Maoists unveil draft constitution

[Saorsa]

A translation is still to come, but apparently it will be based on this. (http://comradealastair.wordpress.com/2010/05/02/396/)


Maoists unveil "statute"

REPUBLICA


KATHMANDU, May 29: The UCPN (Maoist) on Saturday made public its draft of "constitution" proposing 12 federal provinces. The party stated that it made public the "constitution" after the CA failed in its mission to write a new constitution within the stipulated time.

The document dubbed as "Constitution of People´s Federal Democratic Nepal 2010” was unveiled by party vice-chairman Baburam Bhattarai amidst a rally at Khullamanch.

The 12 states proposed in the are: Limbuwan, Kirat, Sherpa, Mithila-Bhojpura-Koch-Madhes, Tamsaling, Magarat, Tamuwan, Lumbini-Awadh-Tharuwan, Karnali, Jadan and Khaptad. The CA committee on state restructuring has already passed a 14-state federal model.

The Maoist "constitution" proposes parliamentary control over judiciary among many other controversial stances of the Maoists.

Addressing the function, Bhattarai said that the concept of republicanism is an exercise to institutionalize the “bourgeois democracy” and that his party would go for a socialist revolution standing under the foundation of bourgeois democracy.

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=19257

[Saorsa]

UCPN (M) unveils its proposed draft of new constitution

Saturday, 29 May 2010 16:36

The Unified CPN (Maoist) unveiled its proposed draft of the constitution at a mass meeting organised at Khula Manch, Kathmandu, on Saturday, as announced by the party earlier.

Party's vice chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai unveiled the draft.

Entitled "People's Federal Republican Constitution", it proposes the President as the executive chief of the government and the state, who can be called back before the tenure expires "if people wish".

The Maoists have proposed a unity government participated by all the parties represented in the unicameral parliament of 245 members at the centre. This leads to a government without opposition.

State structure has been stratified into four tiers in the draft -- central, state, local and special administrative region. A total of 12 states have been proposed with unicameral parliament in each state with strength ranging from 15 to 45 members depending on the size of the state population.

Three-tier judiciary and 11 constitutional bodies have been proposed in the draft constitution of the Maoist party.

Though the party had earlier said it would announce the constitution by organising public functions in major cities across the country, the party organised the mass meeting only in the capital city. nepalnews.com

http://www.nepalnews.com/main/index.php/news-archive/1-top-story/6414-ucpn-m-unveils-its-proposed-draft-of-new-constitution.html

[Saorsa]

Maoists unveil their statute
Last Updated : 2010-05-29 11:44 PM

Tika R Pradhan
KATHMANDU: A day after the Constituent Assembly got its crucial one-year term extension, the Unified CPN Maoist today made public its draft constitution amid a mass meeting organised to celebrate the second Republic Day.

The Maoist constitution was a compilation of documents drafted by the party’s committee led by Vice Chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai

Dr Bhattarai presented the party’s version of the statute containing 19 parts and 274 articles. He said the statute favoured capitalist republic, which would help create a base for socialism. “We want to leap forward to a socialist republic by stepping on the capitalist republic,” he said.

The Maoists favour directly elected presidential system with a five-year tenure for the president.

Dr Bhattarai revealed that the Maoist statute envisioned restructuring the state into federations, provinces and local governments. The country will have 12 federal units based on ethnicity, region and language.

The parliament, judiciary and executive will be in place at the centre and federal units. The UCPN-M has conceptualized a 245-member strong unicameral legislative. The Federal Peoples’ Representatives will be the most powerful body, while the federal units will have Provincial People’s Representatives and at the local level, will be the People’s Council.

As for the judiciary, the Maoist draft provisions a three-tier court — Federal Supreme Court, Provincial High Court and Local Court.

Claiming that national interest had weakened due to variation in the stances of different parties with regard to foreign policy, Dr Bhattarai said the constitution should include a policy to guide all governments.

He said the party, therefore, had included a separate clause on ‘protection of national interest and international relations’.

According to Dr Bhattarai, the party has conceptualized the provision of ‘Nagarik Lokpal’ to keep an eye on rulers and prevent wrongdoing. He also expressed commitment to human rights and press freedom.

