KATHMANDU: The deepening mistrust between the ruling parties, especially the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML, and the main opposition UCPN-Maoist has affected the constitution-making process. The tussle is now

reflected in the ongoing

discussions in the CA thematic committees.

The mutual trust between the former rebel force and the parliamentary forces that existed before the Constituent Assembly (CA) has now completely eroded, say politicians at the highest level. The politicians, who

have been closely watching the latest development,

feel that the NC and the UML are suspicious that the Maoists will not enter the democratic process.

The Maoists, on

the other hand, are suspicious that the NC and the UML may stage a rightist coup. The Maoists have

been publicly alleging that the NC and UML are plotting a design to dissolve the CA to impose a presidential rule derailing the constitution-making process.

The conflicting views

expressed in all CA thematic committees are evidence that the principal parties

do not trust each other

on crucial issues related to the constitution. With

just eight working months left for adopting the new constitution (May 28, 2010), the parties have not taken

a serious initiative to

resolve the widening differences on the form of governance-whether the country should opt for a presidential system or the prime ministerial system-and restructuring of the state.

“The only way to resolve the crisis of confidence

between the principal parties is to hold composite dialogue on key issues,” says CA Chairman Subas Chandra Nembang, who has been lobbying for regaining the lost confidence and narrowing down differences among the parties.

The parties, according to Nembang, first need to find

a way to resume the

stalled parliament. After holding talks for two days on Tuesday and Wednesday, leaders of both the Maoists and the NC and the UML said they were serious about resolving the political deadlock caused by the Maoist disruption of House over civilian supremacy.

The NC and UML have proposed a common “sankalpa prastav” or stricture to resolve the crisis while the UCPN-Maoist Chairman Prachanda, after returning from Hong

Kong, proposed amending the Interim Constitution to clearly define the roles of

the ceremonial president and the executive prime minister. UML leaders had earlier made the same proposal but the Maoist did not buy the views then.

The parties, however, should give a second thought before amending the Interim Constitution eight months ahead of adopting the new constitution. “If we go for amending the Interim Constitution for this purpose, it may otherwise give a wrong message to the people that the major parties are not serious about promulgating the new constitution on time,” a leader said. It would be more appropriate to focus on the proposed common sankalpa prastav than to dwell on amending the Interim Constitution, says the leader. Even if the parties are ready to amend the constitution, they need to agree on resuming the stalled parliament.

With the deadline for

promulgating the new

constitution round the corner, top-notch leaders of

the principal parties should sit together and discuss

the key issues-the political system, the numbers,

names and boundaries of the federal states, election process of the federal parliament and the provincial assemblies and judicial system. These are the key areas where no progress has been made so far.

Nembang says that the top leaders of the major parties should first form a high-level political consultative mechanism to discuss these issues. Though the parties had agreed to form such a high-level political mechanism immediately after Madhav Kumar Nepal took charge of the government, it is still dormant due to mistrust among the parties.

The Maoists maintain that they want to make the new constitution in accordance with their strength in the CA. They have, however, not spelled out what kind of constitution they want to make. “They just insist that other parties must move one step up while they are ready to climb one step down the ladder,” a politician told The Himalayan Times.

The CA has formed a 15-member panel of the CA members, most of them having legal background, to study the concept papers and preliminary drafts

of all the thematic committees. The panel consists of CA members of major parties. It will harmonise the ideas expressed in the concept papers as well as the opinions aired in the full session of the CA.

The Constitutional Committee will then prepare a draft constitution based on the ideas incorporated by the 15-member panel.

The panel, however, will not be able to sort out the

differences on key issues of the constitution without resolving them at the high-level political mechanism. “It will be difficult to adopt the new constitution on time without holding serious talks on these issues at top-level political mechanism,” observes Nembang.