In many ways, the moment we find ourselves in provides an opportunity to constructively consider how we can turn this seeming crisis into opportunities for speedy reconciliation, assurance of law and order, and minimum provision of goods and services at the local level in Nepal. Yes, the constitution-drafting process is critically important but so too are social harmony and communal acceptance, personal safety and wellbeing, and livelihood to the average Nepali.
With a deadline looming, there has been a lot of agitation in recent months on the progress of the constitution-drafting process, referring specifically to debates on federalism and structure of government, pluralism, and the general inability to get to a workable draft. Further, with a second post-2008 elections government that is increasingly wobbly, there have also been tense discussions about government performance and capacity, political party leadership and reform, and so on. In all of this debate and ferment, we seem to have lost sight of the comprehensive peace agreement and its core tenets, among which an important one relating to combatant armies remains almost wholly unfulfilled. The lack of timely integration and rehabilitation is often cited as the main obstacle in the peaceful settlement of civil wars. Efforts to rehabilitate Maoist combatants must ramp up instead of being squeezed to a trickle. It is time to talk seriously about how to jointly fund and implement rehabilitation on a massive scale. It is also time to agree a common minimum integration program between the Maoist army and the Nepal army (NA). There is no getting away from it; time is running out.
Haggling over actual numbers is necessary but insufficient; action has to take place, agreed to a timeline that begins now. The NA and all stakeholders must know that integration of the two armies presumes overall downsizing, whether immediate or eventual. Whether or not this is prerequisite for Maoist cooperation, a country of Nepal’s level of impoverishment cannot sensibly maintain a large army and make progress in any case. Let us bite the bullet and get started on a sensible way forward!
Pulling back from the brink of a potential collapse of peace in Nepal will require us to focus on reconciliation through integration and rehabilitation, a reduction in impunity, and minimally functional and effective governance at the local level.
To promote national reconciliation, the setting up and functioning of transitional peace structures must be prioritized and assisted by the international community. The time for platitudes and perfunctory actions surrounding the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, for example, is past. Without reconciliation, peaceful coexistent development is not likely in Nepal’s future. Reconciliation and rehabilitation and integration are inextricably linked; let us not shrink from it for specious reasons.
Concrete steps have to be agreed to halt and reverse the rising impunity in the country. During the best of times, the minimum assurance of personal safety and protection of property and investment is essential for communal wellbeing and decent livelihood; in post-conflict times, it is a critical foundation for durable peace upon which all else rests. Improvements in law and order must be prioritized and must remain at the forefront of governance provision regardless of which party heads the next coalition government.
Local governance by any legitimate means is required in Nepal, as quickly as possible please! Many of the causes of the conflict in Nepal inhere in local conditions of citizen-government-society relations. Among others, locally-manifest disparities and inequities in representation, public spending, settlement of land and natural resource allocation, and participation in development planning, for example, have contributed in great part to tensions. Raising record revenues for the national exchequer is only a half-measure of successful fiscal management, spending on behalf of the public is the other half. While the exigencies of the constitution-drafting process preclude a long-term solution at this time, serious thought must be given to empowering, resourcing, and capacitating extant institutional structures and individuals at the local level. Where they don’t exist, every effort must be made to work out and implement an interim solution for local governance. The face of the state is local; the performance of and support for a system of democratic governance is adjudged locally; let us not forget that.
As an addendum to local governance, alternate means of dispute resolution and reconciliation must be encouraged and supported. Prior to, during, and after the conflict Nepalis have resorted, with substantial success, to informal means of dispute resolution and reconciliation in their local communities. These locally accepted and established mechanisms have great potential to contribute to the transition to a durable peace within communities across Nepal. The international community and the government have only to replicate these successes more widely, through financial support and an enabling legal and regulatory framework. The ground has been well prepared on this score, let us now follow through.
Pulling back from the brink of a potential collapse of peace in Nepal will require us to lift our eyes from the events of the past few days and focus on reconciliation through integration and rehabilitation, a reduction in impunity, and minimally functional and effective governance at the local level. The drafting of the new constitution is a separate and parallel process whose pace will affect but should not dictate our success in accomplishing the above.
(Writer is Country Representative of The Asia Foundation.)
gvarughese@asiafound.org
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