Ignorance is no excuse for any writer for gross misrepresentation.

Kuensel article of 29thNov,14 on Bhutan Denmark, the writer probably a young Bhutanese writes that in 1962 Bhutan had no health services and communication facilities and only 18% of rural Bhutan had reasonable and relatively unpolluted drinking water and administration system was rudimentary. Which caves could he have visited?  But leaving aside the humour please beware there are too many write ups on Bhutan by authors even Bhutanese officials who made too many guess works on Bhutan and therefore not reliable source of reference. 
The fact is in 1962 Bhutan was rural.  There was no urban centres as such. There was plentiful of clean drinking water because the streams,brooks and rivers were clean and bigger. There were medical services though only in pockets. We had then two medical doctors and one veterinary doctor and medical Assistants, few Dispensaries.  A national vaccination programme was also carried out.  And there was a well organised administrative system including National Assembly along with effective communication means though not mechanized. 

Civil Service Bench Marks?

The Finance Minister said that those Commissioners meaning those that the present System had nominated were the best out of more than 25,000 civil servants. This is a sweeping view of the Government. No wonder the Government did not think much of the civil servants when the legislators and the constitutional members were granted substantial pay increase. It seems the Government felt that apart from those few who have been now made Commissioners, the other civil servants did not qualify the Government's set standard. It is a difficult call for the civil servants who are required to remain politically neutral and yet qualify the expectation of a ruling political Party.

I have sympathy with pre- retirement aged Commissioners who have been left abandoned after service in the Commissions. It is a kind of fall from the grace through no fault of theirs unless they had earlier lobbied for commission post. I am  sure they are hard working. And definitely capable. But on what basis: academic, experience, examination or loyalty to Tsawa Sum are they the best among the 250000 whole lot? I assume that in the absence of any form of criteria conducted publicly, the yardstick used had to be political to determine the best suitable.

The Constitution and the Throne made political wedge of convenience.

It was said in the Parliament that amending the Election Act tantamount to looking the gift horse in the mouth. The Ruling Party felt that the opposition party was acting disloyally in endorsing the changes that a legislative committee had put up to the National Assembly.

On the other hand the ruling party amended the constitutional post holder rule against the objection of the opposition party. Does this mean that when amendment is made by the ruling party the changes are not against the Throne and when amendment is supported by the opposition party the changes are deemed to be against the Throne?

It is also confusing that the opposition party participated in the vote on amendment to election Act and the next day took upon the Speaker's stand made the other day just before the election act vote.

Why participate in the vote if the opposition felt that the Speaker was denouncing the party stand as anti- Throne? Why protest a day later if the Speaker's admonition was untrue. They should have walked out instead of voting.

Why did the ruling party amend the constitutional post holder rules if anything gifted by the Throne must be kept intact and changes viewed as being an act of disloyalty?

Are both parties out to discredit the Constitution and the Throne ? One directly and the other indirectly?

I feel that the path of democracy in Bhutan is being highjacked by party enmity and in the process the constitution and the Throne are being soiled. This trend of dragging the dignity of Throne into party squabbles is most unsettling.

The Bhutanese Parliament: Anti social culture and closed closets moral mentality.

Bhutan continues to have the same set of power brandishing and narrow minded Legislators under different tags. When it comes to Consensual Sex, they are even anti- offsprings.

Under Sex Education campaigns the students are taught how to practise safe sex. And when they do, they are prosecuted under spinster administered Laws. This is what is called national entrapment of the young generation.

The law says to the 18 year girl," Its alright to have sex." And the same law silently requires the girl to partner with the choice of the legislators. What really is love if there is no choice whom to love? What really is consensual if to whom you consent to is not acceptable?

We have legislators who take immense satisfaction in persecuting the society and imposing morals they never ever abide themselves. There is that unquenchable desire to dictate for the sake of being in position to dictate. And with democracy the trend is appalling like kids with match sticks.

Most women marry men who are senior in age and vice versa men usually have wives younger in age. Is it so difficult for the Bhutanese Legislators to comprehend as to why 16 or 18 years girls have consensual sex with older partners? The nature and culture has been functioning in this manner for ages all over the world. Being a different nation does not call for Bhutan to be the worst dictator in matters of social and love affairs.

Develop a healthy respect for love and sex. Be normal and let not your degrading harboured inhibitions that you suffered in the past now shackle the growth of a proper society. There is a huge difference in discouraging rape and outlawing love relation. Please stop pushing love couples over the cliff.

Do not wait for someone near to your heart to be jailed or hanged for loving. Grasp the wisdom to amend the Consensual Sex Law. Lead the Fight for youth and right to Love !

The ills of Consensual Sex Clause.

The Consensual Sex Clause under Penal Code needed to be amended to accommodate traditional social and cultural norms and reality of present level of human development in terms of general awareness,physical and intellectual faculties. It should never have been viewed as protecting male chauvinism. And yet that was what exactly happened to the Dagana Dzongkhag proposal for a revisit of the Consensual Sex Clause under the Rape Law. According to reports in the mass media the proposal for an amendment was allowed to be killed with a lone woman MP  voice of dissent in the National Assembly.

