“Having gained so much from UN in the last 40 years, we feel it is time for us to move further. Bhutan is now the candidate for the post of non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2013-2015 period,” the PM told reporters, Tuesday.

The Prime Minister expressed such an opinion while speaking to ambassadors and high commissioners, and urged them to convince their countries for supporting Bhutan’s move for the same.

“I would imagine that Bhutan as a country sitting between India and China, it must take advantage of the opportunities the rapidly prospering countries will offer,” he added, according to the online edition of Bermana.

The result of Bhutan’s candidacy in the UNSC is expected to be released later this year in October.

Bhutan has been a permanent member of the United Nations Organizations since 1971.

File photo : Druk Aircraft in a parking lot at Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu (Picture : Vidhyapati Mishra)

Reports say that the trio, who had flown to the Paro Airport from Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) of Nepal on May 23, were deported on the following day.

The immigration officials seized their fake visas when they didn’t find their details in the online visa system, and finally deported back to TIA. However, details of the tourists have not been revealed yet.

Meanwhile, the Tourism Council of Bhutan suspended the license of tour operator Bhutan Village that received the tourists. The Department of Immigration has imposed a fine of Nu 30,000 for illegally bringing in those tourists.

However, the Bhutan Village is learnt to have blamed its Nepali business partner, Himalayan Rock Treks and Expedition, for inviting such a fate, and even accusing it of forging tourist visa documents in Nepal.

Including the suspended Bhutan Village, 307 registered tour operators have been receiving foreign tourists in Bhutan as the government targets to get 10,000 tourists’ arrival for 2012.

Meanwhile, pillion rider  Kishore Rai of the same camp, who received minor injuries during the accident, has gone missing from the hospital itself fearing his arrest, it is said.

The fatal accident occurred at Patri of Sanischare along the East-West Highway, according to police.

For nearly 30 years, the predominantly Buddhist kingdom that moved toward democracy in 2008 with an elected government, has worked on general well-being of its citizens where material development is balanced with innovative policies that uphold sustainable development, psychological well-being and ecological protection. Bhutan now tops Asia in the United Nations’ just-released first World Happiness report.

Earlier this month (April), Bhutan convened a conference under the UN auspices in New York to nudge the world toward a development model that does not only emphasize maximizing profit through competition. Jigme Thinley, the American-educated prime minister of this nation of less than 800,000 people, told the global audience that the concept of gross domestic product be replaced by gross national happiness “if the mankind is to avoid its current unsustainable and self-destructive course.”

Encouraged by the response from the world leaders, Nobel laureates and economists, Bhutan is now going full steam ahead with its GNH model of sustainable development. But there are challenges aplenty. To discuss them, Prime Minister  Thinley sat with Sudip Mazumdar recently in capital Thimphu.

Excerpts:

Why should the world listen to Bhutan’s pitch for the GNH model of development? What made Bhutan take the lead?
Bhutan has never sat on a moral pedestal or gone outside its borders to preach to the world. After the concept was introduced by the Fourth King (Jigme Singye Wangchuk in 1970s) Bhutan never talked about it outside the country. It was only in October 1998, Bhutan was persuaded and cajoled to take the concept out by the United Nations, particularly the UNDP, which had organized a millennium summit in Seoul for the Asia-Pacific region. The whole world was in a mood of listening. At that time GNH was a refreshing idea. Later through research the idea was further refined and a set of indicators developed to measure happiness.

The reason why the world is now taking interest (in GNH) is because economies are collapsing within an unstable environment and we are faced with all kinds of social problems. The biggest and most rapidly rising malady today is mental health disease. There are so many maladies and there are no solutions. That is why the countries are looking at Bhutan’s GNH model as an alternative development paradigm. Great minds assembled there (at New York in April) and showed great interest (in the deliberations).

Critics say the GNH concept is utopian and not practical. How do you respond?

