Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would also like to endorse those words on the tabling of the report on the constituent assembly election held on 10 April in Nepal. I also acknowledge the presence of the Nepalese Ambassador to Australia and his first secretary and also the many Nepalese Australians who are watching from home on what is a very important two weeks in Nepal’s history. In adding to the words of the member for Port Adelaide, I would only go back a little further in history to point out the extraordinary path to democracy that Nepal has taken. Many would realise that Nepal is flanked on its two major borders by two superpowers—excusing Bhutan, who also shares a border with Nepal. Effectively, the struggle between those two nations has shaped so much of Nepal’s history, and their determination not only to remain independent but also to strive towards democracy is something that needs to be remarked upon in this House. It goes back to a constant struggle between the king and the attempt to have a people’s movement. That has fluctuated a number of times, including a non-party arrangement for nearly 30 years between 1959 and 1989. Also, in 2001, the very tragic moment that the world would be aware of led to further tumult in the royalty. At the same time, from 1996 onwards, the Maoist movement—the Communist Party of Nepal—cost 12,000 Nepalese lives in their struggle to make Nepal a republic.

The lesson for all of us here is that democracies take different paths on their journeys, and those journeys are never over. But Nepal in particular is a lesson for the international community that there is no one simple formula for democracy. That is a lesson for the major powers involved in democracy and governance around the world. Nepal is a classic example. We saw not only significant concessions made to the parties to bring them to the table, but also significant nervousness about whether that was the prudent thing to do. With the external parties—the observer missions and UNMIN itself—and the Nepalese Election Commissioner, who took significant risks, even though there were two false starts last year, ultimately it transpired that this extraordinarily successful election exceeded everyone’s expectations.

When you visit a country just prior to an election there is always that trepidation and that uncertainty. Coupled with that was a complete misunderstanding in the general sentiment of how the people of Nepal would vote. The result was a complete shock to almost every election observer, even those who had been aware of Nepalese politics for decades. There was concern at having a 23-point agreement and a seven-party arrangement after the comprehensive peace accord of November 2006, but in the end it all pulled together. There was uncertainty around cantonment of the Maoist rebels, of confining to barracks the Nepalese army, and whether that agreement would hold. In the end it was a number of groups: the armed police force; the Nepalese police, who are unarmed; the volunteer police; and of course the huge number of observers both from within Nepal and from overseas who were able to see this complex transaction occur almost without a hitch. We note that one candidate and a small number of election helpers were killed in the days leading up to the election. But the big picture across those 75 districts—some of the most remote and beautiful parts of the world—was the overt and obvious enthusiasm to vote. For anyone coming from a democracy to see that enthusiasm is really encouraging.

For Nepal the future is that they now have a people’s constituency that can have parliamentary functions and also design a new constitution for the country. The transition, with the completion of the royalty’s reign last week, will, hopefully, remain a smooth one. The unexpected result does now mean that there are some potential coalition and multiparty arrangements that will occur between the Communist Party Maoists, the United Marxist Leninists and the Nepal Congress Party, which has a long history of democratisation in Nepal. That is all before us and the world will be watching as Nepal enters a new stage of its democratic path, a new stage in its relationship with Australia, and it is one that everyone in this chamber will support.

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