'The Nepali Congress better change or it's finished'

'The Nepali Congress better change or it's finished'

Narahari Acharya, 55, is a symbol of rebellion within his party. As a member of the central working committee of the Nepali Congress (NC), he has been representing the voices of "progressive" young generation cadres in the party. He joined politics in the mid-1960s as a young student leader. Acharya, who has been the most vocal critic of the old leadership in his party, had filed his candidacy for the post of central chairperson during its 11th general assembly with constituent assembly, state restructuring, end of the monarchy, and, more emphatically, intra-party democracy as his agenda.

At a time when the party and most of its top leaders have faced "unexpected" defeat in the election, Acharya, who won from Kathmandu Constituency-5, spoke to Kamal Raj Sigdel of The Kathmandu Post over a range of issues concerning his new role in the party in the post-polls scenario, the confusion over the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly and the future course of the NC leadership.  

Excerpts:

Q: People see much significance in your election victory [amid the wipeout of the NC's top leaders]. Would you say you have emerged as a savior?

Acharya: Not exactly. I am not tempted to see things that way. However, what I believe is that we have to make some concrete efforts to rescue the NC. Still, the election result does not mean defeat of the NC's principles and values, it means defeat of the leadership. We must move ahead. There are ways, and it is possible to restructure the party.

 

Q: What sort of role will you play in that restructuring?

Acharya: The NC, as a democratic party, has a very difficult role to play. Our main objective is to write a democratic constitution even though we have fewer members than other parties in the CA. It is the Maoists who are ahead; the UML has also gained some seats. Parties that follow Marxism, Leninism and Maoism as their basic principle make up a majority. This makes it challenging for us to create a constitution which upholds loktantrik values.

Establishing a republic is not our worry now. It is everybody's agenda. But how to establish and secure loktantrik values such as human rights, individual rights, free press, free legislature, rule of law and academic freedom is our major concern. And I think the people look to the NC to safeguard these values.

People have both expectations and suspicions with regard to the Maoists. They have got their hopes up because it is a new force. At the same time, they are apprehensive because of their standards. This is where the NC has a role to play, and this is where I see my role.

 

Q: Your party seems to have an aversion to change. Will you be able to execute your reform agenda under the same leadership?

Acharya: It must change. The failure in the election is the failure of the leadership. We never bothered to do an introspection and stuck to the belief that the April Movement defeated only the king. But the movement was an attempt to remove other regressive elements too. We never paid heed to these things. The NC did not see the change that had occurred and the new level of awareness among the people.

That's why we have called the 12th general assembly through which we will not only bring changes in the party but also rebuild it in a new form.

 

Q: That's what your party members have been talking about for a long time. But nothing has happened.

Acharya: That is why I say it is not enough to only reform the party. We need a new constitution. Despite such an ignominious defeat, the leadership has not learned a lesson. It is not easy, but we must do it. In fact, the NC has no alternative.

 

Q: Are you confident that the young generation will take the lead?

Acharya: That also will not be easy. This reluctance to change was one of the reasons behind the NC's rout in the polls. Nobody wants to vote for a party that is slow to change.

Today, there are 3,500,000 voters who are below 35 years age. We had very few candidates and programs to attract these youth. We could not attract the 29 percent of the voters who were casting their ballots for the first time. They were looking for someone new, and they might have found the Maoists. I don't agree that they voted for the Maoists because they believed in them fully. Neither did they vote for the Maoists because they supported Maoism.

The NC should understand that it has to remodel itself. It will focus on change, and the members will go along with it. But I don't think the leadership will support the move.

 

Q: Will the Koiralas retain leadership of the NC, for instance, if Sushil Koirala or Sujata Koirala were to be nominated as the next chairperson?

Acharya: The Koirala family is not in a position to continue. Girija-babu morally gave up his post as party chairman when he decided not to join the party on the campaign trail. That means he withdrew from the party leadership then and there.

 

Q: But still GP Koirala has asserted his authority to reject Sushil Koirala's resignation. What does this indicate?

Acharya: He cannot reject or accept the resignation because he has, in a way, given up his post of party chairman when he decided not to lead the party's election campaign. Sushil Koirala was nominated deputy chairperson by the central committee, and only the central committee can make a decision.

 

Q: It is heard that your party bigwigs are preparing to hand over leadership to Sujata Koirala and other losers.

Acharya: I have not paid attention to such minor things. What I am focusing on is the coming general assembly. And whatever the assembly decides, that will be okay with me.

 

Q: Do you think Sujata will be nominated?

Acharya: It is likely, but that will not be acceptable. If that were to happen, the Koirala family will be swept out of the party for ever and there will be no chances of a comeback.

 

Q: Does that mean the end of the Koirala dynasty?

Acharya: I do agree that there are some families such as the Koirala family which have much attraction in the NC. The NC is open to all, and anybody can reach positions of responsibility. But we have been maintaining for a long time that democracy within the Congress has never been strong.

It has an international image as a democratic party, but there has to be democracy within the party too. And that is what we are trying to bring about.