I think this question has been resolved quite sometimes ago. Firstly, happiness itself is the most fundamental and most important of good that every individual seeks in life. This is already established, particularly of the kind of happiness that we talk about that is not this fleeting, ephemeral kind that arises out of sensory pleasures, external stimuli. Scientists have shown how the brain matters change according to the conditions of the mind. It has been shown that how a happy, meditative mind can be productive and emotionally and psychologically positive. We now know there are specific conditions that can lead to happiness and that are necessary to happiness.

Here in Bhutan we have now determined nine domains that can condition the mind to feel happy. These have been identified and these nine domains can in turn be verified with a set of variables encompassing as many as 72 indicators relating to physical, economic, psychological, time use etc. There is now a multidisciplinary approach in developing this model.

There are clear signs of growing disparity in Bhutan. There are flashy cars and expensive shops on the one hand and many still living in less than a dollar a day on the other. How is this compatible with the GNH approach?
Yes, you are right. And we are not happy with that. The government has seriously endeavored to ensure that the fruits of development are shared equitably among all the people. This (disparity) is inevitable, it seems. We are trying to generate mindful pursuit of GNH. Until recently, majority of the people in Bhutan didn’t know about GNH. It was a top-down approach. We never said ‘contemplate GNH’. At the same time, vast majority of the Bhutanese people are spiritual. In the urban settings, people are becoming more materialistic. We have realized that people should consciously and mindfully pursue GNH against the pressures and aggression of materialism. We have introduced GNH in school curriculum. On our part we are encouraging mindful living and also aggressively pursuing (policies) so that certain sections of people don’t fall behind.

The focus of the current five-year-plan that ends in June of 2013 is on poverty alleviation and equity in terms of distribution of basic services.By December this year every home will have electricity. Every child is in school now. Except for in some two or three villages, every Bhutanese now have a mobile phone or have access to a mobile phone. Cowherds in deep jungles carry mobile phones now.

And now we are promoting e-governance. We want to turn Bhutan into an IT-hub. Our unique selling points are peace and stability, pristine environment and ecology, cheap, green energy and an interesting culture.

After years of isolation, Bhutan is fast opening up. How are you planning to deal with what some say the inevitable “temptations” of Western culture and “pollutants” of Western consumerism?
Well, it is very difficult. There will be certain administrative mechanisms put in place (to deal with that). But they can never be effective. Ultimately the filtration has to be in the individual mind. And that is why I talk about developing mindfulness and developing equilibrium between needs of the body and the mind, knowing what is the meaning of contentment, knowing what is enough. It is also the understanding that happiness arises out of a happy family, happy relationship with your child, with your spouse and also finding the time to spend with them. Again the family cannot be happy unless it has good relationship with the neighbors and so on.

What kind of initiatives the government is taking to generate wholesome living? I understand alcoholism, drug abuse is on the rise.
That’s right. They are on the rise. One approach (to deal with them) would be through the education system. We have introduced meditation in schools. We brought experts from all over the world to discuss how we can infuse GNH values in today’s education system. They decided they will make their schools ‘green’ schools, ecologically sustainable schools and they would generate zero waste. The program is being implemented successfully for the last two years. Schools are also teaching cooperation rather than competition.

Bhutan is also experiencing what some would call the “flowering” of the self in the pursuit of literature, art and cinema. There would inevitably more of “I, me, mine” in the Bhutanese society which is deeply influenced by the Buddhist ideal of altruism.

Or may be “contamination” of the self (laughs). Bhutanese films are good. We are the only country where the local film industry has succeeded in edging out completely Hollywood and Bollywood films from the big screen. Projection of the self or ego is becoming part of the modern democracy (in Bhutan). We are telling people to aspire to become leaders. So the “I” comes into play- I will do this for you, I am so and so, I can do this for you, and I have done this. We have now all these writers and filmmakers- it’s all about ego now, sadly.

