National Responsibilities Of Citizens

The national code of duties of each Nepali citizen defined in the constitution spells: to safeguard the nationality, sovereignty and integrity of Nepal, become loyal to the nation, abide by the constitution and law, render compulsory service as and when the state needs and protect and preserve public property. Awareness about these duties infuses patriotic sentiment, harnesses social connection of people, their affection and emotional feelings thus developing a psychological sense of being anchored in a healthy, livable political community, the state.  Nepalis, endowed with 31 constitutional rights, are responsible for keeping these core responsibilities, propping up public good such as paying taxes honestly, participating in elections, taking accountability for one’s own action in the community, showing kindness for co-citizens and undertaking constructive roles in nation building. 

Cultivating national identity and public welfare functions contribute to the creation of sublime civic culture. It is vital to awaken Nepalis to the intellectual, cultural, moral and spiritual heritage of the nation. They are the basics of the common life of people as they fill a sense of national adoration and enable all to think critically about the condition of living.  Reforming the condition of living needs to pursue apt ecological justice, equal economic opportunity and equal constitutional rights so that future generations of Nepalis find the ideals of democracy closer to their reassuring lives. Nepali political leadership, civil society, business and ordinary people can assemble together on a shared understanding of national roles and enhance the nation’s future.  

 Civic virtues

Cultivation of civic virtues: Civic virtue denotes the virtuous character of Nepalis as a participant in the various levels of governance vital for the operation of economic, civic and political order in the nation affirming the values and ideals of the constitution.  This virtue is cultivated in the public sphere where people engage in conversation to form opinion, public policies, trust and reciprocity. One vital civic virtue is the spirit of social inclusion, the other is an ethic of tolerating social pluralism, still the other is to reach out to the poor and the weak with services. These traits enable them to become an equal stakeholder of society and feel that their children will be better educated and mobile within the state, not compelled to emigrate abroad en masse for opportunity.  

A sense of altruism, sacrifice and collective national responsibility to public goods empowers Nepalis and their institutions. Civic virtue, as a mark of maturity, equally emboldens people to escape from the tutelage of feudal authorities in many spheres of life, exercise their conscience and choice and balance democratic sensibilities and adaptability to scientific evolution and intergenerational justice. It brings politics in the sphere of lawful contest of values and interests. 

 Art of building civic associations: Historical experience shows that both Hindu’s sat sangha and Buddhist’s associational life for learning, socialisation and cooperation attest that Nepali did not lag behind in matters of institutional social progress. Until now Gurukuls, temples, monasteries and social organisations have served as value-based learning of philosophy and shelters for the desolate. Nepal’s tradition had fostered duty-based society and cultivated culture and cooperation as opposed to rights, laws and social contract. Now, its social contract has focused on social differentiation that no longer binds people to family, community, society and the nation and shore up civility to end scarcity and fissures. 

Nepal’s schools and health institutions are based on an economic model of profit calculus not building character and public service.  Good character embodies honesty, ardor, dependability and integrity to live up to their political promises, constitutional pledge and will to carry out obligations beyond national borders. In Nepal one can see the emotional distance between those educated in private and public schools and high wage and low wage workers, honing status-conscious competitive individualism not the equality and solidarity of citizenship. The growing alienation of the educated from their rural background has given them a false sense of wisdom without social responsibility for the rationalisation of society that enables people to fight against fatalism and prejudice through the power of truth.

The economic pressure for competitive success of elites continues to dent social cohesion, political choice and living standards of ordinary Nepalis. Communication gap between the public and private institutional products is obvious as the latter is laden with a smug tone while the former with vernacular idioms in everyday life. The critical question is: Can the most zombielike, callous Nepali media, enthuse people and leaders with national responsibilities and help realise the vision of informed citizenry? There is a pause.

 Working in the community: Civic groups working in the community need to educate, protect and defend people’s constitutional rights and welfare so that they become the stakeholders of the nation without being blind to the care of culture and nature — the former is vital to secure social norms while the latter to leap into multiple survival imperatives. Civic education can help Nepalis to escape from passive institutional learning and connect them to the good of community and society, the building block of this nation.  The essential goal of civic education is to strengthen Nepalis’ national character, disciplined habits and democratic temper and nature. 

Yet, the conversion of politics into career opportunity reflects the devaluation of democratic ideals aiming to enrich community resources. Nepal is witnessing the blossoming of a rich array of civic activities such as creating community building, public parks, playing field, common grazing space, ponds, public inns, health centres, libraries, service centres, houses for the assembly of senior persons and residence for the widows and desolated ones. Nepali community has also become flexible to adapt to new technology, finance and management styles essential to augment local economic productivity and assume national responsibilities for desirable progress. 

Educated public must be reflective of the human condition so that their theoretical knowledge can be linked to practical works to alleviate poverty, inequality, joblessness, scarcity and weak innovation. Democracy requires the spread of intelligence in the entire population to meet the demands of society for skilled personnel. Active and informed citizens can make civic bodies including civil society, business and political parties accountable, transparent and vibrant. Vocation-based education can address the complex needs of rural people and drive modernization ideals to entitle people to dignified life.

 Democratic citizenship:   Nepali educational institutions, media, party schools, civil society and local governments have yet to toil truthfully to formulate nation-wide curriculum to de-tribalise society and transform unequal Nepali people socialized into the brand of identity politics into equal citizens. Civic education is crucial to generate centripetal forces and a decent society where people are capable of self-governance with the fusion of civic and meritocratic virtues and specialised vocation. This is vital to address the balance of demand and supply of public goods. Citizenship transcends primordial identity manufactured by leaders for instrumental politics into an impersonal national identity with a sense of belonging and loyalty to the Nepali state.  

It erodes the drama of self-parody, deference barriers and generates trust in its old ideal of middle path, helpful to optimise diverse interests, for conflict mitigatiom and create scope for healthy interdependence and reciprocity. Noami Klein rightly says, “Politics hates a vacuum, if it is not filled with hope, someone will fill with fear.” Democratic citizenship is essential to escape from the growth of political tribalism that relies only on partisan connectivity and loyalty to leaders and excludes those who are outside or independent of partisan frame. In this context, awareness of national responsibilities requires Nepali electorates to be governed by self-propulsion which is the essence of active citizenship. 

Public-spiritedness

The ability of leaders to keep a balance between passion and prudence is a central factor to spur their public-spiritedness and encourage the people to bear decency and dignity. Their selfish immaturity brings democracy into the fits of eternal political anomie and instability thus spelling troubles in many areas of national life. Nepali leaders will have difficulty to keep their integrity when in power and steel themselves for committed life in democratic politics and control themselves by being a slave of their own passion and prejudice if they continue to seek command performance of their cadres without any freedom to reflect on personal conscience and civic autonomy.  It is the citizens who believe that the government is the solution of the problems, not the problems as apologists of the merciless market manic tend to believe and justify.

Yet, the expanding power and wealth of elites and special interest groups over democracy does not make the social welfare state envisaged in constitution purposeful. Nepali leaders must have multiple channels to learn peoples’ moods, needs and aspirations and their surge of unrest animated in the sphere of cooperatives, microcredit, sugarcane farmers, predatory lenders, privatisation of public lands, violence against women, rising corruption and cronyism, etc. The progress made at transitional justice requires its durability by reducing the taproots of injustice, frustration and conflicts and creating favourable conditions to address it collectively with genuine sense of national responsibility.

(Former Reader at the Department of Political Science, TU, Dahal writes on political and social issues.)