On this fourth series, I will dwell on His Majesty’s 70th and 81st - 83rd sentences.
Sentence 70th: We need to strengthen our foundation by improving the educational standards, craft policies to diversify economic opportunities for our youth, and support private sector growth.
Today the generally accepted view is that the quality of education has dropped. Nothing can be further from the truth. The reality is that the quality of educators has dropped. When institutions of learning are headed by persons who are incapable of producing a one-page certificate of fitness, what can be expected? How would they be capable of molding young minds into growing up to be responsible, disciplined, dedicated and hardworking citizens?
Sentence 81st: Foreign experts and professionals have commented that our rules, regulations, laws and institutional procedures are among the best in the world.
Sentence 82nd: Yet we are not able to reap the benefits.
Sentence 83rd: Where have we gone wrong?
Lack of enforcement, regulation and monitoring
The Bhutanese truly excel at producing paper work. We churn out hundreds of thousands of pages of rules and regulations that are among the best in the world – both in words and in content. But that is where it all ends – rules and regulations are framed and notified – then they are promptly forgotten. They are shelved and gather dust thereafter in some dingy corner of the office. Over time, we even forget that a certain rule exists.
Where have we gone wrong? Quite simply - there is no follow through, there is no monitoring, there is no regulation, and there is no enforcement. Rules are made only to look good – there is no proof that they have been formulated to achieve ends.
It is for this reason that I have been moaning for the past many years that regulators should stick to regulating and enforcement. Do not get into areas where there is bound to be conflict of interests.
One other aspect of Bhutanese governance must find mention – that of putting in place a BAN. The public employees have a simple way to ensure that they are not required to put in hard work – simply put a BAN in place. When a ban is in place, they do not need to work at monitoring or regulation or enforcement.
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?
ReplyDeleteHeads 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.