WHY NEW CONSTITUTION?

A TV reporter asked a famous politician, ‘why new constitution?’, in reply the politician said, ‘new constitution for people, for democracy, for peace, justice, for establishing people’s governance, for development, and the list went on and on......’. By then I realized why it becomes so difficult to understand the politician’s speech. The simple answer is they just don’t want people to understand the reason behind their politics. May be I am wrong but what can I do because I just don’t understand. Isn’t it my right not to understand them and express my feeling for not understanding them? 

Photo: K P Kharel

Few days back, my friend shared me a story as his mom was sitting on the terrace with a newspaper on her hand, he happened to ask her, ‘why new constitution?’ She answered him in a soft voice, ‘for people...’ Then again he questioned, ‘what do people want?’ She said, ‘People want employment, security, development...’ Again the confused state of his mind argued her, ‘So that means state became failure in the past and thus by bringing new constitution it will come in its shape?!?’
Until now, his mom had already gone off with his unusual questions which could be seen on her face. Bringing out her cornered frustrations she said, ‘All I know is that the idea of new constitution came because the country had to stop the war which benefitted none of the parties. But I actually don’t know what this constitution will bring in for us...and neither have I known when people actually felt the need for it!’

My quest for answer to ‘why new constitution’ however ended when my younger sister sitting in front of the laptop screen amusingly started telling me, ‘as the memory card gets virus-corrupted and cannot show performance, then the only thing that can switch it on is by formatting it completely. Similarly, the country got viruses in almost every unit of all systems and society. Thus the functioning of the state became almost lame and people started feeling the irritation of the broken system. Hence the country realized the high time to get it formatted for once to make it last for long in a progressive and in a new way.’

  

‘The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself’

                                                            Benjamin Franklin

According to Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States of America, the constitution is just a way to understand and see where your happiness lies and the rest of the thing should be done by you. I am very much impressed by his saying. Above all, the system is what people brings in so as to guide them to pursue their happiness in any form, may it be development, well being, progress, creation, innovation, money making, etc. So relating the Franklin’s understanding in the context of Nepal, this new constitution can be taken as an effort of the Nepalese people for the first time to carve their own way for their kind of happiness they see, understand and want to get along with.

Now, as the country has surpassed the decade long conflict leading to thousands of death situations, cases of displacement and disappearance, brutal human rights violation, and regression, the aftermath of the people revolution concluded the need of new constitution and overthrow of all forms of existing traditional-political powers. In between these lines, the-decade long-conflict can be understood as an action plan to reach its goal of forming new constitution. But in the mean time, we can again critically question ourselves, ‘The country had its democracy after 046-047 revolution, which means people were already into the power. In this scenario, what made people go for a conflict against their own democracy? In my opinion, the then democracy was on the hand of some limited forces which never wanted the country understand what democracy could bring in for its people. So in order to make the country blind, these forces enslaved the people’s representatives in such a way that they could never discover the political philosophy of democracy, and got stuck sided to Politics-for-Power, rather than Politics for People. So the frustration among all those well-wishers of democracy, discriminated, overshadowed, poor, marginalized and victims of poor democracy busted out undertaking armed aggression against their own so called state! 

The new constitution is a must because this time we people want it in our way. An artist wants it in his way; a doctor wants it in other way. Similarly a student wants it for his/her future and the porter wants it for the secure bread and butter. We all have our dreams, desires, wishes, visions, perceptions, perspectives, calculations, and planning. Therefore the constitution must be made in order to actually free our freedom, to give right meaning to our rights, and to do true justice.

The new constitution, therefore carves the way for all the people and for new Nepal. Past was not satisfactory because of which the present is writing its future. But looking at the present scenario, the representatives that we have sent to write the constitution seem no serious at all. Years after years the deadlines are fulfilled by extensions with a promise of making constitution. But in practice it is quiet not happening so. Hence, it is a high time now to concentrate on the present and make the new constitution possible. If it happens in the other way, then the future of the nation will be at a stake. So, let us make it happen before the things go beyond everyone's control.