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The Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric, is the international gateway for the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB). Eight departments, associated research institutions and the Norwegian College of Veterinary Medicine in Oslo. Established in 1986, Noragric’s contribution to international development lies in the interface between research, education (Bachelor, Master and PhD programmes) and assignments. The Noragric Master theses are the final theses submitted by students in order to fulfil the requirements under the Noragric Master programme “Management of Natural Resources and Sustainable Agriculture” (MNRSA), “Development Studies” and other Master programmes. The findings in this thesis do not necessarily reflect the views of Noragric. Extracts from this publication may only be reproduced after prior consultation with the author and on condition that the source is indicated. For rights of reproduction or translation contact Noragric.

©Sten T. Brand, May 2007 stenbrand@gmail.com Noragric Department of International Environment and Development Studies Norwegian University of Life Science (UMB) P.O. Box 5003 N-1432 Ås Norway Tel.: +47 64 96 52 00 Fax: +47 64 96 52 01 Internet: http://www.umb.no/noragric

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Declaration

I hereby declare that this is my own original work, and applications of all other material are

acknowledged. This thesis has not been submitted to any other University than UMB for any

type of academic degree.

Signature:__________________

Date:__________

III

Abstract

Access to information plays a significant role in the success of participatory democracy. Press

freedom is the key to transparency, in that it provides the public with information on

government action and policy, and keeping up with the principles of “good governance”.

What is increasingly important is to explore reasons for why this function sometimes fails and

what the consequences are for the people involved. This study explores the function of the

media as an information provider in rural Nepal in the wake of the Constituent Assembly

election, and how lack of information affects rural people’s attitude and understanding of the

democratic process.

A research strategy combining qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection was

applied to get a deeper understanding of the situation in two geographically and culturally

different districts of Nepal. The strategy consisted of a survey, semi-structured interviews and

field observations. The results were triangulated and conclusions to the research questions

were made based on these results. The duration of the fieldwork lasted from the end of

October to middle of December of 2007, during a period of political upheaval and civil unrest.

The election was carried out on the 10th of April 2008, with only minor disturbances in a few

voting districts across the nation. The Constituent Assembly election marks the end of the

Monarchy in Nepal and new hopes for traditionally marginalized groups such as the lower

cast Dalits and women, who have been deprived of political participation in the past. The

results came as a surprise to many political analysts and opinion makers, the traditionally

large parties such as the Nepali Congress party and the UML suffered an embarrassing defeat,

as the new parties such as the Maoists and the MJF came out on top.

The research result concluded that access to information shapes the villager’s views of the

election in either negative or positive way, that the villagers in general did not know the

meaning of Constituent assembly election at the time of the research. It revealed general lack

of respect for journalist among individuals and groups. It points to the fact that many

journalists are not following ethical code of conducts for media professional, either due to

lack of training or political motives, and finally it gives clues to why the media failed in

forecasting the election result.

IV

Acknowledgement

The research and the writing for this thesis is over for now, but it could have continued on for

a long time, covering more areas, conducting more interviews and digging deeper into the

effects of information access in the rural area of Nepal. The research in Nepal was a mind

awakening experience that made me cherish every moment of it.

The culture and the people made the conduct of this research pleasant and possible. The

people I have met along the way have given me an everlasting respect of the diverse but

generally accepting culture that Nepal represents.

Special thanks go out to my supervisors, my research assistant, and the Indreni Social Forum.

I am grateful for the help and support my Supervisor Larry Hansen has given me in the

preparation, conduct and writing process of this thesis. His insight and knowledge writing has

challenged me to be constructive and critical in the writing process. I greatly appreciated the

help and support that professor Binod Bhatta gave me as my local supervisor in Nepal. His

lecturing what good research entails has helped me tremendously in the data collection

process, and he also provided me with valuable contacts that raised the quality of the research.

Thanks to the Indreni Social Forum for helping out with accommodation and assistance in the

villages in Nawalparasi district. My greatest support in the field was my research assistant

and translator Ananda Khadka who showed great understanding of the research subject and

dedication in helping me with the data collection. Again I thank you all.

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Abbreviations

CA – Constituent Assembly

GDP – Gross Domestic Product

NC – Nepali Congress Party

SPA – Seven-Party Alliance

SPSS- Statistical Package for Social Science

UNDP – United Nations Development Program

UNESCO – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNMIN – United Nations Mission in Nepal

UML –United Marxist-Leninist Party

VDC – Villages Development Committee

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Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1

1.1 Background .......................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem ..................................................................................... 5

1.3 Purpose of the Study .......................................................................................... 11

1.4 Description of Research Area ............................................................................. 12

1.5 Research Objectives and Questions................................................................... 15

1.6 Significance of study ........................................................................................... 17

1.7 Organization of thesis ......................................................................................... 17

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................... 18 2.1 Why democracy .................................................................................................. 18

2.2. Democratic transition ......................................................................................... 20

2.3. The importance of communication ..................................................................... 22

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................... 30 3.1 Research method ............................................................................................... 30

3.2 Questionnaire design .......................................................................................... 31

Conceptual Framework ............................................................................................................ 32 3.3. Semi-structured interview .................................................................................. 33

3.4. Field Observations ............................................................................................. 34

3.5. Sample .............................................................................................................. 35

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................... 36 4.1 Data analysis ...................................................................................................... 36

4.2. Semi-Structured interviews ................................................................................ 49

4.3. Field observations.............................................................................................. 65

4.4. Possible errors and considerations .................................................................... 70

4.5. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 70

References ............................................................................................................... 74

Appendix ................................................................................................................... 77

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Nepal is a landlocked country in southern Asia, located between India in the south and China

in the North. It has a population of 28.9 million people. The country has a rugged but diverse

geography; the terrain varies from the subtropical Terai plains in the south to the great

mountains of the Himalayas to the north. The typography is both a blessing and a curse in that

it has provided Nepal with scenic beauty, which attracts tourism and revenue, but also makes

it vulnerable to natural disasters. The rugged terrain also creates problems with

communications and infrastructure. Roads and wiring often fall victim to the landslides and

flooding. The telephone service is poor, and broadcasting in hill and mountainous terrain is

problematic. (CIA 2008)

(ICIMOD 2005a)

Nepal has a great variety of religion, ethnicity and culture. Eighty percent of the population

belongs to the Hindu religion and the cast system, which classifies people based on their

ethnic background and deeply shape people’s life and opportunities even if it is legally

prohibited. The economy is agriculture and tourism based, but the country has great potential

in other sectors like hydro power due to its many rivers and streams deriving from the

Himalayas. The importance of agriculture is also reflected in the dispersed population, which

is predominantly rural, and accounts for the livelihood income of three-fourths of the

population. The hardship of everyday life for most Nepalese is evident in the high number of

unemployment and people living below the poverty line. The poverty line is usually set at one

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dollar a day. Nepal’s unemployment rate was staggering 42 percent as of 2004, and almost 31

percent lived below the poverty line. (CIA 2008)

(ICIMOD 2005b)

With the long list of problems facing everyday life in Nepal it is not hard to imagine that

Nepal is among the least developed nations in the world. The 2007/2008 Development Report

published by United Nations Development Programme ranks Nepal at 142 out of 177 nations.

Life expectancy at birth, literacy rate, GDP per capita, as well as gender disparity is generally

low (UNDP 2007/2008). Reasons for Nepal’s slow rate of development are not only due to

geographical or cultural issues. A long history of power struggle and authoritarian rule has

restrained the nation from following in the developmental path of its more powerful

neighboring countries.

Democracy has a short-lived history in Nepal. It first emerged when the century long Rana

reign came to an end in 1951, but democracy would only last for less than a decade. King

Mahendra dissolved the parliament in 1960, took absolute power and banned political parties.

A couple of years later he introduced a new form of quasi-democracy called Panchayat

system. By that time the banned political parties had gone underground and would not return

until 1990. A coalition of political parties organized pro-democracy rallies and pushed for

legalization of political parties and democratic elections. They eventually succeeded and the

movement would later been known as the people’s movement. A new constitution was written

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and elections were held the following year. Still, the mid-90s saw the start of the “people’s

war”, and an insurgency that would last for ten years, killing thousands of people, and

internally displace hundreds of thousands. (Freedom House 2007)

The new democracy and the new constitution had faced many problems. Intra-party conflicts

were common and a weak government failed in countering the insurgency. The constitution

also labeled the king as head of state. The king’s constitutional power was put to use when

King Gyanendra dismissed Prime Minister Deuba and assumed executive power himself, in

2002. King Gyanendra had been inaugurated the previous year after most of the royal family

had been shot dead by the crown prince, who killed himself in the incidence. Speculations of

King Gyanendra being the mastermind behind the royal massacre were common among many

people in Nepal, and these rumors did not make King Gyanendra more popular among the

people. Pressure by political parties made the king reinstate the Prime Minister in June 2004,

but half a year later the king decided to dissolve the parliament, based on what he called

incompetent governing, and at the same time declaring a state of emergency. He shut down

media outlets and other means of communications. Thousands of party activists, politicians,

and journalists were detained. (Freedom House 2007)

Civil reaction to the kings’ use of excessive power led to demonstrations, but it also brought

former competitors and enemies together. The decade long insurgency ended when a coalition

of political parties, known as the Seven Party Alliance (SPA), negotiated a 12-point

agreement with the Maoist insurgents to bring down King Gyanendra and reinstate

democracy. After nationwide strikes and demonstrations in April 2006, the seven-party

alliance together with the Maoist succeeded and the king was forced to step down (Raj

2006:28). The SPA and the Maoists worked together on a comprehensive peace agreement

that was signed in November 2006. An interim government was established, and a date for

elections was set for June 2007.

In order to hold fair and free election and independent election commission was established.

The independent body consisted of five commissioners appointed by the Prime Minister on

the basis of the recommendations made by Constitutional Council. The function and

responsibilities of the commission was drafted in Article 133 of the Interim Constitution of

2006 stating that the commission was responsible for “conducting, supervising, directing and

controlling Constituent Assembly Election and the Local bodies’ election.” The commission

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was in charge of registering voters and to ensure free and fair conduct of the

election.(Election Commission 2008)

The EC also listed specific responsibilities that were of interest to this research. These

responsibilities was to maintain correct record of voters statistics, make corrections on forms

and voter lists, maintain archive of voter lists and voter cards, resolve election related

problems at the introductory level and present them to the commission for action, undertake

initial proceedings for selection and decision on the election symbols and execute the

decisions, place requests with the training department for election-related trainings if required,

start preliminary efforts on election dates and process, and preparing campaign material for

both print and electronic media. (Election Commission 2008)

The EC also stated that they were committed to inclusiveness, meaning that they were

devoted to focus on inclusion of “the classes or regions that are backward due to economic,

political, geographical, gender, social or other causes and participation of those who have

been left out of the nation's mainstream or those who have been deprived of a role.”

(Election Commission 2008) There is definitely a time constraint in achieving these

commitments considering the limited time the EC had been given before the set election date,

and the result of the research did address this particular issue.

The government had taken actions to make the election inclusive, includes nominations of

candidates for first-past-the post system based on gender, geography and population. The

proportional part of the election consisted of proportional selection of Dalits, the oppressed

class, indigenous, backward groups, Madhesis and others selected by the parties themselves.

In each of these groups a minimum requirement for women representation was fifty percent.

(Election Commission 2008)

The EC had outlined what roles different stakeholder should play in making the election free,

fair and impartial. This includes sharing of information among voters. Voters should

discourage “elements that may have adverse effect on elections”. Civil society should “help

create an environment to cast the vote freely and in a terror free environment.” Civil society

and political parties should help raise awareness about “election procedures. Political parties

should “encourage healthy competition in election campaign,” and “[r]un civil education

campaigns raise awareness among the people on election and voting rights.”

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The EC has published a list of criteria’s that ensures free and fair election including protection

of the voter’s basic freedoms and human rights before, during and after the election is held.

Other elements were voter confidentiality, and that voters have access to information on

political candidates and electoral procedures. That all citizens of the right voting age should

are included in the voter's lists. That civil society can conduct voter awareness programs

freely, and that “the election procedures are free of any temptation, threats, violence, excesses

or punishment”, and voters have access to the polling booths. Political parties should have the

right to have open gatherings and the freedom of expression. The Media should be able to

freely “gather and disseminate news” concerning the election. Observers and mediators are

free to do their duties and the role of the government should be transparent. (Election

Commission 2008) Some of these criteria’s will be directly addressed in the research

questions and objectives section later in the chapter.

The June election got postponed due to failure in negotiations of a revised election act. The

second election date was set for November 22. 2007, but again internal disputes led to yet

another postponement. Many blamed the Maoists for constructing this postponement. They

left the interim government after the other parties refused to agree to their demands for a pre-

election proclamation of a republic and a fully proportional representation in the assembly.

Based on observations made in the field and Nepali news articles, the Maoist walk-out may

have been based on a growing anti-Maoist wave of public sentiments in the wake of the

election date. The opposition to the Maoists had been significant in the Terai area in the south,

were clashes between Maoists and the political party Madhesi Jana Adhikar Forum (MJF)

frequently happened throughout 2007 and is still the centre of conflict. Meanwhile

frustrations and concerns are growing among Nepalese people who had prepared for the

previous election dates, and the disbelief was reflected in polls showing that only twenty-two

percent of Nepalese did not think that the election would be held in April (Prasai 2008).

1.2 Statement of the Problem

To understand the problems facing the democratic changes in Nepal, it is necessary to look at

some recent event that poses challenges for this process. Although the guerrilla war has ended

the political tug of war has been raging on. Agreements have been made making it possible

for the elections to be held. Democratic change needs to follow democratic principles that

will be explored further in the following section.

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Political struggle

The seven-party alliance (SPA) and the Maoist have been struggling to reach agreements on

different important issues. One issue was how to provide representation in Constituent

Assembly Election for ethnic groups and cast, who have previously excluded from Nepali

politics. Another issue was to whether or not to declare Nepal a republic before or after the

election as it had been previously agreed upon. The pressure on the interim government

heightened when the Maoist walked out of the interim government in the wake of the second

election date in November 2007.

At the end of December 2007, the parliament voted on an amendment declaring Nepal a

republic prior to the April election, contrary to what was agreed upon in the peace agreement.

This vote was a result of a three months long tug of war between the NC and the Maoists. The

amendment would be ratified on the first meeting of the new assembly, leaving the king with

his present facilities until April. The amendment was passed by a majority vote, ending the

political stalemate and bringing new hope in holding the election. (Acharya 2007) The seven-

party alliance (SPA) had agreed and signed a 23-point agreement about the composition of the

Assembly. The agreement stated that the Constituent Assembly (CA) shall consist of 240

seats designated for first-past-the post electoral system, meaning electing candidates with the

most votes, and then 335 seats for proportional electoral system in which women and other

disadvantaged will have proportional representation and elected from the parties themselves.

The council of Ministers will in addition nominate 26 seats based on consensus and will

include members of groups not represented through the election. (UNMIN 2007) This

agreement can be viewed as a compromise between the Maoists, that wanted a fully

proportional electoral system, and the NC who wanted a mixed system. The amendment for

declaration of republic was major political victory for the Maoists.

The struggles over electoral system and republic have arguably been a factor leading to the

delays in holding the election. The importance of the composition of the new Assembly is the

key to include previously excluded groups. Ethnic groups and casts, who lack education and

training, will be represented in the new Assembly with the 23-point agreement. The lower

cast Dalits, often referred to as ‘untouchables”, were also the backbone of the Maoist

insurgency that crippled the country for more than ten years. The interim government has

made an effort to include these groups in the new assembly. Giving them a voice will

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strengthen the chance of a peaceful future for Nepal because failure of inclusion will likely

lead to new tensions and risk of conflicts, such as the Maoist insurgency, in the future.

Deciding on the electoral system and composition only, will not make Nepal more

“democratic”, because democracy in itself is only the foundation for opportunities for all.

The success of the system relies on how these opportunities are exercised(Sen 1999).

The Maoist rhetoric among its supports has been strong in blaming the King, the United

States and India in interfering with the election. They are claiming that their opponents are

trying to retrieve the Monarchy, but ever since the royal handover of power to the interim

government, the Kings power and influence has gradually gone astray. Based on observations

and news coverage, the popular support for the Maoists, has ironically been weakened by the

Kings loss of power and influence. According to many analysts the former rebels’ desire for

power and influence will most likely not be achieved by attending parliament politics and that

notion seems to be the reasons for putting off the November election. The postponement

ironically and contrary to what the Maoists’ opposition to the king has only benefited the

monarchy. (Mishra 2007) With election successfully executed there is still a clear and present

danger of conflicts arising when winners and losers are announced. The People’s Liberation

Army (PLA) is still confined to barracks across Nepal but is intact and ready for combat if

they chose to do so, and poses a great threat to the success of the Constituent Assembly. This

will be the greatest test of Maoist convergence to parliamentary politics.