 

Q: You have been the most vocal critic of the old leadership, and that seems to be the main reason why you have always been sidelined.

Acharya: If one speaks of doing new things, one has to be ready to be sidelined or brought center stage. What I put at the center is my agenda, it is a secondary matter where I fall.

 

Q: Do you think the younger generation has the capacity to lead the party and will the old generation step aside to make room for them?

Acharya: We have been agonizing over this question. It is the desire of the NC members to democratize, reform and liberate the party from its undemocratic working style. I will do my best to make that happen. We can develop that capacity. What we see in a traditional family is that it wrongly believes that a senior member is needed to head it. The young generation may run the party in a better way. Actually, we don't have any choice. The NC better change or it's finished.

 

Q: There seems to be two factions within the NC — for and against joining the Maoist-led government. Where do you stand?  

Acharya: My stand is that the Maoists have the political right to form the government. But it must fulfill the entire constitutional process. And how it presents itself in that process will determine the type of government it will form and lead.

But what I think is that whether to join the government or not is a secondary matter. The main thing is the national project of writing a constitution. But everyone's attention is fixed on the formation of the government. Our first priority is to end the monarchy and establish a republic. Number two is writing a constitution incorporating democratic values. Forming the government is number three in our list of things to do.

Q: There are some NC members who argue that because the Maoists do not have a two-thirds majority in the CA, the NC should not give up leadership of the government.

Acharya: I don't consider that an argument at all. No one has got a two-thirds majority. Even if the rest of the parties were to join forces, they still wouldn't have a two-thirds majority. So the NC should hand over leadership of the government to the Maoists.

Q: Some say that the first meeting of the CA will be a ceremonial one and that it cannot declare a republic without first completing the preliminary procedures.

Acharya: There are three things that need to be done before the first meeting. First, there has to be political clarity and commitment. There should be a political decision regarding how to organize the first meeting and for how many days it can continue. It is not necessary that the first meeting has to end on the first day. The next thing is constitutional arrangements. We have embarked on a journey of rule of law. We are not in a state of Jana Andolan or civil war, and we need to do everything in a constitutional manner.

Similarly, we need to make arrangements for the implementation of our decisions. For instance, in the case of the king, where do we keep him? How do we keep him? What does it mean by making him a citizen? Do we send him back to his old residence at Nirmal Niwas? Do we ask the CDO of Kathmandu to issue him a citizenship certificate? We have announced that we would make him a citizen, so we must give him a certificate proving his citizenship. He was king, not a citizen, and he does not have a citizenship card.

And here's my strong objection. There has been no discussion on these serious issues. But an issue which can be settled in a couple of sittings has drawn everyone's attention. All the parties, the media, the entire citizenry and even the international community are engrossed with the same unimportant question. This is the area in which the leadership is going to be tested. Those who lead should think about this. [Published on May 5, The Kathmandu Post]

INTERVIEW with Prof Ronald L Watts

'Unitary systems more prone to secession'

 

Prof Ronald L Watts is an internationally acclaimed scholar who has spent his life studying federal systems all over the world. There are many important things that Nepal, particularly at this stage, could learn from his rich experience of working in the shaping of 22 out of the 25 federations around the globe. Currently, a professor emeritus of political studies at Queen's University, Canada, he was also a fulltime advisor to the Canadian government on constitutional affairs.

 

Prof Watts, who was here last week at the invitation of the UNDP, spent a few minutes before his departure with Puran P Bista and Kamal Raj Sigdel of The Kathmandu Post, talking over issues such as the prospects and challenges for a unitary country going federal vis-à-vis the experiences of different countries that went through similar transitions.

Excerpts:

 

Q: You have come to Nepal for a certain purpose. What is your impression?

 

Prof Watts: My impression is that this is a very important time for Nepal right now with the elections going forward to the Constituent Assembly (CA). And my role was with the workshop that the UNDP organized to bring some leading academics and political people together to talk about what sorts of issues will need to be dealt with by the CA in creating a federal system.

 

I have spent my life studying federal systems for 50 years and comparing federal systems all over the world. There are 25 federal systems in the world; I've visited 22 of them. My purpose here was not to tell the Nepali people what to do but to make available to them information on what has been done elsewhere from the experience of using federalism in 25 different countries all over the world. What things have succeeded and what things have not succeeded so that you can learn from success and from failure. So that has been my role.

 

Q: There have been debates regarding federalization of any country. Some countries that have opted for a federal system have failed while some have succeeded. What are the factors that determine failure and success?

 

Prof Watts: By and large, countries vary in terms of their internal diversity. Some countries are relatively homogeneous in terms of language, religion and so on. Japan, for instance, is a relatively homogeneous country. So there is less difference amongst groups within the country. But other countries, like my own Canada, either because they are very large or because there have many different groups inside them have found it desirable to give those different groups some measure of self-governance within the unity.

 

There are 25 federations in the world today representing 40 percent of the world's population. At the beginning of the 21^st century, this is a remarkably popular form of government.

