Tuesday, July 17, 2012

History In The Making?

-->Some of my friends are unfailing in their declaration that we Bhutanese are a unique lot; I have always readily agreed that we indeed are - as unique as everyone else. A recent news item in the Bhutan Times reassures me that I am not wrong.

Seems like one of the new aspiring political parties (Bhutan Times prefers to call it the third political party) is beginning to emerge out of the woodwork, if the paper’s report headlined “31 definite, 16 more to go” of 15th July, 2012 is anything to go by.

Dr. Tandin Dorji of the yet-to-be-registered Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa exudes an air of confidence when he boldly declares:

“The focus being to garner candidates, we have managed to rope in some of the best. Their integrity, sincerity of purpose and intelligence are beyond doubt and, given the chance, we pretty much feel we have the wherewithal to take this country forward”

I wish the aspirants the very best of luck. I hope they manage to get the remaining 16 candidates to enable them to qualify as a political party and contest the coming elections. But for the moment, I am more interested in an inconspicuous sentence buried among the multitude of sentences making up the three-column news article, that reads; “According to Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa, four women MPs in the National Assembly currently will also join the party”.

Stunning exposé, to say the least! The Bhutan Times has uncovered a coup, no less. History will record this as the first reported incidence of political defection in Bhutan’s democratic history. And, while at it, they also have the distinction of being the first in redefining the meaning of the term “integrity”.

The Bhutanese people’s Karma, it would appear, is sodden with madness.

2 comments:

  1. lol...How can this fellow not realise that he is contradicting himself? And if the women MPs have indeed said that they would join this new party, it sadly reflects their lack of "integrity" and dedication. Anyways, it is quite stupefying to hear about probable party hopping. I mean the OL #2 is supposed to have said that if he doesn't win in his present party, he will just join another. It just seems like diehard party allegiance has yet to take root.

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  2. How can Dr. Tandin vouch that the integrity, sincerity of purpose and intelligence are beyond doubt of the members? As of date DNT has not even decided on its President and in today's Bhutan, I doubt the intelligence if candidates are ready to join a Tshogpa without knowing the President. The President is the face of the party, mena? As far as manifesto is concerened, there is hardly any difference among the parties. Different words and phrases and subtle differences, mena? No serious commitment to Citizenship issue, foreign policy vis-a-vis China, boundary issues with China, CDG, strengthening of other constitutional bodies and House, etc. Same old stuff in new bottle - in line with FYP and other GNH issues.

    The contradiction in the same report as mentioned by youself - a party defector can't have integrity, mena?

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