Good Governance

The role of the news media is critical in the time of transition. The news media plays an

important part in providing Nepalese voters accurate information on the political situation,

especially for the disadvantaged groups and women that will have a much greater saying in

this election than in the past. The media has great responsibility in promoting good

governance. Good governance for this research will is based on OECD definition of the term.

OECD lists eight factors that combined make for good governance. Participation is listed as

the cornerstone of good governance. The sixty percent turnout in the CA election is a positive

sign in that respect. Transparency plays an important role in that it provides insight for those

influenced by decisions made by government, and it also implies that information is provided

through easily accessible media. This factor will be thoroughly explored through this research

paper. Effectiveness and efficiency simply implies that results are produced that meets the

needs of society and that use of natural resources are sustainable and protects the

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environment. Responsiveness in terms of good governance is the requirement of the

institutions and its process to “serve all stakeholders within a reasonable timeframe.”

Accountability counts for all institutions, private and public, to be accountable for their

actions to those affected by them. Consensus oriented is another factor listed as a component

of good governance, and it implies that political parties should focus on cooperation and

agreement that will lead to policies that benefits the whole society. The idea is to have a

constructive political process rather than a destructive process that only serves to undermine

the function of government. Good governance also includes equity, inclusiveness and that rule

of law to be followed and enforced. (OECD 2008) The news media plays a role in several of

these factors, making its relevance for this study undisputed.

The Media

The news media can play an important part in strengthening transparency, in that it can

disseminate information on the actions of the government out to the people, holding them

accountable and strengthening the democracy. This however, requires and independent and

viable media that is willing to play its part in this system of checks and balance. Nepali media

has ever since the first people’s movement and the reinstatement of democracy in 1990 had a

tremendous growth in number s of media outlets. The dominant media in Nepal is radio, with

its reach and accessibility it can reach more people than other media sources. Today, there are

more than 200 FM radio stations in Nepal, according to Dhruba Adhikary, the chairman of

Nepal Press Institute. The total numbers of registered newspapers was 4152 by 2006. Most

of these were weeklies and monthlies, and dailies only counted for 274 of the total.

(NepalGov. 2006) Although newspapers have a prominent role in Nepali media, like

elsewhere in the world, it is important to take note of the illiteracy percentage, which accounts

for about half of the population. However, when news is broadcasted on local radio stations,

newspapers are often used as a source for information.

The news media have the ability to educate, to voice people’s concerns, to act as a

“watchdog” that will disclose political wrong doings. It creates a forum for public discussion

and promotes civic culture. Studies have also shown that media plays a vital role in conflicts

and framing of conflicts. The media can act as an agent of conflict management, and that

conflict-sensitive journalism can strive for accuracy and journalistic integrity and at the same

time refrain from unnecessary political advocacy. (Achen 2005) However, the term conflict-

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sensitive journalism might be a new concept for many and can also be misunderstood, as

some of the finding will reveal later on.

A major problem for Nepali media has been the many reported incidents of journalists being

targeted by political groups. The International Press Institute (IPI) made the following

remarks on the condition of press freedom in Nepal in 2007:

“While the end of the civil conflict, as well as the 18 July unanimous approval by the Legislature-Parliament of the Right to Information Act, have been important developments, in the wider media environment, some of the old problems persist and the widespread disrespect for press freedom continues to affects journalists and media outlets. Journalists face threats and violence from a range of different actors, including police, members of political parties, armed groups, the military and strikers. Representatives of the Maoist insurgency have also issued threats as well as kidnapped and even murdered journalists.”(International Press Institute 2007)

The IPI continues by listing several incidents occurring throughout the year. The killings of

two journalists in September and October and the disappearance of another journalist by the

name of Prakash Singh Thakuri. The only murder case that was resolved by the police was

that of Birendra Shah, a journalist working in the Bara district, which also is talked about in

the interviews later on in this thesis. Other killings listed by the IPI was that of Shankar

Panthi, a correspondent of the local pro-Maoist Naya Satta Daily, Prakash Singh Thakuri,

editor and publisher of the royalist newspaper Aajako Samachar, Pushkar Bahadur Shrestha,

editor of the local newspaper Highway Weekly. Besides murders there have been several

incidents of threats, abductions, and beatings. The IPI concludes that all these incidents show

little understanding of the importance of press freedom by the groups who are responsible for

carrying out the attacks. The IPI stated that they were “…concern about the press freedom

violations taking place in the country, particularly as impartial and independent media

coverage is essential for holding free and fair elections and promoting the democratic

process.” (International Press Institute 2007)

The measures taken by the interim government and organizations working for the elections

have not been efficient in preparing people for the polls, and they have failed in keeping up

with their own deadlines. If you add the corruption as another factor contributing to people’s

distrust of politicians and hopes for carrying out a fair election, the situation is, to put it

bluntly, uneasy. Transparency International, which publishes the Corruption Perceptions

Index, ranked Nepal on 131 out of 179 nations. The index is measured based on the degree to

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which corruption is perceived to exist among politicians or other public officials based on

data provided by country experts and businesses. (TI 2007) Newly democratized countries

and developing countries, such as Nepal, are especially vulnerable to corruption within parties

because economic and political institutions are not yet secure. This type of corruption and the

scandals that often follows will over time lead to ”voter cynicism and disillusionment with the

political system, thus threatening the viability of democracy.” (Spector 2005:28)

The purpose of the election is to put together an assembly that will draft a new constitution for

Nepal. The problem with the election and the newly acquired democratic freedoms is the lack

of transparency within the interim government; many people do not know what the election is

all about. The lack of knowledge is true for the areas that have been investigated in this

research, and the majority of the responsibility for the knowledge gap should be placed with

the government and the independent election commission. Other problems are, as mentioned

earlier, the poor infrastructure that is minimizing the flow of information to Nepali voters in

the rural areas, the high illiteracy rate, and cultural notions of class and cast that makes it hard

to realize once own political power and potential.

Democracy is arguably a term that has been misused by regimes that on the contrary do not

want what democracy entitles, freedom of expression. It is important that the meaning of

democracy is clearly defined and understood for the purpose of this study. David Beetham, a

professor of politics at the University of Leeds, presented two main principles of democracy

that could be applied to both direct and representative democracy. These principles are

“popular control” and “political equality”, and according to Beetham, work best in “small

groups or associations” where all members of the group have equal right and freedom to

express their opinions and to vote. In a society for example where the group is considerably

larger, democracy is realized through entrusted representatives who are elected for practical

consideration of space and time. The people exercise control, not over the decision making,

but over the decision makers that they have entrusted in. Beetham says that control that the

voters have over these representatives is in the “decision makers who act in their place, [and]

is mediated rather than immediate.” Beetham elaborates on the issue by claiming that “one of

the criteria of democratic society is that its associational life should be internally democratic,

as well as that is should provide the socio-economic conditions for political equality to be

realized in practice.” (Beetham 1999:28)

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Beetham highlights two very important ideas that seem to be lacking in the two areas that

have been studied in this research. Exercising control over the decision-makers and not the

decision making is the matter of transparency and popular control, and this is a matter of

having basic knowledge of the political system that the voters are a part of. Feedback from

villagers suggests that many believe once they have voted for a politician, their duty is done,

and the politician is left to do whatever he or she pleases. Many villagers have not been able

to comprehend the idea that the politicians they give a seat to in parliament, are their

representatives and should speak on their behalf, raise their concerns and be accountable to

the people that gave them the vote in the first place. What Beetham suggest when saying the

provision of socio-economic condition, he implies having the equal means of making a stand

on political issues. This is a major task to achieve in a country like Nepal, because it would

require major improvement of infrastructure and education. The ideal situation is the situation

were all people, no matter what cast, gender or geographical location should have equal

access to information of political importance so that they can by themselves make a well

inform decision on what political stance they support.

These two principles can and should ideally be enforced by the news media. It is apparent

that a functional democratic system is dependent on a free and responsible press that will

work as a fourth estate. Nepal faces a major problem due to its lack of infrastructure, difficult

terrain, and high illiteracy rate limiting the access of the media to vast parts of the population;

this in turn causes problems in the preparation for the Constituent Assembly election as it

limits transparency and public awareness.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The king announced that “all power will be given back to the people” after he was forced to

step down in 2006 marking a return to democracy. This research is exploring how much of

this power, if any, have actually been given back to the people, and if not what implications

will it have on the election. This study looks at how far the transfer of these rights has come in

two different geographical areas of rural Nepal in the wake of a Constituent Assembly

election. It will provide survey data from the village level that can be generalized for the two

particular areas, and it will present qualitative data drawn from different actors involved in the

political process leading up to the election.

12

The purpose of this study will be to measure what degree newly democratic freedoms have

been provided to the rural poor and disadvantaged groups. The study will explore what

channels of information are available, and how they make sense of the information. The study

will also try to disclose possibly existing information control and manipulation that will

undermine the legitimacy of the coming election. The Nepali constitution of 1990 stated in

Article 16 that: “every citizen shall have the right to demand and receive information on any

matter of public importance” (Yadav 2001). The article and its importance to workings of

democracy is mostly like going to be incorporated into the new constitution that will be

written by the elected members of the Constituent Assembly as Nepal strive to move forward

for democratic change. The study will determine whether or not the right of receiving

information has been protected in the village, in simple terms, asking if the villagers are

getting accurate and informative information on the Constituent Assembly election.

The interim government adapted a list of policies that they would focus on for the three

coming years. This list included human rights, peace and good governance, local development

and decentralization, inclusive development, and regional and balanced development. The

thesis will focus on the human rights, peace and good governance part of the policies

emphasized by the interim government. The actions they include a focused on the mass

communication medium for the purpose of distributing information among politicians as well

as ordinary citizens, also saying that information technology that will be made extensive in

civil services.

1.4 Description of Research Area

The selection of the specific study areas were made in collaboration with my local supervisor,

Professor Binod Bhatta, upon my arrival in Kathmandu. The areas were carefully selected in

accordance with my objectives, which will be described in the next section, and had to follow

strict safety precautions due to the increased violence in certain areas. The goal was to select

two very geographically different rural areas with focus on ethnicity and culture.

The first research area that was selected was Rasuwa districts. This district is located in the

central development region close to the Chinese Tibetan boarder. The research area was

situated between the middle and high mountain ecological zone of Nepal. and has a total

population of 44 731 according to the national census of 2001(Central Bureau of Statistics

13

2001b). One of the major ethnic groups in the area was the Tamangs, who accounts for almost

five percent of the total population in Nepal. They belong to Tibeto-Burman language family

and have a rich culture and history. They mainly reside in the northern part of the Central

Region, are generally Buddhists, and consist of more than seventy ethnic subgroups found all

over Nepal. (NEFIN 2008a) Their distinct language was in some cases a challenge in the

villages that we visited, some of the respondents only spoke Tamang, and my research

assistant could only translate Nepali, forcing us to assistance from bilingual people in the

village. Another issue related to the research was the a report coming from United Nations

office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reporting on disruption of a

donor supported voter education program by Young Communist League (YCL) in September

just a few weeks before our arrival in the district. (UN 2008)

The three villages in Rasuwa district that were included in the survey research were located in

difficult hilly terrain. This made them vulnerable to natural hazard such as landslides, which

all of the selected villages had experienced. The roads to the villages were destroyed making

it impossible for vehicles to reach the villages. Other challenges we were aware of was that

we were conducting the survey at the end of the millet harvest, so many of the participants

were out in the field, however, the once we asked were happy to take a break from the hard

work and answer our questionnaire, and we got accommodations from the locals so that we

could stay a few days in the field.

Research area 1

Research area 2

14

(Central Bureau of Statistics 2001a)

After completing the survey, we returned to Kalikasthan. Kalikasthan was the biggest village

in the area and was connected to the main road. This village had a temporary VDC office set

up since the old office had been burnt down by Maoists. The VDC secretary was a young man

in his thirties who was more than happy to share his story about what had happened in the

past, and about the conflict and the political stalemate that was going on at the time. The VDC

secretary introduced me to other important people in the area, a Maoist, a local UML leader

and a teacher, which we interviewed for the qualitative analysis.

The second research area was in Nawalparasi, a district situated in the Western Region

bordering India to the south. Nawalparasi lies in the Terai plains. Nawalparasi, like many

other districts in Nepal, is rural and the economy is based on farming. The district has a high

number of people belonging to the Tharu ethnic group living there. This ethnic group has a

total population of about 1.5 million people, and is well known for their farming in the Terai

area. (NEFIN 2008b) Tharus have their own language and customs, which again posed some

challenge in collecting the data. Fortunately, we had help from a local NGO, who assisted us

with people that spoke the language and had knowledge about the area.

The research team was settled in a small highway village called Bhutaha Chowk, and from

there we would travel to the three selected villages. The area is fairly well developed, but we

did run into some problems with a roadblock upon our arrival. As mentioned in the

introductory chapter the areas in Terai has been the most violent, due to ethnic uprising, and

on the express bus that I took from Kathmandu was stopped 3 km away from the destination.

Since no motorized vehicles were allowed to drive on the road, the last leg of the journey had

to be continued on foot before arriving in Bhutaha Chowk.

The three villages were selected based on the villager’s socio-economic status. In Bhutaha

Chowk, we were assisted by the Indreni Development Forum, a local NGO that provided us

with three translators and information on the different sites. The first village was we covered

was Anandanagar, and was one of the poorest in the district. The people living there were

landless had had built small huts out of straw and dirt. We were told that they had just

15

recently built a small road to the village, but there were no electricity. Scattered land

surrounding the settlement was used for farming so that they could grow some food.

The two other villages, Jamunia and Senrari, were a bit further away from our base camp, and

were reached by bus. These two villages lay side by side and were much more developed than

the first village. They had a few shops and tee houses and a large government office within its

perimeter. This office offered us accommodation and a place to stay the night. The villages

had electricity and were connected to a larger road. Life in these villages was clearly different

than up in the Himalayas, which made me suspect differences in the responses from the

participants and the key informants. Due to their improved infrastructure these people would

probably have better access to information and a better understanding of the Constituent

Assembly election. This presumption will be elaborated in the research objectives and

questions section.

The purpose of the study was to find out what mechanisms rural poor use to voice their

concerns and to determine how prepared these people were for the Constituent Assembly

election. It hopes to highlight how well the current government has been in adapting their

listed policies. The research for the study was conducted in two geographically and culturally

different areas described in the section above, and will this research is meant to compare the

situation in the areas and to identify factors of importance. The research tools that we used

were a questionnaire, which will be thoroughly described in the methods chapter. To be more

specific about the purpose and objectives of the research, this next section will clarify what

we are looking for and why.

1.5 Research Objectives and Questions

The purpose of the study is to look at how the grand political scheme works in practice on the

village level, and will determine the impact of these political decisions for in the lives of those

people who are affected by it. My objectives for carrying out this research are to:

1. To prove or disapprove the importance of providing information to the villagers and

its effect on creating political awareness and understanding of the Constituent

Assembly election.

16

2. To see how access to or lack of information affects the villager’s attitude towards the

election.

3. To disclose factors that undermine the villager’s right to accurate information on the

Constituent Assembly election.

Based on the objectives listed above and my presumptions about the situation in Nepal the

following hypothesis was constructed and will either be rejected or accepted at the end of this

study:

“Access to information in the village will determine what attitude its members hold towards

the Constituent Assembly election and their understanding of democracy.”

The research seeks to answer the following key question:

“What impact does access of information have on rural people’s attitude towards the

Constituent Assembly election and their understanding of democracy?”

In addition to the hypothesis and the key research question a list of supplementary questions

that are of interest to the purpose of the study and will help answer the key question are as

follows:

1. Have the villagers received sufficient training to participate in the Constituent

Assembly election?

2. Do the villagers have access to information that will help them make an informed

decision on what candidate/party represents their interests?

3. What actions have been taken to provide political representation for disadvantaged

groups?

4. Does the concept democracy have a different meaning between the different

stakeholders?

5. What expectations do the villagers have of the election?

6. What channels of information are available to the villagers?

7. Can journalists work safely without restraint in the village?

8. Is the flow of information controlled or manipulated? If so, how aware are people

about this, and how do they cope with it?

17

1.6 Significance of study

As discussed earlier in the chapter functional democracy relies on active participation in the

political process by its citizens. The success of the Constituent Assembly will rely on proper

preparation and execution of the election. This study will focus on how the preparation part of

the election has been executed in two culturally and geographically different districts of the

central region of Nepal. It will take into account the villager’s own perception of the ongoing

process of democratic change in Nepal, as well as the perceptions of other stakeholders that

affect this process in one way or another.