 

But have all these countries successfully practiced a federal system of governance? Some federations, like the Ethiopian federation, have not sustained.

 

One of the things I would have to cite is that many federations have succeeded, some have failed. Therefore, it's important to look why some federations have succeeded and why some have failed.

 

The first thing is that federalism can provide a democratically successful combination of unity and diversity. My evidence for that is four of the longest existing constitutional systems of the world today are federations – the United States, Switzerland, Australia, and Canada. Each of these has been under the same constitution for more than 100 years. The United States, more than 200 years.

 

In addition, if you look at the UN Human Development Index which tries to measure countries according to their economic prosperity, respect for rights, quality of the lives of their citizens, it ranks a total of 175 countries. Out of the top 20, eight are federations. So federation can be successful.

 

On the other hand, I'd argue that federalism is not a panacea. Adopting a federal system does not automatically create success. You have to create conditions. There are a great variety of federal forms or structures. So you have to have an appropriate structure of your own.

 

So my first point is federalism can be successful and has been, especially in many countries that are multiethnic like Switzerland, with many different languages and religions, like Canada with French and English, India with many different religious groups, Nigeria and so on. But my second point is federalism is not a panacea. In certain places it has failed. You can identify the reasons for the failures. And I think the lessons from these failures are twofold.

 

One is that even more important than the structure is the existence of a political culture and public attitudes that support federalism. A federal system is based on the constitutional definition of federal powers and regional unit powers. And unlike in a unitary government where the central government decides, in a federation the constitution sets out the powers.

 

Therefore, respect for the law is crucial. If there is no respect for the law, if people pay no attention to what the constitution says, federalism will not work. And federalism requires on the part of all groups to trust each other, to compromise, to recognize and tolerate the existence of different identities within different groups. So, I always argue that a fundamental requirement for any federal system to work is respect for the rule of law, compromise, tolerance and so on.

 

Secondly, I'd argue that the structure has to recognize the two basic elements of shared rule and regional self-rule, because a federation involves both elements. A federation is not just regional self-rule, which is an important part, because it lets different people to run their own affairs on matters that affect them; but equally important is the element of shared rule in areas in which they are involved. If you don't have shared rule, they will fall apart. So, I'd emphasize that the political and constitutional structure must have an element of shared rule which brings the people together inclusively. You have genuinely shared power at the center, but you have autonomous self-rule in the units. In this regard, all the different groups can feel that they have an opportunity to run their own affairs but that they also participate in central government. Therefore, I say those two elements are crucial.

 

Now where it has failed it is because of lack of one of those elements – either a failure to trust each other or reach a compromise. Federalism will not work if groups are intransigent and say, "We must have our own way; we cannot compromise at all."

 

Q: If you look at Nepal's case, it is moving from a unitary to a federal system. But if we look at successful federations like Switzerland and America, they moved from being separate countries to a federal system. Don't you think that Nepal will face problems or that it will not work in this country? Can you cite any example of a country that moved from a unitary system to a federal system?

 

Prof Watts: There are many countries that started as a unitary system and became a federation. For instance, my country Canada was a unitary system in 1840. It did not work because of the different groups in the country, and so in 1867, we divided what was a unitary Canada into Ontario, which is English-speaking, and Quebec, which is French-speaking. So there is a clear case of devolution to form a federation. But there are other examples as well. Spain is an example, Belgium is an example. There are many examples of unitary countries that have moved into federalism.

 

Q: In Nepal's context, there is no clear demarcation to federalize the country on the basis of caste, religion, ethnicity, etc. Everything is mixed up. Do you think it is possible to federalize such a heterogeneous country?

 

Prof Watts: Yes. I think it is possible. For instance, they had a great mixture in South Africa, which also is one example that devolved from a unitary to a federal system. They established a constitutional commission which took various things into account – the demography, geography, economic development and a variety of factors into account in defining nine new provinces when they became federations after the end of apartheid. In the case of Nepal, I can't tell what the units should be. That's what Nepalis should decide.

 

Q: Do you think that the units which will be federalized will be able to sustain themselves without adequate economic activities?

 

Prof Watts: They will need to be given powers to run their own affairs. It will take time to build the capacity. You cannot switch from a unitary to a federal system in 24 hours. Belgium is a classic example. It went through four different states before it became a federation. Spain has been going through stages.

 

I am sure that Nepal needs to think in terms of the stages by which it builds the capacity of the units. I can't tell you what the units should be, but I can tell you about other countries that had to define units. And in the process of defining units, when you proceed by devolution, they have taken into account not just ethnicity, language and religion, but also economic development, sustainability, geographic outline, communication and transportation system and all that.

 

The Constituent Assembly will need to set up a committee or a commission which will study all these things. Creating a federal state is never a simple task. It is always complicated.

 

Q: You said there are several models of federalism practiced all over the world. What sort of model do you think will go well with heterogeneous countries like Nepal?

 

Prof Watts: The first thing I never emphasize is that … you cannot just look at models, say, like at a shop, and pick up one model because every country has its own unique blend of particular circumstances and conditions. But what you can do is look at other federations and see what arrangements have worked there and what arrangements have not worked.

