Participation of Youth in the Constituent Assembly
By Dipendra Tamang
Nepal is currently undergoing extraordinarily challenging circumstances: a de-escalating national conflict, massive human rights abuses, large number of internally displaced people, civil society organizations working under pressure and vulnerable to extortion and threats, students and youth taking up violent protests and the process for the formation of the Constituent Assembly hot on the anvil. Constitutional reforms have always been an exclusive domain in Nepal till date. Almost all the constitutions that have been written till now –some five of them- have none or very little inclusiveness in them. Exclusion, one of the major problems in the Nepali politics and bureaucracy, has always been reflected in the framing of the Constitution, which in turn is reflected in its articles and directive principles.
Although many Nepalese had high expectations that we would experience prosperity and development with the restoration of democracy in 1990, people have now come to realize that without an active and informed citizenry, democracy is unresponsive to citizens’ needs. Due to the dismal showing of democracy in the last decade and a half, many people, including students and youths have lost their faith and belief in the principles of democracy and democratic values. They now appear indifferent and not much involvement or participation can be seen on their part in the day to day workings of the government or the governance of the country. I believe that unless this apathy, especially among the youths and students, is stopped and measures are taken to rectify it and build an informed, aware and proactive citizenry, then the New Nepal, hard won by the people after the April Revolution will also fail and collapse into a State torn apart by war, violence and strife, violation of human rights, without development, Rule of Law or the basic tenets of good governance and democracy. Most governance initiatives often focus upon top level political leaders, excluding the vast majority of social actors below, an influential number of whom are students and youth. Sixty percent (60%) of the general population of Nepal is believed to be below 25 years of age. The vast majority of students and youth, in communities and towns across the country, feel largely powerless, not knowing, concretely, what they can do or how they can contribute to bring about good governance and sustainable development in a democratic Nepal. The only way they know is through large scale street protests and other violent and aggressive means. But the time is now ripe with opportunity to enable, empower and mobilize the youth towards a constructive path in the formation of the Constituent Assembly. I feel that empowering and mobilizing youth and students for the documentation of their aspirations and objectives will help create a new Constitution that is inclusive and addresses the needs and wants of the citizens, a vast majority of whom are youth. Also, having them participate in the process of documenting their wants and needs for the Constituent Assembly will help to create an informed, aware and proactive youth group who understand the meaning of citizenship, politics and government and acquire the skills to voice their concerns and hold the system accountable. Allowing youth to participate in the formation of the Constituent Assembly and ensuring their representation means putting into practice the democratic processes. By doing this, we will create a culture of democracy through the promotion of democratic behavior and values among the young citizens.
In most established democracies, students and youths have the opportunity to absorb democratic beliefs and practices while growing up, both within and without the schools. However these preparatory experiences are missing for the youth of newly emerging democracies such as Nepal. Thus they are usually unaware of the opportunities or responsibilities that exist for advancing their interests at the local or national level. In order for democracy to develop and endure, the youth must take ownership of the system by becoming informed participants. Informed participation occurs only when the youth understand the meaning of citizenship, politics and government and have acquired the skills to voice their concerns and hold the system accountable. Educating youth about the democratic processes and their rights and duties in a democracy is a first and critical step in creating a culture of democracy through the promotion of democratic behavior and values among the young citizens. Ensuring youth participation and representation in the Constituent Assembly to actively document the voice of the youth will be an opportunity in just such a democratic exercise. This will have huge benefits as it will ensure the sense of ownership, of the final Constitution to be promulgated, by the youth.
Nepali politics has been paralyzed by the dynamics of tradition and personality rather than issue based agendas. A political leader has immense leverage within his party and so it is very difficult for new and young leaders to emerge in the political scenario if they differ from the line of thinking of the senior leaders. Calling someone who is over 50 year’s old a youth leader is walking the line a bit too far. Times change and policies and leaders themselves need to change accordingly and make way for the younger generation. Not naming names, I heard one prominent youth leader say on television that they have no platform to voice their demands about the Constituent Assembly. But without the participation of the youth in such a vital structure as the Constituent Assembly, it would by no means represent the thoughts, beliefs, ideals, demands and aspirations of the youth of Nepal. In order to overcome this paralysis, it will be necessary to encourage, strengthen, mobilize and nurture individuals and communities, especially the students and youth, across the country to be able to actively resist the spread of violence, to transform conflicts constructively, to regenerate community in areas devastated by war, and to build a concrete vision of what they want through democratic beliefs and practices.
