I have 3-4 days left before I say goodbye to my Club and the institution called the Rotary. Thus I will not have time to do blogging for a day or two – because the last lag of my Rotary journey will have to be devoted to, as we say in HAM parlance, SIGNING OFF! - writing to offer THANKS to my global network of donors who have donated millions to do good in Bhutan.
But today, once again in HAM parlance, before I say 73!, I would like to leave you with a comment from a reader that took my breath away. What comment he/she left on one of my recent blogs is so meaningful that I believe that its rightful place is on the front page of my Blog and not behind it. Thus I honor him/her by placing it below for all to read and ponder. No doubt, the profundity of it will not escape you.
Anonymous
December 27, 2021 at 3:57 PM
You have rightly touched upon many important subjects in the last few posts. Let me share my thoughts here. When His Majesty sadly commanded that the Bhutanese have lost our mettle in the implementation of developmental activities in the last 15 years of His Majesty's reign, I took that to be directed at all of us, especially those that were given awards, perks, authority and responsibilities in the last 1.5 decades, and had the direct responsibility to realize His Majesty's aspirations for the country. Many were appointed heads of important organizations and they took upon themselves to tinker with the system with lousy half-assed experiments that got us here - which is neither here nor there. Senior posts were filled with people that would only listen to a small group of men, and not necessarily from among the brightest and the best. Even people up for retirement are endlessly retained for redundant posts if you are in with this coterie, and if you can kiss enough ass, eschewing your morals and integrity. This is what destroys the morale of the civil service, when your bosses suddenly appear from nowhere, and the young, truly capable do not see any prospects if you do not kowtow to the coterie. Someone who was mediocre all their life is suddenly and mysteriously your boss. If you do not believe me, look around, and see who make the decisions, who call the shots. It is a small group of people who have tremendous power. Fantastically, they seem to have the answer to all of the country's problems. There is no debate or dissenting voices; there is no diversity of ideas. I fear, this will destroy our beloved country, if we do not course correct. We have sadly come to this - everyone is out to undermine everyone else, saying 'the civil servants are useless,' 'the politicians are useless,' 'the private sector is useless,' 'civil society is useless.' Well, then who is left to be useful?
Heads must roll, and it should start with those who pretend that His Majesty's pearl of wisdom was not directed at them. They cannot, yet again, point at the rest of Bhutan with their index finger and say, 'that was meant for you all.' Three fingers are pointing at themselves.
Patriotism, and love of king and country are every Bhutanese's prerogative. No one has the right to claim that she is more patriotic than the next citizen. This is what makes us Bhutanese - our undying love for our king and country. But when the bright civil servant has no prospect to rise up the ranks because she cannot find herself kissing ass more than anything else, they find themselves on the next flight to Australia or the Middle East.
The future of our country must rest on a transparent system of healthy discourse, respecting diverse viewpoints. It should not be run by a small coterie that get excited by the next 'in thing' - scratch the surface of what is in vogue and then ramble off the next thoughtless experiment, yet again. You cannot run a country with great TED talks and YouTube videos alone. As His Majesty always reminds us, we are but a small country - we should be manageable. There are enough smart young Bhutanese that can ably take the country forward, but they should be given a chance. Just squeezing the same old pebbles endlessly is not going to expel oil. The real potential of the country is yet to be realized. But, we need to get our fundamentals right, and then only will everything fall in place.
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