Wake up

Few photographs of Constituent Assembly members, recently published in different newspapers, grabbed my attention. These photos clearly depicted the passive day-to-day functioning of the CA and the lawmakers. The most suitable caption for those pictures would be “sleepy and lazy lawmakers”. The purpose of the CA is to promulgate the constitution. That is why the representatives were chosen by the people in the first place. 

                                    
It is disappointing to see the same lawmakers dozing, yawning and playing with mobile phones during their office hours. They are in the CA to fulfill the dreams of general people by drafting the inclusive and people-oriented constitution. They were not forced to work against their will; rather they voluntarily came to people’s doors and committed to gift the people with the constitution. Were they chosen to relax, pass their time sleeping or playing candy crush in CA hall? 

Constitution is the highest law of the land. It should incorporate every citizen’s voice, covering the opinions of all, regardless of any caste, creed, age, sex, region, and religion. It should address the voice of the marginalized and people at the grassroots. Despite knowing this our dear CA members are busy fulfilling their own petty interests sometimes through the demand of 50 million allocations for each constituency and sometimes in the name of foreign junkets. 

Most of the CA members never bother to regularly attend the CA meeting. As a result, we have often heard halt in meetings due to lack of quorum. Adding insult to injury, we see the same lawmakers in every other small function and conference, either inaugurating something or giving speeches. Lawmakers are busy wrangling over power politics and intra-party issues. Dear lawmakers, you are assigned to attend CA meetings and to draft the constitution, not to cut ribbons! 

It is unfortunate for the nation that the first CA could not function well due to conflict of interests created by different parties, leaders and several other factors. It was dissolved after failing to produce the draft, despite several extended deadlines. A big chunk of national investment has drowned along with it and also the valuable time. Promulgation of the constitution, the sole objective of the first CA, went nowhere and crushed Nepalis’ dreams. 

Nepalis are in bad luck as there seems no chance of the delivery of a democratic constitution in stipulated timeframe this time as well because of carelessness and indifferent nature of political parties and leaders. People haven’t forgotten the failure of the first CA. The leaders should not forget it too. They have fooled the common people once chances are that they will do that once more. People want to see the zeal of lawmakers used in right way, in right place, not in unnecessary stuffs.

Democracy can be institutionalized only through constitution. It holds key to stability and integration. For this, consensus among political forces is a must. Lawmakers will be accountable for failure to produce constitution, if the history is repeated. Keeping the previous loss as a lesson in mind, they need to fulfill Nepalis’ aspirations with honest effort this time. It should be regarded as a better chance to prove the potentiality of being a favorite leader, lawmaker or party. 

There are different thematic committees in the CA and many issues are still being debated in the course of finalization. The progress is definitely being made but the pace is much slower. Less than four months remain to mark a year of the CA II. Few weeks are left for the February deadline and people are suspicious this time as well. It’s frustrating that the nomination of 26 lawmakers has still not taken place. The performance of the CA is unsatisfactory so far and more and more time is being wasted. People’s faith on constitution and political parties is plummeting by the day.

It’s high time for the lawmakers to muster their willpower for giving their best for the constitution. Constitution-writing process should not be delayed or taken lightly. The contentious issues should be resolved at the earliest and all pending issues should gain momentum. Dialogues should be intensified and attempts should be made to forge consensus over debated issues. The engagement of senior political leaders is a must to seek a way out of the deadlock. Lawmakers should not forget that they are the representatives selected by 27 million Nepalis. Thus, they have no right to disregard the sentiments of people. They need to utilize their both valuable time and energy for the constitution. 
Dear CA members; wake up and walk your talk.

Published on Republica, 2014-08-09

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