Very Informative

Peace Building Process in Nepal Published Year: 2008 Published by: Nepal Foundation for Advanced Studies (NEFAS) & Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Editors: Ananda P Srestha & Hari Uprety Price: Not mentioned, Pages: 114

KC

The failure of the parties to govern and match rhetoric wth action threats the election as does the Maoist's saber-rattling..(calling on political leaders to ) put the Nepali people and their country first, by showing that they believe in effective accountable government ... (calling the current situation) a hstoric opportunity to change the course..(Nepal's previous experiment with multi-party democracy during the 1990s was disappointing). The leaders of the country's political parties distinguish themselves by amassing personal fortunes and doing little for the people.'

Prof. Shushil R Pandey has rightly quoted US Senator Patric Leahy in his article on Peace Process in Nepal: Assumptions and Speculations. This is the reality that the democratic forces that played a key role in restoring democracy in 1990 could not serve the interest of people. Rather it wodened the gap between rich and poor thereby catapulting frustration of larger section of people in the society.

A breakaway faction of the Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist began armed revolution to capitalize that frustration. The 12-year long armed revolution ultimately ended up in Janandolan II in 2006. However, the cost of conflict was immeasurable.

Lots of changes have taken place in the country's political sphere heightening the level of uncertainty. The major actors of national politics, seem to have gone in oblivion in implementing the 12-point agreement between the political parties. The level of people's frustration is rising along with the sea of anomalies seen in the political and social sphere.

The 239 years monarchy has been abolished peacefully with the transformation of the country into a republic. But nobody knows what the future of the country would be like. The book entitled Peace Building Process in Nepal published by the NEFAS is the manifestation of the country's peace process that simply highlights various dimensions of national politics and the issues relating to the peace building in Nepal.

The book contains the seminar papers of exports and researchers in various fields. The first chapter that highlights a detailed paraphernalia of peace process truly reflects the events taking place in the country. Sushil Pandey's paper is very comprehensive and analytical to understand the current of the peace process in Nepal.

Prof. Sushil's observation in many respects is based on reality. Even though these seminar papers were written almost 8/9 months before, his views expressed in the paper speak the reality of the present situation.

Bharat Pokhrel's paper on Peace-building in Past Conflict Societies is just a theoretical aspects of the conflict. Similarly, Jan Sharma observation on peace process from the point of view of media expert is comprehensive, but covers certain aspects alone.

However, S. B Pun's presentation on "How Inclusive Nepal's Institutions? provides a detailed picture on various political institutions. It really provides key information about those institutions that remained in existence at various length of time.

In nutshell the book is very interesting and informative. The contributors, editors and the publisher should be appreciated for bringing out such a useful piece for readers.

Source: Friday Supplement, The Rising Nepal (20 June 2008)