What would be the biggest challenge before Bhutan as it opens up rapidly?
Democracy. My biggest worry is: will the voter learn, understand and know enough about the essence of democracy and how democracy must serve both the individual and collective interests of the Bhutanese people. How he or she can acquire the skills to be able to employ the ballot wisely and hold his or her representative accountable, and thereby ensure good governance. We are used to having good leaders for generations. We are not used to exercising the ballot. In other words, long-term sustainability of democracy is what I worry about.

Obviously, Bhutan is undergoing change in a fundamental way and some of the processes like access to Internet and satellite television can’t be rolled back. Where do you think the strongest resistance to change will come from?
No resistance, as of now. We don’t have the polarity of the conservatives against the liberals or traditionalists against the modernists. The Bhutanese are highly adaptive people. Sometime I wonder whether we are too flexible. But if there is resistance that would be natural because what we are going through are a liberalization process, a democratization process, and an empowering process. We also give tremendous importance to cultural preservation and conservation. We support the monasteries because we believe it is in the monasteries that the roots of our culture lie. They are a kind of an anchor. If the monasteries disappear then I think our culture will be threatened. We are taking a holistic approach to development and ecological protection is very important. Now, 80 per cent of the country is under green cover and many rare wild animals including tigers and snow leopards have come back.

Courtesy : South Asia Monitor, May 15, 2012

PM Thinely

“We are inspired by the kind of leadership it has had in the past and continues to have. We are also inspired by the good governance that Malaysia has exhibited in our part of the world,” he told Bernama in an interview.

Bhutan, he said, also admired the way Malaysia has been able to achieve rapid economic development and how the benefits of developments had been fairly well distributed.

“The benefits of Malaysia’s development and economic wealth I think have accrued across all stretches of the Malaysian society. So, we would like to learn from Malaysia,” he said after meeting ambassadors and high commissioners based in Dhaka and New Delhi, who represented 12 countries.

Also present was Malaysia’s High Commissioner to India, Datuk Tan Seng Sung.

Thinley, who acknowledged that Bhutan has been slow in expanding its diplomatic ties, said it would “soon” pursue them with Malaysia.

A landlocked country, Bhutan was deliberately closed to foreigners until 1974. It has since opened up and started establishing diplomatic ties with several countries.

Bhutan has diplomatic relations with Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Serbia and Spain. It also has diplomatic ties with India, Bangladesh, Japan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, the Maldives, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Australia, Brazil, Canada and Vietnam.

Courtesy : Bernama.com

Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai’s government was compelled to propose such an alternative when the major political parties, Unified CPN (Maoist), CPN-UML, Nepali Congress and United Madhesi Democratic Front, failed to reach consensus on the new constitution dissolving the four-year-old Constituent Assembly.

In his address to the nation, the Nepalese Prime Minister, “Though it is a sad decision, there was no alternative to announcing fresh election of the Constituent Assembly.

He also indirectly accused the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML of inviting the political turmoil by working against the Constituent Assembly’s future. Both the parties have stood against the decision to dismiss the Assembly.

The PM also expressed his utmost hope that President Ram Baran Yadav would respond to the Cabinet decision positively so that the caretaker government would materialize the elections in the set time.

The Prime Minister also he urged all citizens not to lose their hopes.

The RMA stated that it decided to borrow the loan at 10.5 percent interest to replenish the ongoing Rupee crunch in the country. The central bank was paying a 9.5 percent interest on the SBI borrowings.

The RMA took the decision when the central bank failed to convince its Indian counterpart, according to the report.

The State Bank of India has been asking the central bank to “provide enough justifications on the Rupee crisis”. Otherwise, India was to extend the overdraft limit to 10b last month.

According to reports from inside, most of the banks didn’t issue any Indian Rupees to their clients for the past three days.

Druk PNB Bank Limited,  the first FDI bank in Bhutan is a joint venture bank of Punjab National Bank, India and local promoters. DPNBL started its operations in Bhutan on January 27, 2010 by opening first branch at Thimphu. Later on two more branches started functioning at Phuentsholing & Wangdue.