The Maoist statute denounces the provision of capital punishment, but has hailed the right to rebel if people feel they have been suppressed by the rulers for long. The constitution also has a provision for military training for youths who reach 18 years of age, should the nation demand.

Dr Bhattarai said the statute could not be drafted on time because of the fight between regressive and progressive forces on the nature of republic.

He urged supporters not to understand the deal on CA term extension as a ‘deal in credit’. “Don’t understand it thus. We know how to cash it, if the cheque bounces.”

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Maoists+unveil++their+statut e&NewsID=245620

[Saorsa]

If anyone speaks Nepali or knows how to translate it, this is the draft constitution in Nepali:

http://lekhanathnews.wordpress.com/2010/05/29/%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8B-%E0%A4%9B-%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%93%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BE%E0%A 4%A6%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%B2%E0%A5%87-%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A 4%9C/#more-222

[GreenCommunism]

so what are the revisionist marxist leninist saying about this?

[MarxSchmarx]

Say do you know what they ended up saying about theh public health service? I understand it was something of a contentious issue.

[Ocean Seal]

Well it looks progressive from what I read, but I would need to actually read their constitution to see how solid it actually is.

[Saorsa]

This article is a bit misleading. They haven't declared their constitution from the street yet, all they've done is unveil a draft of it. But there's still some useful info here.

Nepal’s Maoist declare Peoples’ Constitution from Street

telegraphnepal.com

Nepal’s main opposition, Unified Maoists’ Party, has unveiled its’ own special version of Constitution of New Nepal with 12 Federal states.

The party had earlier stated that failure to draft the constitution of Nepal by the Constituent Assembly by May 28, 2010, will force the party to declare its own constitution.

They kept their promise.

Among 12 autonomous States with self rule, the Tarai plains have been divided into two provinces, Tharuwan and Madhesh.

The provinces have been demarcated taking into account the Ethnicity, Language and Regional factors into consideration.

The Maoist’s statute named as ‘Constitution of People’s Federal Republic of Nepal-2067’ was made public by the party vice chairman Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai, at a public meet held in Kathmandu, May 29, 2010.

· The Constitution is divided into 19 sections with 274 clauses.

· Powerful Presidential rule.

· Sovereignty guaranteed within a province for areas of ethnic and linguistic majority

· Existence of Political parties depends on their commitment to Republican and Competitive order.

· Commitment to Personal Freedom, Inherent fundamental rights, Economic Rights, Press Freedom, Independent Judiciary and prevalence of rule of law.

· Provision for Foreign Relations

Addressing the mass meeting, Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai said that the constitution proposed by his party was still an interim one.

“The capitalist model of republic or the ‘bourgeois democracy’ is an interim structure, in between we will undergo socialist revolution to achieve our ultimate goal”, said Dr. Bhattarai.

Commenting on the last minute deal with the Nepali Congress and United Marxist Leninists party, May 28, 2010 that led to the extension of Constituent Assembly by 12 more months, said Bhattarai, “We have been provided with a blank cheque, we will try to cash it but if the cheque bounces per chance, we know very well on how to recover the principle and its interests, both at a time.”

2010-05-30 08:04:16

http://www.telegraphnepal.com/news_det.php?news_id=7739

[the last donut of the night]

I'm worried that promises of socialism will soon become empty as the bourgeois forces solidify themselves in the new republic.

[Saorsa]

Well, that depends on how well the party and the workers & peasants organise themselves and keep the struggle moving forward.

[Saorsa]

‘Street statute’ draft delivered

KAMAL DEV BHATTARAI

KATHMANDU, MAY 29 -
With clear commitment to press freedom, multiparty democracy, human rights, independent judiciary and periodic elections, the main opposition UCPN (Maoist) on Saturday unveiled its draft of the constitution on the occasion of second Republic Day. The constitution has 19 parts and 274 articles.

Despite those commitments, the document doesn’t clearly mention pluralism. Other parties are pressing the Maoists to make commitment to pluralism. Addressing a function organised at Khula Manch in the Capital to declare the constitution, Maoist Vice Chairman Babu Ram Bhattarai said the drafted constitution is a document of compromise between the capitalist and proletariat class that exist in the society.

