Bhutan : Situation Of Ethnic Nepalis

Kazi Gautam

A New-York based human rights organisation - Human Rights Watch (HRW) - made public its report in Kathmandu on May 17. In the report, the HRW has presented a report on the situation of ethnic Nepalis in Bhutan, the condition of the refugees in the camps and three options available to the refugees. The study has highlighted that ethnic Nepalis residing in Bhutan have been facing constant prejudice and ongoing threats to their citizenship status, and implies there could be more ethnic cleansing in the days ahead. Problems of ethnic Nepalis According to an official census conducted in 2005, 13 per cent of Bhutan's current permanent residents are "non-nationals". Following the census, new ID cards are being distributed to all recognised Bhutanese citizens. But those eligible for receiving the ID cards are F1 (genuine Bhutanese citizens) and F4 (non-national women married to Bhutanese men, and their children). A lack of 'No Objection Certificates' (NOC) barred others from getting the ID.

The NOCs were introduced by the government following political instability in the south in the early 1990s when the Lhotsampas (Nepali speaking people) revolted against the Druk regime. NOCs are issued by the Royal Bhutan Police (RBP) only if they receive confirmation from the Dzongdag (district administrator) that a person in question is not in any way involved in "anti-national activity". NOCs are required for enrollment in higher education, employment in the civil service, obtaining business and trading licenses, travel documents and the like. During the last census, the Royal Government of Bhutan (RGB) did not allow a large portion of Lhotsampas to enlist their names in the voting list. They were asked to produce NOCs before their names could be included in the voting list. But the RBP did not provide them the NOC, alleging them that they had constant touch with the refugees living in Nepal. Some 70,000 Lhotsampas were not included in the mock election that Bhutan conducted last month. The lack of NOCs does not allow the Bhutanese to get involved in any sort of political or governmental activities. On the other hand, ethnic Nepalis are always in fear that their NOC and citizenship might be snatched away if they keep relations with the refugees. Some refugees who sometimes visit the camps refuse to talk about their present condition in Bhutan. They fear that the source of information might be revealed to the Bhutanese authorities and that might eventually become a reason to get evicted from the country.

The practice of forced labour still exists in southern Bhutan. Ethnic Nepalis must provide free labour. They have to assist the Drukpas to get resettled on the land that was once owned by the refugees. There is no instruction in the Nepali language, even in schools in the southern districts - only Dzongkha and English are taught. Ethnic Nepalis are still expected to wear gho (for men) and kira (for women), the traditional Drukpa clothes, in schools and other public places, as stipulated by the king's 1989 decree of Driglam Namza. A draft constitution released in March 2005 incorporates the discriminatory provisions of the 1985 Citizenship Act, and provides that Dzongkha is the national language of Bhutan, and that Buddhism is the "spiritual heritage of Bhutan".During the 14th SAARC summit, Nepalese Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Foreign Minister Sahana Pradhan pressured their Bhutanese and Indian counterparts to accept all the Bhutanese refugees unconditionally. It was the first time that India and Bhutan had appeared positive. Bhutan had agreed to accept at least some refugees. However, instead of repatriating the refugees, it plans to evict more southerners from the country.

The people in Bhutan have often been tortured and harassed for no good reason. Due to lack of agencies to address their sufferings, they cannot be publicised. Moreover, the ill practices of Bhutan rarely reach the concerned authorities due to lack of an independent media to impart factual news. The Kuensel, a mouthpiece of the Druk regime, supports only the king's activities. The two private publications that have recently started, The Bhutan Observer and The Bhutan Times, are also under the clutch of the king. So they have failed to relay uncensored news. Also, there are no human rights agencies to look after and safeguard the rights of the people. The long endeavours of the Nepalese government to repatriate the refugees have not been able to bear any fruit. The steps taken so far to solve the impasse, including the bilateral talks, have turned out ineffective. Hence, the US has proposed third country resettlement. But Bhutan has considered this scheme to be in its favour, and decided to evict more Lhotsampas so that they could also be handled by the western countries.