Releasing a 17-page long Human Rights Report 2011, the US said though the constitution provides for freedom of association, and the government permitted the registration of some political parties and organizations, but that was only for those which are regarded “not harmful to the peace and unity of the country.”

“The government regarded political parties organized by Nepali-speaking refugees in refugee camps in Nepal as illegal, terrorist, and anti-national in nature,” said the report, released on May 24.

According to the Department, the ICRC was the only international human rights monitoring group officially operating in the country.

“There were reports that most of the NGOs in Bhutan operated under the umbrella of the royal family. The 2007 Civil Society Organization Act requires all new NGOs to register with the government,” added the report.

The report also highlighted that the law does not address forced exile, but the government forced approximately 90,000 Nepali-speaking persons to leave the country in the early 1990s, following a series of steps taken during the 1970s and 1980s to deprive the Nepali-speaking population of its citizenship.

It further said, “There were no reported cases of forced exile during the year. There continued to be government delays in implementing a process to identify and repatriate refugees in Nepal with legitimate claims to Bhutanese citizenship.”

According to NGOs, stateless persons remain resident in Bhutan, mainly in the south, but the number is unknown, claimed the report. “Stateless persons cannot obtain No Objection Certificates and Security Clearance certificates, which limited access to employment, business ownership, and school attendance at higher-level institutions.”

Meanwhile, the reported also quoted the Human Rights Watch Human Rights that stated that the government excluded 13 percent of the Nepali-speaking population from voting in 2008 because they were considered “non-nationals” in the 2005 census.

However, it lauded the fairness during the elections. “International monitors reported that the elections were generally free and fair with no reports of irregularities during the election process.”

The report, which was submitted to the King, Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley and the National Assembly Speaker Jigme Tshultim on May 18 based on the constitutional requirement, found that Ministry of Information and Communication (MoIC), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and Ministry of Human Settlement (MoHS) have the highest unsolved financial irregularities in 2011.

According to the report, unsolved financial irregularities included Nu 234.6 m for MoIC, Nu 202.7 m for MoFA and 72.5 m for MoHS.

“The report contains significant unresolved issues pertaining to audit reports issued during 2011,” stated the RAA in its official website.

RAA also claimed that the Annual Audit Report  was circulated to all the agencies concerned for their comments during January and February 2012 in line with Section 75(c) of the Audit Act of Bhutan 2006 and was finalized giving due consideration to the responses received from the concerned agencies.

Democracy in Myanmar was long forbidden and we could understand the courage you have shown to stand by it for many years. It is almost two decades that you have been under the house arrest, and several of the activists of the National League for Democracy (NLD) were thrown behind the bars or forced to exile. You have survived the death of your scholar husband Michael Aris while in the house arrest and your determination not to return to England for his funeral has finally paid off.

The year 1990 has been a clarion call for two countries in south Asia for transforming into democracy. Then Burma, Myanmar was preparing to launch democratic system under your leadership, with the victory of NLD in election. Bhutan was undergoing a pro-democratic movement to prepare for the transformation from absolute monarchy to democracy.  Yet, the military junta in Burma put a ban on NLD despite your victory, while in Bhutan the monarchy unleashed an undeclared terrorism on the civilians of ethnic Nepali-speaking minority.  These two absolute regimes were not prepared to accept the people’s voice to demand fundamental rights and let the change occur for a free civic life.

The ban on political parties by these two regimes has to do with the demoralization of aspirants of change in the governance system. Although you contested and won the election from within the country, not a single political party was allowed to exist in Bhutan and the exile based political parties could not break ice to ignore the ban.  When democracy was shared as a gift to the Bhutanese subjects by the fourth king, only two political parties were allowed to contest the general election that went without much fanfare. The general population was not able to make an informed choice about the candidates vying for seat in the parliament.

