BHUTAN: One year after Coronation of Fifth Gyalpo; Update No. 80

BHUTAN: One year after Coronation of Fifth Gyalpo - Update No. 80

By Dr. S. Chandrasekharan.

True to his style, the Fifth Gyalpo celebrated the first anniversary of his coronation on 1st November in a very low key. There was no major function or audience to Government personnel. Instead he spent his day first by interacting with the students at the Linkana Palace. Later in the day he visited the market and interacted with hundreds of people in the streets.

There were no major hiccups in running the country and as said before, democracy is developing strong roots. As declared by Prime minister Jigme Y. Thinley in the 3-day conference on democracy, the transition is now irreversible.

Credit for the smooth transition and making democracy work should also go to the Fourth Gyalpo whose 54^th birthday was celebrated in an equally low key on 11^th November. It was on 17^th December 2005 that King Jigme Wangchuk ( Fourth Gyalpo) made a surprising announcement that he would be abdicating soon and actually did the next year. Still young by South Asian standards, healthy and active it is not clear how he could be relaxing in his retirement!

Another event of November was the retirement of the Chief Justice Lyonpo Sonam Tobgye on 15^th of November. Though he did not receive any relieving orders, he stopped going to work from 16^th November. Credit for introducing democracy with a friendly and innovative constitution should also go to him.

On the same day the King issued a “Kasho” on the formation of a six-member Royal Commission to establish the first Supreme Court of Bhutan. The importance of Sonam Tobgye can be seen from the fact that the Royal commission despite four sittings could not yet find a suitable replacement to hold that post. Although Tobgye retired at the age of 60, the next Chief Justice will superannuate only at the age of 65 as per the constitution.

In the inauguration of the 3-day conference on democracy where foreign dignitaries were also invited, Prime Minister Jigme Thinley said that the conference was of special significance to Bhutan and emphasized the need for democracy to become better by going beyond the current definitions of ‘good governance’.

Jigme Thinley also referred to the philosophy of “gross national happiness” as the guiding principle of governance and policy making. The way the GNH is being projected,, it looks that people would expect that the gross national happiness to be something like a magic wand that would solve all problems faced by the people or the country!

In the human rights report to be presented to the HRC in Geneva, the government of Bhutan has taken a stand that the philosophy of the GNH which upholds “strong principles of equality of human beings would ensure the human rights of the people! . It is one thing to say that the objective of the government is to create conditions for the people to find happiness and another to take umbrage that the GNH would guarantee human rights too.

GNH is laudable but it should be genuinely practised. The government’s report to the Human rights Council is another example where the government is putting up a weak defence on the question of refugees. Firstly, according to Kuensel the government is taking a stand that it is not a typical refugee question but a complex one. It is also accepted that legal immigration will continue to be a threat to Bhutan’s security and political and cultural unity. But has Bhutan taken any effort to get back at least the genuine citizens and verified to be so from the Kudnabari camp? A commitment to still find a solution on the basis of past agreements does not help when the refugees are fleeing in scores to third countries for settlement.

Kuensel of October 20, 2009,mentioned about the danger of over reach of GNH of transferring power from the individual to the state thus incapacitating democratic principles. The Government to me, seems to taking a heavy responsibility for providing the citizens in the spheres of health, education transportation among others, the tasks where the individual citizens will also have to have a duty in helping the government to discharge its responsibility.

Prime Minister Jigme Thinley led a 24-member delegation to the 5^th International Conference on GNH that was held at Iguana, Brazil from November 20 to 24. The Conference was attended by more than 800 professionals that included lawyers, educationists as well as policy makers, civil society leaders, intellectuals, academicians, students and teachers. The Bhutanese delegation made a good impression on the strides made in Bhutan on GNH and the Fourth Gyalpo should rightly be proud that the philosophy is catching up.

Economic data of 2008 shows a downturn. The GDP last year was said to be 5.1 percent while the government was pitching for a 9 percent growth. There was negative growth in construction industry with 6.4 percent and forestry declined to 2.6 percent. There was general decrease in all spheres- trade, transport, communication, education and health services.

Inflation was high with 9.2 percent mainly because of fall in the GDP. Current expenditure has gone up while investment in service sector has decreased to 3.1 percent compared to 10.3 percent in 2007.

But the year 2009 may fare better. The well-known Mckinsey consulting firm has made certain concrete suggestions in the area of tourism. Mckinsey is also to find ways to accelerate Bhutan’s economic growth, create jobs for the majority of 90,000 job seekers in the current plan and improve delivery of services at lower costs.

It is noticed that the government has taken a serious note of the downturn and is making efforts to arrest the downturn.