Conscious people By this time, all the people residing in Bhutan - be they Sarchhops or even Drukpas, or Lhotsampas - have become highly conscious about their rights. They have eventually realised that the people in the refugee camps have been struggling to safeguard their rights as well. It should also be remembered that the Bhutanese - both inside and outside Bhutan - are committed to overthrowing the Wangchhuk dynasty. The united revolt of the people can put an end to any sort of government. The Great Revolt of 1857 in India against the British regime and the popular revolt of the Nepalese in 2006 to restore the rights seized by Gyanendra are common examples.When the Bhutanese political movement started in the early 1990s, only some people participated. The movement also lacked able leaders, and, thus, the movement turned out to a failure, forcing the people to become refugees. There were no inspection teams from human rights activists and other similar agencies. The movement also could not get wide media coverage as the international media did not get the information. The condition has, however, changed now. Slowly, the violation of human rights and other atrocities of the tin pot dictator are being slowly revealed to the outside world. Hence, other members of SAARC and the international community must take immediate action to safeguard the rights of some 100,000 Lhotsampas residing in Bhutan before they are made refugees.

Source: The Rising Nepal, May 29, 2007

Positive Deal

THE private schools that were shut down for almost two weeks have been reopened. The accord reached between the government and the teachers' forum has marked a fresh beginning to tackle impending issues in the education sector. The government has pledged to look into demands raised by the teachers and it is committed to take initiatives to resolve them within a month. As taken up by the striking teachers, private schools have several problems embedded within them. Though the education act embodies provisions governing operation of private schools, the education institutions have not fully complied with them. Several provisions in the education act are prescribed for running the private schools. . Conditions and criterion have been laid down to define the basis with which private schools could be established and operated.

The schools should have adequate physical facilities and children friendly environment. A set of qualified human resource should be employed in such schools. They should be remunerated according to law. However, these provisions have not been followed in letter and spirit. In the majority of cases, underqualified teachers have been employed in private schools and they are grossly underpaid. Moreover, teachers are not given written undertaking of their employment and the security of their job has not been guaranteed. It should be pointed out that the poor condition of the private schools is not because of the absence of the provisions in the relevant law but because of the lacklustre implementation. The district education office is responsible to oversee implementation of the legal provisions and ensure that violations of legal norms was fully checked.As the office has the wider regulatory power to monitor performance of the schools, any pitfall in the observance of law should be attributed to the weak monitoring and supervisory system in the line agency concerned. Since weak performance of the government office can be strengthened and improved through necessary inputs, teachers should not resort to any threatening tactics to pile pressure upon the government. Dialogues and collective bargaining should be adopted as the means to tackle problems as strikes not only disturbs academic cycle but also brings ruin to the future of the children.

Source: The Rising Nepal, May 29, 2007

Private Sector And Anti-Corruption Drive

Dhana Bahadur Mijar

Most of the people in general regard giving and/or accepting a bribe as corruption. In fact, it only is not true. Corruption is very comprehensive in term itself that covers many malpractices like fraud, embezzlement of public funds, misuse of public power for private gains, illegal political party funding, extortion, delaying work with expectation of bribe by the public servant etc. DefinitionIn terms of giving definitions, various organizations and prominent personalities have defined corruption like: World Bank has said "The abuse of public office for private gain." Similarly, as quoted by UNDP in Fighting against Corruption to Improve Governance, 1999, "Corruption is the misuse of public power or authority for private benefits-through bribery, extortion, influence peddling, nepotism, speed money or embezzlement."

