Subscribe to nepal-democracy |
Visit this group |
Wednesday 6 June 2007
Tuesday 5 June 2007
The rise of a party
Insiders tell us that the Maoist leadership was sympathetic to the Forum at the start, and even instrumental in organising it. Around 1999 Upendra Yadav, then a regular member of UML, started becoming closer to the Maoists.
In February 2004, Upendra Yadav, Maoist leaders Matrika Yadav and Mohan Baidya were arrested in Delhi. Upendra Yadav was let go after a couple of months, while Matrika Yadav and Mohan Baidya were handed over to Nepali authorities and were released in 2006. Those close to Upendra Yadav say that during the time of his arrest he was already trying to distance himself from the Maoists because of discrimination he felt in the ranks within the Maoist hierarchy and because he did not agree with the Maoist plan to divide madhes into ‘Madhes Autonomous Region’ and ‘Tharuwan Autonomous Region’. Vijay Kant Karna, chairperson of Jaghrit Nepal says, “No one was happy in the tarai with the Maoists because they called it Madhes Government but high ranks in their party were given to pahadis.”
Since then, the forum and Yadav have been accused of both flip-flopping and forming alliances with Hindu fundamentalist groups in India, such as the Rastiya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). In December Yadav attended a meeting of rightwing Hindu groups in Gorakhpur and spoke out publicly about making Nepal a Hindu nation again. A month later he was leading the movement for a secular federal republic.
Jaya Prakash Gupta, who is close to Yadav, says the accusations of alliances with the palace and Indian fundamentalist groups are misguided. “If mainstream political parties meet with big Indian leaders, no one calls that an ‘unholy alliance’,” Gupta told us from Biratnagar. Gupta said that since Gaur, Yadav has not been allowed to move freely or explain “his side of the story”.
That Gupta and other moderate madhesi leaders took a careful line on Gaur while speaking to us is an indication of the pan-madhesi appeal that the forum still has. On the one hand, they argued, Gaur was ‘retaliation’ for months of harassment and disruption of MJF meetings by the Maoists Tarai Mukti Morcha. On the other, most admit it was a tactical mistake.
Sarita Giri of the Nepal Sadbhawana Party-Anandi Devi, says the MJF is not in the least militant. “They are not armed, Gaur was retaliation against the Maoists because they had disrupted their activities in Bhairahawa and Nepalganj,” she argues.
Meantime, there is said to be a few faultlines showing in the forum, one between the more left-wing members and Yadav, and the other between Yadav’s supporters who believe this was the right time to register a party and Gupta’s group, which argues that fundamental issues need to be settled before deciding to contest elections. There are signs of a split in the ranks—an insider tells us that of the 25 members in the working committee, only 13 members’ names were on the list given to the Election Commission during registration. Gupta pooh-poohs this and says that though his proposal lost out, he will support the MJF as a party.
“As a political party our agenda is pretty clear—we want democratic system of governance, autonomous federal structure, proportional elections, and we want Nepal to be a republic” says Jitendra Sonal, MJF’s secretariat member.
Analysts say that given the lack of commitment seen on the part of the government to resolving madhesi issues, the MJF as a political party could take off stronger than those who call the forum irresponsible might imagine.
Posted by Pinto at 12:35 0 comments
Labels: Democracy, Inclusive Politics, Madhesi Problem, Politics
Monday 4 June 2007
Positive Talks
THE long-awaited talks between the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) and a government talks team have finally materialised, and there has been genuine appreciation from all quarters as they were held in a cordial atmosphere. The talks that were held the other day in Janakpur are learnt to have been positive, laying the foundation for reaching a compromise in resolving several contentious issues.
During the talks, the MJF has put forth a 26-point demand that include, among other things, the federal system of governance and also the inclusion of Madhesis in all the organs of the state. The government, for its part, was also asked to withdraw the charges against the MJF leaders.