People have wondered why women do not generally vote for women candidates. Well this is the answer. Not many take time to consider the welfare of women in general. Rather they simply look across the aisle and see a male raising a sex or marital issue and blindly oppose it as a matter of equality principle.

This is similar to what happened with the issue of the right of a woman with a child born from an affair especially with the husband of a married woman . Women MPs at that time either put themselves in the shoes of the woman engaged in illicit affair or taking vengeance upon the erring man.  They never stopped even for a second to consider about the right and the welfare of the wife and the legitimate children when they demanded and got a legislation that allocated 20 percent of the man's income to the mistress for raising the illegitimate child. A man's income often is the only income of the whole legitimate family.

Yes a child regardless of legal status has rights and needs but what about the plight of the wife and children of lawful marriage. This law has not stopped extra marital affairs.  And lawful family members'  sufferings have multiplied because of love affairs between clever other women married or single and erring  insatiable husbands whose misdeeds are encouraged and rewarded by this legislation backed by women MPs. Today the legal wife pays the price of two other people side affairs through physical and mental torments and financial deprivation. The absurdity is that the same law legislated to protect single mothers favours the married man whose ego may be bruised but income supplemented if his spouse bears another man's child. To give some credit to those women legislators,maybe, in their personal experience of life, only single men had the potential to father illegitimate children. So they did not think of legal consequences to lawful wives and children.

In the case of consensual sex especially among the age bracket of 16 to 24, the law inflicts a heavy toll on young lovers in high schools or colleges.  This law cannot prevent consensual sex because very often consensual sex is not so calculated and planned as deemed by legislators. Love blossoms like Spring flowers as part of natural instinct and consensual sex follows. Why must the claws of law tear away the lives of say a 16 year pregnant mother and 19 year old father.

A re-visit of the Consensual Sex Clause could have alleviated such social dilemma where the young father is jailed for 9 years and the even younger mother abandoned to fend alone and helpless.  But an MP  bent on penalising the man crucified the  plight of the young mother on the floor of the National Assembly. This should not have been the Buddhist legislative mood towards love and life. It is a crime against the young generation.

Bhutan may be a white washed democracy until younger generation are given a fair consideration. In my younger days I was amazed when I read a news piece that related an incident in an American School where a male student of 13 Years was given one day paternal leave to meet his baby and the mother aged 16 at the hospital where the delivery took place. O.K Bhutan is not America but just the thought that historically the Declaration of Independence by American forefathers actually defined Democracy of modern days.

The other MPs of this Parliament also have a duty to correct the deficiencies of a past legislation. Does this law have to bite someone prominent and influential to warrant an amendment? That day will hardly come because mostly the defenceless become the victims since such people possess no paved escape route.

Was any kin and kith of prominent and influential jailed under the Tobacco Law?

It took a Royal Decree to end the sufferings of many ordinary humble citizens jailed under the draconian Tobacco Law.  Insensitive and harsh laws makes criminals out of otherwise humble law abiding people.  Now who will and can step forward to stop the legal persecution of consensual sex partners that is driving young couples to commit suicide or face heavy jail term for men and social and economic deprivation for young women? Again the poorer section of the population will have to pray and hope for respite from the Throne.

Do the leaders of today's power structure know that the 1st national highway from phuentsoling to both Thimphu and Paro was built on the back breaking labour taxes imposed  on all people of Bhutan from the Bhutanese lunar age of 15 and above. Three months of compulsory labour contribution tax from every adult member of a family went into laying the lifeline of modern Bhutan. And adult hood was fixed at the age of 15. Now what kind of moral authority is being exercised by the democratic  legislators on the age that was sanctified and taxed not just traditionally but also during the dawn of modern nationhood?

In the world today, the rule of the Kings are not generally favoured. Yet in Bhutan even though democracy was introduced by the King ,the people can be heard saying let's go back to the  old system. Some maybe saying it out of blind faith or loyalty or curry personal favours but many may genuinely be frustrated with irresponsible and unaccountable deeds of democratic leaders who exercise collectively the power of an absolute Monarch. But unlike the individual person of the King the democratic leaders cannot be individually held accountable let alone penalize. The history can record a King being great or cruel or kind but under democracy except for the Prime Minister,the legislators who collectively are more powerful than the Prime Minister escape any historical blemish for their blunders or collective tyranny.

The definition of frankly honest.

The agriculture minister admits the failure to sort out Tsamdro and sokshing grievances and apologised. That is a sign of accountability. Thank you Lyonpo for being frankly honest.

The NC chairman remarks that the provisions of 2007 Land Act that favours the Authority have been implemented and the provisions that favour the people have been with held. Thank you Chairman for being frankly honest and possessing the insight to the grievous wrongs and the courage to name it in public.

It may be possible and it may not be, to fulfill commitments but it is a better person to have the decency and the courage to admit the truth. It may be within one's power or it may not be but it is a conscious leader to point our national administrative flaws.

The Man of Bhutanese Judiciary.

Lyonpo Sonam Tobgye had an incredible service opportunity to serve the Kings and the nation. And he spent and dedicated all his heart and resources to fulfill the responsibilities that came with the opportunities. The Royal Civil Service Commission, the Royal Audit Authority and the Judiciary System have reasons to celebrate his tenures and miss his presence hereafter. He is one individual who took pains to learn more to serve better.

