The Sorry Saga of Bhutan's North

The Sorry Saga of Bhutan's North
Click over the map to know the differences

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

भुटानबाट थप नेपाली लखेटिने अवस्था

लीला बराल


बिर्तामोड, असार १२ - भुटान मानव अधिकार संगठनका अध्यक्ष एसबी सुब्बाले दक्षिण भुटानबाट थप नेपाली भाषी लखेटिने खतरा औंल्याउँदै यसप्रति नेपाल सरकार तथा विश्व समुदायको ध्यान जानुपर्ने बताएका छन् ।

सन् १९९० मा नेपाल निर्वासित सुब्बाले अधिकारवादी संस्था गठन गरी भुटानी शरणार्थीको अधिकारका पक्षमा सक्रिय रहँदै आएका छन् । भारत पश्चिम बंगालको सिलिगुढीमा बसोबास गर्दै भुटानभित्रको वर्तमान अवस्था नियालिरहेका उनले झापा आएका बखत कान्तिपुरसँग दक्षिण भुटानका ८० हजारभन्दा बढीलाई स्वेच्छाले देश छोड्न बाध्य गराएको जानकारी दिए । 'पूर्वी नेपालका भुटानी शिविरवासीको समस्या साँघुरिँदै गएपछि भुटानको एकजाति एक देशको नीति फेरि सक्रिय हुनेछ,' तीस वर्षको उमेरमै निर्वासनमा परेका शरणार्थी अधिकारकर्मीले भने, 'बेलैमा दबाबपूर्ण कदम नचाल्ने हो भने फेरि हजारौं भुटानीको थातबासको अधिकार खोसिने छ । उनीहरू मानवअधिकार हननको पीडादायी अवस्थाबाट गुज्रनुपर्नेछ ।'

सिलिगुढी बसेर भारत भुटानका सीमावर्ती क्षेत्रमा पुगी दक्षिण भुटानको अवस्थाबारे सूचना संकलनमा सक्रिय उनले त्यहाँका शासक दक्षिणका सरकारी कागजात जफत गर्ने, शिक्षा, स्वास्थ्यमा भेदभाव गर्ने तथा व्यापार व्यवसायको अनुमति नदिनेजस्ता कार्य गर्दै स्वेच्छाले देश छोड्न बाध्य पार्ने पुरानो नीतिमा सक्रिय रहेको बताउँछन् । कुनै पनि शासकले अवलम्बन गर्ने जाति सफायको नीति मानव अधिकारका दृष्टिले संसारको सबैभन्दा खराब अवस्था हो भन्ने निष्कर्षमा आफूलाई बितेको दुई दशकमा ज्ञात भएको सुब्बा सुनाउँछन् ।

भुटानी शरणार्थीको स्वदेश फिर्ती अभियान सफल हुन नसक्नुको मुख्य कारणबारे सुब्बा भन्छन्, भुटानी राजनीतिक दलले एकीकृत आन्दोलन गर्न नसक्नु, भुटानको गलत प्रचारबाजीको प्रतिवाद हुन नसक्नु तथा भारतको सहयोग नपाउनु शरणार्थी आन्दोलन विफलताका प्रमुख कारण औंल्याए ।

भारत भुटान सम्बन्ध र त्यसमा भारतीय सत्ताका केही व्यापारिक र सामरिक स्वार्थ गाँसिन गएकाले यति ठूलो मानवीय समस्या ब्युँतिरह्यो र समाधान दिशामा जान सकेन । उनले भित्रकै समस्यामा पनि तिखो टिप्पणी गर्दै शरणार्थीले कुनै बेला सर्वमान्य मानेका टेकनाथ रिजालजस्ता व्यक्तिसमेत सानोतिनो स्वार्थमा अल्भिmएर आन्दोलबाट विमुख बनेको उल्लेख गरे ।

सुब्बाले भुटानी सत्ताले अहिले गरिरहेको निर्वाचनलगायत गतिविधि प्रजातन्त्र र अधिकारका पक्षमा रहेको भन्नु भ्रमपूर्ण भन्दै त्यहाँ राजाको एकछत्र शासन कायम रहेको दाबी गरे । उनले संसारभर छरिएका भुटानीले एक न एक दिन संगठित आवाज उठाउनेमा आफ्नो विश्वास पनि प्रकट गरेका छन् ।

Source:  ekantipur.com

Bhutan’s road to democracy leads to China?