Mariya Petrova (MP): How and why did you get involved with the Alliance for Peace in Nepal?
Dipendra Tamang (DT): Initially, after completing my studies, I started working for an American NGO called the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). While there, I was in charge of the Civic Education program. Working in the field of civic education made me realize that a country is only as good as its citizens. It also gave me a chance to work with the Higher Secondary (10+2) students. Concurrently, the socio-political and security situation in Nepal started to deteriorate rapidly. It was at this time that I met with some young student leaders who had just started an organization entitled the Alliance for Peace and was working to inculcate a culture of peace amongst the students and youth in Nepal. I became really interested in their work and started to become involved by generating ideas for their programs and also acting in an advisory capacity.
After seeing the work being done by the Alliance for Peace for over two years, I felt that if I actually joined full time with the organization, then I could be more useful in helping them implement the programs more effectively. I could work to better realize the full potential of the organization to implement different programs and also at the same time, work to enable and empower the students and youth in Nepal. With this in mind, I took over the programs section of AfP from 2005.
I realized that the students and youth in Nepal were actively participating and felt that if they kept going forward in this direction they could become able leaders to run the country. So, I felt that if we at the AfP could help enable and empower them to become more efficient then we would be helping the country move forward in the right direction. With this objective in mind, we changed our focus from just working for peace and stability towards working to enable and empower the youth in Nepal.
MP: How have the young people in Nepal responded to the work of your organization?
DT: The political parties here in Nepal haven't really done much to give proper kind of trainings to the student and youth leaders on how to fulfill their responsibilities even though the youth have to bear major responsibilities borne down on them by their respective political parties. Therefore, since the Alliance for Peace (AfP) has been conducting forums for and among the youth and students leaders to enable and empower them through capacity building, awareness raising and sensitization programs - which the political parties have neglected - the students and youth have responded really well and positively.
We have had a tremendous response to the work that we have been doing here in Nepal. One of the programs that we are conducting right now is called "Loktantrik Bahas (Democratic Discussions): A forum for Democracy". In this program, we invite a speaker and allow him to hold a discourse for about an hour and thereafter, the floor is open to the participating students for a Q&A session during which they can raise questions on any issues that they don't understand or on which they don't agree. Education in Nepal suffers from narration sickness, so we are conducting this program to inculcate a culture of dialogue amongst the youth. To enable them and give them the confidence to stand up for what they believe in or voice their thoughts on issues that they believe in. Looking at the response from the youth, this program has been hugely successful, as we have received requests from students from various different districts all across the nation to conduct this program in their hometowns.
Last week, we conducted a national level conference on "Education and Conflict". We were not able to receive any grants from donor organizations to conduct the program, but when we talked to the presidents of the Free Students Unions (FSU are the democratically elected students unions in the colleges) about the conference and the lack of funds, we received full support from them. They insisted that the conference was timely and essential, that we should conduct it, and that they would each donate some money to help us conduct the conference. To see the participation, willingness and the drive to help us conduct the conference was a huge eye opener. It showed us that the youth are truly becoming more aware and proactive with a sense of ownership and participatory feelings about the community and the nation. Most of the student and youth leaders with whom we have worked or had contact with, have shown appreciation towards AfP for working single-mindedly to enable and empower the youth and also to bring about peace and sustainable democracy in Nepal. We have been careful to maintain clear objectives, without diversifying target groups or methodology and approaches, unlike other organizations that work in any sector for which funding is available.
MP: Are there any other organizations similar to Alliance for Peace and how well do these organizations work together?
