CIVIC COMPETENCE OF VOTERS

Dev Raj Dahal, FES

Is the political system in harmony with representativeness? Does the electoral system make citizens approach the political system? Do both systems provide the voters self-constitution and self-organization or just mean to subject them to the realities of power struggle? One can safely assert that voting rights are not something hopelessly legalistic, it is civic, political and practical whose awareness among the Nepali voters is wretchedly superficial and low. Mere formalization of rights makes voters bitter, skeptical, passive and ultimately apathetic. In other words, they end up precisely which the democratic regime does not want them to be. Voter education should constitute a big part of Nepal's elections as the bulk of the electorate is participating for the first time and many simply do not know the meaning of voting at all. How is the message of election put forward? How do people know their choices? Manifestoes of political parties, gluttonous speeches of candidates, directives, norms and orders reflect only one aspect of the world of politics. The web of civic life consists of dense network of citizens.

This does not prevent vote buying and selling, character assassination of candidates, belittling national sensitiveness, social harmony and decent voting behavior which indicates the abdication of one's own reason, conscience and civic responsibility unless voters themselves participate in defining and creating world-views. Their ability in doing so places them in a position to make political decisions with sufficient bearing for the nation and people. What are the foundations of civic obedience? Civic knowledge and skills. The educational process should lead to discovery, not indoctrination; insight, not facts and data; and engagements, not just interest. It should help challenge outmoded values and assumptions and consciously induce them to involve in the political process.

Preparation of youth for participatory democracy requires continuous discourses focusing on the acquisition of civic knowledge and voting skills to engage and act on important public issues and challenge the fundamental problems in Nepali political and economic system, such as corruption, cronyism, opaque politics and economics and squandering of development funds in unproductive activities. Civic competence of citizens sets out what are the rights of citizens, what they may do and what they may not do as well as to move into the sphere of imagination, self-experience, reflection and will to sovereignty. It is here citizens develop a sense of trust in political authority and facilitate their engagements in politics.

The basic objective of civic education is to bring activities of parliament closer to the people. Nepalis must establish the habit of active citizenship through educative means, that is, being players, not spectators, and assume personal commitment and responsibility for what is going on in their communities, localities and the nation-state. Unfortunately, there is woeful absence of civic education by schools, by the press and perhaps by parents which speaks a lot about "non-voting" behavior of citizens. In this sense, adequate civic competence is essential because it helps to revolt against the normalizing function of traditional politics and stages a dialectical play between democratic theory and real-politik.

In Nepal so far the state supports political parties in giving space in the state-run television and radio, provides information on different aspects of election and some knowledge and information about the techniques of voting. But it does not put national problematic debate in an analytical context and stimulate thinking on alternative world-view to democratic participation.

Source: The Telegraph Nepal, June 8, 2007