English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...

The Remake of a Statechange. Democratisation process of the Nepal Army has been halted afterthe Maoists-led government tried to sack the then Chief of Army Staff inMarch 2009. This was taken by the other political parties in opposition as aMaoist’s strategy to capture the state power. This resulted in the Presidentrevoking that decision with support of all other parties in opposition. Citingthe reason of lack of civilian supremacy and foreign interference in all thedevelopment leading to President’s decision, Maoist supremo Prachandaresigned as the Prime Minister that led to further deteriorations inrelationship among the parties. Existing contradictions among the partiesranging from integration of two armies, state restructuring and forms ofgovernment to provisions for inclusive participation of all the excludedgroups and communities widened further. It slowed down the postconflictstate building process.In some cases, the most difficult contradictions, hard to identify andinvisible in the society, could deter the transformation. Political parties inNepal may not even recognise such contradictions as difficulties, such asunderstanding each other’s position over certain issues (can be a case ofmanagement of disqualified combatants). Government could not agree tothe Maoists’ demand of providing cash compensations or any incentivepackage to former disqualified combatants to start an economic activity(such as fruit farming in Karnali region in government land leased fornumber of years). Other parties and the government were in favour ofproviding skill development training so that they could be employed in thissector. This was rejected by the Maoists as well as the combatants. Finally,the Maoists agreed to discharge them from the camp without a clearincentive package to start a ‘new life’. The contradictions here are mainlyrelated to how certain things are to be done or how certain relationshipsare to be managed. The United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) withoutmajor decision-making role and not having sufficient mandate to pressurethe parties had to complete the discharge process. Another example is thedemocratisation process of the Nepal Army. It appears to be the forgottenissues in the current political debates on the ability of Nepali politicalleaders/ forces to resolve the contradictions amicably.Equally, contradictions can also help to identify ‘dynamic forces of change’.Introduction of inclusive policies by the government of Nepal (quotasystems, reservation while recruiting in civil service and universities) afterthe CPA-2006 are the results of efforts of the political forces to resolveexisting contradictions. Such policy changes are expected to bring positivechanges in the socio-political situation of the disadvantaged communities295