Federalism : Devolution Of True Levels Of Sovereignty, Power

Ambar Mainali

No nation can remain iso-lated from adopting a system of governance that ensures transparency, social justice and devolution of power. Nepal, too, is seriously skimming the options of what best form of governance would be appropriate to address the imbalances of development and inclusiveness. The debate on moving ahead for a federal system has gathered momentum among the political parties and the citizenry at large.

People's participation

History reveals that Nepal has been making steady progress in bracing ahead for a governance system, which would allow maximum people's participation in the overall state machinery. The journey from the Rana oligarchy to the eight-party coalition has come through years of debate and struggle. The nation at the moment is deeply engrossed in what model of federalism would augur well for its democratic development.

Except for the educated political elite, not many really understand what federalism stands for, its philosophies and modalities. The concept of federalism revolves around the sharing of power between the central government and the constituent federal states. The different disgruntled groups must be very clear about the fact that power sharing with the centre is not equal.The centre normally has comparatively more power than the constituent states in such a set up. The whole idea is not to confine the powers at the centre but to distribute them to the states. This is agreed upon by the states at the time of promulgating the Constitution and the successive years whenever amendments are proposed to what extent power should be devolved to the states.Today, around 45-50 per cent of the world's population lives in federal states. The essence of federalism is to devolve the true level of power and true level of sovereignty. How should the country be structured at the sub-national level? What electoral system will be used to elect national officials? These are some of the pertinent issues that need to be dealt with.Besides, intergovernmental organs must be developed over a course of time, which are not necessarily provisioned in the Constitution. Infrastructure development, media, roads, bridges and the metric system need to be uniform for all the states.As stated earlier, Nepal has had a chequered political history revealing the gradual devolution of state powers to the people. The eastern part of the country is comparatively more developed than the western part. The same holds true for the eastern hills and western hills. The dalits, Madhesis, ethnic and indigenous populations have grudges that they have been sidelined from the political mainstream. Against this backdrop, devolving state power to the federal units would be a sensible way to allow people to have their say in carving their own fates.

Hence, rumours that the state would disintegrate if it were transformed politically in favour of a federal set up is misleading and unrealistic. Power sharing between the centre and the federal units would instead help keep the unity of the people together. The constitution in the making should take note of the fact that the federal states would have a larger stake in linking their identity with the country instead of breaking away from it. Given this assurance, no federal unit would ever want to break away, as doing so would entail huge expenses for them. They would have to have their own army, police and the administrative set-up.With the agreement among the eight parties that Nepal would move for a federal structure already in place, the only issue in need of a thorough soul searching is 'would the nation be comfortable when the federal units are marked on the basis of ethnicity?' Rather efforts to divide the federal states on the basis of geography would be more sensible in the case of Nepal where communal feeling is very intense. This would, in turn, provide opportunities for the people from diverse groups to intermingle with each other and thereby have a feeling of cultural solidarity.Federalism at the moment is being portrayed like a magic wand that could find instant remedy to all social ills. This, however, is not the reality. There are a range of issues that have to be looked into before laying down the federal structure, which is principally based on the unequal division of the state power.

Following the drafting of the constitution by the constituent assembly to be elected on November 22, it is essential to have a rigorous discourse on which powers to retain at the centre and which to relegate to the sub-national or state level.Besides, the political parties must also work out which model of federalism best suits the nation's development realities. The nation's division on the basis of ethnicity and race is believed to be a model that would only serve to bring about division along racial lines, hence it would be wiser to adopt the geographical demarcation while carving out the states.The benefits of federalism are such that it reduces abuse of power and tyranny. Decentralised authority lessens the risk of autocratic rule because disbursed power is harder to consolidate and exploit. It helps to solve basic collective action problems. It helps reconcile the need for both unity and diversity. It allows for ethnic, cultural, demographic, economic differences to flourish sub-nationally and be incorporated nationally. A federal system permits greater flexibility and responsibility. Each sub-national government can tailor policies to the citizenry, and the citizens can hold their sub-national as well national officials to account.Last but not the least, federalism encourages innovation, competition and efficiency. Sub-national governments are policy laboratories that innovate and learn from each other, and in mobile societies competition among governments may yield better policies.

Risks

However, there are risks in federalism. It creates collective action problems. Public bads may proliferate, such as cross-jurisdictional pollution. There could be accountability problems in a federal system owing to multiple elected officials. Next, local biases cannot be ruled out. Sub-national politicians will tend to favour the interests of their own constituents, which can come at the expense of national interest. And finally, the issue of inequality could surface as some sub-national units will have greater demands and problems than others, creating either inequities or animosities arising from redistribution by the national government of sub-national resources.

