SPEAKER SUGGESTSTRIMMED PROCEDURE TO ADOPT CONSTITUTION

AS EXPECTED, SPEAKER NEMWANG SUGGESTS TRIMMED PROCESS FOR CONSTITUTION
Kathmandu, 22 March: Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subash Nembang has said that new constitution should be promulgated on May 27 even by shortening the entire processes of constitution writing< RSS reports.

"Constitution could be amended for this process," Nembang said.

The top leaders of major political parties should work seriously to accomplish the remaining tasks of constitution writing, Nembang said while speaking at a programme organised to commemorate the 2nd memorial day of the late Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.

Nembang expressed dissatisfaction towards the feud among the parties, saying that the leaders have forgotten their commitments to promulgate the new constitution after completion of the peace process.

He said, "Number of political parties represented in the CA reached 33 from 25. It is heard that different hearths have been set up though the party seem single from the outside. Such tendencies have been hampering peace process and writing of new constitution," said Nembang referring to the intra-party rifts in the parties.

Nembang said timely promulgation of new constitution would be a true tribute to the late Girija Prasad Koirala.

Also speaking on the occasion, President of Constitutional Committee Nilambar Acharya said constitution could be promulgated on time if the leaders hold serious parleys on conflicting issues of constitution.

Expert on constitutional law Surya Dhungel said that the present political deadlock was the outcome of non-implementation of the past agreements.
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OPINION

CHILDREN OFWAR LEARN TO COPE WITH PEACE

Kathmandu, 22 March: Let’s willfully suspend our disbelief for a moment and accept that Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai and Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal really did not know their daughter and son, respectively, were to become beneficiaries of the government led by their party, Maila Baje writes in Nepali Netbook.
Still, Manushi Bhattarai and Prakash Dahal would have been able to gauge the scale of discomfiture they were inflicting on the two leaders.
Manushi, in particular, could not have been unaware of the ‘family factor’ behind the precipitous decline in the image of her father ever since that Mustang ride went south. Could it not really have occurred to her that our distraught premier could not afford another controversy so close to home?
An elected student union leader at the Tribhuvan University (TU), Manushi told an Indian newspaper: “The international cricket stadium is within the university premises, and there are often negotiations between students and cricket authorities. The TU was also recognized as a separate team in the national games. I had been nominated in that capacity.”
Just from the tone of that clarification, it’s clear that Manushi’s refusal to take up the position in the Cricket Association of Nepal offers little mitigation to the circumstance.
Prakash Dahal has already mortified his father far too much to plead ignorance of the implications of the latest bout of influence peddling. Of course, the money the government planned to spend on the Everest expedition was an investment in a national team. But Prime Minister Bhattarai’s spokesman Ramrijan Yadav still chose to press the obvious. “This is not the first time the government provided such financial support to those aiming to scale the world’s highest peak. The money is not provided just because there is the son of the party chairman, it is provided to a team.”
Yadav raises another vital question. Would the government have made such a hefty investment had the Maoist chairman’s son not been part of it? In his quest to appear magnanimous, Prakash subsequently rejected the government’s $25,000, asking it instead to spend it on conflict victims. The conflict of interest was so palpable that the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML, no strangers to influence peddling, decried the move as a manifestation of an administration run amok.
The larger issue relates to the progressive degeneration of the Maoists into just another party. Every threat of state capture or renewed revolt becomes hollow diversionary tactic. Whether the ex-rebels’ internal rivalries are real or contrived becomes less relevant to the nation.
As new entrants to the community of one percenters – as measured by both power and pelf – the Maoists’ children are entitled to their share of the good life. They could be less ostentatious in their assertion of a sense of entitlement.
Just imagine how many offspring of today’s fringe leaders may be pushing their folks to bypass regular political organization for unconventional yet proven recipes for preponderance?
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WHEN MYTH GETS SHATTERED

