53 Years of Democracy Trials And Experiments

February 20, 2004
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With the advent of democracy in Nepal 53 years ago, Nepal has seen many stages of structural and physical transformation in the country. From expansion of administrative units and state apparatus to constructions of various infrastructures in the areas of transport, communication, education, drinking waters, power, rural development and administration, the transformation has been unthinkable. Had the country had stable political situation, the overall state of the country would have been far better than it is today. Caught amid visible and invisible conflicts between Nepal’s two big neighbors, Nepal’s developmental and political processes have suffered

By KESHAB POUDEL

“The first and foremost problem I faced after my appointment as a home minister was where to live? The home minister did not have residence and there were no homes for rent. Another problem was where to set up the office as there was no home ministry. I opened the office of my ministry in two rooms at my residence. Then, I required a home secretary. I didn’t know who should be made home secretary. When I asked Mohan Sumsher: Who was the home secretary at the ministry? He said, “We didn’t have such ministry. There was one Muluki Adda under the commander-in-chef and he could know about it.”

In his Atma Brittanta, B.P. Koirala, the first elected prime minister and the first home minister of the interim government, thus described the reality of the country when he assumed the office in 1951 just after the revolution.

Despite many shortcomings and lapses, Nepal today has a well-established Home Ministry, regional administrative offices, district administrative offices in all 75 districts and area administration units in many remote parts of the country. There is a well-defined system of bureaucracy and set ways to appoint, transfer or promote the secretary.

Unlike former prime minister Koirala, the system has been built in such a way that anyone who is appointed as a minister does not have to start from the scratch as he is handed down an institutional set up. More interestingly, there is direct communication link between district headquarters and the center.

Having started from ground zero, Nepal’s civil service has today more than 90,000 employees including 7,000 gazetted officers and a fair number of women.

Nepal embarked on the process of modernization at a time when it was without even a basic pre-requisite. From political front to infrastructures and administrative set-up what the country inherited in 1951 was nothing but a tradition-based and rag-tag legal and administrative units in a country that had difficult terrain and topography.

“In the early 1950s, there was minimal government organization at the local level, and no dialogue between villagers and the national government. Nepal was a blank slate in terms of rural development. The infant mortality rate was 225 per 1,000. One third to one half of children died before reaching adulthood, and life expectancy was 28 years. There were dozen doctors and few district headquarters had hospitals. There were no university and just two colleges with 300 students,” states ‘Half-a-Century of Development, the History of U.S. Assistance to Nepal’ published by the USAID.

“The legacy of the Rana regime was a static, highly centralized government administration whose functions were primarily confined to maintaining law and order and collecting taxes; a subsistence economy overwhelmingly dependent on agriculture and controlled by large landowners preoccupied with maintaining the status quo; and near total lack of physical infrastructure, including roads, telecommunications, hospitals, and schools; there were very few development oriented activities.”

From non-existence of modern administrative and physical infrastructures to establishment of all kinds of infrastructures, Nepal has gone through different phases to build basic infrastructures along with the decentralization of the authority. At present, there is a strong pool of skilled manpower in health, engineering, administration, judiciary, politics and development. Whether in the technical or administrative sides, well-qualified people with the average age of 50 years are leading the system.

Even after retirement, many senior bureaucrats are using their skills and knowledge working as consultants in different non-governmental and international non-governmental organizations.

“In 1951, there were very few skilled personnel capable of formulating and directing policies appropriate for Nepal’s new identity, and a lack of administrative machinery capable of translating King Tribhuwan’s political vision into economic and social reality. Approximately 98 percent of Nepal’s eight million people were illiterate, with only 300 college graduates in the entire country,” states the USAID book.

From east to west and north to south, Nepal’s many district headquarters are connected by national road network and the Kathmandu lies exposed to the world. “Before 1950, a visit to Kathmandu required nearly four days of travel by railway, motor car, and foot from India. The journey was adventure in itself. The opening of a regular Kathmandu-Patna air service in 1950 shortened the journey to 50 minutes, but few Nepalis could afford to fly. The country’s internal transportation infrastructure was limited to 376 kilometers of rough track in the Kathmandu valley and terai. Ironically, the rugged terrain of the hills made Kathmandu more isolated and difficult to reach than the Indian border,” the same book further states.

Achievement In Infrastructures

According to Economic Survey Fiscal Year 2003, Nepal has 25,911 primary schools with 3.8 million students, 7404 lower secondary schools with 1.7 million students and 5542 secondary schools with 456,000 students. There are 97,116 primary teachers, 35,360 lower secondary and 19,863 secondary teachers.

In the higher education sector, there are five universities with total 129,785 students. The students in colleges are studying in different streams including social studies, humanities, management, law, medical science and engineering. There are 1771 medical students at Tribhuwan University and 287 at Kathmandu university. There are 712 engineering students at TU, 468 at KU, 96 at Eastern University and 1973 at Pokhara University. The literacy rate has gone up to 50 percent.

The health sector has also witnessed tremendous improvement. There are altogether 4440 health institutions including hospitals, health centers, health posts, Aurvedic service centers, sub-health posts and primary health center. There are 86,162 skilled health manpower with 1295 plus doctors in the government sector.

