FAILURES

The Himalayan Times

22 November 2011

It is now common to hear and read news about the Constituent Assembly (CA) term extension when the lawmakers turned out to be total failures in completing the peoples’ mandated twin tasks within the stipulated time. This time also, it is not surprising to read the news report “CA extension vote set for Thursday (THT, Nov.21, Page 30) with regard to the third extension of CA’s tenure. It was also not surprising to know that they had extended the previous terms by making some lame excuses. I think the people were not and do not seem against its extension if the lawmakers had made sincere effort to complete the prime jobs. However, the way CA’s term was and gets extended without any committing any firm determination and planned time table remained to be everybody’s concern.

The responsible political leaders and parties were not seem sensible and sincere in the past towards completion of the peoples’ mandated prime tasks during the extended period. Several deals signed among the major political parties for making an excuse to extend CA’s term were not properly implemented due to their blame games and power politics. However, this time there has been some progress towards the completion of peace process. The Integration and Rehabilitation processes of PLAs have started positively. The major political parties have agreed to set up a commission for restructuring of the federal states.

However, simply putting forward term extension proposal by the government and issuing whip to their lawmakers to vote for CA’s extension do not seem convincing to the people. This time, they need to bring out detailed plan of action for completing the twin tasks within the stipulated time and make public their commitment to resign in mass if they failed to do so. Otherwise, merely extending CA’s term seems nothing but an excuse to pocket people’s tax paid money for their petty interests.

Rai Biren Bangdel

Maharajgunj, Kathmandu