Kathmandu, 22 March: However much the Maoists might try, the inevitable is happening. Their past deeds and misdeeds are catching up with their existing claims. They are no longer the invincible lot they thought they once were. Nor do their “contributions to loktantra” get much recognition from the general masses, Trikaal Vastavik writes ins People’sReview.
People might have chosen to forget the violence the Maoists perpetrated during the 10-year-long “People’s War,” if the latter’s leadership had worked for the general public welfare instead of leading lifestyles contrasting greatly with their known means of earnings.
Jokes are made of the flashy, expensive motor vehicles that clog the Maoist party office whenever the leadership meets for some official purpose. Billions of rupees were amassed through at least 3,000 non-existent cadres at the cantonments, to whom the government paid more than Rs. 3 billion, and the so-called local “mechanism” that is estimated to have pocketed 80 per cent of the funds provided through public resources and taxes. In addition, Rs.1, 000 was levied upon all members in the cantonments as “donations to the party.” Nepalis are shocked by the way the former rebel leadership has sought to extort money from its own cadres.
It was a good ploy for the Maoists to create the Young Communist League (YCL), many of whom were actually militias but, in the new guise of civilians, they were mobilized for elections and other purposes. They rendered a yeoman’s service to the party that emerged as the single largest party in the 2008 elections contrary to many crude estimates in Kathmandu that had given less than a quarter of the seats they actually went on to win.
Five years on, and troubles have begun brewing fast and furious. The cantonment-wallahs are angry at the leadership’s demand for a “cut” of 20 percent of what the inmates received from the government as a parting payment agreed upon by Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal a.k.a. Prachanda.
Members of the foreign diplomatic corps, too, are surprised and shocked that the Maoists can “go to that extent” in exploiting their own cadres. “This is simply unbelievable. We never expected them to act that way,” said a diplomat at a small gathering of journalists and civil society members.
No wonder many in the cantonments dub the Maoist chairman “Paapi Prachanda” who discouraged “bourgeois education” to the cadres while the leaders had their children had their children admitted to expensive private schools and colleges. The former rebels are very bitter over the fact that, while the education system was condemned, the same leaders had been sending their own children to private, expensive schools and colleges, creating class system and disparity within the organization.
A Maoist said, “We do not have any skills. We fought for the party’s cause and today we are abandoned. This is because of Paapi (sinful) Prachanda.” They are disgusted by the double standards practiced in the organization. It is like, according to a senior police official, the country’s largest-selling daily newspaper’s management submitting a request to the IGP that breath test to motor vehicle drivers would not be taken for its celebrations at the nation’s top-star hotel recently. The daily carries opinions against corruption but overlooks things closer at home such as the case of a particular Singapore bank account that is said to have been the main cause of the split between the Gyawalis and the Sirohiya couple.
But then this is Nepal, Johnny! It is also like one of the four pairs of intelligence eyes at the Indian Embassy making it a point to invariably say that “India would not be interested in vertical division” of the state structure of Nepal. This seems to be the bottom-line of their “interest,” considering that other embassy staff members also rhyme similarly.
Also, they must be telling so to India-friendly fellows who hold Nepali citizenship. On the other hand, the Americans in general do not think that federalism suits Nepal. Such conclusion makes interesting hearing, coming as it does from representatives of the country that accounts for the world’s shortest and oldest constitution in existence, upholding federalism and separation of power theory.
Not less interesting is that the “India-friendly” chaps mouth the same lines when meeting other Nepalese. Whether they have been asked specifically to sing the line or they have developed the art of taking a cue with the slightest gesture from their patrons is a matter of conjecture.
On the Maoist’s front, it is now common to hear members of the pro-Pushpa Kamal Dahal, pro-Baburam Bhattarai and pro-Mohan Vaidya factions making highly critical remarks against rival group chiefs. A common point in their remarks is that the party’s credibility has eroded drastically. Many cadres have begun to describe their boss as “Pushpa Kamal” or “Dahal” but they refrain from calling him “Prachanda” as they used to do so admiringly earlier. When the boss was informed of this, he is said to have turned pale.
When YCL members raised objections and hinted of “dire consequences” if they were not treated appropriately in view of their “big contributions” during the post-loktantra years, particularly during the 20008 elections, Prachanda’s worries have mounted tremendously. When this author asked about this to a well-informed Maoist, he said, “I, too, have heard about this but I am yet to get a confirmed answer.”
Addressing YCL hopes and difficulties is going to be a tricky business that is likely to give ceaselessly sleepless nights to the party chief who is seen as the one who is doing the negotiations with the Nepali Congress and the CPN (UML).
At the time of cadre recruitment and armed fighters, the Maoist leadership gave little thought to ideological commitment, discipline, personal background and character of individual recruits. All that the former rebel organization wanted was numerical strength and the recruits were let loose.
Hence, Maoist cadres face a difficult situation when returning to their villages. Their trouble is that they spent most of their years in the jungle, then in the cantonment for five years and now they go to their villages where they are looked at with reservations or scorn for the violent tactics they had employed in intimidating, attacking, wounding, maiming or killing opponents and “spies” working for the government or “exploiting the poor.” Many of their attacks were condemned by human rights organizations.
Pro-Vaidya faction cadres say that Prime Minister Bhattarai’s public image is “zero”. One of them said, “We would not worry if his credibility fell. The problem is that he is a Maoist party member and the party suffers as a result.”
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