The International Agencies like Danida and Indian  Embassey who assisted the Judiciary System of Bhutan with Assistances in human resource development, judiciary capacity and infrastructure developments must have been amazed and impressed with the humility and earnestness of Chief Justice of Bhutan.

As a private citizen I thank Lyonpo for making the Judiciary procedures transparent and easily accessible from application forms and penal codes to guidance to actual Court Hearing procedures and steps. Only someone exposed to earlier traditional Court System would really understand and appreciate the incredible transformation that he sweated and cajoled to bring about. The path to Justice begins the moment people step into the Court Complex and the changes he and his team introduced over the years helped to bring about the friendly and comprehensible court environment.

Another memorable scene for me is Lyonpo Sonam Tobgye as the Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee standing day after day on the Parliament floor to carry out the historic task of trudging unknown and uneasy path of the Constitution of Bhutan. He deserved national thanks just for the extra ordinary patience and physical stamina displayed at that august Hall filled with mostly fresh recruits to national powers.  He got the Constitution passed and finally it was signed at a special ceremony at Tashichhodzong  right across the Parliament Hall where he  humbly, patiently and firmly stood to nurse the draft Constitution through the highest National Legislative Body.  Well Done Your Excellency!  And I just do not think its over as yet in terms of your service to the nation.

My respects to Your Excellecy and the legal fraternity you built under the guidance of their Majesties. And my regards to your family. Wish Your Excellency peace and happiness.

Vehicle Quota option a thoughtful mind.

The National Assembly on Vehicle Quota  discussion heard a very sensible and equitable suggestion. A product of thoughtful mind ! Option to utilize the Quota in form of vehicle import or take cash incentive of Nu: 160,000. It will take care of economically disadvantaged officers who cannot afford to buy a new car. It is time to practise democracy in administration and end the traditional practice of economic segregation that always favour the better off. For example only an officer who has a vehicle in one's name can claim mileage and not the person in the same grade but poorer. The poorer officer who does not own a car cannot use someone else's car and claim mileage for official tours. I appeal to the well paid MPs to have a heart for the civil servants this time. Please provide this Option and do not convert it into PDP  versus  DPT fight or National Council versus National Assembly. Thank you.

Welcoming President Pranab Mukerjee of India at Paro Airport.

It makes me wonder why the Bhutanese media and forums are engaged in some kind of justifications or is it searching for valid grounds in their Majesties the King and Queen of Bhutan personally  welcoming the President of India to the Kingdom at Paro Airport.

The President is Head of the Nation of India and nearing 80 in age. His Majesty is the Head of the Kingdom of Bhutan and far younger in age and also the host. So if it is unprecedented and out of established protocol of yesterdays, now simply get used to the new set precedent and set protocol as of this Presidential State Visit. How the Indian Delegation viewed the Royal Welcome is beyond the control or influence of Bhutanese media and national forums.

It did not occur to me that the Royal welcome was unprecedented, beyond established protocol or beyond call of duty. The first two things I was ignorant and as for duty, I feel once enthroned whatever a King does or states or commands are all part of being the King and therefore very much the Duty to the Throne of the Kingdom. A King could set precedent or new protocol but to say going beyond the call of Duty is rather a kind of blemish because the interest of the nation is a King's responsibility as well as it is of a common ordinary citizen.
I personally would have been more happy if the President of India also had a Khader in greeting our King and failing that maybe he could have accepted in his hands the offered welcome scarfs. However, I suppose lapses occur with age and protocol surprise. The problems with scarfs started with the visit of Prime Minister Modi. I had then said, maybe, leave out the scarf but then it is our culture and symbolism not that of India. And culture must be practised to preserve as part of national identity whether India or any other Country comprehends or appreciates.

The Launch of the 60th Birth Anniversary of The 4th King of Bhutan

The 11th November,2014 scene at Changlingmithang was massive and spectacular. The public turned out in thousands and in spectrum of colours. And entertainments vied in all forms of display,  tradition, culture and variety found in different corners of Bhutan.

His Majesty the King and the Government along with the people of all walks of Bhutanese life had wholeheartedly intended to grandly launch the Celebration of the 60th Birth Anniversary of His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck the 4th King of Bhutan. And the 11th November day at Changlingthang was simply that and may be more if the signs of the celebratory blue Thimphu sky is taken into our hearts.

The Launch of the 60th Birth Anniversary of the 4th King was well rehearsed and meticulously managed. Everyone involved in the arrangements and the participants must be as pleased as the the whole nation with the success of the day. I feel gratefully happy that a whole year is dedicated to celebrate the life of the 4th King. Sixty years is a huge part of a King's life ! And the accomplishments the King achieved  are stupendous and the monumental sacrifices he made for his people and the Kingdom are immeasurable.

A larger than life figure, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck is a national hero of different historic dimensions and aspects of national status and life. May His Majesty enjoy many years of happiness and may the flag of Pelden Drukpa continue to flutter high under the reign of his son, His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck.