Nembang was mandated to write the country's constitution through consensus
Former speaker and Vice-Chair of the CPN-UML Subas Chandra Nembang is no more, and the nation mourns this loss. He had suffered a heart attack Tuesday morning and was assumed dead on being brought to the TU Teaching Hospital at Maharajgunj.
He was 71. Nembang's death comes as a shock to his party, other political parties and the nation at large.
Although the Constituent Assembly (CA) had to be elected twice, his contribution in coordinating the voices and demands of the different parties and communities of Nepal to write the new constitution is immense.
Always dressed in typical daura suruwal, Nembang will always be remembered as a decent, soft-spoken, learned man, who was accommodative and clean, a rare quality among politicians these days. It was perhaps of these qualities that he was elected chairman of the Constituent Assembly, which doubled as the parliament, not once but twice, in 2008 and 2013, apart from becoming the speaker of the reinstated House of Representatives in 2007 and later in 2015, following the promulgation of the constitution in 2015.
A lawyer by profession, Nembang was often criticised for the long duration - almost a decade - to write the new constitution through a Constituent Assembly.
But people forgot that he was mandated to write the constitution through consensus, rather than the majoritarian process. This involved long discussions and debate with the parties represented in the CA way into the night, but achieving very little success in arriving at a consensus on key issues.
The country could have saved considerable time had the constitution drafted by the first CA with 11 provinces been promulgated there and then, as desired by Nembang, with contentious issues to be sorted out by the HoR over time. However, this did not happen, and the country was federated into seven provinces by the constitution written by the second CA in 2015.
Nembang is accused of proclaiming the country as a secular state immediately after the HoR was reinstated in 2006 by then king Gyanendra, following weeks of demonstrations in the streets against his direct rule - a charge he has refuted time and against, not the least being at a mass meeting held in Dharan just prior to his death. According to him, he, as the speaker, could not have inserted the secular agenda on his own. The decision to proclaim Nepal a secular state long before the writing of the new constitution was taken by the Cabinet meeting held under Girija Prasad Koirala. Without a doubt, Nembang was a man of integrity, who vehemently opposed the appointment of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Khil Raj Regmi as the chairperson of the Council of Ministers - the country's de facto prime minister - in 2013. However, he refused to condemn the unconstitutional dissolution of the HoR twice by his party chair prime minister KP Sharma Oli. The constitution written by the CA chaired by Nembang is far from perfect, with its three key tenets, namely, republicanism, secularism and federalism, coming under fire in recent times. But still, he will be remembered for his role in delivering the nation a constitution, which might have faced many more difficulties during its writing under any other person.
Problem of co-ops
National Planning Commission member Dr Jaykant Raut-led panel submitted its report to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, suggesting short- mid- and long-term measures to address the problems seen in the cooperative sector. The Cooperative Sector Reform Suggestion Taskforce was formed as per the May 9 Cabinet decision. The report has come up with some plans that will address the anomalies seen in the cooperative sector. After receiving the report, PM Dahal directed the concerned bodies to take measures to resolve the problems of the cooperative sector.
Around 34,000 cooperatives are functioning all over the country, and most of them are problematic because of the absence of an oversight mechanism. There are reports galore about irregularities taking place in the cooperative sector, which is also considered as the third pillar of the economy. While the cooperatives have played a significant role in providing collator-free loans to their members for running small-scale businesses, most of them have duped the depositors of millions of rupees, mostly in the Kathmandu Valley. One of the major problems facing the cooperative sector is that they are acting just like microfinance companies, not as a productive force.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 14, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