Bhutan’s road to democracy leads to China?
Senior officers recalled that Bhutan PM Jigme Thinley had said that that he only saw growing opportunities in China and no threat.

NEW DELHI: There's a new anxiety in the top echelons of New Delhi about what's arguably India's only friendly neighbour, Bhutan. As the hill kingdom takes another baby step in its transition from monarchy to democracy with its second parliamentary election on July 13, there's realization here that complacence has possibly allowed some disturbing developments there to go unnoticed. Friendship with Bhutan is often taken for granted by our foreign policy mandarins.

So, it was a rude shock when they learned last year from a Chinese press release that the new Bhutan PM, JigmeThinley, has had a meeting with the then Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and the two countries were set to establish diplomatic ties. Given that Bhutan's foreign policy is conducted by and large in close consultation with New Delhi, such an important step without its knowledge created disquiet.

Although the PM's office in Thimpu sought to play it down, senior officers recalled that Thinley had said months after taking over as PM that he only saw growing opportunities in China and no threat. As part of Bhutan's outreach to China was the decision last year to procure 20 Chinese buses, typically the kind of purchase that would normally be booked with, say, Tata Motors. It raised eyebrows. It did not help that the person who got the contract for supplying the buses was reported to be a relative of Thinley. What's ironic is that in his poll campaign, Thinley is said to be impressing upon the electorate that he was the best upholder ofBhutan's ties with India, whereas he has possibly complicated them.Thinley's Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party is again the main contender for power in this tiny, landlocked nation of 700,000 which saw transition to democracy from an over 100-year-old hereditary monarchy in 2008. Democracy in Bhutan was ushered in by Bhutan's benevolent fourth king Jigme Singye Wangchuck.

The last month saw the Bhutanese repose faith in the system with 55% of 380,000-strong electorate braving thunderstorms and landslides to exercise their franchise. As the world's largest democracy, India welcomed Bhutan's transition in 2008, but not everyone in South Block realized that the proposed model wasn't like India's Westminister model of parliamentary democracy. It's a diarchy in Bhutan with the monarch retaining certain overriding powers. Article 20.7 of Bhutan's Constitution says the cabinet shall be collectively responsible to the Druk Gya88lpo (the king) and to Parliament".

The government must also enjoy the confidence of the king as well as parliament. Further Article 20.4 says "the PM shall keep the Druk Gyalpo informed from time to time about the affairs of the state, including international affairs, and shall submit such information and files as called for by the Druk Gyalpo". It now appears that the king wasn't quite in the loop as Bhutan expanded its diplomatic ties with 53 countries, as against 22 in 2008, as well as its overture to Beijing to enhance ties with China which has maximum significance for India. If he hasn't stepped in, it is to avoid any unintended signalling for the growth of democracy in Bhutan.

According to geostrategist Brahma Chellaney, the populist power of electoral politics has introduced a major new element in Bhutan with trans-boundary implications. "As a small, vulnerable country, Bhutan would like to have a good relationship with China. But since the time China gobbled up Tibet, Bhutan's spiritual homeland, Beijing has turned its attention toreal estate in Bhutan, assertively laying claim to Bhutanese territory," says Chellaney. In foreign policy, any conflict between principles and national interest, the latter usually gets precedence. While celebrating the fledgling democracy in Bhutan, policy watchers wonder if New Delhi got blind-sighted to certain ominous signs.
, TNN 