 

For instance, let me give you an illustration of the sorts of things that will be able to be sorted out. Apart from designing the units themselves – taking into account not just ethnicity, but economic development and all sorts of things, the powers of the federal government and the constituencies – Malaysia has a relatively centralized governance. If you take the combined expenditure of the federal and state governments of Malaysia, the central government takes 83 percent of that expenditure and only 17 percent is performed by the states.

 

On the other hand, if you look at Switzerland, which is at the other extreme, the federal government only does 32 percent of the combined expenditure, 68 percent is done by the units, the cantons. Canada is similar to Switzerland in that way, and different federations all fall in between.

 

So one of the things you need to decide is how much power goes and in what specific areas to the federal government and what will be the specific powers that will go to the units. When you talk about the units, you need to decide what should be the number and relative size of the units. The Russian federation now has 86 units. The United States 50; Switzerland, with a population of only 7 million, smaller than Nepal, has 26 units, cantons; India has 27.

 

On the other hand, Belgium has only six. So, one of the things you need to decide is should you have many like in Switzerland, 26 units, or should you just have a few units? My advice is do not make them too few, because where there are too few they have usually turned out to be too difficult because they become too competitive with each other. See the federations that have collapsed – Pakistan, East and West Pakistan; Czechoslovakia, two units; Serbia Montenegro, two units. Federations of two, three or four units usually tend to be unstable. So you want to make at least six units. But you could be anywhere from 6 to 26. It gives you an enormous range.

 

Again, in terms of the central institutions, the institutions of shared rule, you could have a presidential or a separation of powers system, which you have in most of the Latin American federations like Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and of course the United States. Or you can have a parliamentary system combined with a federal system, such as in Canada, Australia or most of the European federations like Spain, Germany and so on.

 

Nearly all federations have a second chamber to represent the diversity in a country. The first chamber is based on the population, but that would leave the larger units predominant. So most federations have either equal representation or weighted representation in the second chamber. But the powers of the second chamber and the method of appointment – whether the states are represented equally and what their powers are – vary from federation to federation. Most federations have a judicial court system to umpire disputes between governments and adjudicate between them. But some federations have a supreme court, which hears appeals on all laws. Others have a specialized constitutional court – Germany, Belgium and Spain are the examples.

 

The constitutional amendment procedure requires that both levels of government be involved in amending the constitution. But in some federations, it is done by the legislatures, the regional units and the federal parliament. In others, it is done by a referendum.

 

Because of overlapping between governments, if is impossible to divide central and regional functions in watertight compartments. Then it is necessary to design instruments for cooperation between governments. And the instruments, the particular mechanisms vary from federation to federation. What I am trying to say is that there is an enormous range of questions and issues.

 

Q: Heterogeneous countries that have gone federal have not been able to succeed in comparison to those which are homogeneous and federalized. What do you say?

 

Prof Watts: One of the lessons from looking at other federations is that where you have a bipolar population, where you have two units, that turns out to be unstable.

 

But some of the other multiethnic countries have been fairly successful. Remember that countries like Canada, Switzerland and the United Sates are now very prosperous. But don't forget that when they first became federations, they were not so prosperous. If you look at my country or the United States, when they first became federations, they were quite backward countries. There were no railways in Canada when Canada became a federation. It was an underdeveloped country. But over a century and a half, it is developed and now it is prosperous. But it is important to say that it is not a federation because of which it is prosperous, but being a federation enabled it to become prosperous.

 

I don't say that there are no problems. Every federation has its own problems. But the crucial thing is that those problems are less than what they would be in a unitary system. Remember that Canada adopted a federal system because there were problems with the unitary system. So the point I am getting at is don't look at federalism in terms of only prosperity now. But there are problems in Canada, the United States and India. Federalism will not eliminate problems, but it may make the problems less than they would have been otherwise.

 

In fact, there have been more secessions in unitary systems than in federal systems because, in federal systems, the groups have an opportunity to have some say in their own affairs. To cope with their problems, countries have adopted federalism. Nepal will not eliminate problems, but you may have fewer problems than you could have otherwise.

 

What about the secession of Kosovo? It is a problem of unitary Serbia. The separation of Kosovo is because the unitary structure could not cope with the different views and feelings of the people in Kosovo.

 

But it is very dangerous and over expecting to think that by simply adopting a federal system you solve all problems. Federalism is not a panacea as I said. The task of federalism is not to eliminate problems, but you try to make it possible to manage them.

 

Let me give you one illustration. I'd recently been to Sri Lanka they were talking about whether a federal system was appropriate for Sri Lanka. Some said, "Well, you know there were problems even in federal Canada, the separatism movement in Quebec."

 

I said yes, that is true. We'd had a separatist movement. But now let's compare Sri Lanka and Canada. How many people do you think have been killed in Canada over 140 years of its existence because of the Quebec separatism? Do you know how many?

 

Q: Sorry, we don't know. How many?

