2008/04/kanak-mani-dixit-nuanced.html
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