 Learning
workshop on Constitute Assembly
Date:
2nd June
2007
Idea Action, a youth organization with collaboration with Civil
Society for Human Rights and Good Governance, different Radio
listener’s club organizations of Nuwakot organized a learning
workshop on Constituent assembly
toward lasting peace which was held in Nuwakot District
of Nepal on 2nd June
2007. Chief Guest Honorable Rajendra
Prakash Lohani, Member of Parliament inaugurated the programme.
The objective of this programme is to make people aware about up
coming constituent assembly and its purpose.
The Background:
We all know 19 day long uprising (Janaandolan 2) of 262\63 Bs
(2007’s April movement) brought an end to dictatorship and establish
democracy in the country. The CPN-
Maoist
who fought for
10
years
 agreed
to come
in the peace process and abide by the multiparty system as
well as ready to share chairs of government.
Nepalese people were sovereign and the government promised to hold
constituent assembly election on November 2007. In Nepalese
history, this was the first time the country was going for
constituent assembly election (CAE).
Government and major political aprties declare that Constituent
Assembly will declare future of Monarchy, establish sustainable
peace, make new constitution and address voice
less voice among Dalit, Madhesi,
and many marginalized group of
Nepal. The unpleasant thing about this CAE is that those people who
are uneducated and living in rural areas do not know anything about
CAE.
 Although
the date for the CAE was announced, majority
of Nepalese people
are worried if at all CAE would take place. People of the country
want charge, progress and political stability. Up to now
representatives from different political parties have not gone to
villages to put forward their political programs. In regard to
this context, Idea Action, a youth organization with collaboration
with Civil Society for Human Rights and Good Governance, different
Radio listener’s club organizations
of Nuwakot organized a training workshop program on
Constituent assembly toward lasting peace
which was held in Belkot-5 of Nuwakot District of Nepal.
Program Preparations:
When shadow was cast over holding the constituent assembly election
on the time, there was pressure building up in government and the
political parties to start a talk program at the local level so that
people realize and knew the importance of the constituent assembly
election. With this in mind, the organizing committee of the program
had a massive
discussion about the subject matter.
After the discussion, they pointed out that this is a close relation
between constituent assembly election and people who were elected by
them from different parties. If an open interaction could be held
between the representative of the people and the
people themselves, this could narrow the differences between the
two.
Detail Description of the program:
-
Hosted by: Bhum Raj Tiwari- a youth and human rights activist
-
Chairperson: Basudev Katuwal -President of good governance and HR,
Nuwakot
-
Chief Guest: Honorable Rajendra Prakash Lohani, Member of
Parliament
-
Special Guest: Shakti S. Ghimire - President of
Idea Action
Guests:
-
Er.Bed Prakash Bhattarai - Engineer
-
Rajendra Raman Khanal-Member of CPU-Nuwakot
-
Shambhu Tiwari-Principle-Shree Pancha Kanya School
-
Madhav Raj
Tiwari-President
Of Sathi
Sanga Manka Kura Radio
Shortha Club
-
Basanta Prasad Tiwari- Secretary-Ex. Student union Belkot 5 Tilgau
-
Lok Jung Pandey-Ex Principal
of Shree Pancha Kanya School-Belkot-5 Tilgau
-
Ram Hari Pandey-President of organizing committee
of shree Pancha School
-
Apsara Dhakal and Kedar Pudasaini - Student-Belkot
5
Mr. Madhav Raj Tiwari- National President of Sathi Sanga Maan ka
kura Radio Listener’s Club
He
stressed that there should be written information about
constituent
Assembly Election (CAE) and there should be more open discussions
among people.
What Is Constituent Assembly Election all about?
-
This is the main law of the country under which all other laws are
made.
-
To make the main law, there should
be proportional representation of people in the assembly from all
parts of the country in order to draft the constitution.
-
Once the constitution of the
country is drafted, the assembly automatically gets dissolved.
