Who are we talking with?
Posted On January 8, 2009
The flow of Bhutanese refugees to the western countries gave birth to a google group discussion where few residing in Kathmandu also joined. There were hatred and love to this group, all they come out issued raised in course of discussion. Many not screwed to socialist view withdrew while many others complained about the stuffs covered.
Two issues, as I found, debated at length here. The first is question on Manoj Rai for carrying a Nepali flag and the next is a letter to Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Tshering Tobgay.
Govinda Rizal residing in Kyoto raised two important issues for the opposition leader as agenda for current parliament session. He asked whether those who raised demands for democracy be still tagged as criminals when the country has accepted the democratic process.
An addition he made here: “If so the monarch would have been the greatest criminal, liable to be punished with life imprisonment, if not with capital punishment.” I hope he mentioned this because all those who demand democracy in Bhutan must be punished like the Lhotsampas were in 1952 and 1990.
Secondly, Rizal wrote, “For the same crime/situation, same punishment should be given. Is it acceptable, if the laws and punishments applied to the past political activists were applied nationwide similarly?” but he did not clarify incidents for which same punishment must be given. I think, this puzzled the opposition leader as well.
Rizal asked Tobgay to see the ‘tremendous difficulties’ faced by the southern Bhutan children due to allegations they faced about their parent’s involvement in 1990 demos. Children, whose parents failed to receive NOC, are not entitled to enroll into schools still today. Coincidently, few days after this letter sent to Tobgay, government announced that few schools in southern Bhutan will be open in the new academic session.
There was a fierce response in the group by ‘Tshering Sharma’. My reading of this response had proved it was not from anyone in Thimphu. I received similar mails from person named B. B. Tamang in the past whom I tracked and found writing from Nepal. Sharma has a Nepali style of writing in English and obviously, I assumed even if the person is from inside Bhutan, he must have studies at Tribhuvan University. The group owner denied telling who the person is and assuming it was the real Tobgay, Rizal made a satire response – I uploaded already.
The responses did not end here. Deo Sharma wrote: Where did you find Indian nationality for me? I do not agree in one point with Deo. This is what he wrote: “We have lost the battle, but we have not lost our dignity as sound human beings.” No, we have not lost our battle, dear friend.
Vikram Adhikari from Adelaide assumed the Tshering must be one of those camp’s guys who misled people for so many years and now trying to mislead the group. Jogen in Kathmandu looked irritated with Tshering’s mail. He suggested for consultation with UNV office in Bonn to clarify that he was working in OHCHR-Nepal as International Human Rights Officer [Bhutanese-in-exile].
Bishwonath Chhetri from US questioned whether the present king be declared as non Bhutanese because he is direct descendent of Queen Mother (Tibetan) or his ancestors were chased out of Tibet.
Ratna Suabba has a calm response and suggested Tshering to work ‘constructively’ for wider good of all Bhutanese rather than pointing fingers at each other. Parsuram Luitel in Melbourne made several questions:
If all you have said is true and we are from Nepal, then why did USA, Australia, NZ, Canada, Holland, Norway, Denmark and other allies has settled people from camp in their countries in the name of Bhutanese refugees?
Can you find any international paper that supports what Bhutan government and a “frog of a well” like you have said is true? Why all the international reports on Southern Bhutan issues differ with RGOB?
I suggest Mr Luitel to read “Bhutan growing into grassroot democracy” by Bhabani Sen Gupta for this question.
Mr Luitel has one story to tell: I am 40 plus now, my father is nearing 70 and my grandfather died when my father was 9 years old when he was bitten by a snake while digging Gelephu-Tongsa road on forced free labor. Where was your grand father then? Drinking ara… banchan… digging holes to look for taro to feed the family?
Manoj Rai said Bhutanese resettled in west would intensify movement for democracy and forecasted these people will rule Bhutan in longer run.
I say, it is still not the time to assume that supreme but I salute his heartbeats towards ethnic discrimination in Bhutan.
Some said the Tshering was a thug, but don’t know if he is. According to Rizal, the opposition leader in a chat said he has not sent any mails of that kind and that the email address does not belong to him.
And Vidhya from BNS got the chance to invite the people in this group discussion into APFA forum where posts are censored for defaming words. This is a good discussion but I doubt if it had really pinched the person targeted. Discussion among Bhutanese have not come into a single stream – bhutantimes.com censors any posts from Nepal and this google group has supposedly no members from Bhutan. There is a point required for these people to converge. There is no meaning of serving scorns each other. A brand new generation has come in both the communities and it’s the time they built their friendship.