It is important to mention that the results from the study cannot be generalized for the whole

of Nepal, but will provide findings that might be an issue, not only Nepal as a whole, but for

all nations that are in a process of democratic change. The result will hopefully shed light on

issues that are important for nations undergoing democratic change and be used as a tool for

planning and executing development projects that seeks to improve access of information

among disadvantaged people in rural areas, and work for the purpose of awareness rising

among the people who needs it the most.

.

1.7 Organization of thesis

The structure of this thesis is designed to first provide necessary background information to

understand and get a clear understanding of the situation that Nepal is in at the time of the

research and what factors have contributed in creating the situation in the first place. The next

step is to state the problems, which then drives the research questions and creates a hypothesis

that then can either be confirmed or rejected based on the results from the research. The next

chapter will focus on the literature and theories that further explains the wider concepts used

and the importance of them in relation to the research. In the third chapter the methodology of

the research will be described, showing how the data was retrieved, the problems encountered

during the research, and what implications does it have on the result of the research. In the

last chapter the results of the survey, interviews and observations will discussed before

making a conclusion for the key research question. These results will answer the research

questions and accept or reject the hypothesis. The conclusion will then provide the research

18

with some basic recommendations that may benefit organizations working for awareness

rising about democratic rights.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this section literature and theories supporting this research will be review and explained in

relation to the research. Democracy, freedom of speech, and good governance are the main

focus of the research and will be thoroughly explored in this chapter. My research is

deductive in the sense that it presumes that democracy is the best form of governance for

economic development and improving the livelihood of its citizens as it has been described by

scholars such as Amartya Sen and others that will be discussed in this chapter.

2.1 Why democracy

It is important to include the works of Amartya Sen in a development research looking at a

democratic transition in a developing country, because the question if democracy is the best

conditions for development is widely discussed among scholars in the field of development.

The reason why I have chosen to include Sen’s writing on the issue is because I support his

view on democracy and development.

Sen, an Indian economist and a former Nobel Peace Prize winner in Economic Science, is a

strong voice for individual freedom in promoting economic development. His work

“Development as Freedom” highlights the importance of basic political and liberal rights. Sen

outline the importance of democracy in eradicating famine, secure economic rights, and

promote development.

Sen sketches out three different considerations of the importance of democratic liberties, first,

their “direct importance in human living associated with basic capabilities” (referring to

active participation in political and social life), secondly, their “instrumental role in enhancing

the hearing that people get in expressing and supporting their claims to political attention”,

and third, their “constructive role in the conceptualization of ‘needs’”.(Sen 1999:148)

19

Although Sen strongly argues for democracy, in the sense of individual rights and liberties, as

the best form of government, and he underlines its importance in that “democracy has to be

seen as a creating a set of opportunities… and their effectiveness would depend on how they

are exercised”. (Sen 1999:155) This is evident in the observation I collected during my

fieldwork in Nepal. Although, the preparations done by government and NGO’s were lacking,

or at best severely limited, people that had the opportunity in getting information and actively

participating in the local politics but hardly ever did so. Local radio programming transmitted

on some occasion programs on the election issues, and some the villagers had received

election training, but did not share their information with others. Reasons for this political

passivism will be discussed later in this chapter.

Sen argues that democracy is the superior form of government when it comes to development

in that evidently no nation with a democratic form of governance have ever experienced

substantial famines. Famines “have never materialized in any country that is independent, that

goes to elections regularly, that has opposition parties to voice criticisms and that permits

newspapers to report freely and question the wisdom of government policies without

censorship.”(Sen 1999:152)

This research takes Sen’s position in that democracy is in the interest of the Nepalese. The

Constitutional Assembly election is a test of Nepalese’s democratic rights. The research will

look at factors that will affect the results of the election and its importance for those

disadvantaged groups who in the past have had little saying in political matters. The research

seeks to uncover undemocratic factors threatening the legitimacy and principles of fair and

free elections.

Another scholar that seeks to provide evidence that supports democracy as the most ideal

form of governance for increased development and improved quality of life is Professor Yi

Feng. Feng’s work “Democracy, Governance, and Economic Performance” has combined

political and economic science to prove “whether or not democracy or political freedom

contributes to quality of life by providing a useful and constructive political infrastructure.”

(Feng 2003:1) Feng looks at both the direct and indirect effect of political institutions on

economic growth, and presents data that compares the rapid and stable economic growth of

the G7 countries and countries in the Asia pacific with the weak growth of countries in sub-

Sahara Africa and Latin-America in the last few decades. Feng claims that the regional

20

similarities between the G7 and countries in the Asia pacific and that of countries in sub-

Sahara Africa and Latin-America is related to political and economic regularities. (Feng

2003:9) He presents a theoretical model arguing that people’s economic decisions are based

on “the assessment of the political environs for the marketplace”, meaning that economic

growth depends on “three political variables: political freedom, political stability, and policy

certainty” (Feng 2003:14) Feng presents empirical evidence by showing that political freedom

and democracy improves life through promoting economic growth, reduced income

inequality, and improved education. This is a strong argument for the promotion of

democracy in a developing country like Nepal.

2.2. Democratic transition

After establishing why democracy is important based on the writings of the scholars described

above, it is relevant for the research to look at possibilities and implications changing from

autocracy to democracy. Stephan Haggard and Robert R. Kaufman are two scholars that have

analyzed the transition from authoritarian rule to democracy based on extensive literature on

the topic in their book “The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions”. They ask the

following three questions; in what way will “economic conditions affect the capacity of ruling

elites to determine the timing and nature of their withdrawal”. How will “the way in which the

economic and institutional legacies of the transition affect economic policymaking in new

democratic regimes.” And finally how will it “explore the conditions under which market-

oriented reform and policy can reconciled and consolidated.”(Haggard & Kaufman 1995:4)

They argue that it is hard to get political or policy outcomes from economic cleavages and

interests without consideration of the institutional context in which groups operate. Haggard

and Kaufman provides and interesting observation to the debate by claiming that the ability of

political leaders to maintain in power relies partly on economic performance and that accounts

for both democratic and authoritarian leaders. (Haggard & Kaufman 1995:10) The main

difference between authoritarian and democratic rule, according to Haggard and Kaufman, is

that democratic rule guarantees opposition and a system of replacement through political

competition in elections. This system ensures voter rights, freedom of speech and basic civil

liberties, keeping these principles in mind, democratic transitions take place when forces that

operate within these rules forces the authoritarian power to step down. When a new

government “face distributive pressure from groups re-entering the political arena,” as well as

21

questions of loyalty from groups of the old system, the economic legacy of the previous

system and the nature of emerging political institution will determine the severity and

capacity to respond to the challenges that arises in the transition. (Haggard & Kaufman

1995:13-14)

Democracy in itself could be argued to go against social justice because it relies on majority

rule. The political scientist Ian Shapiro has tried to describe how these two concepts interfere

with each other in his book “Democratic Justice”. The way to counter the interference

between democracy and social justice is to place democracy in the center of social relations so

that distribution of authority becomes the focal point and not distribution of assets. The reason

for thinking of justice and democracy in the context of this research is that the democratic

process in Nepal was fueled by injustice and belief in that democratic change would end

autocratic rule that is viewed as the reason for the injustice.

Shapiro asks why democratic justice is important and seeks to prove it by giving examples of

how the concept of democracy has been used by revolutionaries in past revolutions. He points

to the fall of the Soviets Union and the Eastern European communist states, where the

revolutionaries commonly shared resentment to the communist system and used the appeal for

democracy as way to end the system. He points to the end of apartheid in South Africa were

those who fought for democracy identified it with ending apartheid(Shapiro 1999:2). This

idea of using the concept democracy as the means to fight what is seen as unjust is relevant

for what has happened in Nepal with the decade long insurgency and the uprising of April

2006. The fight against autocratic rule by King Gyanendra was organized and fought by

political parties and groups that have labeled their struggle against the king as a fight for

democracy. The implication with this systematic use of the concept is, according to Shapiro,

that “[t]he imperative to get rid of it[ an oppressive system] inevitably shaped their

perceptions of what democracy is about.”, and the problem that arise when the opposition

comes to power is that “[b]ecause democratic ideals are forged out of reactive struggles… on

ascending to power, democratic oppositions bear the antithetical traces of the orders they

replace.” (Shapiro 1999:2) The proposition of what democracy means to those partaken in the

struggle for justice, and how the new government might have adapted some of unjust

character of the old system is included in the field research and will be described in the later

chapters.

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Like Sen, Shapiro has a sense of what democracy means. They both agree on the function of

democracy in that it is a system of opportunities, or in Shapiro’s own words “a subordinate

foundational good, designed to shape the power dimension of collective activities without

subverting their legitimate purpose.“ Nepal has been through democratic changes in the past

without changing the injustice suffered by large sentiments of its people. This frustration,

Shapiro explains, is due to the fact that “…achieving political democracy does not guarantee

broad advances toward greater social justice” in some cases it might even lead to an opposite

outcome, this in turn leads to popular descent in democratic conviction. The challenge is to

discover a form of democracy that promotes justice. (Shapiro 1999:18-19)

2.3. The importance of communication

Communication scholar Ralph Negrine highlights the role media plays and should play in his

book titled “The Communication of Politics”. Negrine writes about the implications of the

role mass media plays in creating informed and active citizenry. Negrine looks at media’s role

in a historical perspective adding the perspective of the former Director-General of BBC

Charles Curran who believed that the broadcaster’s role was to win public interest in public

issues and in doing so it would increase public understanding. The media had, in his view, a

duty in providing rational and balanced news that would provide voters with basic judgment

on public policies. This role was, according to Curran, necessary for successful democratic

governing.

Negrine argues that Curran’s view of media’s purpose reflects the postwar period in which

public broadcasters had a sense of mission in contrast to the modern commercialized mass

media. The concept “public sphere” represents the structure of the media that provide the

public with relevant information that will affect the public good. The ideal liberal public

sphere is a structure consisting of equally well-informed entities allowing for rational

discussion making and that is capable of resolving differences without using “non-coercive

means”. By well-informed entities, Curran meant, individuals who had received sufficient

information and were able to take equal part in the public discussion. In the real world this is

undermined by corporate and political ownership and influence which often is the reality of

mass media institutions. The public sphere that is created by the mass media institutions is

undermined by the media itself in that it requires the institutions to choose what relevant and

important information is.

23

Negrine discards the earlier thinking of Curran due the changes that took place in Curran’s

Great Britain from the sixties until now. A society that was characterized by “cohesion and

stability” have become much more diversified and that there has been a fundamental change

in the organization of that society (Negrine 1996:4) But the modern British society that

Negrine describes is very different from that of today’s Nepal. Nepal is, not only in a post-war

period, but also in the middle of a process of transition from autocratic rule to representative

democracy, which is also a part of an undergoing peace process. In that respect it is

fundamentally important for the media to create the public sphere in which the citizens are

well-informed and participate in rational discussions, especially ahead of the Constituent

Assembly election which will influence the lives of all Nepalese people in the years to come.

“…the better the media systems are able to produce and distribute information, the better the other parts of the system works and the more likely the citizens can begin to make sense of the world and engage with it. Unfortunately, this particular formulation of the connecting link places responsibility on the media to ensure the successful workings of the democratic process. Little attention is paid to the wishes, desires or requirements of the citizens themselves. Moreover, little consideration is given to changes within the structure and processes of government which not only limit the effectiveness of the media but also raise important questions about the rationale for participation in the political system itself.” (Negrine 1996:6)

Negrine refers to some alarming trends in the western democracy where non-elected bodies

have taken over traditional government responsibilities leading to less control by the elected

representatives of the people leaving the citizens with less power to make decisions and

therefore also undermining the role to the citizens in taking part in the democratic process.

The implications that Negrine refers to is that the relationship between the citizens and the

people in power has become too complex to be illustrate in a simple way. Negrine mentions

what he calls the “supra-national body” the one structure that regulates all domestic and social

activity and is so vast that it is difficult to identify who is responsible for what, this in turn

creates problems for the media that have to keep track of who, where, what and why. Negrine

coins this situation as difficult but crucial, because in this view the media is responsible for

highlighting concerns and issues relevant to the people so that they can put pressure on the

government and other powerful organizations. “In these ways, the media take on a significant

role to articulate, to organize, to voice opinions of the public and to force others to act.” This

role differs from the intended role of the “public sphere” where the main reason is to create a

“forum for rational debate.” (Negrine 1996) What Negrine has described here is what I think

24

of as the fourth estate, the one estate that keeps the others accountable, and is crucial for the

workings of democracy.

Negrine correctly points out that in the modern governance the media has to articulate public

concern in order to keep check on the governing bodies. (Negrine 1996:9) As a consequence

of media’s growing responsibilities, it becomes important to look at the media institutions and

ask if they are ready to deal with monitoring a wider area of governance and foresee problems

that will arise in the future.

Media has been a part of development strategies in the past, but not always able to produce a

satisfying effect. Media was a part of the modernization thinking, by focusing on

modernization the third world could developed faster and catch up with the first world.

Srinivas R. Melkote and H. Leslie Steeves are two scholars in the field of communication and

research who have specifically looked at development communication. Their book

“Communication for Development in the Third World” examines the discourse of

modernization and its practical impact on developing countries. It is a critique of dominant

knowledge systems and what they describe as the truth claim of modernism. The book

explores the scholarship and practice of communication for development and empowerment

in the third world.

Melkote and Steevens clarify the meaning of communication, development and empowerment

in the first chapter in order to have a base for analysis throughout the work. To them

development communication is “communication concerned with the role of communication in

social change” (20), but they point out that this broad definition could also describe other

fields of communication. Melkote and Steeves describes the difficulties of definitions due to

the events of the past decades were

“[t]he end of the Cold War, alongside greater polarization along ethnic, religious and nationalistic lines, increased transnationalization, greatly increased information flow and influence, and a growing consciousness of marginalized groups and diminishing resources have challenged and changed the issues and questions.” (Melkote & Steeves 2001:20)

Melkote and Steeves’ book describes how mass communication and they way we think of

mass communication has radically changed since the days of the simple communication

models, and thereby have added much more sophisticated hypothesis in the field of

communication. Instead of only seeing mass communication as having vast power in

25

informing and influencing the public, scholars are now being more specific in new theories on

the role of mass media.

“New information technologies have inspired new and more elaborate arguments about the power of these technologies in deliver information, set agendas, persuade, socialize, educate, satisfy myriad audience needs, and democratize societies.”(Melkote & Steeves 2001:31)

Still at the same time, some scholars within the field of social scientists are critical to the

isolation of communication from political and economic processes, claiming that there is a

link between communication and culture, “in the idea of communication as shared meaning,

versus information transmission or persuasion”. (Melkote & Steeves 2001:31)

The above idea also emphasize the issue of media in reinforcing dominant values among the

audience that sometimes is provided with the illusion of balance. “There are many textual

conventions that powerful groups use to reinforce dominant messages, conventions supported

by standard traditions and values of media practice.” According to the authors these practices

are for example “making light of non-mainstream views, undercounting those with alternative

views… and an over-reliance on government and corporate resources.” Such tradition stresses

event news over context, focusing on conflict more than consensus and choosing individuals

over groups. (Melkote & Steeves 2001:31-32)

The authors present three different views of development, namely modernization, critical

perspective and liberation perspective. However, they do not support a particular view; rather

they state that they overlap each other and needs to be all considered because they all provide

“valuable insights and arguments.” They also provide their own definition of empowerment in

line with scholar such as Paolo Freire, Rozario and Rowland. The authors define

empowerment as “the process by which individuals, organizations, and communities gain

control and mastery over social and economic conditions; over democratic participation in

their communities; and over their stories.” (Melkote & Steeves 2001:37) This definition is

also helpful in explaining what empowerment means in the context of this thesis, as it is

focused on the democratic participation in the local areas being researched.

According to the authors “empowerment has direct consequence on the objectives of

development communication”, and by this they imply that it is not enough for delivery of

information to promote empowerment. The focus should be on empowerment of

26

“marginalized individuals, groups and organizations,” through grassroots involvement social

change can be promoted on the part of marginalized. Furthermore, the emphasis of

communication should be on the organizational value and participatory social action.