Source: The Rising Nepal, August 4, 2007

Implementation Must

The government has unveiled the much awaited Rayamajhi Commission Reportin the legislative Parliament the other day which is a welcome step on its own. The commission headed by former justice Krishna Jung Rayamajhi was formed in the aftermath of the Jana Andolan-11 to inquire into the atrocities and killings carried out to suppress ruthlessly the popular movement under the purview of adherents of the Royal regime. Needless to describe, many people had been killed, several hundred amputated and thousands involuntarily disappeared during Jana Andolon II as people had revolted against the much maligned autocratic Royal regime to restore civil rights and freedom in the country. The commission probed, interrogated and collected adequate testimonials and evidences which could be adduced to incriminate those responsible for using disproportionate force to suppress the people taking to the streets peacefully for restituting democratic rights and liberty . The report has rightly indicted 201 people from different agencies of the state administration including the executive organ of the government, police and civil administration, military and paramilitary apparatuses. The monumental 1184 page report has blamed the higher authorities for being involved in hatching design and conspiracy to suppress the people?s movement and abetting the use of force to quell and tame the surge of mass to oust the dictatorial regime. The report has categorized the accused into four types and recommended different forms of actions commensurate to the gravity of the offences and crimes committed to flout human rights and jeopardize the democratic aspiration of the people. The report has suggested the enactment of necessary laws since the prevailing legal framework is not sufficient to book the culprits to justice. Though the government, in its bid to implement the recommendations of the report with a view to strengthen the process for enforcement and reparation of the rights of the people, had formed a ministerial level committee some months ago, no concrete steps were taken to do the same. The presentation of the report in the legislative Parliament this Friday would definitely lead to the initiation of the genuine and concrete steps towards its implementation . The government should work towards enacting necessary laws so that those who are involved in the commission of the crimes are brought to justice. The onus of building positive human rights culture lies with the government.

Source: The Rising Nepal, August 6, 2007

Is Foreign Aid Necessary

Sunil Poudyal

Nepal?s dependence on foreign aid has always remained more than 50 per cent of the annual budget with some exception. The donors also never bothered to study whether the aid reached among the target group or not. It has also been found that the extreme dependency of the recipient country of the aid leads to the it plunging into the deepest pit of corruption. Nepal is no exception in this regard. Besides, the provisions set by the donors are so complex, especially for poor and strategically weak countries, that the recipient can hardly secure her people?s interest and/or sovereignty.

Graft

Right from the beginning of the process of aid, the network of commission starts being framed. There is also the donor?s domination and direct/indirect intrusion within the realm of freedom of the recipient. The recipient country has to satisfy the intermediaries, agents as well as some officials of the donor country or organization. The donor imposes on the method of the utilization of aid amount, ways to implementation the project, recruitment of advisors and most of the top level officials, procurement of machineries, equipment and logistics etc. This is rather unfortunate but a reality.If the administrators are visionary, sincere, dedicated, honest, confident, determined and if they have integrity, Nepal does not need any donor to help for its development. But we should hurry to stop the dependency on aid because its addiction to our economy is so severe that haste in this direction can ruin the economy. It should be decreased gradually to zero level within a few years. No country can remain aloof in the modern world. All the countries in the globe are interdependent. But interdependence and domination are two different things. Nepal holds nature?s blessings no less than other countries in the globe, though the type might be different. Until about two decades back we used to export bricks, cement, bamboo shoots, sugar, rice, floor etc to Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. There was also a time when we had exported timber to the then USSR. We have been exporting carpets, garments, herbs etc to foreign countries; the volume of exports fluctuate affecting the foreign earnings because of some problems including the lack of consistency in national rules and regulation.. If we pay due attention to make our policy, quality etc compatible to exploration and expansion in our foreign trade, we do not have to worry much to make the balance of payment favorable. Nepal is said to be a country with the second highest hydropower potential in the world. There is no doubt that if we go for mega hydro projects, they depend on foreign aid. By developing water resources for generating power, it can also be exported to India. It needs huge investment either through foreign or loans. However, the buyers are limited and Nepal has to abide by the conditions imposed by them. Therefore mega projects do not seem to be feasible for the country. Attracting foreign investments for joint ventures or national industrialists for medium scale hydro projects might be suitable for the country as power can be sold at the local markets. However, we should not forget to target our neighboring countries also to cash in on the surplus power, if any, provided the agreement is beneficial to us. It would be contextual to note that mega project of any kind is unsuitable to us considering the huge investment on imported resources and raw materials and equipment and because of transit problems.

It is advisable to also encourage small investment for micro scale hydro projects and other sectors. Again we should always remember that our policy and facilities guaranteed to the entrepreneurs should be reasonable, consistent and compatible to the interest of the country. If we develop hydro power project extensively, we can develop cable cars and rope ways facilities, extending them, especially, in the remote areas. It will also contribute much to solve the grave problem of irrigation and drinking water facilities.. It is worth remembering that the construction of is very expensive together with a big sum required for regular maintenance in comparison to cable cars and rope way system. The degradation of the environment is another curse that the land routes invite. Similarly, soil erosion, land slides and pollution that land routes initiate naturally causes extra burden on the national purse and hampers the life of human beings and the flora and fauna. Besides, regular import of means of transport and accessories is another big burden that the country has to face. The ropeway system help create market for the products of remote areas to cities and vice versa and the cable cars; to boost the tourism industry. The ridge, vivid impression of nature, the diaphanous landscape, the rock band, varieties of climate, unfathomable precipices, the flora and fauna, varieties of birds and animals (some rare in the world), varieties and colorful insects and butterflies, rivers for rafting, places for gliding and bungee jumping etc are the things which can tempt not only foreign tourists but also the domestic ones. The development of tourism will initiate the expansion of inns, hotels, restaurants, rest houses etc with the utilization of local materials.

Prosperity

If we cast our eyes from the east to the west of our country, some areas in the hills are very much favorable for grazing, cattle and sheep farming, dairy industry, fodder etc. Similarly, some areas are very promising for various fruits and vegetable, and some areas for forest products like Bijayasal ( Tacocarpus Marsupium). If these could be harnessed properly some of them can be exported to earn foreign currency. All these activities mentioned also help generate opportunities of local employment which naturally support to increase per capita income of the country. These all show that Nepal can not only survive without aid but also can prosper.

Source: The Rising Nepal, August 6, 2007