Weed Out The Renegades!

I feel sorry for our Prime Minister.

I mean His Excellency Tshering Tobgay is a legitimately elected Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bhutan, and the Head of its sitting Government. This means that he sits at the pinnacle of the country’s governance – just a notch below the Head of the State. Given this authority duly vested in him by majority of the Bhutanese people, including the award of Dakyen and Patang – symbols of Power and Authority - by His Majesty the King - he does not need to resort to threats – to get state institutions to do their jobs.

As long as they are required to do so for the benefit and interest of the country, and the people of Bhutan, no state institution may have the audacity to defy the explicit instructions of the Head of the government.

The Bhutan Telecom (BT) refusing to follow a well-intentioned instruction of the Prime Minister of a sitting government is a dangerous development – it is unprecedented in the history of Bhutanese governance – it does not bode well for the country. Developments such as this must be nipped in the bud.

That said, I urge the Prime Minister not to resort to starting a third player in our already crowded telecom market …. Our user base is so minuscule that one more player would be disastrous – it will impact sustainability and, at the end, it will impact quality of service.

Instead, the Hon’ble Prime Minister should consider sacking the whole bunch of those renegades sitting at the helm of things at the BT. And, perhaps, while at it, he could also take a closer look that the DHI – because, it cannot be a case of coincidence that another DHI linked company – DrukAir – has exhibited immorality so vile that it is disgusting to even think about it!

The fact that these companies are autonomous agencies does not give them the right to be disrespectful - they are still part of the whole - they must be made to remember that all things considered - central to their very existence is to serve the interest of the people of Bhutan.