The Times of India

Campaigns down south incomplete without discussing census


 
samtseVoters after the PDP meeting in Dorokha
The other issue people expressed their discontentment was over Amochhu project to which some lost their land and were not compensated adequately
Although election commission has asked political parties to refrain from discussing the census issue, no campaigning in south is complete without a mention of it.
Although political party presidents might not talk about it, voters raise questions on both census and citizenship issue.
The census issue was raised soon after People’s Democratic Party president Tshering Tobgay reached Dorokha on June 23 after walking for four days from Haa.
“Tapai haru saapai ramrai tsa? Tapai heru khethi ko kaam chhoray ra yahan aunu bhako ma, ekkdam dhanyabadh cha la…”
This is how Tshering Tobgay greets voters before he begins his campaign speech in Samtse by asking voters if they were well and thanking them for attending the meeting in Lhotsamkha.
Admitting his Lhotsamkha was not good, Tshering Tobgay then switches to Dzongkha, which is translated to the people by other party candidates of the dzongkhag.
For about 200 people in Dorokha some of whom had walked since 7am with their bundled ghos slung across their shoulders to meet the president on June 23, the main issue they wanted addressed under the new government was the census and land ownership issue.
One voter, IB Rai from Bisgoan in Dorokha ‘A’ said because people in the South did not have the required “papers,” they face obstacles everyday irrespective of how hard they studied or worked.
“Is it because the government was weak that this issue was never resolved although it’s been on our minds for a long time now,” IB Rai said. “While those who left the country are long gone, those who stayed behind still don’t have thram of the land they occupy.”
Tshering Tobgay, whose understanding of Lhotsamkha was better than his speaking it, told the people, that the government did not have the authority to resolve the census issue, but that it was the state’s prerogative.
“The government can’t grant citizenship but it can facilitate the process, which, however, has not been done,” the president said. “If PDP forms the government, we’ll take the people’s problem to the state and facilitate in getting you citizenship.”
Travelling the bumpy Dorokha road, in the rain, fog and humidity, the party president and the candidates in the meeting at Panbari community school, were told that some children still walked for two and a half hours everyday to school.
“The former government promised to bring schools within one hour walking distance yet you said your children have to walk for more than two hours a day,” candidate Tek Bdr Subba said.
The people expressed to the president their discontentment over the Amochhu project that has resulted in them losing land to the project and not getting well compensated.
Tshering Tobgay said if PDP formed the government, they would sit together with the people and discuss on the compensation schemes to ensure people were not affected by the project.
To the people of Samtse – Chengmari – Pugli constituency, who had been waiting to listen to the president for about three hours, Tshering Tobgay said PDP’s pledge to provide helicopter was mocked by the other party, even though the same pledge was made by DPT in 2008 but which was not fulfilled.
“If you need change, you need to change the ruling government and you can give us a chance to serve you,” he said.
The census issue was again raised at the Norbugang (Chengmari) meeting, which started after Tshering Tobgay offered his prayers at the Shiva Mandir and was raised again at the meeting in Tashichholing  (Sipsoo), and again at the meeting in Gomtu and Phuentsholing yesterday, where more than half of those who attended the talk either did not have voting rights or had a family member who did not have voting rights.
“If there are four households in a village with the census problem, the problem would have spread to the whole village in a decade’s time,” a villager said. “That’s because people marry within the village ‘spoiling”’ the whole village’s census.”
By Sonam Pelden, Samtse

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Immigrant Voices: After 20 years in a refugee camp, Bhutanese man seeks home in Portland




lv.imm1.JPG
Mani Bharati (second from right) sits with his family, from left, Bipana Bharati, Dibya, 10, and Monika, 12; in their Southeast Portland apartment. They also have a son, Deoraj, 17. (Mike Lloyd/ The Oregonian)
Kelly House, The OregonianBy Kelly House, The Oregonian 
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on June 16, 2013 at 9:00 AM, updated June 16, 2013 at 11:13 PM
Email
Editor's note: This series explores the diversity of Oregon's immigrant population through first-person stories of immigrants from throughout the world. All are in the U.S. legally.
Mani Bharati, who speaks Nepali, spoke through a translator. His responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.
I moved to Portland in 2009, after 20 years living in a refugee tent camp in Nepal.
My family are Nepali-speaking Bhutanese who immigrated to Bhutan generations ago. The government recruited my great-grandfather and many other Nepalis to help build Southern Bhutan's infrastructure and farm the land. They granted us citizenship. But when the work was done in the 1980s, they kicked us out.
Those who stayed were illegally imprisoned, forced to wear traditional Northern Bhutanese dress and forbidden from practicing our Hindu religion or speaking Nepali in schools. Women were raped and houses were burned to the ground.

