“Democracy is… : A National Campaign was launched in March 2011 as a media campaign that stressed on five fundamentals of democracy considered indispensable to democracy. The context of the inception of the campaign was – it had been more than three years after the historical April Movement in 2006 which overthrew a tyrannical regime and the Nepalese political wave was very unstable. The Constituent Assembly had missed the deadline to draft the new constitution once and another extension seemed imminent in a few months considering the differences between the political parties. Hence, as the crucial discussion on the constitution was taking place, it was important that some fundamentals of democracies were not missed or misinterpreted in the discourse. Democracy is…: A People’s Campaign” was brought about to address the situation.
The fundamentals the campaign advocates for, are: Rule of Law, Freedom of Expression, Pluralism, Free, Fair and Regular Elections and Private Property Rights.
All the fundamentals were presented as fundamental pillars in creating a democratic Nepali society free from coercion. To produce an apt and timely impact, the campaign was modeled as a media campaign. The has reached to more than a million people in Nepal through TV Public Service Announcement (PSA), radio PSA, print PSA, billboard PSA, T-shirts with messages and an interactive website.
The campaign continues to be a strong voice for advocating fundamental democratic values as the constitution making process restarted with the second Constituent Assembly Election that took place in November, 2013.
Watch the main messages (PSAs) of the campaign on the five fundamentals and join the discussion on the campaign’s official website : www.democracyis.net
Watch renowned economist and Former Secretary of the Government, Mr. Bhola Chalise defend one of the fundamentals of democracy