Evidence of the importance of this emphasis is traced in the findings derived from the

research of this thesis. (Melkote & Steeves 2001:38-39)

Melkote and Steeves offers a way of viewing development communication by looking at it

from the liberation perspective. The development communication should support the goal

that the purpose of development is to provide freedom from oppression, meaning that this

form of communication should not be exchange of messages, but “emancipatory

communication”. All people should participate, based on the assumption that “once people

get in touch with their sources of oppression as well as their sources of power, they will be

able to find solutions.” This view draws parallels to the workings of functional democracies

and thus is meaningful for the purpose of the thesis. (Melkote & Steeves 2001:39)

Melkote and Steeves goes on to describe communication approaches from the early bullet

theories to more complex models like the Shannon and Weaver’s model. They also touch

upon theory of minimal effects of the mass media, referring to research done conducted by

Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet who conducted research on mass media effect on voters in

the 1940 U.S. election This research concluded that even when the majority had somewhat

been exposed to the media messages, individuals were more politically influenced by their

peers and that had little impact on their political decisions. The results also revealed that some

people are more influenced by the media than others, and in turn these people, label opinion

leaders, influenced the opinion of people in their communities. Media, thus, did not directly

influence but rather indirectly influence through the opinion leaders. Other theorist limiting

the effect of the media, according to the authors, was Carl Hovland who researched war

propaganda and discovered that it was generally ineffective due to some defense mechanisms

that was classified as “selective exposure, selective perception, and selective retention.”

Hovland findings was later supported by Klapper that also concluded that “people expose

themselves to messages selectively.” (Melkote & Steeves 2001:109-110)

The authors describe the free flow ideology is commonly used by development agencies and

the United Nations deriving from the period following WWII. Melkote and Steeves critically

looking at many of the modernization linked approaches for development, and the free flow

27

ideology is no exception. According to them this ideology follows the Enlightenment thought

and is consistent with western ideas of individual’s right. Despite the criticism the belief in

free flow of information and its importance has been stated in both the United Nations

Declaration of Freedom of Information in 1946 and in article 19 of the Universal Declaration

of Human Rights. They correctly point out that the free flow ideology is consistent with

modernization, and that “[t]he key issue is individual freedom to work towards this ability and

opportunity.” (Melkote & Steeves 2001:120) Thinking of free flow of information and its

connection with human rights, although criticized by Melkote and Steeves for having a

western bias, is a fundamental right that is emphasis in the thesis, and more specifically in the

development of political capital and importance in democratic transition Nepal is currently in.

Melkote and Steeves tries to deconstruct what they call the dominant paradigm of

development which they see as equal to the concept of modernity. Some of the biases that the

authors list includes that rationality and progress have become synonymous with economic

rationality and growth due to the vested interest in the developing countries by multilateral

organizations that are controlled by the economic and political elites of the north. That the

standard of living is measured by indicators like GDP and per capita income neglecting non-

material goods, emphasizing consumption of material goods. The history of countries in the

developing world is ignored due to the focus on modernization, thus stripping them of their

culture and history.

Their concern with what they term the dominant paradigm is just, but never the less, more

theoretical than practical and have little impact on the development strategies today. However

they are right when criticizing the top-down approach that has characterized many

development strategies today and in the past. Going back to the function of the forth estate

mentioned earlier in this chapter, these top-down approaches coming from the “intra-national

body” should be traced and questioned by the media so that in turn they are kept accountable

by the people who brought to power in the first place.

Melkote and Steeves talks in-depth about the implications of the “dominant Western

development discourse” and they refer to alternative views such as feminist views, post-

colonialist views, environmentalist views and others, to conclude with an alternative

perspective on development. The alternative should include new goals, and two of these goals

are relevant to this thesis. The first one is the goal of equity in distribution of information and

28

other benefits of development. By this goal they mean that the focus should be on the poorest

of the poor, because to gap between them and the more fortunate needs to be closed. The

other goal relevant to this thesis is the goal of active participation of people at the grassroots

level. This goal is important, observations, result and conclusions from the field supports this

position, as will be describe in later chapters.(Melkote & Steeves 2001:198-199)

An important aspect of communication in relations to development that the authors have

emphasis is that the use of communication as a development strategy is nothing new. It has

been prevalent in the past and was viewed as a major strategy for development in the 50s and

the 60s, but later on disclosed major flaws and unintended results. According to the authors

scholars such as Beltran claimed that the prerequisite for communication strategies to work

was to totally change the social structure of the target society, only then it would be possible

to achieve “human and democratic development”, and that communication was impotent is

some cases because it would always favor the ruling minorities, and mass media was

dependent of these forces and therefore would not act independently. The authors refer to

research conducted in development countries in the 70s showing that the communication for

development strategies had not contributed in modernizing to the extent that originally was

intended. (Melkote & Steeves 2001:206-207)

Melkote and Steeves continues to critique communication approaches in social change and

research based on their Western biases, such as the focus on individuals and not groups that is

more common in other societies. Previous research trying to explore the effect of media

message in the Third World sometimes carried this bias, because in most of the earlier

research the emphasis on the individual as the locus of change made research design flawed.

Radom sample was used pick head of households, not considering groups. (Melkote &

Steeves 2001:210-211) It is worth mentioning that in the research for this thesis focus on

groups has been prioritized.

Another problem with the role of mass media in development was that although that exposure

to mass media has increased the message is usually not development related, referring to

studies done in Latin America and in India showed that very little space was allocated to

development content, most of the content was entertainment related. Because the media is

usually central based, communities speaking a different language or dialects are being

neglected. (Melkote & Steeves 2001:218-219)Observations made in the villages, and

29

interviews with journalists, reveals the same obstacles. Whenever a radio was tuned in it was

usually transmitting music and in both villages being research the issue of radio and

newspaper content in their own language was often mentioned.

The authors touch upon an issue that I have addressed in my research question that of the

knowledge gap and its effect. The authors describes the knowledge gap hypothesis which

states that the segment of the population with higher socio-economic status obtain information

faster than the other segment of the population as more and more mass media sources are

introduced into the society, and in effect widening the knowledge gap between the population

segments. Reasons for the gap were among other factors differences in “communication

skills” usually related to education level. The authors say that the gap had social significance

in that the difference in knowledge level “could lead to greater tension in a social system,

giving rise to greater disparities between sectors of a population.” At the same time

researchers came up with ways of countering the widening of the gap through making

television sets available and encouraging the people to watch the shows, mange the content

simple and easy to understand for all audience, and that the presentation of the information

should be appealing to those of lower knowledge. (Melkote & Steeves 2001:220-222)

The pro-literacy bias is another obstacle for communication in development described by

Melkote and Steeves. They define pro-literacy bias as “the tendency of a communication

source to encode messages in terms of symbols, either written, printed, or verbal, which imply

literacy and numeracy skills on the part of receivers, even when they are known to lack both

skills.” They illustrate this bias by referring to a study done on communication strategies by

an NGO in India, were the researcher discovered several symbols in the messages meant for

illiterate farmers, that required knowledge of the language as used by the literate in the area,

English skills, knowledge of Western calendar, the Metric system, statistical and technical

terms used in agriculture and other fields. (Melkote & Steeves 2001:233-234) The problem of

not being able to comprehend what is transmitted is not only relevant for illiterate farmers in

India, but can also be just as relevant for illiterate voters in rural Nepal. This problem is

apparent to some of the result deriving from the research for the thesis and will be examined

in later chapters.

Being in at the village level supports some of these supports, especially with the effects or

ineffectiveness of government strategies and large NGOs like the UN. As Sen mentioned, the

30

hardest opposition to democracy are authoritarian regimes themselves, but it is democracy

that has improved the lives of people, provided previously discriminated groups a voice,

empowered women, and raised the living standards overall in previously backwards nations.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

The importance of the methodology, how and why it was used for this research will be

explained in this chapter. It is important to refer back to the driving question of this research

“What impact does access of information have on rural people’s attitude towards the

Constituent Assembly election and their understanding of democracy?” This question guided

the direction of the research and determined what research method that would be used. In

order to test the hypothesis, provide an answer for the research question and even be able to

answer to some extent the sub questions, a research strategy was formed. This section

describes the methods used to collection data and other relevant information and how it was

analyzed.

Based on the complex nature of the research topic, a combination of quantitative and

qualitative research method was constructed and applied. Due to time and budget constraints,

the method applied was efficient and optimal in providing the research with relevant

information and data. The study area was limited to two culturally and geographically

different areas of rural Nepal. The method seeks to obtain information on people’s

knowledge level and attitude about the undergoing political process, and at the same time

collecting the knowledge and attitude from actors that are involved in the dissemination of

information and preparation of the Constituent Assembly election. These actors include

teachers, politicians, NGO workers, activists and journalists.

3.1 Research method

Using both qualitative and quantitative methods in the same research is called multi-strategy

research (Bryman 2004:541). A logic to this approach is that “it implies the results of an

investigation employing a method associated with one research strategy are cross-checked

against the results of using a method associated with the other”(Bryman 2004:454).

31

The research is also of a deductive nature because it deriving from the theories described in

literature review chapter. The deductive research process follows six basic steps starting with

theory, then the creation of hypothesis followed by data collection and findings. These

findings will then confirm or reject the hypothesis and then be added to the revision of the

theory (Bryman 2004:8-9).

A cross-sectional research design was chosen to weigh the data collected from the two

research areas against each other in order to disclose variation. Alan Bryman, professor of

social research at Loughborough University, defines cross-sectional research design as a

“…design [that] entails the collection of data on more than one case and at a single point in

time in order to collect a body of quantitative or quantifiable data in connection with two or

more variables, which are then examined to detect patterns of association.”(Bryman 2004:41)

The two cases chosen for the cross-sectional research were a cluster of villages located close

to Kalikasthan in Rasuwa district and a cluster of villages in close vicinity of Bhutaha Chowk,

which was a small roadside village in Nawalparasi district. A survey based on collection of

questionnaires among voters in the two areas was needed for collecting the necessary data.

Survey research, according to Bryman, “comprises a cross-sectional design in relation to

which data are collected predominantly by questionnaire or by structured interview on more

than one case.”(Bryman 2004:43) The next step was to construct the questionnaire that would

be used as the primary tool for collecting the data in the villages. The goal for the survey was

to obtain data from listed voters in the selected rural areas that would provided the research

with data that could be analyzed in terms of their knowledge and attitude towards the CA

election and Nepalese democracy in general, and additional information on their socio-

economic status and their access to relevant information.

3.2 Questionnaire design

In order to design a questionnaire that would work as a proper data collection tool, a

conceptual framework was constructed, based on my preconceived perception what

determines the voters capability to make well informed decisions in the election. The

independent variables would be included in the first part of the questionnaire to determine the

32

participant’s socio-economic status. The participants would list their region, sex, ethnicity,

family size, occupation, age, economic status and literacy.

Conceptual Framework

Independent variables Intermediate variables Dependent variables

Gender Policies Voter attitude and knowledge among rural poor and disadvantaged people.

Age Laws

Cast Media

Income Propaganda

Traditions/geography Voter programs

Education Development projects

Ethnicity

Perceptions/affiliations

Family size

The next five questions were asking whether or not the participants had access to different

types of information sources. These questions were followed by nineteen statements where

the participant had to rate to what degree the participant agreed or disagree with the statement.

These questions were to be rated with a Likert scale. The goal of the Likert scale is, according

to Bryman, “…to measure intensity of feelings about the area in question.” It usually consists

of several statements, were the participant are “asked to indicate his or her level of

agreement.” (Bryman 2004:68) The statements were constructed to disclose the participant’s

reliance on different news sources for political information, how they rated their own

democratic rights, how they viewed the medias role in voicing their concerns, how well the

government and the political parties had prepared them for the election, and what attitudes

they had toward to election and the outcome of the election. The next three questions were

simple agree or disagree statements on the same topic. The last five questions in the

questionnaire were open-ended questions were the participants had to answer without options.

The purpose was to disclose issues that we were not aware of. These questions had to be

coded after the survey was completed.

33

The questionnaire consisted of forty variables in which the first fourteen variables were

demographic, twenty-two were statements where the participants were asked to which degree

they agreed or disagreed to the statement. The last five questions of in the questionnaire were

open-ended questions, asking the participants to fill out the answers without being provided

with alternatives for their response. The ideas for these final questions were to disclose issues

that might have been overlooked in the previous section.

The demographic questions were based on the independent variables that presumably would

affect access to information, political involvement, awareness of their democratic rights,

understanding of the political situation and attitude towards the electoral process.

Statement section listed statements relating to freedom of speech, access to information,

purpose of election and how the election would affect them personally. The last part was

designed to disclose other issues that the statement section did not cover. The participants

were given a few open-ended questions related to the topic, and the answers had to be coded

in order to be included in the quantitative analysis later in this thesis.

3.3. Semi-structured interview

A qualitative approach was chosen to get a deeper understanding of the different actor’s

involvement, purpose, and view of the situation on the preparation for the election. The actors

included politicians, journalists, government workers and NGO personnel. The qualitative

approach mainly consists of semi-structured interviews with key informants from NGOs,

government, parties, and media outlets. Other qualitative means have been observations made

in the field and secondary data analysis. A list of general questions on the research topic was

constructed. Bryman describes the context of semi-structured interviews as having “a series of

questions that are in the general form of an interview schedule, but is able to vary the

sequence of questions…Also, the interviewer usually has some latitude to ask further

questions in response to what are seen as significant replies.” (Bryman 2004:113)

The semi-structured interview provides freedom and flexibility to the interviewee and

interviewer; this was especially helpful when interviewing people with different backgrounds

and different roles in the preparation process. For example when interviewing a teacher, as

compared to a politician, the focus would be slightly different. The politicians would be

directly asked about how the party had prepared the locals for the election, while the teacher

34

would be asked about his or her participation in the training program provided by the Nepali

election commission.

My first visit to Nepal had provided me with an extensive network of informants who

included professors, NGO workers and researchers. One of these people was assigned to this

research as my local supervisor, Professor Binod Bhatta, who has many years of experience in

the field of research. The network of informants helped to point me in the right direction and

introduce me to other people relevant to the study. This type of sample is called snowball

sampling and is a form of convenience sampling. According to Bryman “the researcher

makes initial contact with a small group of people who are relevant to the research topic and

then use these to establish contacts with others” (Bryman 2004:100).

Certain criteria’s had to be followed when choosing interviewees. The person interviewed had

to represent a group of people who were involved in the ongoing political process, either

directly or indirectly, like a politician that who are actively running campaigns in the local

community or a teacher who had revived training in preparing locals for the CA election. The

semi-structured interview was design to answer questions that might arise from the

questionnaire. Some of the questions was included in the semi-structured interview were:

“[w]hat can rural poor and disadvantaged do to let their voices be heard and raise awareness

about their situation?”, “[w]hat effect will the latest abductions and killings of journalists have

on the news coverage?”, “[w] hat is the best way to make sure the poor and disadvantaged are

represented in the Constituent Assembly?”, and “[w]hat does democracy mean to you?”.

Asking these types of questions would hopefully provide some of the answers needed to

explain the result from the survey and other research questions asked in the first chapter of the

thesis.

3.4. Field Observations

The observations done in the field was recorded during and immediately after much of the

data collection. An important reason for recording observations was due to the fact that the

outcome of data collection using data collection tools and standardized questions is not

always true. Recorded observations are useful in disclosing errors that might occur. This was

also the case in the data collection for this research, and will be discussed in more dept in the

following chapter.

35

There are several different types of observation techniques in research methods. The

observation method used for this research is an unstructured observation were “the aim is to

record in as much detail as possible the behaviour of participants with the aim of developing a

narrative account of that behaviour.”(Bryman 2004:167) Some of the observations was done

by my self and some were disclosed in debriefing of the data collection teams after

completion of the survey.

3.5. Sample

The aim was to collect one-hundred and fifty surveys from each location in order to

generalize the result to count for all voters in respective regions. The locations were selected

with the help and guidance of a local supervisor, Binod Bhatta, Ph.D. and were based on the

given budget for the research and security measures. The aim was to get two or more First

location was Kalikasthan in Rasuwa district, from were we would travel by foot to

surrounding villages and collect the data.

The questionnaire had been previously tested on 30 respondents in a residential area just

outside Dunche. It was beneficial because it allowed for us to get an idea of how much time

that we would spend gathering surveys and to remove or alternate some of the questions and

statements that did not work out as planned. The questionnaire took about ten minutes to fill

out, which had much to do with us as interviewers sometimes having to explain some of the

statements and that the open-ended section required some reflection from the participants. We

also realized that it would take a lot of time to get close to our sample of three hundred

surveys.

The purpose of the survey was to make it possible to generalize the findings for the voters of

the districts chosen for the research, and in order to do so a method of systematic random

sample was chosen. According to Bryman the meaning of random sampling is that “they

permit generalizations to the population and because they have certain known qualities”

(Bryman 2004:105). Voter lists were collected from the regional voter registration office in

Dunche, from which a system of selecting a random sample was developed. The lists were

divided into villages. Then three villages were chosen that would reflect the diversity of

ethnicity and socio-economic statues of that area. The total number of voters in a village was

36

divided based on the required sample size and the number was used to selected participants,

for example number one, then seven and then fourteen on the list.