There is a network of 16,000 kilometer long roads including 4,627 km all-weather, 3883 graveled and 7,490 fair weathered roads. Out of 75 districts, Nepal’s roadnetwork has already expanded to touch 65 districts.

From telecommunication to transportation, the country has seen tremendous change in the last 53 years. Nepal’s expansion of transportation supported the economic growth and it also helped to improve the internal security and political unity of the country.

“Today, Nepal stands at the crossroads between a brighter future that promises more sustained poverty reduction and the possibility of the country becoming mired in more protracted internal conflict. Despite many positive changes Nepal has seen since the advent of multi-party democracy in 1990 and the first wave of economic liberalization measures in 1990s, the recent developments have highlighted the stark and worsening inequities in Nepal, not only in terms of incomes, but also of the fundamental ability of the Nepali citizen to participate in social and political decision making,” writes the World Bank’s Nepal Country Assistance Strategy 2004-2007.

Political Course

Had the country’s political situation remained stable, the pace of development in the country would have been different than what one could see today. One of the most seriously felt lacking in the process of Nepalese modernization was the stable government to lead the country.

“Between 1951-1955, however, Nepal was subjected to a rapid succession of the governments and political instability that was to characterize the entire decade,” states the book on the History of U.S Assistance to Nepal.

Between 1951-1960 Nepal saw seven governments led by five different prime ministers including Mohan Sumsher (twice), Matrika Prasad Koirala (twice), Tanka Prasad Acharya, K.I. Singh, Subarna Sumsher and B.P. Koirala. K.I.Singh’s government was a very short-lived one. The first elected government of late B.P. Koirala was also dismissed following 16 months in power in 1961.

After the dismissal of the democratically elected government, the country was ruled by Tulsi Giri (twice), Surya Bahadur Thapa (twice), Kirtinidhi Bista (twice), Nagendra Prasad Rijal, Lokendra Bahadur Chand (twice) and Marich Man Singh between 1961 and 1990.

In the period following the restoration of democracy in 1990-2002, the country had six prime ministers and twelve governments. The longest-tenure government was led by Girija Prasad Koirala and the shortest one by Lokendra Bahadur Chand. In this period also there were various prime ministers: Krishna Prasad Bhattarai (twice), Girija Prasad Koirala (four times), Manmohan Adhikary, Sher Bahadur Deuba (twice), Surya Bahadur Thapa and Lokendra Bahadur Chand. Between 1990 to 2002, there were 12 governments led by six different individuals of three different political parties.

Following the dissolution of prime minister Sher Bahdur Deuba government in October 2002, the country has already been ruled by two governments led by Lokendra Bahadur Chand (for seven months) and the Surya Bahadur Thapa (since June 2003 -).

Unstable governments with frequent policy changes have hampered the pace of overall development activities in Nepal affecting the economic, social as well as political development of Nepal

Violent Insurgencies

From the most destructive kind of present Maoist insurgency to small scales of insurgencies in the past, Nepal has faced a number of short term and long-term violent insurrections in the past.

Along with unstable government and unstable political scenario, the country has a long history of violent insurgencies launched from the soil of Nepal’s democratic neighbor. Soon after the fall of Rana regime, K.I. Singh revolted against the mainstream parties causing massive disruption in western region.

Even during the peaceful time, the country has gone through different kinds of disruptions including events like Nepal Bandh and other similar kinds of agitations. After the restoration of democracy, political parties, whether extremists or moderate liberal democrats, no one has spared any time to embrace violent kinds of political agitations. From disrupting the parliamentary process for two months in a row to calling the general strikes for three days, extremist political parties have done much harm to the country’s economic and political development.

The second large scale insurgency was launched in 1961 by Nepali Congress soon after the dissolution of the democratically elected government led by B.P. Koirala. Nepali Congress again launched the armed struggle against Panchayat in 1970s. In its early days, the Communist Part of Nepal-Marxist Leninist also called the class war in 1974 killing half a dozen people in Jhapa which was influenced by Naxalites movement in India.

Ramraja Prasad Singh launched another major armed struggle in 1986 exploding bombs in then national assembly (Rastriya Panchayat) and reception counter of Hotel Annapurna; and planting bombs at the main gate of Royal Palace, Singh Durbar and many other places out side the valley.

Following the ouster of Panchayat system, Ramraja Prasad Singh, who continues to live in the Indian city of Patna, gave up his armed struggle joining the mainstream political course. The recent Maoist movement – which has been the most destructive insurgency in Nepal – started in 1996. According to the National Planning Commission, the country has lost about US$ 500 million worth of infrastructures in the last eight years affecting multiple sectors like telecommunication, hydropower, bridge, school buildings and village development committee buildings and many other public and private industries.

Crisis In Constitution

Nepal has seen five constitutions in the last six decades with three constitutions replacing each other in the span of five decades. The recent fifth Constitution of Kingdom of Nepal 1990 – which was formulated with an extraordinary consensus among country’s all political forces – is facing major challenges for its survival.