 

Prof Watts: One person. And tell me in unitary Sri Lanka, how many people have been killed because of Tamil separatism? 70,000. That tells something about the way different systems can operate.

Interview with David M Malone, Canadian Ambassador to Nepal

Interview with David M Malone, Canadian Ambassador to Nepal

 

David M Malone, is Canadian Ambassador to Nepal and Bhutan, and Canadian High Commissioner to India. Prior to this, he was Assistant Deputy Minister in Canada's department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. A PhD from Oxford University with a thesis on decision-making in the UN Security Council, he also served as an Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Canada to the UN, where he chaired the negotiations of the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations.

 

David, who is here for a few days in Kathmandu on his regular visit, spent a few minutes with Puran P Bista and Kamal Raj Sigdel of The Kathmandu Post talking over issues relating to Canada's concerns over Nepal's peace process and his individual observations.

 

Excerpts:

 

Q: How do you assess Nepal-Canada relations?

 

David: We have different ties with every country in Asia. With Nepal it's based on a couple of factors. First, many Canadians have visited Nepal as tourists and virtually all of them take back to Canada very positive memories of Nepal. So, this creates knowledge of Nepal and Canada which is very positive one. Second, our aid program has been active in Nepal for the last 35 years. It is the most important element of the relationship. There are other areas as well. The Canadian business people have done business in this country. Once there is political stability in Nepal I am quite certain that there will be more Canadian investors.

 

One very serious problem for Nepal at the moment is, in a region where all the countries -- Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri-Lanka, India — though all with many problems, are growing quite fast, Nepal is not growing at all. In fact it may be shrinking. When you have growing population and the economy is not growing, this is something that should worry every Nepali and every Nepali politician deeply.

 

Q: Do you foresee that Nepal will be able to restore peace?

 

David: I hope so. It depends entirely on the politicians. You don't waive the magic wand and hope the stability infused. Stability in democracy results from compromises made by different powerful parties represented in the parliament or not represented in the parliament. The habit of compromise is the most interesting thing about ancient parliament that parties that swore they'd never support this or that measure one day end up supporting them because they think something else is even more important.

 

I think Nepal is not there yet. The habit of compromise is not deeply ingrained. What is deeply ingrained is a sense amongst the people and they're right because they have not received their due and they are increasingly angry, willing to demonstrate, disrupt the economy, which sets them back further, of course … but perfectly a logical expression of popular unhappiness. The answer is the responsible politicians who are prepared to make compromises necessary to serve the people rather than their individual interests.

 

In the West, the system took too many centuries to evolve. It did not happen overnight. Our democracy is not perfect, we have lots of problems, but the quality of the problems is not so severe as the quality of the problems of Nepal.

 

So, am I hopeful? Yes. Am I optimistic? I'll be optimistic if the elections take place on the 10th of April, if the results of the election are accepted by the losers. Elections are very worrying for politicians because they are unpredictable. So, the outcome of April 10 is tremendously important. If we have another postponement of the elections the international community will be ready to give up on Nepal. Nepalis seem to take international support for granted. But actually no; there are many such countries around the world. So, a government like the Canadian government has to choose which country to invest its money in support of peace process.

 

Q: How is Canada helping Nepal restore peace in this situation?

 

David: We are trying to do it in a number of ways. First, our aid tends to target people rather than the government and large institutions. But one large institution we admire very much is the Election Commission. Through the UN fund we have been supporting the EC directly. They are doing very well and for them the postponement of the elections last time was deeply frustrating and by the way quite a lot of money was wasted. But mostly our aid in countries like Nepal and India is very people-centric. It is very difficult for a distant country like Canada to imagine, then plan and then implement a development program that would help some poor Nepalis.

 

When we think there is a good project worth supporting we support that. We have not wanted to hinge all of our support to the election process because there are many people who continue to be desperately poor in this country and who continue to need as much support as they can get.

 

Q: Do you think the losers will accept the election results?

 

David: I don't know. I certainly hope they accept the results. That is the basis of democracy. But the alternatives for a party that is not keen on accepting an outcome are unattractive also. What you do? Do you create violence? That's a risky strategy. Do you withdraw to the hills and resume the war? Not easy, once you've been part of a government.

 

So, that fact makes me quite optimistic. The study of what goes on in other countries is useful because insurgencies are rather alike. I am very much hopeful that Prachanda and his colleagues will see what support they have could be further eroded by strategy of non-acceptance of the results because my sense is the people here want the elections. The people here will accept the outcome of the elections and will expect the parties too accept the outcome of the elections. So, in that sense I am very optimistic.

 

Q: You have experiences of working in a federal structure. What do you think of the demands of the different ethnic groups for autonomy and right to self-determination?

 

David: It is very complicated. And it takes a lot of time to think about and negotiate. With Quebec, its current status in the federation of Canada is the very slow evolution over many years. It's easy to say a region is autonomous but what is the content of autonomy? In what way a region is autonomous? Does it deliver all the programs? Does it raise its own taxes? Does it stop asking the centre for more money? None of these has been thought about yet. And in Canada it took us a great deal of time to think about these things.

