On rule of law

I just read that Rishi Dhamala has been released after the government withdrew the case against him. What follows is what came into my mind as afterthought. Before I start this piece talking about the rule of the law I want to declare that I do not have a degree in law. And still I am venturing to write this up because I believe the rule of law is something that affects everyone and therefore everyone should have the right to express his or her opinion on it.

State of the state
Right now our state is in a real chaotic state. Nepal is in fact an endangered nation as of now and if you call Nepal a failed state, I believe the only ones who would not agree are those who are in state power right now. Not unexpectedly!
Why is it like this? Well obviously there are problems at more than one level. the lethargy of the power hungry people ruling the country is clear to see in the lack of enthusiasm in the website of the National Planning Commission, where the last update seems to be the news that a new blah blah blah has been appointed the vice-chairman. And that's some months now. Anyway enthusiasm is either in the streets or in the dias where the political players of the country can talk non-stop about how bad the other politician is, and how wrong the other political parties are in hampering the peace process. Shameful is the word that comes to mind but the sense feels not strong enough. The direction of shameful but way beyond, perhaps towards the end of the scale.

Anyway, because policy makers are the way they are and politicians are not different, hope has transformed itself into the swastika stamp we are allowed to put by the side of a name or an election symbol. And there too they literally buy our votes thus buying our hopes and playing with them, hurting them, at times killing them, making out of us frustrated, desperate humans who have nothing to lose and so would do naything for anything- including killing someone for a couple of thousand rupees etc...It hurts!

And that is the state of the state in terms of civic sense that has emerged as the predominant mentality.

Is there a starting point?
Bettering the state of the state to allow hope to flourish and live, and rights to bloom, enthusiasm to colour life to the brilliance it is worth is still a dream. And then one could ask is there a way we could walk towards the dream? That demands disentangling the complexity of the state of the state and trying to resolve into pieces that could be dealt with. And the one thing that we should perhaps start with is the establishment of the rule of law. Easier said than done, but it is simple, well if we were to be honest and true to ourselves.

The rule of law
In an ideal world where humans rise up to super consciousness, we would perhaps all achieve the higher state and perhaps the ultimate truth is the same such that all of us in the higher state would believe in the same truths. As a corollary, we would thus believe in the same principles to be the governing principles and would therefore possibly not need the laws to be written. But in a world of limited resources and competition everywhere, life becomes a game, a war. And then we need laws and a referee. It sounds simple and it really is simple. Looking at the way Western Europe has tranformed itself from a war-torn, valueless, brutal society to one of the ebst social systems in the world in a span of around fifty years since the second world war time speaks volumes for what can be achieved. We just need to stick to the basic and the basic is that we let the law rule. We need to accept this because in a world struggling to secure the basic needs of life, individual values may differ, which is fine, but to an extent where clashes emerge between inviduals, and groups of individuals. And for survival curiously seems to be the goal for even the most desperate of souls (with exceptions that are almost negligible), desperate heads fail to see reason and logic and naturally give in to the temptations of crime. And thus crimes happen and then to cover them more crimes, and guilt and crime...the cycle never stops.

Where do we stop the cycle and how? There are two things here. The first is that we stop the cycle in the present, wherever it is. We just stop the cycle of crime, guilt, anger, desperation. And to stop it we use two things- one written the other not. The unwritten one is forgiveness on the part of all of us. We will not keep grudges and we shall try to forget the bitterness of the past and try to keep ourselves focussed for the now. For we live in the now. Getting stuck in the past makes us stale and we start stinking of death...

The written one is going to be the law. We will use the rule of law to restrain ourselves, whatever our past.

Getting there
Tough ask it is. For how can I forget what that Maoist did to my grandfather? Or how can I forgive that guy who almost killed me? Well we can try. For if we want to get out of it we have to start at some point. Else we will be living our lives for revenge. Pity it would be.

The rule of the law demands simply that we write the law down and follow it. That's it. Writing the law is no big deal really. For there are plenty of examples of laws that work. And we could just take one of them, start working with that one and change it in due course of course so that our law lives in the now. Once we have the law written we need to follow it. And that is where we have to work very hard too.

Consistency is key
If we want to establish a rule of the law, consistency is key. And that has to start at the government level. Governments may change but the way the rule of law is interpreted should not. We should not be calling someone a culprit and then the next day he buys us a lollypop and we start calling him a saint. We should stop doing this. Once we call someone a culprit a channel should start where the accused comes into the hands of the law and the law shall decide in courts of the law as to whether the accusation was justified. This has to start. And we the people should tell our governments that they should do this. They must.

Now Rishi Dhamala was accused of possessing arms and was held. The government took back the charges and has released him. This is a case of the government stepping into the territory of the judiciary. Once the government charges someone the case should be dealt with in the court. And even if the government wants to withdraw the charges that should be done in the court of justice. Imagine the cost of arresting someone. The cost of maintaining a cell.

How mercilessly they play with our money, these politicians, and how shamelessly we turn our faces away and keep mum if it was a political party we voted for. This is what has to change. We need ourselves to be objective. Else we can all apply for DV visas or the like and leave our country to rot.

raktim.nepali@gmail.com