The first research area was in Rasuwa district, where we were settled in the district

headquarter, Kalikasthan. In Kalikasthan a group of four local students, with training in

journalism, were coached in conducting the survey in two of the three villages. The students

were split into two groups each responsible for a village, and the most remote village was

covered by me and my research assistant.

Soon after arriving in the village it became apparent that the random sample system that had

been developed would not work. Many of those chosen from the list had moved, were

working in other districts or for one reason or another could not be found. The sampling

method had to be changed on the spot and a decision was made to change the sampling

strategy from systematic random sampling based on voter list, to simply walking from house

to house, started from one side of the village, until we had the required number of samples.

We incorporated a system of picking eligible female voter for every other household to have a

fair number of women represented in the survey. Another problem we encountered when

conducting the survey was that the list contained several errors. People were often listed either

with the wrong age or with the wrong name and some people were not listed at all.

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Data analysis

The data deriving from the quantitative collection of survey questionnaires in the two research

areas was coded and put into a statistical software package called SPSS, or statistical package

for social science. SPSS is one of the most used packages of computer software for

quantitative data analysis. SPSS is, according to the book “Mass Communication Research

Methods” “…a powerful and flexible program for the statistics analysis social science data,

including communications research data”. (Hansen 1998:316) In order for the data to be

analyzed each variable is given a code in form of a number, that later enables the data to be

analyzed\using the statistical software. The last five questions, that were open-ended, had to

37

been thoroughly reviewed in order to code patterns of answers. The answers were put into

five and six different categories and could then be used in the quantitative analysis. SPSS is

able disclose statistical significance in the collected data, that will be presented in the finding

section, and will support or reject the hypothesis.

The findings deriving from the quantitative survey questionnaire in both locations will be

weighed up against the findings derived from the semi-structured interviews with the

journalists, teachers, politicians and NGO workers in order to differentiate between the two

categories and the perceptions of the situation on the ground. This comparison will help

answer some of the research questions previously stated in the introductory chapter.

SPSS has a multitude of opportunities when analysing the data. I will present simple data of

frequencies in the sample, but also analyze the relationship between variables in the data.

Analyzing the relationship between variables, such as those independent variables (gender,

cast, economic status etc.) and how these affect that of dependent variables, such as responses

to the statements in the questionnaire, will determine what factors influence people’s attitude

and level of knowledge related tot the research topic. Since this is a quantitative study with a

fairly large sample, it is possible to test the statistical significance. The test will provide the

analysis with estimates on how confident the results from the survey are in relations to the

population in question.(Bryman 2004:237) In this case it counts for the populations of eligible

voters in the two districts. The level of significance is important to establish before drawing

conclusion form the results. Conventional levels of significance in social studies are usually a

maximum level of 0.05. This number means that up to five chances out of a hundred that the

result is false. (Bryman 2004:238) In the following results and discussion I have used a Chi-

square test in both multi-nominal logistic regression analysis and crosstab in descriptive

statistics analysis. The Chi-square test is one of several tests to determine significant

relationship between two variables. Chi-square test calculates each chosen cell in the

spreadsheet providing a value or frequency that is based on chance. As mentioned earlier, in

social studies a value of 0.05 is the maximum level of significance.

I used three different methods of describing and analyzing my data from the surveys in SPSS.

One was simple descriptive statistics, which I used to describe the sample through charts

beneath. The two other methods used in SPSS was crosstab and multi-nominal regression.

The crosstab was helpful in describing the relationship between two different variables, while

38

Number of surveys in each area

138141

Rasuwa

Nawalparasi

Male/Female Ratio

46 %54 %

Man

Woman

multi-nominal allowed me to plot in all the independent variables and then relating them to a

dependent variable. This meant that I could compare gender, region, economic status etc.

against all the responses in the survey, and determine which factor played the greatest role in

attitude and level of knowledge. These methods and the following result will help answer the

key research question, ““What impact does access of accurate and informative information

have on the villagers’ attitudes and understanding of towards the Constituent Assembly

election?”, and some of the additional questions listed in the first chapter.

SPSS results and findings

Some descriptive data drawn from

SPSS is represented in the form of

charts to get an overview of the

homogeneity of the sample. The

sample size was almost even from

both areas, although the total

population of Nawalparasi is much

lager than that of Rasuwa and could

lead to some sampling error.

The male/female ratio and the

literacy rate shows that there are

slightly more men than women,

and literate than illiterate,

participating in the survey, which

slightly deviate from that of the

current national levels that show

a small majority of woman and

illiterate than that of men and

literate according to the World

Fact Book, published by the CIA.

(CIA 2008)

39

Economic status

3 % 6 %

42 %

49 %

Ultra poor

Poor

Middle class

Rich

Literacy ratio

48 %52 %

Literate

Illiterate

Age group ratio

43 %

32 %

25 %18 to 30

31 to 50

51 and above

Most of the people participating in

the survey were in the poor and

middle class category. Of the total

sample of 279 participants, 6.5

percent were classified as “ultra

poor”. This category consisted of

landless people, who did not have an

income that could support the

household throughout the year and

were basically reliant on help from

others to be able to survive. 48.7

percent were labeled as poor. The

poor category generally people who

had some land where they could

grow some food, but they relied on

other type of income such as paid

labor to sustain their livelihood.

41.6 percent were in the

middleclass category, these people

had land or other types of income

to sustain themselves throughout

the year, The remaining 3.2

percent were classified as rich,

these were people in the

community that had substantial

income and property.

Since the survey was targeted

on voters. The lowest age was

eighteen. And the participant’s

age were place in categories of

young, middle aged and old

40

Cast ratio

35 %

42 %

23 % Low cast

high cast

other cast

voters. The young voters

were participants from 18 to

30 years old, the middle aged

were participants aged 31 to

50, and the old voters were

participants aged 51 or older.

The representation of all the

groups was quite evenly

divided in the sample.

The cast ratio is somewhat

different from the national

level; in that high cast

(meaning Brahman and Chhetri) is about 30 percent at the national level according to the

statistical pocket book for Nepal. That means that the two other cast categories are about five

percent lower than the national level. (NepalGov. 2006)

The sample described above, although have similarities with the total population of Nepal, is

not large enough to generalize for the whole population of Nepal, but can contribute in

revealing results that might be of concern to Nepalese in general or even in a global

perspective.

Sources of information

Comparing the results from Rasuwa district and Nawalparasi can provide answers to the

questions of the influence of poor infrastructure and access to information. Poor infrastructure

affects the access of information in different way, obviously lack of electricity makes it

difficult for people to have television sets and newspapers do not reach these areas because of

inaccessible roads. The most obvious difference between the two districts is that of access to

TV, radio and newspapers.

Most of the villages we visited in Nawalparasi had electricity making it possible for people to

have television sets in their homes. The situation in Rasuwa was different, most people did

not have electricity and we hardly saw a TV set in people’s homes. Reasons for the difference

41

Sources of information

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

TV

Radi

o

New

spap

ers

Pos

ter/P

amph

lets

Oth

er sou

rces

%

Rasuwa

Nawalparasi

is clearly that the typography severely limits what is possible to build considering Nepal’s

economy and its history of instability, Nawalparasi is flat compared to mountainous Rasuwa.

Mountains also make it hard for broadcasting to transmit to areas located in the shadow of

mountains.

We asked the villagers in the two different areas what sources of information they had

available, and the difference between Rasuwa and Nawalparasi was noticeable. 51.1 percent

of the participants in Nawalparasi had access to television and 38.3 percent said they had

access to newspapers. In Rasuwa only 34.8 percent said they had access to television and only

26.8 percent said they had access to newspapers. Worth mentioning here is that the daily

newspapers that did reach Rasuwa never reached before the day after it was printed, based on

our observations.

These differences in infrastructure favour Nawalparasi over Rasuwa. It also answers the

research question stated in chapter one asking “[w]hat channels of information are available to

the villagers?”, and more importantly it is drawing on the hypothesis stated in the beginning

of thesis:

“Access to accurate and informative information in the village will determine what attitude its members hold towards the Constituent Assembly election and their understanding of democracy.”

42

Do the villagers feel it is important to vote in CA election

One of the questions measuring attitude in the questionnaire stated: “It is important for me to

vote in the election.” This statement was measured using the five options Likert scale, going

from strongly agree to strongly disagree.

Comparing the respondents answers from the two districts, immediately presents a positive

trend in that most people in both district either strongly agree or agree to the statement. In

Nawalparasi 87.2 percent either agreed or strongly agreed to the importance, and in Rasuwa

78.2 percent did the same. What is statistically significant, besides noticing that Nawalparasi

has an overall more positive attitude, is the percentage of negative responses from Rasuwa

district. Using regression analysis in SPSS shows that district is a significant factor in

determining voter attitude. The results were tested both using nominal regression testing and

descriptive analysis with a crosstab test. Both tests came up with a significant Persons Chi-

square number when it came to the location factor. The result could indicate that

infrastructure and the access it provides in terms of information plays a major role in

determining the voter attitude. Using triangulation of both quantitative and qualitative

research results turned out to be beneficial in the case of this result. The key informants

revealed other reason for why voter attitude differs between the two areas, which will be

discussed in the qualitative analysis later on in this chapter.

"It is important to vote in the election"

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Strongly agree Agree N/A Disagree Strongly

disagree

%

Rasuwa

Nawalparasi

Using nominal regression analysis helped find which factors played an important role and

which did not. Before stating the research questions, I did have some presumptions about

43

what factors played a greater role than others. Surprisingly, when it came to this particular

question, Family size, ethnicity and age did not come up with significant Chi-square numbers.

The factor that had the most significant number was literacy followed by region. Economic

status and gender also played an important role. Occupation had some significance on the

outcome.

Factors influencing attitudes towards the media

The literacy factors, besides being important for the voter attitude question, also were

significant in relations to the question of trusting the media. Most literate participants (54.4%)

agreed to the media being biased, as oppose to illiterate (67.8%) disagreeing to the statement.

This difference came up as statistically important in the Chi-squire test showing a value of

0.001. However, 26% of the total participants did not answer the question, suggesting that

there could be some statistical error.

How well prepared are villagers for the election

Going back to the research questions listed in chapter one. Question one asked “Have the

villagers received sufficient training to participate in the Constituent Assembly election?” To

answer this question we have to look at the result for statements related to training and

knowledge about the election. There are four statements in the questionnaire that can help

answer this particular research question. “The government provides me with information on

government action and policies”, “The voter-training program has taken place in my village”,

“I have access to information about all the parties registered for the election”, “I know what

Constituent Assembly Election means”, and finally “What do you think is the purpose of the

election?”

There was no significant difference between Rasuwa and Nawalparasi in the respondents

answer to the question if they knew what the CA election meant. Most people said that they

did not know what CA election meant, but Nawalparasi, did have a higher percentage

claiming to know the meaning (49.2%) as oppose to Rasuwa (40.6%). However, a more

significant finding came to the question if they had access to information about political

parties. The survey result showed that 60.5 percent in Nawalparasi said they had access, as

oppose to only 43.4% in Rasuwa, this came up with a Chi-square significance of 0.005. Both

questions had about 10 percent missing responses.

44

What is interesting in relations to the above findings is that respondents in Rasuwa claimed to

have undergone voter training programs in far greater number than in Nawalparasi. These

voter training programs were either government organized through the regional voter

registration offices or from NGOs working in the area. 37.7 percent of the participants in

Rasuwa agree or strongly agreed to the statement saying they had undergone training, as

oppose to Nawalparasi with only 17.7 percent. The results turned out to be significant in the

Chi-square test. The results from the last question relevant to the research question showed

fairly equal results from both areas with 61.1 percent in Rasuwa saying that the government

provided them with information on government action and policies, as oppose to 69.6 percent

in Nawalparasi. This result might also be slightly skewed due to the high percentage of

missing values were 24.7 percent of all participants gave a neutral response.

Most questions in the questionnaire were closed-ended, which could lead to error in that the

respondents are given statements and optional answers. Therefore, a few open-ended

questions were added at the end of the questionnaire. All the responses than had to be

classified and coded in to answers that could be used in the SPSS analysis. The question

“[w]hat do you think is the purpose of the election?” was an open-ended question, which

forced the participants to come up with the answer themselves. The statistical result from this

question might be the best way to truly know their level of knowledge about the CA election,

and the results did show a significant difference between the two districts.

Very few respondents were able to give the most correct answer, when asked what the

purpose of the election was. The correct answer was “to elect an assembly to write a new

constitution for Nepal”, a boarder line answer showing some understanding was “to make a

new Nepal”. The other options were “to establish a republic” and “to make peace”. The last

category of responses was “other responses”, meaning several other responses that could not

be placed in any of the other frequently given responses. The results show that the

respondents in Nawalparasi have far greater notion of the purpose than Rasuwa. The reasons

for the high number of respondents answering that the purpose is to make a new Nepal could

mean that they have some grasp of the purpose, but it is not clear. Other reasons for this high

number will also be discussed in the qualitative analysis. As shown in the bar chart below,

most respondents in Rasuwa answered “to make peace”, this shows a lack of knowledge about

the purpose but that they do relate the election to something they consider to be overall

positive.

45

Reasons for having the CA election

0 %

10 %

20 %

30 %

40 %

50 %

60 %

To elect an

assembly to write

a new

constitution

To make a new

Nepal

To establish a

republikk

To make peace other reasons

Rasuwa

Nawalparasi

Taking into account all the results shown above and relating them to the research question,

makes it is easy to come to the conclusion that most people do not know the meaning of the

election. The results also provide an answer to one of the additional research question that

asked if the villagers had received sufficient training to participate in the election. However, it

is important to point out that Nawalparasi, besides having less voting training, had far better

results than Rasuwa, again going back to the improved infrastructure and access to

information. The results of the voter training might also be somewhat skewed in that Rasuwa

is a much smaller district than Nawalparasi and it takes longer for the voter training to be

completed in Nawalparasi than Rasuwa.

Access to political information

The next research question is related to the first one, but is aimed more at what the political

parties have done themselves in informing the people. The question asks “[if] the villagers

have access to information that will help them make an informed decision on what

candidate/party represents their interests?” Taking into accounts the lack of sources of

information, especially in Rasuwa, it is most likely an issue that they do not have sufficient

access to information. The result deriving from the question yet again showed Nawalparasi in

a better position than Rasuwa, with Nawalparasi coming up with 60.5 percent agreeing to the

question as oppose to 43.4 percent in Rasuwa. The result was statistically significant with a

Chi-square value of 0.005.

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Expectations about the CA election

The thesis also asks “what expectations do the villagers have to the election?” Since we have

already established the notion that geographical location holds a statistical significance in

people’s attitude, it is reasonable to look at the difference between the two districts, and what

answer they provided when asked if election will improve livelihood, ensure peace and ensure

democracy. The results are quite striking. Nawalparasi is overall much more positive in all

three questions. When it came to election improving their livelihood, Nawalparasi had a

percentage of 75.2 who either agreed or strongly agreed, as oppose to Rasuwa who had only

57.3 percent. Nawalparasi responded positively, either agreeing or strongly agreeing, to the

question concerning democracy, with a percentage of 81.8 compared to only 37.6 in Rasuwa.

This was highly significant according to the Chi-square test (0.000). The difference in the last

question, concerning peace, showed almost as high difference. With 80.2 percent of the

Nawalparasi surveys either agreeing or strongly agreeing to the statement, as oppose to

Rasuwa with 46.4 percent. This result was also statistically significant.

Manipulation and control of information

The last two research questions that are relevant for the analysis of the survey are the

questions concerning journalist safety and manipulation and control of information. “Can

journalists work safely without restraint in the village?”, “Is the flow of information

controlled or manipulated? If so, how is it controlled or manipulated, and how aware are

people about this and how do they cope with this control and manipulation?” In the survey

we asked the participants to rate to what degree they agreed or disagreed to the following

relevant statements: “My views are being reflected in the news media”, “Reporters care about

the situation of the poor and disadvantaged and reports/writes about it in the news media”,

“Journalists can freely report on any political issue without facing treats or other negative

consequences”, “News media is biased and can not be trusted”, and the open-ended question

“Is the information available manipulated or controlled? If so have how is it manipulated or

controlled? “.