About Bhutan
Area:14,824 square miles, north of India and east of Nepal in South Central Asia
Population: 722,000
Immigration facts: Bhutan has experienced a refugee crisis since the early 1990s, when the country's government revoked citizenship of hundreds of thousands of Nepali-speaking Southern Bhutanese residents and ejected them from the country. Facing discrimination, false imprisonment, violence and property destruction, more than 100,000 fled to Nepal, where they have lived in tent camps for more than two decades. Despite numerous international attempts to settle the crisis, the refugees continue to live in exile. In 2008, the U.S. agreed to absorb 60,000 refugees from the tent camps, leading to an influx of Southern Bhutanese immigrants in Portland and other cities. According to Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization estimates, more than 200 Bhutanese refugees have arrived in Portland since 2011, with many more arriving in prior years. The U.S. does not have diplomatic relations with Bhutan.
GS.21BHUT117-03.jpgView full size
I was 15 when my family left, fearing we would be the next to experience the suffering we saw our neighbors endure. We drove by car into Nepal, but many others weren't so fortunate. They had to walk miles and miles through the jungle to escape. When we got there, the Nepalese government wouldn't give us citizenship, but they gave us bamboo sticks. We covered them with straw and tarps to make our houses, which caved in every time it rained hard.
They gave us some rice and potatoes, but it wasn't enough to live on. I had to work to buy extra food, but my sick father needed someone to look after him. My brother suggested an arranged marriage, and Bipana and I were wed. When we had children -- our son is now 17 and our two daughters are 12 and 10 -- food became scarcer.
Life in the camp was hard, but I was nervous to come to America, too. My wife has asthma and my daughter has seizures. I was worried they wouldn't get the care they needed in America.
We stayed with my brother for the first few days, then Catholic volunteers helped us find an apartment and showed us around Portland. They took us to the waterfalls. My kids enrolled in the David Douglas School District and I tried to find a job, but it was difficult. Every employer's first question is "Can you speak English?"
Each time I get rejected, I wonder how I will feed my kids or pay the rent. Right now, my wife is working part-time as a hotel housekeeper. All of her money goes straight to rent, and paying back the International Organization for Migration, which paid for our plane tickets to America. I am taking language classes at Portland Community College, but my kids have learned faster than me. They have good teachers at school.
The health care here is better than in Nepal, too.
When I moved here, my brother helped me get involved in Grow Portland, a program that helps refugee immigrants get on their feet through farming. For $750, I rent a one-acre plot in Southeast Portland and sell my goods at the Portland Farmers Market. I farmed in Nepal, but I am learning a lot about American consumers. If the turnip or the cucumber is too big, they won't buy it. It's a struggle. I don't think I'll make more than $1,500 for the season.

Immigrant Voices: Oregon immigrants tell their stories about why they came to America (video)Immigrant Voices is a series that tells the stories of immigrants to America and to Oregon. They are Moima Doe from Liberia, Lilya Yevseyeva from Russia and Mani Bharati from Bhutan.
When I first moved here, I was scared. It is much different from Nepal. I didn't even know how to use the crosswalks on the streets or how to take the bus.
Now, I am used to it, but I still have a lot to learn.
Friends have told me I would have an easier time finding a job in other states, but we can't afford to move and my kids like it here.
My disabled daughter begs me to get the nice decorations she sees when she goes to other people's homes. I try to make her happy by decorating the house with teddy bears and streamers on the ceiling. She doesn't understand why we don't have anything.
I hope someday we will. It is hard to imagine going back home because Bhutan is still in unrest. In the meantime, I am working to learn English so I can apply for citizenship. I will also think about my kids and what they want to do. If our future is good over here, we will stay.
--Kelly House

Basu: Bhutanese making Iowa home




The Asian kingdom of Bhutan, in the eastern Himalayas, puts a premium on happiness, measuring progress not in gross domestic product but according to a happiness index. That has earned the constitutional monarchy the reputation of the world’s happiest country.
Perhaps that’s why people forced out of Bhutan are among the saddest.
Bhutanese refugees have a suicide rate of 20 per 100,000 people, compared to a worldwide rate of 16 and a U.S. rate of 12. Depression among that population in the United States is 21 percent, nearly three times the overall rate.
Thankfully Iowa’s Bhutanese refugees, who began arriving in 2008 from refugee camps and now number around 800, have not witnessed such tragedies. Help from Iowans, good schools and the potential for upward mobility have helped pave their way.
Still, they face many challenges.
These refugees are ethnically Nepali (also called Nepalese) unlike Bhutan’s Tibetan majority. They speak the language of Nepal, their ancestral home, and practice its religion, Hinduism, rather than Buddhism. The Nepalis arrived in Bhutan in the 1860s as builders and settled in its south, once making up 44 percent of Bhutan’s 700,000 people. But beginning in the 1980s, they became targets of a national campaign for ethnic uniformity, according to Chidananda Dahal, one of Des Moines’ Bhutanese refugees. A new census classification declared them non-citizens unless they had land receipts dating back to 1958. The government also demanded everyone wear Tibetan-style dress.
The Nepalis protested, and the government responded by sending troops out, says Dahal. He says many people were jailed without trials and tortured. To win their release, sometimes after years, he says people were given documents to sign that they couldn’t understand, relinquishing their property rights.
Dahal’s father, a Hindu priest, was targeted after refusing to change his style of dress, according to his son. After getting a tip that he would be arrested, members of the family fled their country with nothing in 1991 and went to Nepal. “Chida” was in his early 20s and in college.