DT: There are quite a few organizations working in Nepal for and amongst the youth. I don't know if all are working to enable and empower the youth or for peace and sustainable democracy. Initially, our focus and target group were essentially the school and college going students and youth: therefore, the Alliance for Peace just worked with the eight students organizations (these are the students' organizations of the major registered political organizations in Nepal). But with the passage of time, we at AfP have seen the importance of targeting all the youth without exception to their educational background or political affiliations and helping to enable and empower them. With this in mind, we saw the need for working collectively with other organizations, especially organizations working at the grass roots level in the rural areas. Also, as there has always been an inclusion problem in Nepal, with most of the indigenous nationalities being neglected and excluded from most decision making processes or their rights and welfare not being addressed, the Alliance for Peace saw the need to include and work together with these groups to advocate for their rights and build their capacity. So, we have been working in conjunction with the excluded and disadvantaged groups such as the Dalit Bidyarthi Sangh, Sherpa Bidyarthi Manch, Magar Bidyarthi Sangh, Gurung Bidyarthi Sangh and more (these are students organizations of indigenous groups who have always been excluded from the governance and bureaucratic framework of the country)
MP: We know that youth representation in the form of the Constituent Assemblies will help establish a practical democratic process in Nepal. In what specific ways or programs can the youth be involved with in helping to build the democratic process?
DT: First of all, as I have already said, it's essential to have representation of the youth in the CA, since more than 60% of the general population of Nepal is believed to be youth below 25 years of age. Therefore, having a direct representation of youth in the CA would reflect their demands and aspirations, helping establish a practical democratic process in Nepal. Till date, the youth in most political parties have not been included in the decision-making bodies. This capacity has always been in the hands of the seniors and elders within the parties.
With the purpose of helping build and consolidate the democratic process, more capacity building and empowering work needs to be done (by this, I mean, leadership trainings and confidence building programs and more). What this also means, is that we need to unite all students' organizations under one umbrella and work with them to enable, empower and build capacity so they can take leadership in their own parties and participate in the constituent assembly elections. We are also trying to conduct a campaign program to help the students and youth, as well as the general population, to understand the different facets of the CA and the importance of their roles and representation in the CA.
Several ways of accomplishing this task include an institutional structure, political commitment, adaptation of national youth policies to local circumstance, and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.
An institutional structure would mean to establish a lead agency in the Government. Youth development implies a cross-sectored approach. This agency can be a ministry or a department within a ministry. Its aim would be to coordinate the activities of different ministries on youth matters in order to secure the effective integration of youth policy into national development planning. Such an agency also creates coherence between implemented policies and programs.
By political commitment, I mean the adoption of the national youth policy by the Government and its formal enactment by the national legislative body to indicate the political will to initiate and pursue such a policy. Adaptation of national youth policies to local circumstances means translating these youth policies to regional and/or the local level, directed to the specific needs of the youth in that area. Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms mean redefining goals and objectives according to new trends and needs in young people's lives. For example, while conducting population and theme specific censuses or national sample surveys it will be better to include specific questions related to youth development. In addition, qualitative indicators concerning perceptions, attitudes and aspirations could be developed through special surveys and studies.
MP: How can other youth groups from different parts of the world, especially in the Asian sub region, help your cause?
DT: First of all, if there are any other youth groups who are working under similar conditions to Nepal with similar objectives, they can provide us with information and feedback about how they worked to make a safe resolution to their situation.
Secondly, the other youth organizations can also help by letting us know how other students and youth participate in their own country's governance or in their communities. As I understand, participation means involving all stakeholders' right from the beginning, i.e. in the design, implementation and evaluation of the youth policy. Participation from youth, NGOs, all related government departments and levels, as well as UN Agencies, are imperative to the success of the policy. It enhances the probability of creating a youth policy that best fits the needs of youth, and helps to create support and understanding of the policy objectives, which is necessary for the implementation of the policy. Therefore, if other youth organizations could share their experiences and program ideas and implementations, it would be of great help to us in raising the level of participation back here in Nepal.
Thirdly, we could work together with other youth organizations from the different countries in conducting personnel exchange programs to share ideas and the best practices and lessons learned.
Also, the members of the other youth organizations can help us by sending emails and letters and making phone calls to the Nepali embassies worldwide stating their support for the representation of youth in the CA and a more active and responsible role in the governance of the country. Or they could lobby with their own officials and representatives to put pressure on the Nepalese government on the aforementioned issues.
I am sure that if there are youth organizations in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Vietnam, Lao PDR in the Asian sub region and also Guatemala, Peru, Bosnia, and the African sub continent they could be of huge help to us in helping us to identify problems and come up with solutions.
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