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

Contradiction and dualityCivil society has always played a fundamental role in the democraticmovement in Nepal with the support from the people and internationalcommunity. Key civil society and human rights organisations and mediahave played a significant role in civic education about the CA, humanrights monitoring and restructuring of the state and the need to deliverbasic services in the rural areas. But, once democracy is restored, civilsociety has been somewhat in the confused state and less effective inconsolidating democratic practices and lasting peace in the country. Thismay be because much of Nepalese civil society is driven by self-interestedleaders, influenced by the internal desire to enter into power politics anddivided along partisan lines.5. ConclusionContradiction and duality can be the sources of change or violent conflict.They are inevitable in the post-conflict state building. The issue is notto ignore them, but to deal with them constitutively and forge nationalconsensus. In some cases, contradictions also result in disabling progresstowards change. Nepal needs to learn from the international experiencesof identifying and in dealing with them constructively. There is timesensitivity and more lingering of the issues can push the nation to thepoint of zero-sum game.Under contradiction, some kind of general consensus can also be seenbetween political forces as all of them feel threatened of their own futureexistence. Sometimes, they may be culturally difficult to confront. InNepal, contradictions are rooted in the culture, systems and institutions,and also at individual levels. They are not fixed, rather space and timedependent. There are very little efforts made in understanding howcontradictions are dealt with and resolved and whether they are able toyield positive changes in the society and improving relationships. Therehave been enormous shifts in political positions taken by different partiesover the years and resolving contradictions.Duality has been adopted as a kind of tactical tool to deal with many ofthe political contradictions publicly. The existing contradictions amongthe political parties and key stakeholders form the core problems that thecountry is facing today. History shows that Nepali politicians do not learnsufficiently from their own strengths and weaknesses and thus make similarmistakes. They fail to critically assess existing contradictions and dualityand manage for Nepal’s progress and prosperity. Blaming one another forall the failures and taking credits for every single positive change has been302