-
The people who are representatives
have been sent by the active participation
during election.
-
In
history very rarely has a constitution assembly election been
held.
Why Vote For Constitutional Assembly Election:
In
Nepal, this is the first time a constituent assembly election
is
going to be held. It carries a historical importance because it will
decide ones fate.
·
If
a proper person from favorite party is elected and sent in the
assembly, he\she will listen to the people’s voice at the time of
writing the constitution.
·
Representatives that are elected directly by the people tend to be
more concerned about the problem at the local level as a result they
can be trusted.
Speakers
Rajendra
Kharal-member CPUML-Newakot:
In the history of Nepal, the monarchy has ruled for 238 years with
unanimous dictatorship. To end this dictatorship, there is going to
be a constitutional assembly election in the near future. CPUML has
been asking a system of equal participation from the beginning but
due to some people who want to keep ceremonial King the system of
equal participation could not be implemented. People have lost
interest about Constitution Assembly Election because there is not
enough discussion at the local level.
Since Nepal is an agricultural country, majority of Nepali citizens
are involved in agriculture. Agriculture is the back bone of
Nepalese economy and agriculture occupation should be changed from
subsistence to business/commerce. For agriculture to raise
government should make plan and implement it. Instead of giving
reservation to women, they should be made to compete and the
percentage should be raised from 33% to 50%. If the nation has a
firm belief in the laws then there would be no corruption, delay in
work and good governance would be seen. The whole obstruction to
these entire problems is the monarchy and if it could be removed
then the Nepalese people would move forward and see the country
developing like any other country.
Basanta Prasad Tiwari- Secretary of Ex-students union, Belkot
Since the Nepalese people do not know anything about Constituent
Assembly Election, the political parties who are staying in
government have not been able to come out openly. There is no
co-existence among political parties. There should be proper home
work done, many discussion made among people at all levels. For this
to take place the representative form different political parties
should go villages otherwise just to fulfill formalities of holding
election in haste will have reactions and counter reactions which
will make us repent later on. The aged political leaders always make
the youths stay back and to avoid this there should be a clear
definition of youth’s right, duty and youths as such.
Kedar Pudasaini, Newakot
In every political parties, there is an opportunities for youths to
come in part line and show their achievements. Since I am affiliated
to brother CPUML organization what I want to advice the government
immediately is to give food, shelter, and cloths to the people first
instead of going for constitutional assembly election. Since the
youths are not organized, they are neglected. If the youths from all
sectors could unite then there could be no neglecting youths and
youths right established.
Shambhu Tuwari-Principle of Shree Pancha Kanya Secondary School-Belkot:
In
every agitation the teachers are used as weapons and they make an
important contribution. They are the elite group and they have been
showing their dissatisfaction in various ways. If the teachers are
used for the upcoming election in some way or the other, then it is
going to be very dangerous with a prospect of causing damages
because most of the teachers are some way or the other affiliated
with some political parties. This can give rise to cheating in the
coming constitutional assembly election. So to avoid this law which
comes before the election should be clear. Although educational
institution and students are considered as peace zone but they are
the first target in any agitation, to stop such effects, the
political parties should stop things. Any educational institution
should not be used as poling booth.
Guest, Beb Prakash Bhattarai - Engineer,
Most of the people don’t know the literal meaning of Constituent
Assembly Election. They are thinking it is like any previous
election and they will be attracted and manipulated. To avoid such
possibilities people should be made conscious by taking help from
NGO. The people have not made many demands and the political parties
due to their non-transparent activities they have not been able to
address the people’s basic problem. This is the main reason why the
country is like this at the present state. Unless Nations
restructuring process takes place we can not expect any change.
Suppose if every individual play an important role, the coming
constituent assembly election but if the public does not know their
basic rights how can they imagine what the constitution is going to
be like. Actually unless the political parties bring change in their
working attitude and make the general public realize that they have
changed, it is difficult to make them understand. For this the
political parties must change.
