Thoughts on the Demise of the Constituent Assembly

Well, the final surge of the recent springtime political crisis has swept over Nepal, at last.

'With a whisper, instead of a bang', as they say.

The historic Constituent Assembly that was elected in 2008 and tasked by the Interim Constitution (2007) with writing and promulgating a new secular, federal, democratic, republican Nepali constitution has been cancelled, extinguished, terminated.  

The country's near-sighted political leaders pulled the plug before midnight on May 27th, 2012 after four years of fiddling, debating, deliberating and dissembling. 

For the moment, at least, it's impossible to perceive all the consequential results of the the CA ending without producing even a draft Constitution, given the widespread discredit, anger and frustration being heaped on the current political leaders.

For now, at least, as my Mom would say, 'the situation is as clear as mud'.  

Personally, I feel deeply disappointed, chagrined and frustrated by the fatuous way that the CA closed the other night with the 'party leaders' unwilling to even countenance the elected CA representatives voting on the contentious issues.  

These old-style party bosses (many of whom lost their CA elections in 2008...) were simply too afraid of how their own party cadre would vote to permit them to publicly declare their views on the outstanding contentious issues.  

Therefore the contentious and long-debated issues, like federalism and the restructuring of the state, were buried in a backroom agreement.  

Even more pathetically, these 'party leaders' didn't have the nerve, courage or decency to go to the CA at the last hour on the 27th evening to discuss these issues or their decisions with the elected CA representatives.  

Embarrassing and insulting, actually.  

After all of the national and international community support, assistance and financial resources, it was a squalid, feudal end to what had been a very promising open democratic process.  

For my three years with UNDP, at least, we can take comfort in the fact that our extensive civil society outreach and social inclusion activities brought 400,000+ people from all 75 districts into the historic effort.  Our Federalism Dialogues opened up the complexity of these issues and the possibility of reasonable solutions to the local leaders who attended these in all 14 of the proposed provincial states.  And, we assisted the Indigenous Caucus organize and discuss key constitutional issues.

Hundreds of thousands of Nepalis are more knowledgeable and aware citizens than they were before.  

I simply hope that the constitutional effort isn't set back by a decade as it was after the 1980 referendum or the 1996 fracturing of the parliament (and start of the Maoist People's War).  

But only time will tell what understandings or agreements these old-line parties will come up with in the next months... or even the fracturing of these monopoly parties with the creation of new political bodies to challenge their lock on power in Nepal.

Finally, I suppose, one's personal perspective at such deeply disappointing moments in political history depends on if you can look at such events with a certain Tolstoyan grace, distance and calm.

I truly believe that nothing done with sincerity and passion in this world ever goes for naught.

Thus, do we take the short view or longer view...

In the short view, yes, I'm depressed.  

In the mid-view, the game ain't over by a long shot.  

In the long view, we're all dead anyway and -- remember-- there are fossilized Saligrams at 12,000' in the Himalaya (and they, too, were once living things...). 

I've spent time in the short view the past few days.  But I'm beginning to migrate to the mid-view as I know that Nepali society has been changed by the efforts of the past four years.

Individuals, groups and communities are more aware, awake and eager for change.  It didn't happen this time -- but it can't be completely held back in perpetuity. 

For we Americans, let's remember: the US gained its independence from their colonial English masters in 1776, then took another 90 years to abolish human chattel and slavery in our country, followed by another 100 years to actually legislate the end of racial discrimination (not to mention offering the vote for women...). 

Politics is a process.

Like life. 

There are stages we all must pass through.

This was one. 

It's exceptionally sad there isn't a new constitution today.  But the game is back on again already and the pressure will build to create a more equitable and just society. 

I believe I did my part for the past few decades, especially, the past three years -- now, temporarily, it's time to tend my bamboo garden while history ripens again for another push forward.

I'll be ready then, once again, to put my oar in Nepal's historical current and splash a bit further ahead... 

Then, later, sometime in the future, we'll hand the game is handed on to another generation...