Madam Su Kyi,
You had spent some time in Bhutan back in 1970s when your scholar husband Michael Aris worked there and studied  about the advent of Monarchy in Bhutan, later to publish the book, ‘Raven Crown: Origin of Buddhist monarchy in Bhutan’. Demographically   and geographically, Bhutan and Myanmar share some common features in terms of the ethnicity and mountain topography.  Ethnic Nepali, called Lhotshampa in Bhutan, and Sarchhop community of eastern Bhutan who join hands to bring democratic changes particularly after 1990, were considered threat to hereditary monarchy and branded anti-nationals.  However, a written constitution was introduced for the first time and general election to constitute a democratic government was held in 2008, after the fourth king relinquished throne in favor of his son. This has taken place subsequent to the forcing out a large section of the general public who could significantly contribute to the making of a democratic government by the people, for the people. So, democracy in Bhutan is still a perilous path, while this should not be the case in Myanmar under your leadership.

It was heartening to see the televised news on BBC; visit to Myanmar by two western dignitaries, David Cameron and Hillary Clinton. With David Cameron you appeared emotionally energized to have him by your side. I assume that was the moment to ponder upon those youthful days you spent in Oxford with Michael, Kim and Alexander.  The Prime Minster welcoming you back to UK for a visit is a symbol of victory of democratic ideals over the autocratic system manipulations.

With Hillary Clinton, you shared the same feminine strength and principled evoking of power to express that Myanmar’s reinvention of democracy is always patronized by the US.   To the contrary, the US, UK or any other European dignitaries do not feel the urgency to visit Bhutan to question the functioning of infant democracy sans one hundred thousand of citizens forced out of the country in pretext of maintaining a demographic balance. The exile of such a large section of the population is not due to the armed conflict between government forces and civilians as may be the case in Myanmar. It is rather a systematic denationalization and terrorizing of civilians to leave the country after compelling them to sign a voluntary migration forms developed exceptionally for the purpose.

News report by New York Times covering your election campaign has added fresh hope to all ethnicities of Burma resettled in the US. They are excited to be back to their country once democracy under your charismatic leadership is in full function. That is not a likely chance for Bhutanese refugees resettled in the west for the moment. Dissidence is feared by those bureaucrat-turned- politicians of Bhutan. Therefore returning of dissident voice to be incorporated in the process of gifted democracy (still at the mercy of palace) is highly ruled out and marginalized by larger democracies of the world.

With your strong conviction to lead the democratic struggle of Myanmar, you reflect your father’s dream of independent Burma, and while sustaining the oppressive Junta rule you also emerge to be another strong female leader of south Asia, a tradition to carry on.  Your strength, courage, conviction, patience and tolerance are the virtues to be handed down and these ingredients of an able, farsighted leadership Bhutanese must learn from you.

Having reentered the scene of democratic election campaign, your simplistic approach to reach out to the rural life of Myanmar is encouraging to address the long oppressed supporters of NLD.   In Bhutan, the politicians going out to the public garnering their support for 2013 general election are still posing themselves aristocratic and seeking panegyric. Interestingly, the prime minister speaking in Nepali to address the Lhotshampa (Nepali-speaking southern Bhutanese) constituencies in Samtse district of south-western Bhutan can be taken as a political game show.

If Myanmar poses for a multiparty democracy after a long crisis, she can set example for nascent democracies in South Asia emancipating out of autocratic regimes.  Bhutan’s self-imposed isolation and theocratic foundation of government set by Shabdrung  Ngawang Namgyal has not crumbled yet to give more freedom and rights to the people.

Shameful to mention that Bhutanese people were not considered the citizen of a country, rather subjects of a benevolent king, who is portrayed kind enough to give away land and property to his subjects. So the new model of Bhutanese democracy in absence of a hundred thousand evictees can hardly be epitomized as mass based and completely unshackled of the autocracy. Myanmar should go beyond that and strengthen grass-root democratic institutions once you hold the public office.

I salute you Madam for you are the brave daughter of a freedom loving father patronizing for a free Burma.

Thanking you,

Buddha M Dhakal
Kentucky, USA