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

The Remake of a StateThough state exercises some legal provisions to shape human behaviour,effects of such legal interventions are often observed as selective (usedfor poor, powerless but not for powerful) and passive (not able to settlecases for decades). It is consequently severely distrusted by general public.Individuals and organisations responsible for exercising legal provisionsare themselves modeled by difference of rhetoric and reality. Hence, itis becoming socialised character irrespective of profession, age, class,gender, social positions and legal provisions.Difference between rhetoric and reality are everywhere in Nepal in politicsbusiness, academic institutions, social service, diplomatic community,non-governmental organisations (NGOs), governmental organisations(GOs), parliament, judiciary, security, and civil society. It is very difficult tofind any sector or organisation free from this character.For example, every time when a new government is formed, it bringssome common minimum agenda to be respected by the coalitionpartners. However, such governments never implement or only selectivelyimplement, if at all, such agenda. Often, this very agenda becomes sourceof tension among the coalition partners. When the then king Gyanendraimposed autocracy in 1 st February 2005, all his justifications were framed tostrengthen democracy. Strengthening democracy by imposing autocracyin itself was an example of glaring duality.Political parties in Nepal are largely characterised as failed in theirperformance in terms of commitment they make to people and theoutputs they deliver. One of the main reasons of their failure is rooted induality in their function, for example, once they lost trust of people andthe then king used this opportunity to impose direct rule in 1 st February2005. Then political parties, through the Twelve Point Understanding,made public commitment that they will not repeat the mistake of thepast. The text reads;Undertaking self criticism and self evaluation of past mistakes, theCPN (Maoist) has expressed commitment not to repeat such mistakesin future" (Point 6) and "The seven political parties, undertaking selfevaluation, have expressed commitment not to repeat the mistakes ofthe past which were committed while in parliament and in government(Point 7).These understandings were made in November 2005 but they haveblatantly ignored their public commitments within the same year.On one hand, several governments from their cabinet have passed therules to regulate extravagant costs. On the other, government and itsofficials (Prime Minister, ministers, secretaries and other officials) spend41