Personally, at such moments, I don't subscribe too much to the 'Perils of Pauline' or 'the sky is falling down' anxiety that others have expressed this week -- although it makes for good newspaper copy.  

There are serious social, economic and political problems ahead, sans doubt, but, most likely, after some contentious sturm and drang, in the Nepali zeitgeist, manageable ones.  

It's simply rather unfortunate that Nepal couldn't have made this historical break-through at this time and moved more quickly into a healthier, more inclusive, participatory and  decentralized government model.  

But time is elastic and the people's rights can never be fully denied.

Now, what's for dinner?  ;-) 

A Pilgrim's Journey in the Land of Lo‏

As Dylan sings in the background, 'don't think twice, it's alright', and in one of rock's most enduring love songs, 'come in and i'll give you shelter from the storm'... Ahh, Big Bob... prophetical-poet-muse-mad soul of rock n roll... Now back in Kathmandu after a magnificent jaunt to the Land of Lo, Nepal's own Lost Horizon, on the Tibetan border, past the snow-drenched Himalaya -- where time must have a stop (as Aldous Huxley in a different context once mused...). There were thirteen of us journeying together. Americans, a Brit and a Canadian. The modern English language world traversing a foreign land.  


Strangers in a strange land...
We were all, after all, simple pilgrims on those barren mountainous trails for those two weeks together until the fierce Kali Gandaki winds in Jomdzong blew over 25 knots and scattered we frail human shadows around the world once again. During out time together, we each shared bits and insights into our lives and worlds, seeking a communion or connection with each other. We danced around our cores, keeping certain secrets to ourselves while spilling our guts at other moments all over our tents or the trail, seeking resolution, justification or a simple act of understanding. In this we were as one from the first day. Flying over the lush, populated middle hills of Nepal from Kathmandu to Pokhara through our final six hour truck ride from Lo Manthang to Kagbeni slicing through the canyons of the Himalaya. To our ineluctable dispersal from the roof of the world back to our individual realms and realities in the wider world.
Patrick's line about me being a man with the world as his home reminded me of my dearest friend Scott's wry comment years after we left the US to 'make the world a home...'. 'Yes', he said with an impish, ironic smile, 'a broken home...' It's simply such a rich, overwhelming, almost unapproachable effort to make this mercurial and evasive world a 'home'. At best we are outsiders for most of the world we travel through, permitting insights or glances into the deeper truths of other cultures or countries. Language, habit and customs still separate us, as I pointed out a few times along the trail. As noted at the end of Forster's empire-weary "The Passage to India' (maybe to dear Maureen at one moment...): 'there are some trails that only one man can pass through at a time.' Such are the psycho-morphic truths of our lives, as well. But along that journey ('the reach of crazy sorrow'... Dylan), we did share friendship and comradeship. For a footloose gaggle of understudies in search of their own truths, wealthy enough to meander in the high mountains with an exceptional team of cultural guides, but empty, as well, in our souls, we did well. Maybe it was the rich combination of New Age and old Nepal hands ('if not for you, I'd be sad and blue...' Dylan). These unusual identities made a fine balance of healing crystals and crystal balls on the future of Nepal. Acupuncture for sore limbs amid political dissection on the current state of Nepal. Mad, possessive shopping sprees masking a deeper awareness of the impermanence of all those objects of material desire. Dharma-dhatu and name-dropping. Buddhism and bogie nights in Lo Ghekar. 16th C. Sakya art history seminar and late nights in the Luigi-Samantha boudoir. Modern restoration and ancient kultures. The Pasha of Mustang and the Sherpa horsemen of Okaldhunga. The varities of religious and secular experience, Mr. James! 'May you stay forever young...' Dylan May we all stay forever young. It's a vast, diverse and remarkable world in which we live, full of saints, suspects and serpentines. May we learn to know the difference and accept all in their own circumstances and conditions, while we discover the depth of our own. Om Shanti Shalom!!