First we used multi-nominal regression analysis to determine what factors that had

significance, again showing that region played the biggest role, but also ethnicity, economic

status and finally literacy. Comparing both district, by using the crosstab function in SPSS,

showed that about half of the participants agreed or strongly agreed to the statement that the

47

news media reflected their views, but again Nawalparasi turning out on top with the most

positive response. Looking at the cast ratio, the higher cast overwhelmingly agreed (60.6%) or

strongly agreed (6.1%) to the statement saying that the media represented their views. While

the two lower cast groups generally were more negative, although there were somewhat

promising responses also almost half (45%) of the lower cast participants agreed to the

statement. Economic status did reveal some interesting findings in that most middle class

participants said that they agreed to the statement compared to the ultra poor were most

answered blank and with a high percentage of people disagreeing.

The most interesting finding in regards to the statement asking if the news media reflected

their views was the between the literate and the illiterate. Results show that 63 percent of the

illiterate respondents agree to the statement as oppose to only 34 percent of the literate. This is

quite surprising, but could also mean that literate voters in the two districts are much more

critical when it comes to the news media, after all they are the once with the ability to read

newspapers themselves.

A similar question was if journalists cared for the poor and disadvantage and reported on them

in the news media. By disadvantaged we meant traditionally marginalized individuals and

groups how have been discriminated against based on ethnicity, gender, religion or cast. The

result revealed that age played a factor in the response to the question. The findings in this

question are similar to the last question, and economic status was interesting because it

showed a vast difference between rich and middleclass compared to the ultra poor. Most ultra

poor implied that reporters did not care for them, while most rich and middleclass thought that

reporters did care for the poor and disadvantaged. The same was true about the difference

between literate and illiterate, and most participants older than 51 said the same. The vast

majority of respondents from Nawalparasi agreed to the statement, but the significant

difference between the two districts was in the negative responses, where only 11.7 percent of

Nawalparasi respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed to the statement as oppose to

33.3 percent in Rasuwa.

Let us look at what the villagers though of the press freedom in their area, this was interesting

due to the many reported incidents of abduction and even killings of journalists that had been

reported on in the media. The factors that did matter was again region, literacy, and ethnicity,

but also family size. The survey asked if journalists could freely report on any political issue

48

without facing threats or other negative consequences. Over half of all low cast and high cast

respondents agreed to the statements saying that reporters could report freely, while most of

the responses of the other casts turned out blank. What is interesting is that over a quarter all

the respondents disagreed to the statement, which is disturbing in relations to press freedom, it

might have to due with the limited reach of the news in these areas, but also a different

attitude towards what we, at least in Norway, think of as a protected profession.

When we asked if the media could be trusted, the independent variables that showed

significance were region and literacy. The results between Rasuwa and Nawalparasi showed a

significant Chi-square value of 0.002, but it is important to mention that over twenty-six

percent of the total number of participants did not answer this question. However, of those

responding to the question Rasuwa participants are far more negative when trusting the

media. The result showed a percentage of 53.9 in Rasuwa saying that they did not trust the

media as oppose to only 32.6 percent in Nawalparasi. Most literate agreed to the claim, while

most illiterate disagreed to it.

In the last survey question concerning media bias, the question was open-ended, which meant

that all the responses had to be evaluated and coded. The codes were categories of typical

answers given by the respondents. The factors that showed significance here were age,

geographical location, gender, ethnicity and how many times the respondents had voted

previously. What is important to point out in this case, and what was a problem with the open-

ended question in general is that over half of the participants answered N/A in the survey,

which makes the analysis of the rest less significant. However, when so many respondents

say they do not know or refuse to answer, it could either be that they do not understand what

the question means, they are unable to answer it because they might be scared to reveal their

opinion on the subject or that they simply do not care about the question. A reason for this

lack of response is discussed in the field observation section later in this chapter.

Of the people providing answers, the majority said they did not thing that the information was

manipulated or controlled. Women were generally less sceptical than men, and 14.1 percent

of the men, who provided an answered, said that the media was controlled by political parties

or organizations. Over eighty percent of the lower cast thought that there was no control or

manipulation of information which was much higher than the other two cast groups. More

significant was the relationship between the response and age. The older the respondents

49

were, the less sceptical they became. Similarly the younger the respondents the more they

thought that parties and organization controlled or manipulated the information. If the

participants had not voted previously they were much more sceptical, although most of them

(55.9%) thought that there was no control or manipulation, over twenty percent said that the

political parties or organizations controlled and manipulated.

Based on the results discussed above, we can go back and look at the two research questions,

“can journalists work safely without restraint in the village?”, and “is the flow of information

controlled or manipulated? If so, how is it controlled or manipulated, and how aware are

people about this and how do they cope with this control and manipulation?” and try to

answer them. According to the responses from the villagers, it seems that there is no problem

for journalists to work safely in the villages, but the problem is ratter that the journalists are

not in the village to write about issues that are important to them and especially for the ultra

poor who feel left out. The last question is just as hard to make any conclusions about,

because the survey questions related to this research question was often not answered,

especially when it came to the open-ended question. The question that did provided some

clues to what villagers thought of media control and manipulation was when we asked

whether or not media was biased and could not be trusted. The question revealed that in

Rasuwa, which is the less developed district of the two, people are much more sceptical to the

media with over half of its respondents saying they did not trust the media. So in the case of

Nepal news media being controlled or manipulated more has to be disclosed by other means

than the surveys, which we will come back to later in the analysis. On the bright side there

seem to be some healthy scepticism among the respondents.

4.2. Semi-Structured interviews

Including semi-structured interviews in the research was a part of my plan to triangulate

results from the survey with additional information. It would help explain some of the issues

arising from the survey and stated as research questions in chapter one. As mentioned earlier,

key informants were chosen to represent the view of different stakeholders. In the following

section responses provided by these key informants will be compared and discussed. The

semi-structured interviews were conducted in a conversational manner, but with a list of

questions that needed to be answered. Some of the questions asked what the meaning of

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democracy and of good governance was, and what has been done to represent poor and

disadvantaged. These questions attempt to answer some of the additional research questions

that was not covered by the survey, but also add to the explanation why results in the survey

turned out the way they did. The remaining research questions that needed to be answered

using the semi-structured interview with the key informants were:

• “Do the villagers have access to information that will help them make an informed

decision on what candidate/party represents their interests?”

• “What actions have been taken to provide political representation for disadvantaged

groups?

• Does the concept democracy have a different meaning between the different

stakeholders?

• Is the flow of information controlled or manipulated? If so, how is it controlled or

manipulated, and how aware are people about this and how do they cope with this

control and manipulation?

Combining some of the answers relating to the research questions above and the result from

the survey and the observations later on will help answer the key research question asking:

“What impact does access of information have on rural people’s attitude towards the

Constituent Assembly election and their understanding of democracy?”

The Maoists

The first key information from the Maoist party that we conducted interviews with was a

Young Communist League (YCL) leader from Kalikasthan in Rasuwa district, named simply

Nakul, and Mr. Babu Ram Rijal, a local Maoist leader from Bhutaha Chowk in Nawalparasi.

We first wanted to understand their stance and their role in Nepali politics. The YCL was

explained to us to be “a league of youth, fighting against the old system [monarchy]. It is an

independent organization, but in cooperation with the Maoists”, this was according to the

YCL leader, which is an interesting statement, because it does not leave the responsibility of

YCL actions with the Maoists, in that way they can act in the interest of the Maoists but

without holding the Maoist party accountable He also explained that the Maoists would bring

51

a “new system of government run by the people”, and that the revolution would come

hopefully by peaceful means and if not it would be achieved with arms.

The reason for the postponement of the election

One of the questions in the survey questionnaire from the quantitative part of the research

asked what the reason for the postponement of the election was. In the survey most

participants did not answer. We wanted to get an answer from those directly involved in the

political struggle. Both the Maoist and the YCL gave interesting responses that were

somewhat similar Nakul said they that “unless the people are able to know what to vote, how

to vote, and are aware of themselves, the nation, the political parties, we can not have an

election.” Mr. Babu Ram Rijal said that equality was needed before holding election. He also

refers to demands they had posed at the time, the declaration of a republic and a fully

proportional election. His reasoning and defence of this demand was provided with an

example referring saying “if we have two candidates, one rich and one poor, the rich will pay

and win. The government needs to improve the judiciary system, provide security and punish

the criminals. Nakul

These statements seem to support the idea that the Maoists had postponed the election on

purpose. At the same time the results from our survey seemed to support the notion, at least in

the population that was represented by the survey, that people did not have enough knowledge

about the CA election, although the Maoists might have other motives. According to several

news sources in the weeks before the announcement of the postponement had reported that

the Maoist support was on the drawback and if it had been held at the announced date, the

Maoists would not have had the number of representatives in the assembly as they would have

hoped for.

The function of the media and killing of journalists

The YCL said that the function of the media should be to make the nation aware of it self. In

the matter of journalists being abducted and killed both seemed to refer to the same incident

of the Bara journalist who had been killed by Maoists earlier in the fall. Both said that he was

killed because he was a member of a militant Terai group who supplied weapons and were

linked with supporters of the king. The Maoist assured us that they were punishing the

perpetrators themselves, because the people responsible for the killings had not been

following the communist teachings. We asked the YCL leader if it was just to kill the

52

journalist even if the claims were true, but he did not answer the question. When asked why

journalists were so exposed to being targeted the Maoist leader explained that they were not

reporting on the truth and journalists are powerful because they bring the message, therefore

they need to be more responsible. He also added that a Maoist journalist was killed two

months ago and no one knew about that.

Actions for provide political representation for disadvantaged groups.

Refer to one of the research questions asking about what actions have been taken to provide

political representation for disadvantaged groups. The Maoist leader said that they had given

certain provisions for disadvantaged groups such as women and dalits, and they wanted a

fully proportional system, also adding that they empower the women. The reason for the lack

of awareness was due to the failings of the Nepali government, and that they followed the

voice of India and the U.S., who did not want Nepal to develop.

Democracy and the role of the government.

According to the YCL leader, democracy meant “for all people”, providing fundamental

rights and that the government should be governed by the people. In his view “good

governance” should mean a proper understanding between the government and the people and

a connection which he claimed was currently not there. By this the al least touched upon the

question of accountability. The Maoist understood democracy to be a system were

representatives of the people make laws and policies on the behalf of the people and that

“good governance” implied that every person, all citizens, politicians, government etc. have to

work within the boundaries of the constitution and that the laws are made effective and

practical.

United Marxist-Leninist (UML)

The UML is a moderate party in Nepali politics and was before the CA election the second

largest party and a party of the seven-party alliance, it was important for the research to get

their views. in Kalikasthan in Rasuwa, I met with the former VDC president (local

government) who represented the UML party, named Prasad Neupane.

The reason for the postponement of the election

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The reason for the postponement was due to Maoists bringing new agendas to the table in

order to destroy the election process, and the reason for this behaviour was that the Maoists

knew that had lost the large support they had during the insurgency period. An according to

Neupane, the Maoists would rather have anarchy than losing an election. He also was

concerned with the effect of the postponement because it led to distrust among the people

toward democracy and the political parties, and the only way to repair the trust was by

holding the election. He also added that the peace process has been weakened due to the

postponement.

The function of the media and killing of journalists

The UML leader explained that although the government had said that they had strengthened

the mass media sector, the reality among journalists was the opposite. He said that a large part

of the reason for the situation was due to the insurgency and conflict over the years, and that a

peaceful environment can better provide communication to the people. He asked rhetorically

how journalists can do their job and information be made accessible when there is no proper

security in place? According to Neupane the role of the media is to provide objective and

accurate information to the people. He replied, when asked if he felt that the information was

manipulated and controlled by saying that in the current political situation, he wished for

peace. He blamed the Maoists for influencing the coverage by threats and violence, and that

the current coverage was not following the reality, instead they favour parties.

Actions for provide political representation for disadvantaged groups.

On the issue of representation of disadvantaged groups the UML leader also supported a fully

proportional election system that would ensure representation for these groups. At least on

this issue they were agreeing with the Maoists.

Democracy and the role of the government.

Neupane defined democracy to be simply rule of the people. He said that there has been a lack

of representative members in the parliament, and that it is necessary for leaders to take

mandate from the people. For him “good governance” simply meant a proper way of ruling,

where people were free of complains.

Nepali Congress (NC)

54

The representatives we interviewed from the Nepali Congress party, which was the largest

party at that time, were Visnu Lamichhane, party secretary for Nawalparasi, and Lam Tamang

a local NC politician in Rasuwa.

The reason for the postponement of the election

Both Tamang and Lamichhane said that the responsibility with the postponement belonged to

the Maoists who did not want the election at that time because they did not have strong

enough support at the time. All the political parties were ready to go out into the villages, but

due to the postponement more that 95 percent of the villages were not covered by election

training and political campaigns. Tamang said that almost all people understood the CA

election and were ready to vote by the 22nd of February.

The function of the media and killing of journalists

Lamichhane said that targeting journalists was not new for Nepal, but it had increased. As a

journalist, you should not be afraid, but as a human being you cannot ignore it and it will

affect the news coverage. Tamang emphasized the importance of mass communication in

development of the country. He was concerned with the current state on insecurity journalists

are being targeted by groups that are not being punished, some journalists have been blamed

of biases coverage, but killing them is not justifiable.

Actions for provide political representation for disadvantaged groups.

Lamichhane explained that he thought the media should help raise the voice of these groups,

it was a problem during the insurgency period, but now since the press is free they are able to

raise the voices. The Maoists was against free speech, also meaning they are against “good

governance”. Tamang said that the NC had incorporated proportional representation of all

ethnic groups to be represented by the party. The NC also had a women’s organization within

the party, and 18 women had been elected from the NC to sit in the lower house in the

previous election.

Democracy and the role of the government.

The NC leader form Nawalparasi defined democracy as a system of government, where

candidates are elected by the people to represent them, and “good governance meant that

every citizen have constitutional rights and human rights. Tamang said it meant the situation

55

of a country on with the demand of the people is heard, that secures fundamental rights and

freedom to speak.

The woman’s groups

It was important to get some perspectives from the women’s point of view and we managed to

get two interviews with representatives from women’s groups, one in each district. In Rasuwa

we met wit the head of the government run Women’s office, Branda Gurung. Her office

worked for women’s empowerment, through health education, group formation and training

in income generating activities. The other representative was Mrs. Yam Kala Pandey,

president of the Panchanagar Women Welfare Center in Nawalparasi. The center conducted

awareness programs on trafficing and health issues.

The reason for the postponement of the election

Mrs. Gurung said that the election was postponement because the political parties could not

agree on important issues in time for the election.

The function of the media and killing of journalists

The lack of women representatives in the media was viewed as a problem for women in

general; they had no active voice in the media. The coverage of women’s issues was lacking

and especially in rural areas, due to problems of transportation and founding. Central

newspapers do not print stories coming from rural areas, such as Rasuwa. However, Mrs

Gurung said that local journalist training in the schools were being conducted, and that 12 out

of 20 students partaking in the journalism course in Kalikasthan were women.

Actions for provide political representation for disadvantaged groups.

In the case of the women’s group both representatives, said they did not conduct voter

training specifically for women, but indirectly through women’s empowerment. Mrs Pandey

expressed her frustration about the “male dominated” Nepali society, were men are carefree.

According to her, women spend their whole day in the home and out in the field. There is a

greater lack of education among women and there is no support from men to change the status

quo. Mrs. Gurung said that it was helpful with the provision of al least 33 percent of the seats

in the assembly to women, but also a problem in that there were no top women politicians.

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Mrs Pandey said that the best way to change the situation for women was to hold the

Constituent Assembly election and get enough women representatives.

Democracy and the role of the government.

Democracy, according Mrs. Pandey, meant that the people select candidates for government,

and then government make policy and rule over the people. She thought it was not working

because people were weak and unable to punish those candidates in the government who are

unable to do better for the people and for the nation. Mrs. Pandey’s explanation of “good

governance” was that it gave freedom to people so they can get education, work etc., and that

it implies and understanding and agreements among all parties reducing conflicts in

government. This view touches upon the principle of consensus listed in the World Bank

definition of the term in the beginning chapter of the thesis

The Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum (MJF)

In Nawalparasi it was important to get a response from the MJF, who had been in the news

media due to clashes with Maoists , several strikes and roadblocks in the Terai area. The

MJF was a political party representing the Madhesis, an ethnic group that according to

themselves had been historically discriminated against. We managed to set up an interview

with the party secretary Jay Ram Yadav of the Nawalparasi district, which we met in their

party headquarters in Parasi, couple of hours drive from our base camp in Bhutaha Chowk

According to the MJF secretary, at the time of the interview, twenty percent of the people,

mainly Brahmans and Chhetris, in Nepal had power of eighty percent of the resources, and

out of the twenty-seven members of the government only two of them were of Madhesi

ethnicity therefore they had been forced to establish the Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum to fight

for the rights of the Madhesi people

The reason for the postponement of the election

The secretary put the blame of the postponement on the Maoist and the government that was

unable to listen to the voice of the Madhesi people. He emphasis on the Maoists misconduct

by referring to their donations strategies, where they have forced people to donate money and

that this reflected their lack of respect for law and order.