Likewise, Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary General has mentioned in the issues of corruption as definition like this:-"Corruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of coercive effects on societies. It undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violation of human rights, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life and allows organized crime, terrorism and other threats to human security to flourish." If we consider the above mentioned definition everybody can conclude that corruption erodes the value system and inflicts damage on all the sectors like social, political, financial etc. It also violates human rights. It is also worth mentioning here that a meeting of the world's nine economists including 4 Nobel laureates held in Copenhagen listed corruption as one of the 10 major problems of the world. According to them the first problem facing mankind was malnutrition and hunger, the second was contagious diseases with corruption being ranked third. They also warned that if anti-corruption movement is not launched seriously, the lives of people in most of nations would be uncontrollably ruined. Corruption and Ethics are closely related. A country where the majority of the people are indifferent to unethical and unpatriotic practices cannot be expected to have a harmonious development.

The United Nations has clearly visualized this fact. Hence, on December 9, 2003, to initiate the anti-corruption movement effectively, it made a declaration of Convention on Anti-Corruption. All member nations were called to sign the Declaration. Till date, more than 40 nations have done so. Nepal is also the signatory to the Declaration, but has yet to be pass the relevant law, rules and regulations.The number of agencies both in the government sector and private sector are active in the Anti-Corruption Movement in Nepal. Some of the prominent among them are the CIAA, National Vigilance Centre, Centre for Revenue Investigation, Office of the Auditor General etc. from the government side and likewise Transparency Interna-tional, Civil Society, Consumer's Forum, Press Media, Pro Public, ReMAC, SWATI and a number of NGO and INGOs are involved in anti-corruption camp-aign. They basically direct their effort towards dissemination of information and creating awareness as regards the anti-corruption movement. They have been functioning as strong pressure groups.Regarding all of these activities, FNCCI as an umbrella organization of 90 per cent of the private sector of Nepal has established Corporate Ethics Forum / Anti-Corruption Project to help for fighting against corruption. Basically, it has focused its activities on the private sector which is being often blamed as the bulk source for bribes. It operates on the belief that initiation on anti-corruption activities begins with a sense of social responsibility and that could be expected to minimize corruption in country.

The main goals of all the partners in the anti-corruption movement are to work for good governance, strive for a corruption free society and promote a clean and healthy business environment. FNCCI as an apex body of the industrial and business organization in the country has taken upon itself the responsibility to do away with corruption and unethical business behavior from within its ranks. Towards this end, a series of activities with far reaching consequences have been undertaken as well. AchievementHaving commenced since January 1, 2004 it phased out on March 31, 2006. Within the 27 month duration of its project, it has basically drafted 18 point business code of conduct (BCC) and passed by the 38th Annual General Meeting of FNCCI. Then Complaint Hearing Unit (CHU) has been established and its regulation "Complaint Hearing Unit Regulation-2062" has been enforced. This project had launched nearly 60 awareness programmes like Code of Conduct Orientation, CHU orientation and other anti-corruption awareness creating programmes. It may be a brick for supporting the business community to be clean of the blame of bulk source of bribe.

Source: The Rising Nepal, May 29, 2007

Peace & Democracy : Sustainability Measures

Yuba Nath Lamsal

Both peace and democracy are fragile in Nepal at present. Both are nascent, which need better nurturing and careful handling. If our political actors make a slight mistake, peace and democracy may be at risk.

A Fact

Democracy cannot flourish and function at the absence of peace. Our recent past is a witness to this fact. At the same time, sustainable peace is not possible without democracy and open society.Nepal used to be described as a peaceful country and a Himalayan Shangri-la until the Maoist insurgency began. But it was a coercive peace but not the spontaneous and sustainable peace. Coercive peace is the state of situation when political activities and dissenting voices are summarily suppressed. The dictators dub this situation as the state of peace. Whenever people get an opportunity, they revolt against the authoritarian regime and the coercive peace is automatically broken.

Before the Maoist insurgency began, there was no physical war or any armed conflict. But there were conflicts beneath the surface. There was ethnic grumbling against the discriminatory policy. Women were unhappy with the existing system as they were not treated equally and not given equal rights and opportunities. Dalits were suppressed and exploited but they were not allowed to speak against the exploitative and discriminatory system. Politically, a centralized system was in place with both political and military power in the hands of the so-called upper caste elites. Parties had been banned and political activities prohibited. Only those who supported the king's autocratic regime were allowed to function and carry out political activities. So there was a simmering disgruntlement among the general people who were out of the mainstream.