Bhattarai claimed his party’s draft constitution has given space to all classes of society such as proletariat, bourgeois, capitalist and the middle class except feudals and agents of regressive and foreign forces. The Maoists have proposed 12 federal states. Earlier, they proposed 14 federal states. They say that there could be sub-federal states also. The preamble of the constitution says that it was the basis of establishing the socialism envisaged by the party.

“The unveiled constitution does not aim to establish one-party or communist regime but multiparty democracy in the country,” said Bhattarai. The maoist statute draft states commitment to democracy, civil rights, periodic elections, economic rights and rule of law. Bhattarai clarified that the party does not have any intention of creating a parallel constitution or government in the country through this draft. “The Constituent Assembly will promulgate the new constitution but we have publicised our party’s view about the constitution and this is the preliminary draft of that constitution for public debate.”

Parties like Nepali Congress and CPN-UML have been saying for a long time that the Maoists are trying to block the other parties by dubbing them feudals and agents of foreign forces. The Maoists say there will be an executive President at the centre elected directly by the people and his tenure will be five years. NC and UML are opposing the Maoist proposal stating that the executive president may turn totalitarian.NC has proposed an executive prime minister elected from the parliament while UML wants an executive Prime Minister elected directly by the people.

The Maoists have proposed new constitutional commissions such as Madhesi, women, worker, farmer and Muslim. The draft of the constitution includes a separate article on protection of national and international interests. According to Bhattarai, the draft is unique in the sense that no constitution in the world has a separate part relating to international relations.

Bhattarai said his party has taken the agreement among the three parties on Friday night as a deal through the checkbook. “We will soon go to the bank with that check. If the check bounces, we know what to do,” said Bhattarai.

The Maoist leader said that they made agreement with the ruling parties considering the national and international power balance. “The three- point agreement among the UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML on Friday night was a win-win situation, realising that there is still the possibility of making constitution through the CA,” said Bhattarai.

http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2010/05/29/top-story/street-statute-draft-delivered/208806/

[Proletarian Ultra]

Wow. From the summaries you've posted the current proposal is significantly more radical than their previous ones. The other drafts were based on the French Fifth Republic; this one looks more like the new Bolivarian constitutions.

This represents is a considerable upping of the stakes - for reasons I'll expand on in the morning.

[Proletarian Ultra]

Okay, here (http://www.revleft.com/vb/news-nepal-t114558/index.html?p=1735455&highlight=nepal+bicameral+lame#post1735455) is my summary of the summaries :lol: of the last proposal.

The major change is they've dumped the upper house of the federal parliament - which is great b/c upper houses are inherently reactionary.

The previous proposals had a strong directly elected president but also a prime minister answerable to parliament. It looks like they've dumped the prime minister, although it's hard to tell. I've got mixed feelings if that's the case...pure presidential regimes are more prone to coups, but on the other hand semi-presidential regimes tend to be sort of stifling and soft-authoritarian (e.g. France from de Gaulle onward, post-Communist Russia and Romania, China post-'82).

In all, a strong president, a proportionally-elected unicameral parliament - same basic setup as the new constitutions of Venezuela and Ecuador. (Morales fucked up and left the Bolivian Senate intact).

There's some other interesting provisions. Seems to be a mechanism for excluding parties that are not committed to republicanism and national independence. (Dear India, Can you get your hand any further up our ass? Kisses, Nepali Congress Leadership). Also, any party with up to 5% of the parliamentary vote has to be given a seat in the cabinet. That will ensure the Maoists can't be excluded from government (then again, neither can their [legal] opponents).

I like it.

Anyway, the main disagreement is over whether the president should be directly elected or not. Nepali Congress and the fake communists want the president to be a 'figurehead' and selected by parliament. Except the 'figurehead' president is still technically in charge of the military and has substantial 'reserve' powers. So you get a situation like a conflict over firing a general between the president and PM, the president wins. Same situation as led to the breakdown of the Maoists' stint in government.

[Ocean Seal]

I'm worried that promises of socialism will soon become empty as the bourgeois forces solidify themselves in the new republic.
Its possible, but it is undeniable that Nepal has moved forward. Hopefully socialism will be achieved and the bourgeoisie forces will be outed in the same manner as the feudal ones.