And then Iowa

The refugees streaming out of Bhutan set up camp near a river in eastern Nepal, with no food or drinking water. “One day 26 children died,” says Dahal. Eventually with help from international aid organizations, formal camps were organized.
“It was manageable but not like a home,” Dahal says of the crowded, thatch-roofed huts. Illnesses spread quickly among the up to 13,000 residents.
He lived there 19 years.
After talks brokered by international agencies ended with no resolution, other countries including the United States agreed to take in these refugees. Between 2007 and this spring, 100,000 were resettled around the world. The United States accepted 66,000.
Dahal, his wife, young son, parents and four of his five siblings moved to Des Moines in 2009.
The family has done well. Chida, who finished college in India and taught in a private school in Nepal, found work at a packing plant after eight months. But today he’s a bilingual community outreach worker for the Des Moines school district, based at Lincoln High School. He works with the district’s 110 Nepali-speaking students.
His wife, Bhima, whom he met in the camp, had no formal work experience. But after learning to drive, she was hired as a sales associate at a department store, where she has won sales awards the past two years.
Their son, Pradyumna, then 6, came home crying after his first day at school because he understood nothing. But within six months he had learned English, and he just completed fourth grade in the gifted and talented program. They live in a southeast-side apartment complex full of Bhutanese.
Bhima appreciates the ease of American life with its refrigerators, washers and dryers and working electricity. In the camps, where she lived since age 13, they relied on charcoal and kerosene. She dreamed of coming to America “because it’s a good life and there are a lot of opportunities.”

Adjustment difficult

Still, the displacement, past traumas and practical obstacles make adjustment hard for some Bhutanese refugees, including Dahal’s 72-year-old parents and others of their generation. They don’t speak English or drive, and they feel isolated. Some who were field workers never learned to read or write, even in their own language, so learning English is especially hard.
Some never even rode in a car before. There are cultural barriers. Strict Hindus still observe a caste system and won’t eat food prepared by others, Dahal says. According to national reports, some refugees arrive with undiagnosed mental health problems.
Though his father, Udaya Chandra Dahal, praises Americans as “good” and “truthful,” the stature he once commanded as a priest is gone. Chida’s mother, Chandra Kala Dahal, still misses Bhutan and laments the loss of their home and possessions, their friends and their cattle. With her son interpreting, she called it sad that “We have to stay alone and if people come, we can’t speak.”
Although living two decades in a refugee camp is hardly enviable, moving brings tradeoffs. Older people had more independence there than they do here, where they must rely on their children for transportation, interpreting and money. That changes relationships.
But while Bhutnese refugees in other U.S. states, have feared going out at night because of hostility and violence toward them, Dahal says Iowans are “very welcoming and ready to help.” In fact, Bhutanese refugees from other states have moved to Iowa for its low crime rate, affordability and jobs, boosting the population from the 513 originally resettled by the state.
Pabitra Bhattarai, a neighbor of Chida’s parents’ generation, appreciates that. Yet she weeps and talks of God in every breath. She longs to go to temple, but though the refugees have the freedom to practice their religion here, they have no Hindu temple they can go to. One in Madrid is too far away.
“The only thing that binds all the Bhutanese people that makes their life worth living is religion,” said Chida’s nephew, 20-year-old Paricxit Dahal, “but there are no opportunities to celebrate it here.”
Bhattarai and her two children came to Des Moines four years ago from the camps. They left Bhutan after her husband was released from prison there and died soon after, at age 45. She says he was tortured over two years and that she, too, was beaten on the head by government forces. Though all their land and property was confiscated, Bhattarai still wants to go home to Bhutan to die, because her husband died there.

