Rise and fall of a hypocrite

Posted On August 5, 2013

The first defeat in life shattered his dreams and plans, broken down his heart and genuinely disgraced him of his personality. The long road of his plan has virtually ended. He is no other than a person who refuses to accept loss – Jigmi Thinley.

The first democratically elected Prime Minister of Bhutan Jigmi Yeshey Thinley was born in Chhokhor valley in Bumthang district on 9 September 1952 to an influential family having close links to royalties. His ancestors served the royal family since the born of monarchy in Bhutan. JYT’s son Palden Thinley is now son-in-law of the palace.

When the third king decided to permanently shift the country’s capital from Punakha to Thimphu, his father had to shift to Thimphu. His father was an official at the Royal Secretariat which, in fact, was then the government.

Thinley received his initial education in traditional Bhutanese language and literature and was later taught in Hindi and English at Dechenchholing. He learnt speaking faltering Nepali when he started his civil service career much later.

As a close coterie, his father secured government scholarship for him to study at Dr. Graham’s Homes in Kalimpong, India, from where he graduated in 1970. His leadership qualities was manifested even during his school days when he was named School Captain in his final year and was elected President of the school youth Club at the first ever election held in that school while his contemporaries like Sonam Tobgay (current chief justice) and Sangay Ngedup were long behind him.

He was more interested to extra-curricular and sporting activities than books. He had led the school athletic squad at the Darjeeling District Interschool Games and, in his final year, and received the coveted “All Round Best Boy Award”. His stature as competent student influenced the school management in such as way that he was invited later to serve as member of the school’s Board of Management where he remained until his appointment as Ambassador to UN in New York.

He did his college studies in St Stephen’s College in Delhi together with Khandu Wangchuk, where served as Literary Chairman. He graduated in early summer of 1974 in time to participate in the Coronation of the fourth King Jigme Singye. His close relation with the king started here.

Jigme Singye ordered to hire JYT into civil service to work specifically in palace affairs. He remained ever close to the young king throughout his reign.

In early 1975, Jigme Singye offered him further studies in United States. With government funding, he did his Masters in Public Administration from Institute of Public Administration of the Pennsylvania State University.

His political ambition started here when he, despite being a foreign student, contested and was elected to the Graduate Student Council. The Council in turn, appointed him to the Student Budget Committee that dispensed grants from a well-endowed fund to some one hundred odd competing student bodies on the campus. That was his practical experience as administrator. The University in 2001 invited him back to honour with ‘Alumni Fellow’ award.

He returned to the country in 1976 and started his full career in civil service. His early days in the civil service were not productive but gradually rose by heaps and bounds in 1980s. His close contact with King Jigme Singye, brother-in-law Dago Tshering and relatives of his wife Rinsy Dem helped him a great deal for unprecedented rise compared to his seniors. Without anyone able to question, he become home secretary at the height of his brutality in 1990. Fortunately, his brother-in-law Dago was home minister of the time.

JYT won the sentiments of the palace and powerful coterie in designing plans for evicting southern Bhutanese with close coordination with King, Dago Tshering and Kipchu Namgyal, who is now head of the Royal Bhutan Police.

Following his successful mission of evicting around 100,000 Bhutanese citizens, JYT rose the batch of powerful and influential figures in the national politics though he was still serving in the civil service. Under his design to eliminate the historical evidence of Nepali speakers living in southern districts, the government in 1995-96 circulated executive orders to resettle northern Bhutanese in vacant lands there and change their official names of the local places.

King Jigme Singye put so much faith on him that he was appointed Bhutan’s ambassador to UN in an attempt to revive the blurring image of Bhutan due to increased criticism on mass eviction.

He never looked back in his rising career. On completion of his term in New York, he was invited back home to lead country as head of the government. King Jigme Singye announced the devolution of power and created cabinet, that did not include the king, to take the governance responsibilities.

In one of his encounter to Bhutanese Refugee Children’s Forum representatives in Bankok alongside the HIV AIDS conference in 2000 he had mentioned he would not remain quite without ushering democratic changes in the country.

His was a difficult mission. Ushering democratic changes without hurting the sentiments of king was a tough road. JYT had, since young, know the interest of the king who wants praises, promotions and publicity. And he grabbed the best-suited tool beneficial to both him and the king – Gross National Happiness.

Despite several claims by reputed media and personalities across the globe, King Jigme Singye has never written or talked anything about Gross National Happiness. It was JYT who preached this, publicised this and remained an iconic figure in the GNH movement. Promoting GNH in the name of the king gave him so much bargaining power that the fourth king remained silent spectator to his ambitions and actions. His attachment to the fourth king and GNH publicity compelled the palace to influence voters in his favour in 2008.

By the time he served the first democratically elected prime minister of Bhutan, he was not only an unchallenging figure in Bhutanese politics but also a man of repute in international stage for his passion on making happiness philosophy a mission of the UN.

The loss in 2013 election is not just his party’s but possibly the end of his involvement in publicity and promotion of GNH. The rise of JYT personality through GNH had betrayed his once loyal follower Karma Ura, the other pillar of GNH advocacy. Ura came openly, but indirectly, during the 2013 election to damage the credibility of Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT). JYT had forgotten to include Ura in any of his GNH tours.

The palace sees the end of JYT utilities. If it remains, the developing circumstances say, there is now way of revival. It remains to see if Ura can replace JYT to serve the palace to continue the GHN mission.

The Bhutanese royal palace promoted JYT in the manner he never had to face any adversities or defeats. For him, defeat means defamation, demoralising, discouragement and betrayal. Had there been upheaval of win and loss experiences in his life, he would not have decided today to quit politics. It has become the bitter truth that the closest friend of fourth king has become bitter enemy of the fifth king. The emotional expression of his party against the palace after the election loss adequately speaks this truth.

There is grim hope of seeing JYT back in the GNH mission or in national politics. A competent hypocrite and destructor of nation’s ethnic and linguistic diversity is likely to remain in history that his rise and fall was virtually designed within the four walls of the Bhutanese palace.