There was definitely no physical or military war but the mental and psychological conflict and war was always deep rooted in the society that came to the fore after the political change in 1990 and intensified after the Maoist armed insurgency started. The Maoist raised the issues that were never raised prominently before. The Maoist agenda were elimination of feudalism, introduction of proportional representation system in election, empowerment of women and other backward communities and their due representation in the political and decision making level. These issues and agenda of the Maoists attracted the hitherto oppressed and alienated people towards their political organization. As a result, the CPN-Maoist rose to such a powerful political organization around which the entire politics of Nepal has been revolving. But the state failed to assess the this disgruntlement against the system. The political parties, instead of addressing the problem politically, described the Maoist insurgency as a mere tempest in the teapot and tried to quell it by use of force, which miserably failed.

The conflict was there at every level even before the Maoist insurgency began. But it was the failure on the part of the state not to visualize the situation and take initiative to address the problem in time. They realized only when the situation had already got complicated. The political parties had to pay a heavy price for their inability to assess the situation in time and take effective measures to address it. The king, taking advantage from the situation of conflict and insurgency, took over power and tried to rule with an iron fist but finally failed. Had the political parties been united and worked sincerely and seriously for the larger good of the nation and the people, the situation would not have arisen. The political parties were involved more on grabbing power and retaining it by hook or by crook. The national issues and agenda of the people remained in the backburner. The political parties not only lost power but credibility as well.

They had to labour hard to regain this lost credibility. When political parties launched their protest against the king's takeover demanding the restoration of democratic process, the people, in the beginning, were reluctant to join hands with them. The programmes of the civil society and the professional groups were more effective than those of the political parties in the beginning. The people went to street at the call of political parties in a massive way only after the party leaders publicly apologized for their mistakes of the past and promised not to repeat such mistakes in future. This was a great lesson for the political parties.

People thought that parties and leaders learnt lessons and would not commit the same old mistakes again and over again. Given the behavior, attitude and activities of the political parties and leaders, they have not changed at all even after the success of the Jana Andolan II. They are committing the same old mistakes, which have only frustrated the people and considered a breach of their promises. The nation and people are above individual and partisan interest. But our political parties and leaders have still not been able to rise above the partisan interest. This is the reason why Nepal's democratic movement was weakened and suffered setbacks at different times. When in opposition, Nepali political parties feel the need of unity and united approach.

Once they are in power, they forget the past and start biter fight for power?no mater whether it is moral or not. What we have achieved from the success of the Jana Andolan II is due to the joint struggle of all political forces. But some political parties and leaders have shown a tendency of minimizing the role of other partners. All the political forces that played positive role in the Jana Andolan II must have equal say in the decision making process for creating a new Nepal. Parties must develop a coalition culture so that decisions are taken through consensus for the greater interest of the nation and the people.

The partisan interest of the political parties has once again hindered the peace and political process in Nepal. The priority of the parties and the government at present is the election to a constituent assembly. If the constitutional provision and public commitment of the parties are any basis, constituent assembly election would have to be conducted by mid June this year. This was not done, which has been attributed to the lack of adequate time for preparation. It was breach of promise of the political parties and violation of the interim constitution. Even now the date for the election is still uncertain. It is all because of the inaction of the political parties.Peace and democracy are interdependent. Sustainable peace is not possible at the absence of democracy, open and free society. The peace and political process must go hand in hand at present.

But the delay in political decisions, this process has been delayed, although not derailed. CompletionConstituent assembly election is the only way to complete the peace and political process. Thus, political parties need to shun partisan interest and work together in the spirit of coalition culture to hold the constituent assembly election that would complete the political and peace process. It is the only process to institutionalize democracy and establish durable peace in the country.