 

Quebec is much more like every other Canadian province than it is different from them. The parliament of Canada has recognized Quebec as a nation because of its cultural identity, which is largely French. But if you look at the practical arrangements that govern Quebec, they are very similar to the ones that govern Ontario. What Quebec gets from Ottawa is pretty same as what Ontario gets.

 

So, I sympathize with the people of tarai because they have been marginalized for a long time. And nobody listened to them for a long time. But I think frankly there is no magic constitutional solution to their problem. If a new designation within the new Nepali federation, that is somehow distinct for the tarai, helps them psychologically that's good. Does no harm. But the people in the tarai and rest of Nepal need to think about the practical arrangements involved because they are the ones that affect development and growth.

 

So the business in Canada of building our federation has been nearly as much a boring business than as it has been an exciting business of visionary leaders. That's why I say it is slow. So the people who think that the Constituent Assembly will be able very quickly to solve all of Nepal's problems -- NO, I don't think that is true. But it is important that they start.

 

One problem in Nepal -- and not just Nepal -- is that the people whose voices have been ignored historically think that the only way to attract attention is to have bandas, to have blockades, to disrupt traffic. That does not work.

 

Q: Do you think Nepal should opt for the federal structure as this seems to be a very small country to be suited for a federal structure?

 

David: It seems small to you because you live next to China and India. But a country of 24/25 million people is big. One of the most successful federations, Switzerland has only over six million people. So I don't think size determines whether a federation is successful. Whether Nepal should become a federation is something foreigners should not actually even offer advice. It is something the Nepalis have to think about. It is clear that the past did not work well for Nepal. Whatever the arrangements in the past, you don't want to go back to them. But for the arrangements in the future Nepal, it has to come up with its own model. It won't be the model of Switzerland, Costa Rica or Westminster. And whether it is federal or not is much less important than the basic political understandings that are reached amongst the various important communities and those don't have to be organized along federal lines at all. So I say a well-designed New Nepal is going to take some time.

 

Q: You are also the ambassador to Bhutan and India. Why do you think is Bhutan reluctant to accept the Bhutanese refugees who are languishing in Nepal for the last 17 years?

 

David: That's a question you would have to ask a Bhutanese, not me. What I can tell you though is when I am in Thimpu I raise this. I do mention that we will now accept 5,000 of these people -- I am sure they will be very good immigrants, so I am not worried about it -- but indirectly, Bhutan has created real cost for Canada as well as for Nepal. For us our response to the plight of the people in the camps was not at all political. In Nepal, the issue has been much too political frankly, not enough thought about the people -- great deal of hostility towards Bhutan. So our approach was strictly humanitarian. But having a bad relation with neighbors is a terrible policy.

 

Q: Don't you think that Canadian government's offer to take in 5,000 Bhutanese refugees would encourage Bhutan to go ahead with its policy of ethnic cleansing?

 

David: I think there is this risk. We have also mentioned that. But we don't want the fact that we were taking these people to provoke such actions. What the result will be I simply don't know.

 

Q: India has been obstacle to this refugee crisis. How do you analyze this?

 

David: I cannot really comment what India is up to. So it would be actually much more complex what India is doing in Bhutan. It is the policy of Bhutan that we have criticized. We have made clear to Bhutan that we don't want the resettlement of these refugees to trigger a second wave of refugees. I know we have been listened to, more than that I cannot say.

 

Q: Do you have any aid program in Bhutan?

 

David: Very limited. Because Bhutan, unlike Nepal, is developing very fast. It grew at the rate of 12 percent last year. It is not going to need aid for very long. It supplies hydroelectricity to India which India pays quite a lot for and it has found a model that allows it to grow rich keeping its own traditions. We have been involved in Bhutan in educational works. It was Canada that started secular modern education in Bhutan. Since the early 1960s we have tried to help develop secondary and university education in Bhutan.

 

I think Bhutan is very close to the point where it will not need foreign assistance anymore.

 

Q: As you mentioned earlier that Canadian companies would be interested in investing in Nepal. What could be the areas of attraction for them?

 

David: Provided there is political stability, there are many areas that would interest. For example, a number of Canadian engineering firms have been very good at developing hydroelectricity and have done a lot of work in India. We are very good at some aspects of infrastructure, if, for example, Nepal decides developing rail road, it is an area where we are doing a lot of business.

 

We are a big mining country: it is very likely that Nepal is full of mineral wealth. I don't think Nepal has been very seriously surveyed yet. But once it is surveyed, it is going to be very rich at that point. Probably Canadian mining companies might demonstrate a big interest. We are quite good at agricultural processing too.

 

Nepal is advanced in video making and filming and the likes. It is also an area Canada is quite advanced. BPOs and call centers in India are beginning to move out because salaries have increased fast enough in India. And that will make place for lower salary scale like Nepal. So there is a great deal that can happen here.

 

Everything that happened in Bangladesh and India can happen here. But none of them can happen here without political stability. And also politicians need to take economy seriously. In Canada we have quite competitive politics but our politicians try not to do anything that would damage the economy. They don't call for street demonstrations; they use other ways that can make their unhappiness known.