57

The function of the media and killing of journalists

The media function in Nepal was criticized by the MJF for negative coverage of their party.

However, they have had meeting and constructive talks with representatives from the media

and the situation was improving. Still, they felt to some extent that they were being ignored,

especially from the central level, adding that he thought that media outlets in Kathmandu

often were biased. The blame for the murder of journalists was put on the Maoists. He told us

that Maoists groups who are responsible for this sort of misconduct usually disguises

themselves as being a part of different groups. An that independent judiciary of the country

are suppose to handle these perpetrators , so when the Maoist and the YCL is killing and then

claiming to take care of the perpetrators themselves it is not justified, adding peace comes

from peace and not from weapons.

Actions for provide political representation for disadvantaged groups.

The secretary stated that women needed more education and equal rights, but due to the

sudden political change there had not been enough time to adjust. Culturally, women have

been discriminated against, but people do change. According to the secretary, the overall

problem for poor and disadvantaged groups was that they were used to a corrupt political

system were they would receive money voting. To counter this problem the MJF were

focusing on awareness programs in the Terai. They claimed to have decentralized their efforts

into smaller units to cover more people with their programs, but the Maoists were for

threatening people and hindering representatives from other parties to go to villages unless

their demands were met.

Democracy and the role of the government.

Mr. Yadav explained that democracy meant or should mean that every citizen of the nation

should have the feeling of belonging and the government should provide equity and equality

to the nation as a whole, and that “good governance” meant peace, security, feeling of

security for all, an end to corruption, and that the people should be proud of their government.

Government Worker

We met with one government worker named Ramji Adhakari, who was working as a VDC

secretary in Kalikasthan in Rasuwa district.

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The reason for the postponement of the election

Lack of political commitment on the part of the political parties was the reason for the

postponement. The Maoists did not follow their previous agreements and presented new

demands. The Maoists had conducted an internal survey showing less support than they

thought they had.

The function of the media and killing of journalists

Adhakari thought that there was a major problem about mass media in Nepal due to

insufficient education, and once people are educated they can take full advantage of the mass

media product, then they can then understand what the principles of good media are and what

freedom entitles. He said that the Nepali law have granted freedom of the press, but due to

threats from the Maoists and terrorist groups this freedom is limited, especially in the Terai

area were there is a lack of local government. Adhakari stated that the media should be the

remedy for bad politics. A problem that Adhakari mentions with the Nepali newspapers is that

they are often in connection with political parties, and used for the purpose of propaganda.

The newspapers are not always following good principles of journalism. He also thought that

the media good play a better role of reporting on the status of the rural poor to bring change.

The local journalists do not visit the poorest areas to report on the condition of marginalized

groups such as the dalits. As of now they do not follow the reality. He summarized his point is

saying that it is a matter of limited geographical coverage, lack of education, journalists being

killed and lack of professional journalists.

Actions for provide political representation for disadvantaged groups.

According to Adhakari the most important way of improving the life of the disadvantaged is

to provide education. Political representation can be improved through the election and the

government is applying a voter education program of teachers so that they can go and teach

the people in the rural areas about the CA election. The political parties need to involve the

disadvantaged groups in politics to ensure that they get a fair representation in the election

that is inclusive.

Democracy and the role of the government.

Because of the condition to day people are starting to realize their freedom and in some cases

they are abusing these freedoms, which are hurting the principles of democracy. People need

59

to be more responsible. There have been many strikes and roadblocks done by several

different groups abusing their freedoms and hurting the society. The election is important for

democracy and political stability in Nepal. It will represent the voice of the people and the

choice of the people.

The Journalists

The two journalists we managed to arrange meetings with was a local correspondent in

Nawalparasi for the large Kathmandu newspaper Kantipur, named Predeep Paudel and

Dhruba Adhikary, chairman of Nepal Press Institute and correspondent for Asian Times in

Kathmandu. Paudel told us that he had background in development/peace journalism, and

explained that there was tow types of journalism. One type was the conventional one, event

oriented and objective, and the other type was peace journalism, conflict sensitive and

concerned with the effect of news.

The reason for the postponement of the election

According to Adhikary the problem is placed with the parties who have not been sincere in

the sense that the mandate was given by the people’s movement, not elected, and was

mandated to lead the country to election. Their incompetence have been showed in the way

they have pushed the election further and further. Another problem is that the aging leadership

in the main political parties, especially the NC leader, Koirala, who is the Prime Minister and

head of state. Koirala who is eighty-five years old is carrying on, similarly to the other head of

parties. These leaders should let the younger generation take over. Adhikary’s opinion is that

a new generation of leaders can get things done.

The function of the media and killing of journalists

Adhikary explained the situation of the media in Nepal. The flow of information was limited

due to the high illiterate rate, giving at least the print media a limited market. Thinking of

Nepali news in terms of breaking news is absurd as of now. The best way of reaching the

masses in Nepal is through radio, which are cheap and portable. The FM radio stations are

doing a great job in covering and transmitting news, even if it is not of journalistic quality, it

is doing the basic job of informing according to Adhikary. Even though newspapers do not

directly reach people, they are often used as information source for local FM radio stations.

The TV has less impact as of today, because they are expensive and requires electricity. The

radio is basically the medium that hooks people to the system, which is good.

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Adhikary gave a brief overview of the progress of new media in Nepal , going back to the

proliferation of the radio stations [when democracy was reinstated in 1990], due to the short

time span there has not been produced a large enough pool of workforce, meaning qualified

and trained broadcasters and journalists. The quality is bound to be inferior in the beginning,

and there is a demand for building institutions were people can get journalism training.

Adding that necessity is the mother of invention, as necessity increases there will be more

institutions like the one he was affiliated with. Today there is at least a dozen institutions like

the Nepal Press Institute.

Another problem that we had noticed when talking with students in Rasuwa was that all of

them said that journalism was too risky and did not pay enough to consider as a future career.

Adhikary agreed, referring back to the stories of abduction and killing s not only committed

by journalists but from other groups as well. Once the situation becomes normal the risk will

decrease and open up the field and relatively safe for journalists. Mr. Adhikary added: “There

might not be enough money but there are young people that are willing to work for a cause,

not looking for big money. We remind the students that this is not an area were you will make

good money, unless you go for any kind of blackmailing business .” He was positive about

the future of the profession based on the responses from his students and the opportunities that

such training gives not only in journalism but in other institutions as well.

We asked both reporters about the distrust of the news media in Nepal. Paudel agreed to this

observation, in his district of Nawalparasi four new newspapers had been established this fall

by different political parties’ right before the election date. He said that many journalists

without proper training and lack of experience were likely to conduct unethical reporting.

Paudel said that the security problem affected the news reporting. If a journalist tried to write

a story on corruption they would face threats and sometimes even risk of being killed.

According to Paudel, corruption was often liked to parties and some of the media was in turn

connected to those parties, making it hard to get the stories out. He mentioned that the story

about the Bara journalist who had been killed by a group of Maoists, and according to Paudel

the reason for the journalist being killed was that he was working on a story about illegal

pouching of red sandalwood how were smuggle over the boarder by a local Maoist group.

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Adhikary brought another issues to the discussion about the journalists falling victims to

violence. In his view it was also related to journalistic misconduct due to lack of training in

the media sector, some people working in the media profession are not following professional

standards. He provided an example saying:

“If there is a public meeting between to rival candidates, and one candidate tells that the other candidate is a liar. A reporter that would publish this claim, without getting a response from the other candidate would run the risk of getting beaten by the other candidate’s supporters. This would happen because the journalist did not provide the full story.”

Reasons he explained was that the reporter did it either unknowingly due to poor training, or

deliberately due to political motives, but h was quick to say that killing a person for that

reason is not justifiable

Actions for provide political representation for disadvantaged groups.

Adhikary said the problem was not that people did not know about elections, they have been

through elections before. They are used to being neglected by politicians, and now they are

using the same ballot paper. The problem is that people do not understand the difference that

this particular election represents. Adhikary emphasized the importance by stating that:

“This is perhaps a once in a lifetime election. It is an election to elect a constituent assembly,

which will write a constitution for this country. Taking ownership and declaring that we the

people of Nepal…”

Another problem emphasized by Adhikary is how information is presented to the public by

the media. People hear about concepts such as first-past the post and proportional election

system without knowing what these concepts are, although they have partaken in first-past the

post in the past, and this could be explained to them. There is also a problem of credibility.

There is a tendency among newspapers to slightly deviating from the right things and keeping

focus. This tendency is to write speculative stories, and to contradict the following days.

The proportional part of the election system and how it works with electing representatives

has to be explained in a proper way, first to the media leaders and opinion makers, then they

will be able to tell the people how it works, which they have not been able to do so far.

“What needs to be done is that in the beginning, you tell that the traditional system is to vote for a candidate of a party, and the new system is to vote for a party that will then find representatives that will represent women, marginalized groups and so on. You have to simplify this to be understood by people who are illiterate. “

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Paudel gave an example of how big of a problem of representation in the media, in

Nawalparasi only three women journalists were working, and the reason for this was lack of

education and early marriage. Language was another problem for the area, many did not

speak Nepali although all FM transmissions were in Nepali, and the newspapers did not reach

all rural areas. We mentioned that villagers had expressed dissatisfaction with the news

because the content did not relate to them, Paudel said that the reason was that most papers

did not have enough pages to cover other issues than hot news, but in the case of Kantipur

they had more and offered topic segments.. Paudel also pointed out that the local government

had not been working together with local organizations to provided awareness training, and

that was one of the reasons for the poor response from our Nawalparasi sample.

Democracy and the role of the government

Paudel listed three reasons for the poor understanding of the CA election. First one was that

people were too busy working, second, was as he had mentioned earlier, the language

problem, and finally, that the public response was generally passive. These reasons were

weakening democracy. Adhikary stated that the ones that have to be responsible are the

government and the election commission, government departments such as the home ministry,

the information ministry, and local development ministries. They must be active, doing their

part of the job. The election commission had the biggest responsibly for the election because

they have the responsibility of educating, telling, assisting, helping 17 million plus voters.

Adhikary added that “preparation is not only printing ballot paper or paining ballot boxes,

more importantly it means preparing the human side. This proportional representation has not

been explained, even to the upper level media people. “

When asked if it would have been beneficial to prolong the period before election so that

people s\could receive proper training, Adhikary said that proper training would take years,

and no preparation would not be fair or give proper representation, or reflect the public

perception. “From another perspective there is nothing perfect in this world, and election is

not an exception. There are events and trends all over the world in different countries, that this

[democracy] is a process were you learn as you move along.” It would provide some basis to

do it better next time.

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Answers provided from the semi-structured interviews

The first question listed in the beginning of this section asked“[if] the villagers have access to

information that will help them make an informed decision on what candidate/party represents

their interests?” Based on the answers provided by the key informant, most villagers would

generally not have sufficient access to information that would help them in making a well

informed political decision. The Maoists said that people were not ready, implying that they

had not received sufficient information. The journalists said that illiteracy, limited reach, and

problems with coverage based on violence from groups towards journalists and lack of

training in ethical journalistic conduct contributed to the poor access. One of the journalists

was also critical in the way the government and the election commission had conducted the

preparation. The MJF blamed the Maoists for hindering access to villages for representatives

of other parties. The women’s group representatives said that women lacked representatives in

the media, and there was no coverage of women’s issues and therefore no one to voice their

concerns. The NC representative said that people in general had been ready to vote on the

22nd of February, but was denied due to the actions of the Maoists.

The second question that was posed in the beginning section was: “What actions have been

taken to provide political representation for disadvantaged groups?” The different

stakeholders had different responses related to this particular question. The women’s group

representatives did not directly work towards such political awareness, but were focusing on

empowerment of women in general through their programs. The government worker

mentioned the government voter training programs. The UML leader and the Maoists focused

on the proportional election system that would ensure representatives from disadvantaged

groups such as women and dalits in the new assembly. The MJF who was a party working in

the interest of a disadvantaged group, the Madhesis, were also for a fully proportional election

system. The journalists were generally critical saying that concepts such as the proportional

part of the election system and what that mean and how it works had to be explained in a

proper manner, first to the media leaders and opinion makers, and then they would be able to

tell the people how it worked. The NC thought that the media should help raise the voice of

these groups but blamed the Maoists for hindering this process. Based on these answers, I

concluded that most of the stakeholders have thoughts about the issue, and some of them

being for a proportional representation system, none of them have direct plans of action to

help disadvantaged groups with political representation.

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The third question aimed differentiating the meaning of the concept democracy between the

parties involved in the political process. The research question asked: “Does the concept

democracy have a different meaning between the different stakeholders?” The answers

provided from the key informants show that they had different perceptions on meaning of the

concept. The Maoists emphasis “for all people”, fundamental rights and governing by the

people, a system were representatives of the people make laws and policies on the behalf of

the people. They said that “good governance” implied that all citizens, including the

politicians have to work within the boundaries of the constitution and that the laws are made

effective and practical. The UML leader gave a similar answer defining democracy as “rule of

the people”. “Good governance” meant simply meant a proper way of ruling, where people

were free of complains. The NC leader form Nawalparasi defined democracy as a system of

government, where candidates are elected by the people to represent them, and “good

governance meant that every citizen have constitutional rights and human rights. The

government worker focused on freedoms with responsibility. The view provided by the MJF

representative was of a different nature viewing democracy as being a state of conscious

among all citizen of belonging to the nation, and the government should provide equity and

equality to the nation as a whole. “Good governance” meant peace, security, feeling of

security for all, an end to corruption, and that the people should be proud of their government.

Based on their struggle and their thinking of democracy, there might be parallels here to the

writings of Shapiro, were resistance groups towards a regime have a tendency label their

opposition to a system as a democratic force. The women’s group representative had a more

passive view of democracy it that people select candidates for government, and then

government make policy and rule over the people. She said that “good governance” implied

an understanding and agreements among all parties reducing conflicts in government. The

journalists viewed democracy in Nepal in is current state as a process that constantly is slowly

improving. Based on the responses from the different groups above, I conclude that views of

democracy is similar among the main political parties, including the Maoists, and their views

of democracy is different from that of MJF, the women’s group, the journalists and the

government worker. The reason for it might be that the mainstream parties have a well

established rhetoric and have been involved in the political processes longer than the MJF.

The fourth and final research question that could be partly answered through the responses

from the key informants and then compared to the results from the survey, asked if: “…the

flow of information controlled or manipulated? If so, how aware are people about this and

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how do they cope with it?” The responses to the question about the media roll and the killings

of journalists would reveal some clues about the situation of the Nepali news media. The

Maoists seemed to think of the media as controlled by other groups and parties, that was the

reason for the murder of journalists. The UML felt that due to the conflict environment, the

media could not carry out their duties and in that way the message was distorted. The UML

blamed the Maoists purposely threatening journalists to control the information flow. The NC

said that targeting journalists was nothing new but was becoming an increasing problem. The

women’s group was concerned with the lack of women representatives and coverage of

women’s issues in the media. The MJF complained about undeserved media coverage of their

party and that the central media was biased. The government worker said that although

freedom of the press was protected by law, violence towards journalists and unethical

journalistic conduct and propaganda is manipulating the information. The journalists were

concerned with the targeting of journalists by groups, and that the training and recruitment of

journalists that causes unethical coverage and even more problems. Based on these responses

I conclude that although the media is not regulated or state owned. It is being indirectly

influenced by certain incidents, such as targeting of journalists, and the fact that the media

profession is lacking in training sometimes leading to unethical journalistic conduct.

4.3. Field observations

After completing the survey collection in Rasuwa district the teams got together for debriefing

and sharing of observations made in the field. The most common observation was that in the

more developed village most of the participants had a more than average understanding of the

questions. Most of the literate people, like local teachers participating in the survey, were

more positive about the election had greater understanding about what Constituent Assembly

election meant. This observation supported the results from the survey. Some of the older

participants claimed to have voted more than fifteen times before, which is not in accordance

with the number of previous elections. Based on discussions with locals, the reason for this

error might have been caused by previously fraudulent voter training programs done by

different parties in the past. All of the research teams were confronted by people asking what

party they were working for. Some people would paraphrase the question asking if

democracy would bring peace to the republic would bring peace, which has been used as

slogans by the Young Communist League and the Maoists. This suggested that the Maoists

and the YCL had been effective in getting the message out. In one of the villages the team had

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spoken with a teacher who had conducted voter training among the villagers for eighteen days

before the postponement was announced.

