Finally, people start speaking

Posted On March 20, 2012

Here is a statement from a young revolt group in Bhutan that came up to challenge the atrocities of Bhutanese government:

Many thanks to everyone who responded and posted their opinions and also sent the many messages in Facebook.

We understand that any violence in the form of demonstrations and strikes will not be accepted by most of us as we are not used to it. We do not want to take that path anyway. It will be the ultimate if nothing works out. On behalf my team I want to make a few things to the press and to the public.

1. Sherubtse is holy to all of us and at the same time almost all the great ideas related to the country’s affairs are either born there or discussed and finally tested in Thimphu. As we operate from Kanglung area and Sherubtse definitely has a great input in this movement, the first public announcement was mainly meant to gather the immediate attention of the government. We have been able to reach our questions the very next day to the PM.

2. Kanglung area is also focal but not limited as the issues related to single mothers in nation-wide and we do agree to the Lyoncheon’s reply on it.

3. Other educational institutions in the country were also referred as we now have a strong network with conscious young people in all the institutions across the country.
We knew that if a national issue was failed to be addressed by the present government, the only places that the public would look for mobilization would be our educational institutions. Our institutions of higher learning are for nurturing the leaders of tomorrow and without their voices in writing a very practical, down to earth action plans for the country would render them useless. All young people ought to have the realistic picture of the country and not a romanticized one by politically motivated corrupt people in the country.

3. Privacy and the rights of the people was another major point brought out by several people who responded to us. There are several ways that the government can safeguard the citizens. We can not generalize an institution or a community or certain Dzongkhags on the basis of some unacceptable things that have been happening. There are good things, good people, bad things and bad people everywhere. As the government takes the physicals (finger prints) and stores for one simple reason – to ensure security in an organized way. To demand the establishement of a DNA bank would definitely be unacceptable but in course of time if people have to seek justice and DNA becomes a need our team will definitely ask the government to go to that extent for only those “involved” and deny their participation.

4. This is only the tip of the iceberg in our long journey of bringing these issues to the tables. There are several of them that need to be addressed by the present government. If they are addressed in the most accurate way possible – we will be an obstacle to the next election and campaign to that level in which we will shake the very foundations of DPT. Our challenge is to make Democracy a reality to all Bhutanese irrespective of the place we live, language we speak, whether we are “Koktees”, rich or poor.

5. This is not just an issue of women only. Men have been equally victimized by those who made the law, took the law in their own hands and plundered the innocent hearts of Bhutanese. We are not just a team of young romantic women operating from a little internet cafes in Thimphu which used to be about a year ago but a strong team of dynamic men and women, gearing up for a massive practical steps in the country mobilizing the nation in the field of social, political and economic changes. Bhutan should soon have a strong civil society within a year and our Lyonchen must clear the mess that he created in the country during his 25 years of determination to reach the top. Honestly, the PM and his government has to be accountable to the food security issues in the country today creating the “ghost villages of Trashigang” as rightly pointed by Kuensel. There are ghost villages all over the country now and the present government is accountable to this including the Rupee crunch today. We are heading into a very difficult time since we lost our rural life styles too fast under these power hungry people. The government has created disparity in the country, has used the citizens against the citizens and has only romanticized Bhutan before those who really mean too little to our rural populace. The government has never sought to make represent Bhutan as a whole and all young people today need to know that this country with so much diversity in its geography also has equal diversity of cultures, languages and difficulties. We need to know that this country has east, west, north and south. Together we make one Great Bhutan. All Bhutanese must get that opportunity to tell “We live once and we live in Bhutan”.

6. Faceless is the other point. Indeed we are faceless. This is an open revolt to our government that I and my team has no face in the social network pages. We removed our photos to make it representative of what the government has done to many Bhutanese by making them faceless before the law of the land by depriving the right to birth registration, census, education, citizenship, owning property and many other issues. As long as these issues are solved for each Bhutanese, our team shall remain faceless in the papers of the country, in social networking sites or for that matter in form of media. This however, does not mean that we are limited to being invisible. Our team members are loaded with button and screw cameras and are walking into your offices or in the country’s farms, interviewing and recording. If you are looking for this team members start looking into your own offices and homes. You might be talking to several of them everyday, therefore time to talk sense has come to this country.

Thank you for your huge participation.

Kesang Chhoden
Spokesperson

Team Bhutan – Making Democracy a Reality
“A smile restored each day”
kesangchhodenbtn@gmail.com