Lalitpur, June 23: Speaker Taranath Ranabhat today said that political consensus was essential to correct the distortions that have surfaced in the practice of democratic system during the last ten years and move ahead effectively.
“The State has been unable to deliver to the expected level as political parties failed to forge a consensus on the issues of national issues,” Ranabhat said inaugurating a two-day workshop on ‘A Decade of Democracy in Nepal: Development, Delay and Distortion’ here this morning. “The result is the people in the grassroots have been deprived of the fruits they deserve.”
The political parties are the foundations of the democratic system, Ranabhat said, adding, multiparty system would not flourish if the major political parties involved themselves in contention.
Stressing on value-based politics, Ranabhat said that the political parties should not merely concentrate on elections.
“The State on the one hand has been unable to make laws promised by the Constitution while many of the laws have been redundant on the other,” Ranabhat said.
Ranabhat said that civil society and the intellectuals should suggest the political parties to move ahead judiciously. “We need feedback and pressure to move ahead effectively.”
Showing the need of a guiding principle about the exploitation of water resources and tourism development, Ranabhat said that the State also needed to define and demarcate defence and security clearly.
Dwelling on the problems of corruption, unwise use of domestic and foreign resources and lax peace and security situation, Ranabhat stressed intra- and inter-party consensus to resolve the Maoist problem.
“There is a gap between the democratic system we envisioned and the one in practice,” General Secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) Madhav Kumar Nepal said.
The democracy in practice is just an elite democracy, Nepal said and called for the efforts of all to orient it towards the poor and reach its fruits to the grassroots.
“The system or the government cannot be deemed democratic unless it maintains peace, enhances public good, and promotes equality,” President of CSDG (Centre for the Studies on Democracy and Good Governance) Nepal added.
Nepal said that the root cause lay in the political front and stressed people-centred policy, judicious use of the State machinery and electoral reform.
“We have been unable to identify the crucial issues, let alone find the solutions,” Nepal said. “There is a need of institutions that carry out an in-depth study of the issues, take them up and meditate on them to reach constructive conclusion.”
Nepal said that Maoist problem was a by-product of the distortion of the system. “It has exposed our weakness.”
“It is time to review if the system is moving ahead as desired by the people and correct it if it is on the wrong track,” National Assembly Chairman Dr. Mohamed Mohasin said.
CDSG’s study wing co-ordinator Bharat Mohan Adhikari said CDSG was established by the major political parties a couple of years ago with a view to discuss the issues of national concern and forge consensus to consolidate democracy and ensure good governance.
In the workshop organised by CSDG with the support of Fredrick Ebert Stiftung, CDSG Director Achyut Bahadur Rajbhandari welcomed the participants while the programme officer Sachchidananda Shrivastav delivered the vote of thanks.