The villager we had stayed the night with in Betang village, had told us a story about

corruption during a previous election. He told us that a local NC politician had spent six

million rupies in the area to pay villagers to vote for him, and he had won the local election by

a margin of less than fifty votes. This story was confirmed by other villagers in area,

suggesting that this story was widely known among the locals.

The second location chosen for the survey was Bhutaha Chowk in Nawalparasi district. We

were assisted by a local NGO, called Indreni Social Forum, and two local students, who were

trained in collecting data for the research. This time we split up into two teams. Both teams

were used in the first village, Anandanagar, were all the households were covered due to the

small size of the villages. We had some language problems here as in Rasuwa, the locals

spoke mainly Pospari, and therefore we had assistance from two local NGO workers who

spoke the language. We used same method of choosing a female participant for every other

house in the village. For the second and third village, Jamunia and Senrari, we split up the

team, conducting the survey in a village each using the same guidelines we had agreed on.

During debriefing we made some similar observations as those in Rasuwa district. Some

participants had voted more than fifteen times, and some also told about parties coming in and

giving villagers’ fraudulent voter training. The survey teams had also reported on stories of

widespread bribery in relations to previous elections were villagers had received gifts. All of

the participants in the first village were landless people, and these had been promised claims

in the past for the land they had built their village on from politicians campaigning in the area.

These are remarks given by the villagers in Anandanagar:

• “In previous elections the landlord came and gave us money and told us what to vote.”

• “No election has ever helped us.”

• “Politicians came here and asked for our votes, and nothing happened, no one returned

and there is still no electricity here.”

• “Political leaders come and show us were to stamp that is our voter training, no

information, no political issues.”

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Other problem observed by the research team was that the villagers on some occasions

deliberately gave wrong information. On example was a woman we ask about access to radio,

who said she was too poor to have a radio even though we could clearly see a radio sitting on

the floor behind her and we also noticed a radio antenna on the roof of the house. After

discussing the incident with the local NGO people it became clear that this often happens

when new people arrive in the village and the villagers assumes that they are there to provide

them with aid of different character. We had to go back and clarify our purpose for being

there, and that we were not there to provide them with any type of relief except for the

purpose of recording their opinions.

We learned from people in the Jamunia village that six people there had received CA election

training from an NGO, for the purpose of spreading this information to other people in the

villages. We even saw a few election training posters in the houses of some of the

participants. Comments made by people we met in the Jamunia and Senrari included:

• “Politicians do not know politics, how can you expect us to care for the same.”

• “Things were better before, we just pleased the rich people and gave them our votes,

now we do not care anymore.”

• “In some of the Tharu (indigenous people of Terai) communities politicians have

given money, food and cloths, so they would get our votes.”

• “The poor and disadvantaged are not aware of their responsibilities.”

• “It is hard to get the truth because the politicians control the news.”

A local resturant was situated nearby the government office in Jamunia were we stayed

overnight. The tee shop had a radio frequently turned on so that people could listen in on the

shows. Early one morning four people gathered around to listen in on a radio program called

“headliners”, which was a show produced in Kathmandu and featured interviews with key

political leaders. When we asked the shopkeeper why so few villagers, especially the poorest,

did not listen to such programs he replied that they are illiterate, and do not think they should

pay attention to such matters.

In Jamunia I met with a retired government officer who I casually conversed with. He

explained about the newspapers and how they were in connection with different parties.

According to him the Maoists had their own newspapers called Jana Disha, while Kantipur

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was quite neutral and the Gorka Patra was a government own newspaper. His view was that

political parties were not clear about their position, which gave people lack of understanding,

and what was needed the most was education. One interesting point he made was that new

political parties that was formed was based on cast and religion and that this in effect would

split the people.

I also met with a woman by the name of Manju Aadhakari in the same village who was a

member of the UML. I asked her about women’s issues relating to awareness and political

representation. She told me that the government had not done enough for women, making it

hard for women to be involved in politics. She referred to the cultural aspects of women

having marry, that women were not given proper education, and that few women were

involved in professions of any importance.

We had gotten accommodation at the local irrigation office, and here I met a government

worker who had been with the office for the past twenty years. He told me that the problem in

the area was that people were afraid, and if the election was to be held now, it would not be

good. He claimed that only the government had benefited from the postponement. He also

complained about the behavior of people in the village saying that many of them act like

sheep and only do what the others do due to lack of education. According to this government

worker, more and more politicians pay these people money for votes, adding “corruption

prevails here.” He continued by saying that education and not poverty was the problem here

in Jamunia. His comment about corruption reminded me of a story we had heard from several

villagers in Rasuwa about a local NC politician who had spend six million rubies on bribery

to get enough votes.

A day later I talked with a woman named Mrs. Kumari Thapa she said something along the

lines of what the government worker had commented on. According to her, most political

decisions in the villages were made together as a group where everyone came together to

discuss on political parties and then deciding for all. She also mentioned that women who

wanted to be involved in politics are not being supported by their families. Another lady

added that this was the first time anyone had been there to ask these questions.

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As mentioned earlier in the survey analysis, many questions were not answered by the

participants, and that the reason could be fear. Both in the villages in Rasuwa and

Nawalparasi we had problems with people not providing answers. We had been surprised by a

woman in the Betang village, who had turned away from us when we approached here, and

we soon after found out that our local guide was a member of the YCL and that he was the

reason for the woman’s reluctance to answer. The same scenario played out in Jamunia

village where a local member of the Maoist party kept following us around when we

interviewed. We quickly noticed this behavior and split up on the occasion so that they would

not be allowed to jeopardize our results.

The observations helped support our answers some of the conclusions made from the survey

results and the interviews in the previous sections. To the question asking if the villagers had

received sufficient training to participate in the Constituent Assembly election, the survey and

the interviews concluded that they did not have sufficient training, the observation suggests

the same; only in one of the six villages visited did we see traces of voter training programs.

Six people in Jamunia village had been given training so that they could share this

information with the other villagers and that had not happened at the time of the research.

The observation suggested the same result for the next research question asking if the

villagers had access to information that would help them make an informed decision on what

candidate/party represented their interests. The conclusion was that they did not have access

to this information; although some of the parties, mostly Maoists and MJF, had cadres

working in the villages. These cadres seemed to be more interested in controlling the situation

for their own benefit than helping people understand the election process and what parties that

served in the best interest of them. Drawing a conclusion on the next research question asking

what actions had been taken to provide political representation for disadvantaged groups

based on the observation would be that we did not observe any programs in place, except for

the two women’s group we talked with in both areas, but they were not directly involved in

political representation programs. Based on the observations made, the research conclude that

the villagers were generally pessimistic about the election, it is important to keep in mind that

at the time of the field work a new date for elections were not set and the political parties were

struggling to reach agreements on key issues such as the declaration of a republic and election

system. The research question asking what information channels were available in the

villagers varied greatly based on geographical location and the economic status based on the

observation, which was in line with the survey results and the interviews. In villages in

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Rasuwa, we did not observe any television sets and very few radios. The news papers were

nowhere to be seen. The reality in Nawalparasi was different, many more people had radios

and we saw quite a few newspapers in the villages. The question asking if the journalists

could work safely cannot be answered based on the observations, because we did not see any

journalists in the villages that we visited for the survey, which might also reflect some of the

frustration that the villagers expressed about not getting news that were interesting to them,

and that the news was centrally based. The last research question asking about control and

manipulations, confirms the answers based on the survey and interviews. In the field we

noticed that the presence of party cadres made participants in the survey reluctant to answer

our questions and it was hard to avoid these control people.

4.4. Possible errors and considerations

It is important to list the factors that limit the research as have been repeated throughout the

thesis. The data has been drawn from two districts out of a total of seventy-five districts and

the result can therefore not be generalized for the whole population of close to twenty-eight

million people. As an outsider I relied on the interpretation of my research assistant and in

that way the message can have been distorted to some degree either in the process asking the

questions or in receiving the answers. In some instances the participants in the survey

deliberately gave wrong information due to misunderstanding of the purpose of our presence.

This error was disclosed in some cases, but some instances could have gone unnoticed.

Because the nature of the research and the questions asked, some of the key informants may

have sugar coated their answers in order to appear more legitimate that their counterpart.

4.5. Conclusion

The long awaited Constituent Assembly election was carried out on the 10th of April 2008,

seemingly without any major difficulty and with an impressive voter turnout of 60 percent.

(Tighe 2008)The European Union’s Election Observation Mission concluded that the election

had been successfully carried out with only minor problems. According to the mission it

largely followed international code of conduct and was organized in a “professional and

transparent manner”, and the large turnout showed “popular support for Constitutional reform

and a return to accountable and elected multiparty democracy.” (EU Election Obeservation

Mission 2008)

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The minor problems were attributed to a few incidents of violence on Election Day. The

biggest problem, according to the Election Observation Mission, was the tense campaign

environment, meaning sporadic incidents of violence in some cases killings, in the wake of

the election that occasionally undermined freedom of expression, the right of movement and

the right to assembly. This limitation accounted both for political candidates and for voters in

general and was caused by the several acts of violence and clashes between members of

political groups across the country. More importantly the combined effect of these acts as,

according to the observers, “contributed to a general atmosphere of fear and intimidation and

at times seriously undermined the right to campaign freely. According to EU observers there

were complaints of widespread voter intimidation and some attempts at vote buying by

political parties.” The EU election observers described the media environment during the

election as being pressured by political parties that claimed the media of being biased in order

to get more media coverage. The observers also reported on several episodes of assaults on

journalists, including a kidnapping during the end of the campaigning period. (EU Election

Obeservation Mission 2008)

The Election Observation Mission recognized the role of the CA Election Act in providing

protection of women’s rights and other groups that have traditionally been marginalized in

Nepali society. The quota system stated in this Act have guaranteed women and

disadvantaged groups representation they have not been previously given. The problem with

the system, as the observers sees it, is that it “may not necessarily guarantee a fully broad

based representation in the Constituent Assembly as originally intended.” Final comments

made by the observers, related to this research, was that the voter education program,

although ambitious in nature with its broad cooperation with NGOs and public reach, did not

provided sufficient awareness among the public of the CA election. (EU Election

Obeservation Mission 2008)

The report from the EU Election Observation Mission supplements the conclusions made in

the analysis section. These observations were made in the aftermath of the field research

conducted for this thesis, and reveal several similar observations. I asked if the villagers had

received sufficient training to participate in the Constituent Assembly election, and I

concluded that they had not. I asked if the villagers had access to information that would help

them make an informed decision on what candidate/party represents their interests, and I

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concluded that they did not. I asked about what actions had been taken to provide political

representation for disadvantaged groups, and the answer I got from the research was that

disadvantaged groups would get representation through the proportional election part of the

electoral system.

What is different about the thesis research was the key research question stating: “Access to

accurate and informative information in the village will determine what attitude, negative or

positive, its members hold towards the Constituent Assembly election and their understanding

of democracy.” This question was mainly answered by the analysis of the survey results

revealing that the less the villager knew about the CA election, the more negative the villager

were towards the possible benefits of the election such as democracy, peace, and

improvement in livelihood. The villagers with more access to information were much more

positive about the election and possible benefits that the election would bring, but they were

also more critical about the press coverage and bias in the media. Answering this question

was significant in that it show how important access to accurate and informative information

is in building support and understanding of democracy. If people do not understand why they

are voting and what their vote represents in the larger context the purpose of having a

democracy is no longer there.

The election marked a new area for Nepali politics, and contrary to what most political

analysts and the media had predicted the Maoist ended up with an impressive victory. The

weekly Kathmandu newspaper, Nepali Times, featured recently the headline “Welcome New

Nepal” reflecting on the challenges ahead. Not only did the Maoists draw major support from

the rural areas, but they also won in the big cities such as Pokhara and Kathmandu. The old

and well-established parties such as the Nepali Congress and the UML suffered, and the new

parties such as the Maoists and FMJ came out on top. From such a surprising result, questions

arise. How did the so called experts in the press fail so miserably in foreseeing the outcome of

the election? Had the Maoists succeeded with their threats of returning to armed struggle?

One thing is for certain and that is the fact that the Nepali media had failed in covering the

reality on the ground. The research for the thesis revealed some answers to the failure.

According to the responses from the villagers, it seemed that there was no problem for

journalists to work safely in the villages, but the problem is ratter that the journalists are not in

the villages to write about issues that are important to them and especially for the ultra poor

who felt left out.

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Most ultra poor implied that reporters did not care for them, while most rich and middleclass

thought that reporters did care for the poor and disadvantaged. The same was true about the

difference between literate and illiterate. The vast majority of respondents from Nawalparasi

agreed to the statement, but the significant One third of the respondent in Rasuwa felt that the

reporters did not care for poor and disadvantaged. Most literate participants agreed to the

media being biased, and the literate are also the once most qualified to make this distinction

since they were the biggest consumers of the news media in the villages. The survey, the

interviews and field observations for the thesis suggested that the media was overly

centralized. We did not see any reporters in the villages that we visited, and the groups, like

the MJF, complained about biased coverage. These results suggests that the media in Nepal,

with is limited reach in rural areas, are not aware of the reality for rural people living in the

villages and therefore were unable to predict the outcome of the election.

The World Press Freedom Day was celebrated on the third of May and this year it focused on

freedom of expression access and empowerment. The Director-General of UNESCO,

Koichiro Matsuura, delivered a speech in Kathmandu for the occasion that was relevant for

the research of this study. He emphasized on the importance of freedom of the press and the

access to information and how these principles builds into the overall development objective

of empowerment. How giving people information so that they can gain control over their

lives, and making people able to participate in the democracy through engagement in public

debates and holding their representatives accountable, but he added that

“…this flow of communication does not happen automatically. It has to be fostered by a free, pluralistic, independent and professional media, and through national policies founded on four key principles at the heart of UNESCO’s work: freedom of expression, quality education for all, universal access to information and knowledge, and respect for linguistic diversity.”(UNESCO 2008)

These comment bade by the Director-General is significant in the context of Nepal based on

the outcome of the thesis. It highlights issues that not only are relevant in the context of Nepal

but in a global sense. Although the research has shown that communication reach in the rural

areas are very often missing, the journalistic quality is lacking and that for these reason people

have lower expectations and understanding of the democratic system there is hope for

improvement in the future. The election will most likely stabilize the political situation and

strengthen the rule of law, international organization such as UNESCO has being doing

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important work in spreading community radio in Nepal and is still working on this project,

and the provision for marginalized groups such as women and dalits in the Constituent

Assembly will provide these groups with more political influence and raise these groups

political awareness. As declare earlier in this thesis, I hope that the result of the research has

brought up important issues that have implication for political awareness among rural people

and how it relates to access of information, not only for two districts in Nepal, but for all

nations who are in a process of democratic change.

References

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Appendix

English version questionnaire: Voter Survey VDC_______ Ward nr. ______ Name: Gender: Ethnicity: Family size: Occupation: Age: Statues: Literacy: What news sources are available to you? (under line) Television Radio Newspapers Posters/Pamphlets Others______ I get information on the political situation through newspapers

SA A N D SD

I get information on the political situation through radio SA A N D SD

I get information on the political situation through television SA A N D SD

I get information on the political situation through posters/pamphlets

SA A N D SD

I get information on the political situation from others_______ SA A N D SD

I get information on the political situation through friends and family

SA A N D SD

I get information on the political situation from other people in the village

SA A N D SD

My views are being reflected in the news media SA A N D SD

Reporters care about the situation of the poor and disadvantaged and reports/writes about it in the news media

SA A N D SD

Journalists can freely report on any political issue without facing treats or other negative consequences

SA A N D SD

I can freely express my political opinions in the village. SA A N D SD

I can safely attend public gatherings SA A N D SD

The government provides me with information on government action and policies

SA A N D SD

I feel that every person in the village as an equal opportunity to express their opinion

SA A N D SD

The voter-training program has taken place in my village SA A N D SD

It is important for me to vote in the election SA A N D SD

The election will improve my livelihood situation SA A N D SD

The election will ensure democracy SA A N D SD

The election will ensure peace SA A N D SD

I have access to information about all the parties registered for the election

Agree Disagree

Ultra poor Poor Middle class Rich

Literate Illiterate

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News media is biased and cannot be trusted Agree Disagree

I know what Constituent Assembly Election means Agree Disagree

Have you vote in previous elections, how many times?

If not, why?

What do you think is the purpose of the election?

Is the information available manipulated or controlled? If so have how is it manipulated or

controlled?

Why do you think the election has been postponed? Notes:

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