By Sunil KC

It looks like the systemic collapse of the country’s political system has begun. The decade-long mismanagement in the government, institutionalization of corruption, bribery and nepotism involving the top leaders of the political parties down to their rank and file and the influence of interest groups in the political decision-making are proof enough that the present political system is rotten to the core. The three parties have been colluding with each other to form governments but every one of those coalitions has been transactional only.

Successive governments of Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and the CPN-Maoist Centre, the three parties that have been at the helm of power for the last two decades, have remained indifferent or have been covering up or turning blind eyes to accusations of rampant corruption, mismanagement, nepotism in all sectors of the country by romanticizing the ganatantra (republic) since the country was declared a republic state two decades ago.

However, bubbles have started to burst with anti-government and anti-ganatantra protests erupting in many parts of the country with special focus on Kathmandu. Currently, there are protests by the victims of microfinance and cooperatives where tens of thousands of poor people have lost their savings amounting to tens of billions of rupees to fraud and scams. Almost all alleged fraudsters have been identified as belonging or close to the main political parties.

However, there are signs that something significant may happen soon. The month-long agitation of school teachers demanding an Education Act has stirred up the political landscape, and protests and agitations for specific causes could be more effective if they rise above political ideologies and colour. The education system, mainly school education, is still guided by the five-decade-old Panchayat time Education Act of 2028 BS. In the last three-and-a-half decades, since the multi-party system was adopted in 2046 BS (1990 AD) and the republic state was declared in 2062/63 BS (2008 AD) no government has been able to formulate a new education act to cater to the changing demand of education in terms of curriculum and job market.

In fact, the education sector from school to the university level has been the most politicized in the country. The political parties have been using the education sector as a political tool only to further their narrow political interests.

Looks like the ongoing protest of tens of thousands of teachers of government and community schools demanding an Education Act indicate things are going to change. The teachers are firm that they will not go back to classes until their demands are fulfilled. The agitation even turned violent on Sunday when the protestors and security forces fought a pitch battle in Baneshwore with the police turning on water cannons and baton charges and the protesting teachers throwing rocks. Reports say sixty-two teachers and school staffers were injured twelve of them in serious condition. One television journalist was severely injured in the eyes when police battled the protestors with water cannon. However, the government does not seem to have a clue and no clear strategy to handle this situation. The month-long strike has affected almost 5.5 million school children and about 500,000 students have been waiting to take their Grade 12 examination. Despite fears that the students might lose an academic year, the government has not taken any tangible step towards resolving the issue.

In the past, three different governments of those times entered into agreements with the teachers regarding the enactment of the Education Act for schools. But the agreements came to nothing.That means the governments, no matter which party it is, have only been pretentious to subdue their agitation.

Even now, the government is saying that the bill related to the Education Act is in discussion in the parliamentary committee, but the teachers are not buying this argument saying the government will shelve the bill as soon as they call off the protest. Now, the question is what is hindering the government from tabling the bill in the parliament? There are suspicions that with the new Act, the political parties will lose their grip on the teachers. As one protestor last week said the political parties have so far been using the school teachers as their party workers or party cadres and as their vote banks.

One fallout of this protest could be the end of the Oli-led government. But that alone will not serve the broad purpose. Other political parties, mainly the opposition are trying to cash the teachers’ protest for their political gains. Prachanda of the Maoist party has been issuing statements that he is with the teachers and supports their demands. On Monday, reports say Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalnath Khanal of CPN-Socialist came to join the protestors and show their solidarity, but the protesting teachers shooed them away saying they do not need any political support. Even within the Nepali Congress, congressmen have voiced their support for the teachers’ movement. But the teachers seem to have realized that the party’s verbal support will mean nothing and the political parties always prioritize personal or partisan ambition over the well-being of the teachers.

Hopefully, the most important outcome of this teachers’ agitation, if it succeeds, will be the weaning of political and partisan influence and interference in the education sector. Already teachers are voicing that they would no longer be carrying bags of the political parties. They are also warning the political parties that they will ‘show’ what the teachers are capable of in the next general election in 2084 BS.

The biggest achievement of the movement will be if the teachers can make the political parties have their ‘hands-off’ on the education sector. Like parliamentarian Sumana Shrestha said at the parliament this week so long as the teachers remain people and remain faithful to their profession they become their own masters but as soon as they become members of a political party they become the workers or cadres of the party. She also asked whether the teachers are willing to give up their party memberships if they really want the education sector to be free from meddling by the political parties. The Education Act in discussion also has a provision to ban teachers from becoming members of political parties. That could be one of the reasons successive governments are baulking from enacting the Education Act.