Source: The Rising Nepal, May 29, 2007

Political stalemate: Cool-headedness is need of the hour

BP Mishra

The meeting between Prime Minister G P Koirala and Maoist superemo Prachanda on May 22 was expected to end the prevailing political impasse. Prior to that on May 21, the cabinet could sit only for ten minutes to clear the budget for the maintenance and management of PLA cantonments. Significantly, on May 25, the cabinet, after a long silence, formed a judicial commission to investigate the Tarai unrest and the March 21 Gaur massacre. The meet between the PM and the Maoist supremo reportedly lasted for about two hours in which the Maoist leader requested for early release of the budget agreed upon and passed by the cabinet earlier, according to which each PLA fighter living in the cantonments would get Rs 3,000 per month.

The move is believed to have facilitated the process of second phase of verification of the PLA by the UNMIN. The PM is understood to have expressed his grave concern about YCL activities, its failure to execute earlier agreements, and especially the issue of return of seized properties. Again, as reported, Prachanda has advised YCL cadres to behave in a proper manner. It is high time to mull over the deadlock over the peace process. Be it the signing of the 12-point agreement or the Comprehensive Peace Accord, passing of the Interim Constitution, or formation of the interim government, the peace process has made a slow progress. Meanwhile, the core issue of holding CA elections in fearless and fair manner does not seem to engage the attention of the government and the eight-party alliance. Analysts have viewed this situation from different angles. First, although a CA election was accepted as a meeting point by both sides, each used the pretext ultimately to suit their own interest. It helped the Maoists land safely into the realm of competitive politics and the seven-party alliance to come to power.

Strangely, they are treating the CA election as a parliamentary election as they hope to continue in power only through it. To them, the primary function of the elected CA will be to provide governance first and only then to draft a new constitution. For this simple reason, the legislature-parliament has passed a lengthy Interim Constitution (IC) and the First-Past-the-Post system has been accepted as a component of the mixed electoral system for CA polls.

Secondly, it seems that both the sides accepted the peace process as a means to achieve their political goals: both appear to be concerned more about political gains than maintaining peace. Thirdly, the political parties are competing among themselves to widen their sphere of influence, thereby ignoring the demands of the Madhesis, indigenous nationalities, Dalits and women. Fourthly, there is a huge confidence deficit among the constituents of the eight-party alliance as one party is always apprehensive about the political mileage the other may gain. Finally, the slow yet steady peace process appears natural as it is difficult to mend the ways of a militia that was trained to fight but now has been forced to live in cantonments and undo their own actions in the course of insurgency. The continued stalemate in the legislature-parliament has not been taken seriously by the eight-party government. The Maoists have called off their agitation inside the House as they have already been successful in registering amendments in the Constitution for establishment of a republic and now their demand for maintenance and management of the PLA cantonments has also been met. But since the demands of the Madhesi MPs are yet to be addressed, the stalemate might well continue. The demand of the Madhesi MPs and the Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum (MJF) to constitute a judicial commission to probe the killings in Madhes has now been addressed. But the delay can continue for three reasons. First, the government did not attach any importance to the killings of Madhesis and treated it as a trivial matter. Secondly, the government was under the pressure of the Maoists to ignore the demands as the latter are not ready to accept the political importance of the MJF leaders as they were once Maoist cadres themselves. The Maoists reason that it will be detrimental to their interest to allow the MJF to develop their own constituencies in Tarai as it was under their sphere of influence during the insurgency. Thirdly, the government devoted considerable time in trying to suppress the sentiments of the Madhesis with an iron fist. The security forces were deployed in great numbers in that region, ignoring the fact that the Madhesi uprising was not the result of the actions of the MJF leaders, but a spontaneous outburst of the resentments of common Madhesis. Hence the issue needs to be considered with a cool and contemplative head. Armed suppression may be effective only temporarily. A well-reasoned solution is the need of the hour in order to bring about lasting peace and credible CA polls.

Source: The Himalayan Times, May 29, 2007