Initially I thought patang and kamni for democratically elected officials were a symbolic recognition of the people's choice from the Throne. A display of royal democracy gnh. My grand misconception and tgerefore admiration was short lived. Gradually it became clear that these are only adornments of office routinely handed out by the constitutional King to MPs who have already secured authority of governance for 5 years tenure through the ballot box or EVMs.
Now under Bhutanese democracy system, a new practice of power striptease has been instituted for retiring elected officials. Quite a gala at the august hall of Parliament where a public drama of literally stripping of authority was staged. The MPs undergoing the dis-robe ritual.
All can relax now that henceforth, there will not be an iota of fear of these former MPs and Cabinet Ministers exercising the apparently dreaded after tenure residual of influence if any among the people. Maybe, this striptease ritual will also be imposed upon retiring Dratsang Lopens and the retiring officers of the armed forces, hereafter.
This power extinguishing script could have been adapted from the ritual of stripping the corpse of normal attires before being shrouded and placed on pyre for cremation. A kind of finality of banishing to the void. What temporal fear calls for such public exorcism of retiring MPs?
I would have thought that if at all necessary an edict from the Speaker forbidding use of official adornments after exiting posts of authority would be equally effective and also dignified.
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