Unexpected kindness

Chida is on the board of a nonprofit organization being formed called Bhutanese Community in Iowa, which will offer citizenship and language classes. Meanwhile, various others are working to make the refugees at home here.
The Bureau of Refugee Services provides initial financial support for three months. A partnership between Lutheran Services of Iowa and Catholic Charities helps furnish living quarters. Lutheran Services also offers classes like computer and photography, which Bhattarai has taken, and has an elder program for refugees 60 and older. It provides English lessons, recreational outings and other social activities. Through a project it runs on land owned by Valley Evangelical Free Church in West Des Moines, refugees from Bhutan and elsewhere learn to farm for sale.
Kindness toward the new neighbors shows up in unexpected ways. Mark Odegaard, for example, a stroke survivor and laid-off construction worker who works an overnight shift at Home Depot, has voluntarily taught more than 80 Bhutanese refugees to drive. It began, he says, when a family moved in next door and asked for help. Then word about him got around. He taught both Chida and Bhima and loaned them his car. He also gives rides to community members. “He is like a god to me,” says Bhima.
The Bhutanese hope they will soon get their own temple to fill the void many feel. Meanwhile, like Bhima, more of these new Iowans may find God comes in many forms.

Experiments With Democracy in Bhutan



A statue of Lord Buddha at Kuensel Phodrang in Thimphu, Bhutan on May 20, 2012.Singye Wangchuk/ReutersA statue of Lord Buddha at Kuensel Phodrang in Thimphu, Bhutan on May 20, 2012.
Bhutan does things differently in South Asia, and nothing illustrates this so as much as the way it has conducted its transition to democracy.
In December 2007, I was driving from Thimpu, the capital of Bhutan, to Paro, a small city 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the capital. Along the way, just before a bridge spanning the river, I noticed a small bulletin board and saw my first election posters in Bhutan. The board was around two meter square, and a few neat A4-size election posters and notices by Bhutan’s Election Commission were pasted on it.
Coming from India, Bhutan’s closest ally and neighbor, this was bizarre. We are used to colorful campaigns, election posters casually pasted everywhere, defying any size regulations, and often accompanied by graffiti smeared over walls and buntings all over the place. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal campaign in the same way, but in Bhutan, democracy has come in a measured, prescribed manner, with strict rules, one of them being not to litter the countryside with posters or graffiti.
Bhutanese villagers waiting to vote outside a polling station in Paro on May 31.Roberto Schmidt/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBhutanese villagers waiting to vote outside a polling station in Paro on May 31.
The designed nature of Bhutan’s democracy is the direct outcome of the decision by Bhutan’s fourth king, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck’s decision to voluntarily hand over power to his people, and this is what makes it so very special. The test of how well established this new democracy has become is the second general election currently taking place in Bhutan, its first round completed on 31 May 2013, and the final round on 13 July 2013.
In April 2007, to help the Bhutanese understand the concept of voting for political parties, a mock election took place. Four “parties” were supposed to contest the elections, the Druk Blue Party, the Druk Green Party, the Druk Red Party and the Druk Yellow Party. Each color represented a certain value: blue for fairness and transparency, green for environmental concerns, red for development and industrialization, and yellow for traditional values. The Druk Yellow Party won 46 out of the 47 seats in the mock elections. It might have been a mere coincidence that yellow is the closest color to the saffron scarf worn by the kings and the Je Khenpo, the chief abbot of Bhutan.
In Bhutan’s first general election, held in 2008, the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa, loosely translated as the Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party, achieved a similar dominance, winning 45 out of 47 seats. The rival People’s Democratic Party had one-third of the votes, but the winner-take-all system rewarded them with only two seats.
Tshering Tobgay, who went on to become the opposition leader in Parliament, was one of the first people to enter into politics, retiring from the prestigious post of Director at Ministry of Labor and Human Resources to serve his king and country by following the king’s wishes to set up a democratic fray by joining Bhutan’s first political party, the PDP, when it was formed in August 2007.
“Serving the nation has been a very important part of our culture,” he told me. “In Bhutan we call it serving Tsa Wa Sum,” which is often translated as “king, country, people.”
In the case of Mr. Tobgay, he defined his obligation as a family tradition. His father had been one of the raw recruits that the third king of Bhutan had recruited in the 1950s to build Bhutan’s first official standing army, and his mother had been one of the workers on the first modern road linking Bhutan to India. They met when the young soldier walked down the road to get supplies. Their meeting and marriage came about because of their service to their nation and their king.
