Bigyan Prasai,
Chartered Certified Accountant (London)
Nepal is at the verge of drafting the New Democratic Federal constitution. The important aspect of the constitution should be focused with an intense emphasis on the objective to create a just and equitable society. Without effective participation of all the peoples, the country cannot prosper. I would like to stress to include the rights to participate by the poor, marginalised and suppressed in the basic human rights in the new constitution of Nepal. I would like to outline some basic importance of inclusive people’s participation in the nation building in this article.
According to Roger Hart’s definition, “participation is the process of sharing decisions that affect one’s life and the life of the community in which one lives. It is the means by which democracy is built and it is a standard against which democracies should be measured” (Roger, 1992). As the world modernise the level of consciousness of the human beings increases. Along with the increase in consciousness, there appears to increase the needs and desire of peoples in multifaceted dimension. In the modern world, people want to be liberated to make a decision on their own which affects their life. The basic instinct of human being to live in liberty and freedom has intensely embedded in the era of modern civilisation. This Psychology deeply rooted in the human minds has changed the political, ideological and economical aspects globally in today’s world. The DFID paper on Human rights for Poor People calls for participation of the poor in decisions which affects their lives to be included in the list of universal human rights (DFID, 2000). Democracy, Decentralisation, Privatisation, Market Economy, Local Governance, New Public Management , Representation, Human rights etc. . all such frequently used terminology in the social and political literature and governance reflects the developing seed of liberation to individual and collective decision making, to decide the faith in multiple dimension of the world. This article confine only the dimension of political aspects and will try to explore in brief the people’s participation in decision-making themselves through the democratically elected local governance.
On the process of exploring , the world leaders have now convinced that the people of all race, religion, age, sector, segments that the participation would lead to the effective outcomes to fulfil their needs and desire in an optimised way.
To have the effective outcomes of the needs of the people and the society, the people’s active participation is a must. The concept of Democratic Local Government advocated especially by the western and industrial countries is the crux of this notion of people’s participation. Participation is the core value of democratic decentralisation. So this profound virtue of democratic decentralisation stimulates popular participation in Local politics and policy process. Enhanced participation will enhance the people’s aspirations, moral and empower them to have their say. Participation in local government is especially more important in developing worlds like Nepal where the social and economic inequalities are high. This inequality has created a large sector of vulnerable segments in the society. So to create an opportunity to raise the well-being of this vulnerable, marginalised peoples the concept of participatory local governments has helped a lot. Including the minorities, scheduled caste, women and other ethnic minorities and poor people in the decision-making process and have their say will empower them which will ultimately benefit them.
Deliberate engagement of poorer people will certainly over a period enhance their skills, knowledge, confidence and strengths. It is clear the opportunities of participation is gigantic, that the over the period the effects of this marginalised people will be revolutionised. There are different models and forms of participation. The opportunities are gigantic only if the people have an effective, active and interactive participation. English Democrat Tom Paine says it appears to general observations, that revolution create genius and talents: but those events do no more than bring them forward. There is existing in man a mass of sense lying in a dormant state, and which unless something excites it to action, will descend with them, in that condition, to the grave. As it is to the advantage of society that the whole of its faculties should be employed , the construction of government ought to be such as to bring forward, by quiet and regular operation , all that extent of capacity which never fails to appear in revolution’. This quote reflects the opportunity the participation creates and make a difference in a society at large. The Participatory democratic system in combined to the representative system will enhance the accountability and ultimately benefits the all.
Effective participation has effectively enhanced the empowerment and has mitigated the elite dominance in the local government. The participation in Nepal in the local governance has only been seen as a pretend and are intended to involve marginalised and vulnerable sector with donor attached condition to assist in local government. We have used the concept of participatory local governance to create loyal local elites to improve the party base in the local regions. Although increased participation can enhance and empower poor and marginalised sectors because of social culture and the economic conditions of such sector cannot speak their minds freely and openly. Their voice has been compromised in the elite-dominated society. Although the participation of women and schedule caste has been high in Nepal, their participation has merely been a pretend and not genuine participation. Even though the different quotas and seats are reversed in the communities and the local government for women, they (majority) merely act as a rubber stamp of their husband and male counterpart. As per the World development report suggest, where the social values are rooted in a male dominated the effective participation is not possible. But over the period this values will change which can subsequently have a long-term positive impact. Another aspects of Nepalese culture where the society has been divided into caste system with upper caste Brahmins and Kystriyas and lower caste such as Dalits and untouchable. Although the Nepal Constitution prevents such discrimination, the practice is embedded in the culture that has discouraged the participation of the Schedule caste.
Next challenges of effective participation are because of elite capture. Local elites have been dominating in the local political, social and economic affairs in the local government. Even where the seats are reserved for an ethnic minority to empower the whole ethnic minority communities, this reserves or proportionate representation has not been effective to the desired level. The elite’s member of the communities capture the reserved seats and exercise their power to benefit themselves rather than to look into the benefits of their communities. This attitude and behaviour can be seen in the South Asian countries. In Nepal , although participation of the ethnic minority caste-like Gurung, Rai, Limbu, Dalits and women has been mandatory been included in the Nepal Constitution after the restoration of democracy in 1990, the participation of all sectors, the reserved seats are captured by the elites within the ethnic minority and who are loyal to political parties. Even the inclusion of women in the political affairs is the wives and relatives of political elites. This situation has been common in developing countries in South Asia and Africa.
In most of the cases, the poor people cannot afford to participate in the local community meetings and have their say. The peoples in developing countries are working daily casual wages basis to make their living. They cannot afford to leave work and attend the community meetings. This vulnerable sector of people who lives in poverty does not make any difference in the participatory approach in the short term.
The elite capture and passive participation of the poor have been the real problems in developing world especially like Nepal. Manor states that, ‘’traditionally, the more pessimistic argument has been that democratic decentralisation simply opens up space for the empowerment of local elites, not for consideration of the voices and interest of the marginalised. Obstacles to power, social exclusion, and minimal individual and organisational capacity mean that few gains will be made by the poor’’. (Manor, 1999, quotes in Blair 2001). From Blair study, it reveals that the effective participation is also related to the capacity of the individual and the organisation. This statement is supported by Watson in his study of Uganda. He concludes in the case of Uganda as, ‘’In order to facilitate meaningful decentralisation and effective participation by the people, especially the poor, there is a need to build the capacity of the people at all levels, especially the poor.
This means that decentralisation efforts in general, and capacity building in particular, should focus on the lower levels of local governments (villages), where the majority of the poor, marginalised and illiterate are located, rather than on the higher levels (district) where decentralization efforts have tended to concentrate.
The participation with effective institutions, individual and benevolent local elites, genuine commitment from the top hierarchy will deepen the democracy with greater accountability to improve the wellbeing of the society. Participation is not an end in itself but a panacea to build effective service delivery and wellbeing of the people.
From all the analysis, literature review , this paper draws a conclusion that the Participation is the basic human rights which if effectively translated into practice will create a huge opportunity to enhance the well- being of all the marginalised sector of the society. Participation of all sector of society also empowers the citizen in multiple aspects. Finally, I would like to conclude that the effective participation with greater accountability is an enabling factor for democratic decentralisation governance.
