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| Marching towards a new South Asia By Gauri Pradhan Just about a week ahead of the beginning of 14th SAARC Summit to be held in Delhi, India, the representatives of people's movements consisted of farmers, rights activists, women activists, parliamentarians, lawyers, media people, indigenous rights activists, social workers, youth politicians and so forth had gathered in Kathmandu under a broader banner of the "Peoples' SAARC." In this people's assembly, we not only reviewed and revisited the achievements and challenges of different people's movements in South Asia, but also explored ways and means to strengthen people's solidarity to make South Asia free from the yoke of local feudalism and global imperialism. As we agreed, one of the main objectives of this assembly was to share the historic experiences of Nepali people's movement for justice, equality, democracy and peace. Nepal is now undergoing a painful process of radical transformation and reintegration of its nationalities, societies and ultimately making people sovereign and a real owner of the country. The Nepali people have endured and survived all forms of repression and oppression of the dictatorial rule long enough. At this juncture, they are now determined to end the remaining detrimental legacy of feudal autocracy and begin a chapter in history of new Nepal, with optimism and conviction, and navigate a path towards a new Democratic Republic of Nepal. In April 2007, the people, especially freedom-loving people of the world, will celebrate the first anniversary of the historic people's movement-II that pulled down the tyranny of 238-year of the Shah dynasty for good, laying down the foundation stone of a New Nepal for the posterity. The nineteen-day long peaceful protest had once again substantially proved that no power in the world could override or outmatch the people's power. The guns and tanks on standby in the streets had to admit defeat at the end of the day. In the backdrop of this victory, the 12-point understanding signed between Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) inspired a meaningful watershed in our recent history. In a sense, it was a momentous fusion between people's war and people's movement that bought about a positive outcome. While saying so, we must not forget the significant role orchestrated by the civil society movement in Nepal. The interim constitution has suspended the role of monarchy, which is heartening to note. Another important achievement we made during this period was the signing of comprehensive peace accord (CPA) between the SPA government and the CPN (Maoist), which led to the end of the armed conflict waged by the latter. Nepal has significantly proved once again that it is capable of handling its crisis by itself if people could exercise their power in action. Now, Nepal has new interim constitution, new interim legislature parliament and very soon, it is going to form a new interim government, inclusive of the stakeholders of the people's movement and the CPN (Maoist). So, the common goal now is to hold an election of the constituent assembly, which will carve a new destiny of the Nepali nation, and of the monarchy, too. Nepal has already set out on a new journey - to build an inclusive, democratic republican Nepal. As we all know, Nepal has a rich mosaic of different ethnicity, cultures, religions, languages and geographical diversities. The common identity of all this is a "Nepali nationality" in a real sense. Any dominant class, caste or hereditary dynasty shall no longer rule Nepal. Every Nepali individual very much deserves the right to recognition, self-determination, belongingness, and representation in the nation's affairs. The struggle continues until the equal rights and socio-economic justice for women, dalits and indigenous people are guaranteed. We want to ensure redistribution of resources, including the lands to the deprived people. Right to quality education, basic health care and quality living standard - are the birthright of every Nepali. For this, we need a total restructuring of the state mechanism and enforce a radical socio-economic reformation. Let us envision a people-centered national development planning and eradicate unfair social relations and web of poverty forever. There will be an equal share of the fruits of development among all the people. In order to achieve this goal, the country is heading towards a federal democratic structure in the system of governance. For us, the vision and destiny of new Nepal is crystal clear. But the journey towards this direction is not easy. There are obstacles from regressive forces, fundamentalists and reactionary forces within and without of the country, working head-on to nullify the achievements of the people's movement and create a political turmoil. On the one hand, the oppressed people are awakening for their rights and dignity, while on the other the reactionary forces are hell-bent on trying to infiltrate and disrupt the peaceful people's movement. The transitional phase now is in a very susceptible stage. The country needs to maintain a strong solidarity among the people from different sections of the society for a better tomorrow. A new democratic, inclusive and republic Nepal is a dream of the people today. For this, we would like to hold constituent assembly elections at the earliest possible, so that the people of Nepal could actively participate in the nation building process, freely and fearlessly. In one way or the other, most of the countries in South Asia are going through a challenging transition of socio-political and economic change for better. There is a new hope and aspiration for better South Asian societies. However, this could be made possible only through a powerful people's movement and regional solidarity. Any political party's strategies to meet
its political end through genocidal acts, is downright condemnable.
Posted on: THE KATHMANDU POST 2007-03-26 21:02:00 (Server Time)
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