 

So I hope the Nepali politicians will take the economy of Nepal to heart, accept that the lack of growth in this country is their responsibility and that they have to do better in the future. That is what the Nepalis deserve from them.

INTERVIEW WITH RAMESH LEKHAK--'Our priority is to ensure the safety of our workers'

'Our priority is to ensure the safety of our workers'

 

 

Ramesh Lekhak, Minister of Labor and Transport Management, was in the UAE to attend the fourth conference of labor ministers of Asian countries engaged in sending and receiving migrant workers. He has been making efforts to regulate the messy foreign employment sector to promote safe migration of Nepali workers. Amid growing concern about the plight of Nepali workers abroad and the changing situation of migrant workers in the international labor market, Lekhak talked to Kamal Raj Sigdel and Prabhakar Ghimire of The Kathmandu Post about the challenges and opportunities in the foreign employment sector.

 

Excerpts:

 

Q: You recently led a delegation to the fourth conference of Asian labor ministers held in the UAE. Considering the growing concern over the safety of Nepali workers in most of the labor destinations, the conference must have held meaning to Nepal. How beneficial was your trip?

 

Lekhak: The seminar was beneficial for both labor recipient and sending countries. Two separate meetings focusing on temporary contractual labor issues were held. The first meeting included labor sending and receiving countries and it discussed emerging problems and ways to solve them. The second meeting consisted of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and it focused on GCC policies on temporary contractual labor.

 

In addition, on the way to the UAE for the meeting in Abu Dhabi, we signed an additional protocol on labor based on the labor pact signed three years ago with Qatar in Doha.

 

During the four-day meeting, we held bilateral meetings and talks with ministers and high ranking officials of other host countries. We proposed signing labor pacts with them. Bahrain and Kuwait have shown interest in signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on labor with Nepal. We are in the process of signing an MoU with Malaysia.

 

Q: The safety of Nepali laborers in the Gulf has been a matter of serious concern. What improvements have you made after you assumed office as labor minister?

 

Lekhak: To respond to this question, we must begin with the realization that it is our compulsion to send our citizens to other countries to work as laborers. However, this is also a need of the times. We have very few opportunities for employment in our country. Most of the existing industries have shut down. Others are on the verge of closure as an effect of the decade-long war. Since the insurgency began, almost all development projects have come to a complete halt. Unemployment increased as economic activity declined, and thus foreign employment became a way out.

 

Though foreign jobs helped to ease the country's unemployment problem to some extent, sending jobseekers abroad has not, however, been trouble-free. There are lots of problems. For example, Nepalis are being cheated both in and outside the country. Nepali workers are underpaid. They are forced to work at difficult and risky jobs for minimum wages, facilities and benefits.

 

Addressing these problems has been of prime importance for the government. The ministry is trying to handle these problems in two ways. First, we are working to regulate manpower companies and simplify the procedures which job aspirants have to follow so that they can find their intended jobs safely without hassles or being cheated. Second, we are working to protect the rights of migrant workers in the destination countries, i.e., ensuring proper facilities, salaries, perks and other benefits.

 

In order to deal with these issues, it became necessary to formulate a fresh policy. So, for starters, we changed our foreign employment laws and policies which had become hopelessly obsolete. Until recently, Nepal was sending laborers to foreign countries under the Foreign Employment Act 2042 BS. During the time when the act was introduced, the number of people going abroad to work was only 1,000 persons per year. Today, almost 600 Nepali jobseekers are leaving the country everyday. The actual number should be higher because this official figure does not include migrant workers who go to India and those who migrate to different overseas countries without following the government's normal procedures. In order to keep up with the changed context, we introduced the Foreign Employment Act 2064 BS. The act includes some special provisions regarding foreign employment. And in line with the act, we have also brought out the Foreign Employment Regulations, which is already in effect.

 

Our second priority is to ensure the safety of our workers. So we see signing MoUs with countries receiving Nepali laborers as an urgent task. We have signed labor MoUs with the UAE and South Korea. We have signed an additional protocol with Qatar, and we will soon be signing labor agreements with other host countries.

 

Q: Despite the labor pacts with different countries, cases of cheating, exploitation and even death have not abated. What factors do you feel are the reason?

 

Lekhak: We cannot stop natural deaths and accidents. However, we can minimize the chances. Some workers die due to the vast change in climate and temperature. Nepali workers have to work in blistering temperatures of 40-50 degrees Celsius.

 

Mindful of these risks, we've made several provisions in the foreign employment law, one of them being proper orientation of the workers prior to departure. Besides, we have resolved another problem that we used to have when a Nepali worker died at work. The families of the deceased did not get any compensation. Now the law has made it compulsory for each worker to have insurance worth Rs 5 lakh before leaving for foreign employment. Another problem was bringing back dead bodies. We've established the Foreign Employment Welfare Fund which runs welfare programs for families of persons working abroad, helps to rescue workers stranded in foreign countries and brings home dead bodies.