Posted by Pinto at 12:33 0 comments
Labels: Inclusive Politics, Madhesi Problem, Peace Process
Equitable Society
Posted by Pinto at 12:27 0 comments
Labels: Economy, Inclusive Politics, Social
Wednesday 23 May 2007
Nation-building: Emerging challenges to peace process
Dhurba Rizal
The complexities of the peace process, while it might excite some, will depress others. Global peacemaking and conflict resolution experiences show that getting the two sides to the conflict to sit down and work out a negotiated settlement accounts for roughly 20 per cent of the work towards building lasting peace. The remaining 80 per cent involves keeping the two sides committed to the settlement, implementing its terms and articles and helping bring order and normalcy in society.In this context, there are many loopholes in Nepal’s peace process. The SPA and the Maoists seem to be more concerned about power-sharing and less about consolidating peace. Otherwise, they would not have spent so much time on just two political issues: the dissolution of reinstated parliament and the formation of an interim government and an interim parliament. They seem to harbour dissimilar and contesting visions about the nature of the state, the status of monarchy, modality of elections, economy, nationalism, foreign policy and power-sharing. The conflict-affected groups — ethnic and indigenous people, Dalits, women, Madhesis and youth — are demanding a legitimate space in decision-making. Pro-King forces are questioning the legitimacy of the eight-party establishment. New polarisations between the Left and the democratic forces, between republican and monarchist forces and between nationalistic and subsidiary identities are certain to make the transition difficult.The peace process has so far delivered an oligarchy of party leaders rather than a popular democracy.
Party leaders have shown no appetite for pluralism — the interim legislature has no opposition, and consensus decisions leave power in the hands of few party leaders. Ad hoc pre-negotiation of important issues threatens to undermine the constitutional process. Mainstream parties have also devoted little attention to the question of constitutional reforms. Few have instituted internal changes to tackle corruption, patronage and exclusion.The principal challenges facing the peace process include diverting attention from solely political issues to economic and socio-cultural factors too; reformation of both the armies and arms management; dealing with the Maoists and the monarchy; state restructuring; strengthening of governance and guaranteeing that the nation does not plunge back into conflict. Other challenges are: unchanging attitude of political leaders, bureaucracy and judiciary; little progress in electoral preparation for the CA polls; political, social, cultural and economic exclusion and the resulting unrest in Tarai and other parts; geopolitics, role of India and international community; bringing democracy and peace to the grassroots level; internally displaced people and lack of people-to-people reconciliation; partisan role of civil society leaders; security sector reforms; discrepancy in the number of Maoist weapons as compared to their combatants and use of child soldiers; government’s failure to deliver in the face of high expectations; and an opaque, elite-driven approach to politics.
Many observers are cautiously optimistic about the peace process in Nepal. Even a slight misreading of the prevalent situation can leave room for renewed conflict. The parties and Maoists are increasingly marginalising monarchy, security and traditional forces. The major actors are in open competition for legitimacy and public support.The prizes of sustained peace are clear: It will allow Nepal to build a genuine democracy where human rights are respected and real development emphasised. Conflict resolution is intrinsically linked to inclusive nation building. The foundation of change is unity in diversity supported by inclusive democratic system with accommodating democratic leadership. This can strengthen unity and Nepal’s distinctiveness in the international scene.Sustainable resolution of conflicts requires wider participation of all the parties and their interest mediation, rather than just those of conflicting parties. Peace cannot be created if the outcome of negotiation creates its own enemies.
Emanuel Kant asserted in his treatise Perpetual Peace, “No treaty of peace shall be held valid in which there is tacitly reserved matter for a future war.” Unless the root causes of the conflict are addressed and the Maoists democratised, sustainable peace cannot be achieved in Nepal and conflict may reignite.Peace is not just the absence of war, but also epitomises economic prosperity, social harmony, unity and brotherhood. The present peace process might excite some but it also reminds others of the relapse of armed conflict after peace agreements in conflict-torn states such as Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Liberia and Angola. Thus, in order to consolidate peace process, parties to the conflict should keep their nerve and honour their commitments to peace and genuine democracy.
Posted by Pinto at 17:46 0 comments
Labels: Government, Inclusive Politics, Maoists, Politics
Participatory Approach In Motivation
Kedar Prasad Bhandari
In human resource management, the participatory approach has been considered an important tool in motivating employees. The participatory approach, also known as participative management, is a process in which the subordinates involve in the decision-making function with their immediate superior. Complex jobsIn the recent decades, there has been a paradigm shift in the management of human resource. In Nepal, participatory approach can be said to have begun with the financial sector reforms in the mid-1980s. Propelled by liberalisation and globalisation, the participatory approach received more prominence in an institutional manner after 1990.
The Local Self-Governance Act can also be taken as an initiative for promoting participatory management at the government level. Today, jobs have become extremely complex. So it is difficult for managers to know everything what their employees do. In fact, participative management empowers the subordinates who know the actual problem and can contribute to make better decisions. Decision-making is not an easy job for managers. They have to win the confidence of all the employees working in their organisations. It is necessary to consult the employees of different inter-dependent departments to bring uniformity in their performance.
