Mismatch between political needs and constitution
Bhutanese political participation was zero in constitution making. That could be the reason behind mismatch between the political needs and constitutional provisions.
It was first the constitution born in Bhutan, if we disregard the presence of the banned political parties. The grave errors of the functioning of the constitution are gradually coming up in the surface. The more faults are expected, unless the constitution is amended to fit Bhutanese needs.
It started with differing opinion from two houses on who have right to debate on financial bills. The larger National Assembly went bull dozed on it saying the National Council, apolitical, has nothing to do with budgets presented by a political party.
Before the houses could bury their hatchet, differences emerged within National Assembly regarding the Constituency Development Grant. The mini opposition failed to act tough which helped the government to go ahead with its plan to distribute money to lawmakers in the name of local development. So far, the money has been used mostly for renovation of Buddhist churches, which has nothing to do with local development. No questions have been raised to it. The constitution mentions nothing about such grants.
The dispute in the lower house continues to plague the politics — whether the parties must be entitled to state funding. The ruling party has been pushing hard for state funding while opposition party remains resisting. The election commission has objected any state funding saying the constitution has restricted such assistance. The ruling parties, in other hand, claims the constitution has not spoken about it. The biggest worry for the party is its fear clearing out debts of over 20 million Nu before next elections, failing which the party will not be allowed to participate in the next elections, as notified by the election commission.
In a recent talk with me, a DPT parliamentarian claimed the opposition party leader Tshering Tobgye has benefits in not accepting state funding. His allegation was that if election commission restricted PDP from contesting the election, he would form another party whereby he would not be obliged to pay the debts PDP has. I can say nothing to him but it is clearly a mismatch between the political needs and the constitutional provisions.
The latest dispute is whether the local government should be apolitical. While it is still uncertain when the elections for local government will be held, the ruling party seems willing to keep the local bodies under political influence. According to constitution, the local bodies should remain apolitical.
In a recent address to the gathering of chief district officers in Thimphu, Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley had asked them to include local political leaders in the development planning. The effect seems to strike positive. According to latest reports, the local government leaders are extending a hand of comradeship to party workers.
The local government act empowers the chairperson to decide who attends these meetings as observers. With legs here, the CDOs have ordered the gups to include party leaders in their meeting and planning. This is gradual politicization of the local body. Leaders from both the parties at local level seem interested to participate here.
Though this goes against the constitution, keeping local bodies apolitical will be very much impractical. The active people at local level have to either choose party or the local body. Keeping legs in both the bodies will make both the forums weaker. There is nothing wrong when party leaders contest for local body.
The constitution is the restriction. The constitution has come against this interest because it was written without understanding the political needs of the country. The only alternative for the ruling party is to initiate amendment of the constitution. Considering its heavy presence in the parliament, lacking by just few votes to get 2/3 in joint sitting, the ruling party can easily change the constitution. If that happens, things will change for better to address some of the political needs of the country.