 

Q: Thousands of job aspirants are waiting for a chance to go to South Korea. The government failed to send laborers under the quota for 2007. Do you think Nepal will be able to meet the deadline this time?

 

Lekhak: There is neither any fixed annual quota nor any fixed number of laborers to be sent to South Korea. This is a continuous process. Our goal is to complete the entire procedure by March. Potential workers are taking Korean language classes at different institutes. The Koreans themselves are going to administer the language tests. The answer papers will be sent to Korea to be graded. We only act as a facilitator. We are in the process of giving the responsibility of managing the exams to Tribhuvan University.

 

Q: What is the tentative date Nepali jobseekers can expect to get employment in South Korea?

 

Lekhak: I think Nepalis can expect to start leaving for South Korea by March. The Korean side is also of the same mind.

 

Q: The government once prepared a list of institutes which were permitted to run Korean language classes. This has not been implemented at all. And now the ministry is planning to short-list "qualified" institutes. Why is the ministry so obsessed with the unnecessary task of selecting and reselecting language institutes?

 

Lekhak: This is not true. We are not offering any new certificates to the short-listed institutes. One can sit for the Korean Language Test (KLT) regardless of where he or she has studied. From one perspective, when the Korean government itself has not set any criteria for the KLT, it seems unnecessary to qualify certain institutes only. But still the schools should meet the minimum requirements. They must have qualified teachers and well-equipped classes with audio-visual materials.

 

Q: So far, Nepal has been exporting unskilled laborers. Do you have any plans to develop and send skilled laborers to work in foreign countries?

 

Lekhak: I agree that we have been sending only unskilled workers. This is also the main reason why Nepali workers are often cheated and suppressed by their employers. It is easy to deceive unskilled laborers as they are less aware of their rights. They get paid less; they are given difficult jobs. Manpower companies do exploit these people. They give them attractive contracts to sign here in Nepal; but when they arrive at their places of work, they are forced to sign another agreement which gives them meager salaries and benefits.

 

At the moment, we don't have the facilities to operate training programs for unskilled workers. We've asked the private sector to participate in this task. At the UAE conference, I was telling friends at the Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRN) that the most important thing we needed today was training.

 

Q: Have you made any effort to diversify the foreign employment market to other places such as Japan and Europe?

 

Europe does not need labor. It neither has a labor shortage nor a surplus. So Europe cannot be a destination for us. While Japan could be the best destination for Nepali workers, there is no place for unskilled labor there. Besides Japan, we are exploring new possibilities in other countries too. We are in the process of reopening Israel.

 

Currently, after South Korea, we are targeting Japan. There are two systems under which we can send laborers. One is the industrial trainee system, and the other is the employment permit system (EPS). Under the first system, the FNCCI was authorized to send Nepali workers to Japan as industrial trainees. But till date the FNCCI hasn't sent a single Nepali to Japan. We are, therefore, thinking of enlisting other capable institutions that can coordinate this task. Earlier, Nepal used to send workers to South Korea under the industrial trainee system; this has now been changed to the EPS.

 

Q: The government was planning to appoint labor attachés in countries where there are Nepali migrant workers. Why hasn't it happened?

 

Lekhak: We don't have any problem in appointing labor attachés, but the code of conduct for the forthcoming election to the Constituent Assembly may affect the process.

 

Q: While we have been targeting the Gulf countries as the major destination for Nepali workers, the labor ministers of some countries there have expressed apprehension about what they call the "tsunami" of foreign workers. Doesn't this indicate that we should diversify our labor destinations?

 

Lekhak: It was the labor minister of Bahrain who was concerned about the impact of their current labor policy. His worry was that a large-scale influx of foreign workers into his country would affect its culture, religion and sovereignty. However, there is another side to the story. Bahrain's labor minister was also urging the people in the region to work harder. He was trying to warn the public there that they had become lazier, thereby compelling their governments to bring in foreign people to do their work. This does not mean that they are going to put an end to hiring foreign workers. There are two reasons that make us confident that something like that will not happen. First, the Gulf countries have high economic growth rates. There is a boom in the construction and overall industrial sectors. No country would like to slow down its economic growth. In order to keep up the momentum, a larger labor force will be required. Second, the population in the Gulf is too small to provide the manpower demanded by their booming economies. Besides, the people there generally don't like to work as laborers because of their high income. So I don't think the Gulf countries will stop taking in foreign workers. But this does not mean that we are only focusing on the Gulf. We are trying to diversify the market.

 

Q: How are negotiations progressing with Israel as it has stopped taking in Nepali workers?

 

Lekhak: We're trying to reopen Israel. This time, we may send laborers to Israel without involving manpower agents in order to make the recruitment process easier. We have two options – sending the workers without involving manpower agents or having the agents monitored by the International Organization of Migration (IOM) as Israel has sought its participation in the recruitment process. I hope we will soon reach an agreement as the government of Israel is preparing a draft of a planned accord with Nepal regarding the process of recruiting Nepali workers. We are waiting for the Israeli government's proposed agreement.