http://www.parakhi.com/blogs/2011/11/28/last-chance
Last Chance
November 28, 2011 By : kaziba
The Supreme Court of Nepal has finally given the Constituent Assembly one last chance to finish its work. Its decision stating that the term of the CA cannot be extended forever and must finish the writing of the new constitution within the next six months, has put political parties in a fix. If the political parties are unable to complete writing the new constitution within the time period given by the Supreme Court the CA will automatically be dissolved. The CA, and even more so the political parties and their leaders have been dealt a long deserved push.
This decision is a landmark ruling, and should be taken as an attempt to rein in the political parties who think they can do anything they want and get away with it just because they are in power. It is a sign that the judiciary is slowly waking up and will not bow down to the wishes of the politicians. The political parties now have no other option than to complete their task within the given time.
If the CA does not complete its task there can be no other option but to go for a referendum on all issues including decisions leading to the declaration of a “secular federal republic of Nepal”. Although this is a radical deviation from the popular path, going for a referendum is not necessarily wrong because it will only help to legitimize the process and the proposed state structure. If only the parties had had the courage to declare a referendum on the proposed secular federal republic before declaring it through the interim parliament back in 2008, the CA today could have been extended forever. But in their haste to bipolarize the power structure here by eliminating the monarchy, they made the mistake of thinking the process to be too easy. Now everybody knows restructuring the state is not a child’s play, at least not the way the political parties want to.
The politicians also know that they cannot afford to go for fresh elections for fear of being rejected by the people. And why not? Why would the people of Nepal want to give the same politicians another chance? The CA and the political parties have spent millions of the taxpayer’s money as well as foreign aid and yet failed in accomplishing the task given to them.
The biggest party today launched a war against the state that resulted in the deaths of thousands. But they still cannot apologize for their mistakes. They have failed in doing what they promised they would. Worse still the leaders have made a mockery of the people’s mandate and rule of law. Instead of prioritizing and honestly working to complete the peace process and the writing of the new constitution they have focused on being in the government and using state powers to increase their wealth.
We have no other option but to go for a referendum. If the parties fail to abide by the courts ruling it will be the end of the rule of law in Nepal and any other decision made by the judiciary will then not be respected and abided. It is now the onus of the parties to either complete the writing of the new constitution and bring the peace process to a logical end or go for a referendum and start all over again.
http://www.parakhi.com/blogs/2011/11/28/last-chance
