Is our Struggle for Democracy and Peace Futile? By Dipendra Jha Before going in demonstration every Nepali has to consider, why is he going, would his sacrifice bring any change in the country? The people must not act as the myth of Sisyphus, who pulls the rock every-time at the top of the mountain but it rolls back at the bottom. Why should the people do futile struggle for another Sher Bahadur Deuba to roll it back? The present complicated issue is whether the sacrifice and struggle of Nepali people will be able to establish peace and democracy or not. The fighting against authoritarian king is not only sufficient to break to the whole undemocratic structure. If the struggle is targeted only against King Gyanendra, it will be futile. It is true that his actions are an attempt to bring back authoritarian rule in Nepal. But he is not only responsible for it; there are lot of invisible faces behind it including those who empowered him such authority. Even during the period of so called democracy for 12 years, the whole sphere of social, economy and political laws and practices were based on the power relations, hierarchy and domination, where the discrimination was deeply rooted at all level. The recent history has already shown us that every politician, who reached at the power position, used the undemocratic methodology to rule the country. The king has given only continuity of the system in a wider way. Nepalis have not forgotten the ‘buying and selling’ of the members of parliament on the name of democracy. The representative democracy in Nepal has already shown us that only the elites were in power position, where the voice of the people was unheard. During those periods, election was free but not fair as a large amount of money had been used to buy the votes. Again if we are fighting for the same democracy, than it is useless to fight. Nepali people have to reform "undemocratic" laws, practices and structure as a whole, which gives legitimacy to authoritarianism. As the undemocratic structures have been already institutionalized, it requires greater popular participation and community mobilization to overcome them. To break these types of traditional undemocratic structure from all level, it is necessary to educate those who are at the power position like judges, politicians, high-ranking governmental officials and military about equality, justice and non-discrimination. These are the power holding groups in hierarchical relationship. Institutional reform is necessary to strengthen democratic control over the legislature, judiciary, the bureaucracy and military. But the reform of this undemocratic structure of power is a big challenge for the whole nation. It is a big challenge for us to fight against the vicious cycle of elitism. Unless we reform the existing undemocratic structure from the grassroots level to the top, the realization of democratic environment seems impossible. Unless we reform the existing undemocratic structure from the grassroots level to the top, the realization of democratic environment seems impossible. The agreement between the seven political parties and the Maoists is really a good sign, which can start a new move. But the question is whether both the parties are honest or not. They have to consider about sacrificing their power position. Until they develop sacrificial and democratic views; nothing will change except a step down of the king, which does not keep much importance. If the Maoists have agreed with the views of the seven political parties, why should they fight when the parties were ruling the country making the king easier to grab the power? If their agreement is for peace, peace does not mean only ending violence. It is more than the mere absence of war or even the absence of inter-state violence. It refers to a social condition in which exploitation is minimized or eliminated, and in which there is full realization of justice, which is impossible until the Maoists are ready to be accountable to their past human rights violations. Are they ready to be accountable for the crime they have committed over the last ten years? We have to ask this question before supporting the alliance between the political parties and the Maoists. What about the survival of the victims who lost their husbands and children, are they ready to accept those as their leaders who killed their family members? It is futile to fight for negative peace by surrendering justice. The past experience under so- called democratic regime and present crisis under authoritarian regime all provide compelling reasons as to why another Nepal must be made possible. No single politician can be expected to provide leadership for change. Change must start from them by ending their undemocratic thoughts, which still exist in their minds and behaviours. The Chinese proverb is very much true in this context: the person who says it can not be done should not interrupt the person doing it. Most of the politicians, diplomats including US, UK and present regime are emphasizing on reconciliation. But they are not clarifying what type of reconciliation, because it requires accountability on the part of both the state and non-state actors. On the one hand, the US ambassador in Nepal James F. Moriarty called for reconciliation, on the other hand he emphasized on sidelining the Maoists as part of the US’ ‘anti-communist’ foreign policy. But the Nepalis people have to think that sidelining the Maoists from the whole process will be a great mistake. In fact, reconciliation is the means to establish peace and justice, which are inter-connected in several ways. Denial of justice in itself is a denial of real peace and it is a place where all parties and things must come together. Jha is a student of M. A. (Human Rights) at the Mahidol University, Thailand. Please send your comments to feedback@mos.com.np or jha_dipendra@yahoo.com (Editor’s Note: Nepalis, wherever they live, as well as friends of Nepal around the globe are requested to contribute their views/opinions/recollections etc. on issues concerning present day Nepal to the Guest Column of Nepalnews. Length of the article should not be more than 1,000 words and may be edited for the purpose of clarity and space. Relevant photos as well as photo of the author may also be sent along with the article. Please send your write-ups to editors@mos.com.np) http://sajha.com/sajha/html/openThread.cfm?forum=2&ThreadID=29694#239084