The Interim Constitution 1951, the Constitution of Kingdom of Nepal 1958 and the Constitution of Nepal 1962 were replaced one after another rocking the entire political process as well as the economic system. The frequent changes of the constitution have injected a kind of instability in the mind of people. Since the constitution is regarded as a document to define the role and responsibility of the state’s body, the changes of constitutions disrupt the constitutional process triggering instability.

Nepal has been changing all those constitutions hoping that the new one will end the political problems – but in vain. Owing to the prevailing conflict situation, some intellectuals including the drafters of the 1990 constitution have already said that they want new constitution.

Despite the changes in the constitutional process, the judiciary has evolved through the various stages. There are still many shortcomings but the judiciary has supported the process of constitutionalism and democratization giving the sense of rule of law.

Grass Root Democracy

Be they in any forms, the experiment of grass root democracy has been one of the most successful achievements in the last five decade.

“From the beginning, the point IV team believed that if assistance programs were to be successful, a structure had to be developed to extend program benefits to Nepal’s many villages.” This argument of the U.S. Assistance of early 1950s has been realized in today’s Nepal in the form of village development committees and other smaller administrative and development units of the Kingdom of Nepal.

Despite frequent instability, the country now has 4,000 VDCs and 58 municipalities looking after the overall development as well as giving training of governance and supporting the leadership development.

Despite certain limitations at the central level, the Panchayat system had also promoted the grass root level democracy. During the 30 years of Panchayat rule, the present infrastructures, local political leadership and manpower was groomed.

The local bodies received an initial set back after the restoration of democracy when the government led by Nepali Congress floated the idea to hold the local bodies under the nominated representatives and got rid off the older grass root institutions.

In early 1950s, the Americans saw the need to build an organization known as the Village Development Service, established to contact village people, to find out their needs, and then to get assistance from various departments which would channel programs through this service.

Thanks to their five decade old concept, VDCs, the country’s grass root level organizations, supported the democratic exercise in the central level for the last 12 years.

Following the restoration of democracy, the country’s major political parties had made efforts to run the local bodies under the elected representatives. With the pressure from the western governments including the USA, the elections for the local bodies was held in 1993. The five years of experiment in the open and democratic system had transformed the local bodies. After the second elections in 1998, a bill was passed by parliament giving the sweeping power to the local bodies in the areas of development and small administration.

With the destruction of more than one third of 4,000 village development committees by the Maoists and expiry of the date of elected representatives on 2002 July, there remains a vacuum of leadership in local bodies at present. Despite all these efforts to detach the people from the local bodies and destruction of the buildings, local bodies are still powerful elements. As usual, these bodies will play important role in the process of democratization in the future Nepal.

Nepal’s Geo-strategic Vulnerability

Nepal’s geo-strategic position is also significant for persistent turmoil here. Sandwiched between the two major Asian powers, India in south and China in north, the Himalayan kingdom, which is very small in terms of size and population, does not have capability to avoid the visible and invisible confrontation. The country embraced the modern political system and opened up its door at a time when Nepal’s two neighbors secured independence from centuries old foreign domination.

Isolated and cut off from the rest of the world for centuries, the Himalayan Kingdom had suddenly found itself in a complex situation following the introduction of democracy. China’s march towards south in the Tibetan Plateau and newly independent India’s quest to contain its rival pushed the Himalayan state in turmoil of various kinds.

Despite the improvement of relations between India and China and their quest to harmonize bilateral matters, the country like Nepal is yet to receive respite from conflict between Asia’s two powerful nations.

Whether in democracy or autocracy, Nepal continues to survive in most tricky geo-strategic situation. Nepal’s quest for speedy progress and stable political system still appears far off. Nepal’s internal institutions and forces are yet to pass through many painful phases.

Future Challenges

Nepal can tackle all short-term phenomenon including the insurgency but the question remains, how it will cope with the challenge that will be thrown by overgrowing population. According to recent report of Population Projections for Nepal 2001-2021, published by Central Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Population and Environment, the number of young population will be higher in the coming years.

If the country reduces its fertility rate from present 4 to 2.1 by 2021, the country’s total population will have reached 32,030,767. If the rate remains at 3.3, the population of 2006 will be 25,767,919. And if the fertility is maintained at 2.7, in 2011, the total population will be 28,177,454.

The next phase of Nepal’s struggle to cope with the rising population will be more difficult. In the last five decades, Nepal’s population increased by many fold – with 82,56,652 in 1952 to present population of 2,31,51,423 in 2001. If Nepal’s population growth rate continues to follow the present rate of 2.5, the country’s population will double by 2032.

Nepal’s first 53 years of struggle was just for the cause of institution building and extension and expansion of the infrastructures. Although the pace of development has been bumpy, the country has built certain level of institutions and infrastructures. But Nepal has to struggle to adjust to its growing population in the coming years – which is going to be more difficult job.

In many respects, Nepal is truly at a critical juncture in its development process, and it is difficult to predict which path the country will follow. Yet, one thing is clear. With strong support of international community, the chances are good that the recently initiated reform programs will succeed, and hence, lead eventually to real improvements in the lives of Nepal’s poor and most vulnerable.