This helps develop the concept of team, committee and group meetings to resolve complex problems. Employees do not undermine a decision during implementation as they have been involved in making that decision. Participation provides intrinsic rewards for the employees, and it makes their jobs more interesting and meaningful. Broadly, there are two means of motivating employees through their participation: Quality of Work Life and Self-managed Work Team. Quality of work life is defined as an attempt to develop a formal programme to integrate the employees' needs and well-being with the intention of improving productivity, greater worker empowerment and higher level of job satisfaction. It supports a highly democratic treatment of employees at all levels and encourages them in the decision-making process. Its emphasis is on maintaining a quality working environment for the employees. A quality working environment includes financial incentives, opportunity to develop personal skills and ability, safety working conditions, and the opportunity to participate in problem solving and decision-making.
In essence, there are three means through which Quality of Work Life (QWL) can be improved. The Quality Circle (QC) is a concept first started in Japan in the early 1960s to improve the quality of products. Quality circles consist of work teams composed of 8-10 employees from the same work area who meet regularly to define, analyse and solve quality and work-related problems in their specific area of operation. The membership is strictly voluntary, and meetings are usually held once a week, normally for an hour before or after the job is over.
An organisation may have several Quality Circles operating at a time to deal with different people in different areas. The members are given some form of training in problem solving to work effectively. The Quality Circle is designed to improve the working conditions and enable self-development of the employees. The focus of the Quality Circle is to encourage the employees to accept responsibility for improving quality. The Quality Circle is effective in bringing about a short-term improvement in the quality of work life, but it is less effective in creating more permanent changes. Sharing of ownership by the employees is another emerging concept in participatory management. It is a plan in which the employees are offered ownership of the organisation as a benefit package. This may be done by stimulating them to buy equity shares.
It has become an important tool in motivating the employees.It is believed that if the employees own the shares of an organisation, they would be motivated to work effectively to increase the value of their shares. Similarly, as both owner and employees can participate in meetings, they can put forward their views, ideas, and opinions while making decisions. Business organisations in Nepal are also adopting the concept of employee ownership. Most of the joint stock companies offer 5 per cent of their public issued shares to the employees. Moreover, the concept of a flexible work schedule has developed in the recent years. In this plan, employees are allowed to choose their own arrival and departure times within specified limits fixed by the organisation.
Basically, the work time is divided into two groups: 'core time' and 'flexitime'. During the core time, all the employees must be present in the office, but in flexitime, the employees are free to select their own starting and departure time based on their convenience. Flexitime is popular in the USA. In flexitime, employees may involve in personal works like payment of utility bills, visiting children's schools and banks. This system is helpful in reducing absenteeism, overtime payment, employees' turnover and provides convenience to the employees. Another concept that has emerged in the recent years is Self-managed Work Team. It is also known as self-directed autonomous work groups consisting of 5-15 members. It is a formal group of employees that operates without a manager and is responsible for a complete work process.
All the members of the team are skilled in their own area of profession. The team members are jointly responsible for performing the task. They are responsible for planning and scheduling works, assigning tasks to members, collective control over the pace of work, making operating decisions and taking action on problems.Team members perform their work independently through mutual participation so it provides a higher level of job satisfaction. In such team work, the role of the supervisor decreases and may even be eliminated. It allows sufficient time to the manager to involve in creative managerial functions. Today the Self-managed Work Team concept is popular in most of the business organisations.Participatory approach in new context In fact, participatory approach is based on democratic norms. Given the changed context, Nepalese entrepreneurs and managers should try to include all the employees working in an organisation. The participatory approach should be given focus in the changed context in order to democratise the entire organisational system and accelerate productivity for faster economic development through wider participation.
Posted by Pinto at 17:34 0 comments
Labels: Development, Governance, Inclusive Politics
Saturday 19 May 2007
Rise of a party
Posted by Pinto at 12:48 0 comments
Labels: Democracy, Governance, Inclusive Politics, Madhesi Problem, Politics
Nepal again heads for constitutional crisis
Posted by Pinto at 12:24 0 comments
Labels: Democracy, Government, Inclusive Politics, Madhesi Problem, Maoist, Peace Process, Politics
Friday 4 May 2007
Muslims want quota system in Nepal
The meeting brought together about a thousand delegates in representation of the country’s 954,000 Muslims (4.2 per cent of the total). At the end, participants released a statement in which they demanded reserved seats in the Constituent Assembly that is called to draft a new constitution beginning on June 20. They also want Muslim quotas in the civil service, a permanent Hajj committee and Muslim religious holidays recognised as statutory holidays.
Posted by Pinto at 14:59 0 comments
Labels: Inclusive Politics