Special Guest, Shakti S. Ghimire - President of Idea Action
Youth and Constituent Assembly:
In Nepalese history this election is different from previous
election. After election of CA, Member of Parliament will make a new
constituent and its address long-lasting peace and demand of
disadvantages group. Directly or indirectly, previous constituents
were made my royalist and just concerned about royal place and king.
As
the durable peace practice moves ahead and people discuss a
wide-ranging vision of a new Nepal, we should listen and implement
civil society agendas and it is mostly significant to listen to a
voices and perspectives of youth too. Not only have youth have been
heavily affected by the impact of on-going violence and human rights
abuses but youth also experienced tackling the root causes of
conflict and promoting long-term stability and development.
The
present status of the Nepalese people is due to the dictator type of
government which was formed. To remove this type of government all
the people should take active participation in the coming
constituent Assembly Election. Behind every agitation the youth and
students play a leading role and because the government neglects
these students hence the country has not developed. For any
development, youth’s participation from the policy and discussion
level is essential but programs are brought forcefully as a result
it does not satisfy the youth. Majority of the elderly people make a
slander of the youth politician. These elderly people should be
removed with respect and should work with their advice then only we
will see change in the country. Since no one has worked for youths
rights, the youths are being deprived from their rights and are
dissatisfied. To remove this dissatisfaction and to use their
creativity, leaders should be give space for youth in up coming
constituent assembly.
Chief Guest, Honorable Rajendra Prakash Lohani – Member of
Parliament
Due to violent agitation activities by Maoist since 1995, this is
the first time I got a chance to come out to the village and it has
really made me happy. Actually the people should be guiding the
representatives but just the reverse has been taking place and that
is why the people have not been able to have their rights and be
sovereign. Along with change that has come through democracy and the
monarchy pushed to frontier, the people should feel self ruled so
that they can through election of constitutional assembly election
cast their vote. There is inter-relation between the end of monarchy
and constitution assembly election. By conducting constituent
assembly election hope fully, it will end the monarchy but there are
some people who want a ceremonial monarchy and this has brought a
stalemate condition of no discussion. By holding a constitution
assembly election, it will not harm anybody. People will select
their leader to make a new constituent. So the people should vote
with enthusiasm so that they can develop their village and there
should be decentralized ruling system. We always advocated for the
people because there is no alternative to democracy.
OPEN DISCUSSION:
Since the guests were only putting forward their ideas, it was
decided that open discussion would make people participate and put
their ideas forward. So there was open discussion for sometime and
the questions put forward by the concerned people. Regarding
constituent assembly election and parliament the chief guest
Honorable Rajendra Prasad Lohani answered the question.
Chairman Basudev Kaduwal said there are three phase planning
programs which are going to come and make people conscious about
constituent assembly election. The work that the political parties
were supposed to do have been helped by them. The country is heading
for frontiers change and there should be change coming in every
field. The main idea is to have a social transformation and he
thanked every body for making the program a success. He formally
closed the program at the end.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
The
planning of the program should be made in three phases. There should
be more of such programs because it plays an important role in
developing culture of the place.
· The
presentation of the people at his program was notable and if it was
held in the open it would have been much better.
After the program, if we could investigate the effects of the
program and continued it would be better.
Special Thanks
Special thanks go to those people, in spite of their busy schedule,
who took active participation and contribution to make this program
a success. Similarly we would like to thank Shree Pancha Kanya
secondary school of Balkot, for making available the hall which was
needed. Our special thanks go to the people who really put hard
work, day and night to make this program a success. The people who
were really active and put hard work are as follows:
-
1.
Basudev Kaduwal
-
2.
Ram Chandra Gajurel
-
3.
Shyam Mudwari
-
4.
Madhav Raj Tiwari
-
5.
Basanta Raj Tiwari
-
6.
Nur Deb Tiwari
-
7.
Bhola Raj Paudel
-
8.
Apsara Dhakal
--The
End--
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