Stories like this give us a sense of the popularity of the monarchy in Bhutan, and illustrate how truly different its transition to democracy has been.
We are used to democratic rights being snatched from the hands of desiccated dictators or vile monarchs, but there are remarkably few instances of an autocrat voluntarily devolving power. The fourth king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, was enormously popular, and at the time of hisabdication in 2006, he was only 51 years old, making him younger than most politicians in their prime. There was no challenge to his rule, and that is precisely when he put in place the process that would eventually replace him, and a monarchical system, with a constitutional democracy.
Bhutan’s experiments with democracy have been a qualified success. The standards of living have risen during the rule of the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa, headed by Jigmi Yoezer Thinley, the first elected prime minister. Road connectivity, Internet connectivity and basic health indicators have gone up. Yet political machinations, allegations of corruption and wrongdoing by political leaders have also accompanied the advent of democracy. The home minister and the speaker of the Parliament were convicted on 8 March 2013, the day after the first Parliament finished its term, on the charges of corruption. The High Court has upheld the verdict, and they are currently appealing their conviction in the Supreme Court.
A Bhutanese voter getting his finger inked before casting his vote at a polling station in Paro on May 31.Roberto Schmidt/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA Bhutanese voter getting his finger inked before casting his vote at a polling station in Paro on May 31.
The real test of democracy is always the second election, and Bhutan is currently in the middle of this grand process. In Bhutan, there are two rounds of elections, and the first ended May 31, with four political parties contesting. The two parties with the biggest vote share – the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa, which received about 40 percent of the vote, and the People’s Democratic Party, which received just over 30 percent – will face off on July 13.
There would have been five parties contesting, but according to Bhutan’s Election Act, every political party has to be a national party, fielding a candidate from all 47 constituencies, and every candidate has to have a university degree. The Bhutan Kuen-Nyam Party was disqualified by the Election Commission after the party had failed to find candidates with a university degree in the district of Gasa, which has a population of just over 3,000 people.
In a generous move that exemplifies the spirit of serving Tsa Wa Sum that has marked Bhutan’s transition to democracy, the four parties each sent a communiqué to the Election Commission asking it to reconsider the disqualification. Sonam Tobgay, the leader of the Bhutan Kuen-Nyam Party, said, “Four parties appealing for the fifth party, who couldn’t qualify, is something unprecedented universally and internationally, something special and noble.” Nevertheless the Election Commission refused to reconsider its decision.
For a small country the size of Bhutan, with a population of 700,000, internal cohesion is a prime security concern, and if a border region, no matter how small or remote, is neglected in any way, it is a threat to the country. In fact, the Bhutanese value unity so much that they had to invent a word for “opposition leader” because all the words implying dissent had a negative connotation.
Transitions to democracy are often violent and exact a terrible price from a populace. Bhutan’s rare example of managing this transition peacefully, and in a stable manner, makes it incredibly special and adds a profound meaning to its nascent democratic exercises.
Omair Ahmad is an author, most recently of “The Kingdom at the Center of the World: Journeys into Bhutan.” His novel “Jimmy the Terrorist” was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Asian Literary Prize and won the 2010 Vodafone Crossword Book Award.

Is there room for urbanisation in Bhutan?



Bhutan will have to "negotiate and compromise" other priorities to find adequate land for urban development, says Hee Nam-jung, a South Korean research fellow from the Korean Institute for Human Settlement (KRIHS).

"Bhutan will have to find a middle way," Nam-jung told urban planners and works and human settlement officials at a three-day South Asian regional workshop on "Promoting access to affordable land and housing" in Thimphu, which ended on June 5.

South Korea has 130 land laws that govern various elements like culture, agriculture and forests, among others. "So whenever we have an issue, we have meetings between various ministries, agencies and interest groups to negotiate, which takes a long time but minimises conflict within society," Nam-jung said.

South Korea, because it has very limited land, has given planned development the highest priority for urban development.

"In a democracy, people will have to have some role in the development of areas," he said.

Bhutan, the urban planning expert said, needed to change its plans for urban development from time to time as per the needs of the population.

Megraj Adhikari, an urban planner with the Ministry of Works and Human Settlement, said the Bhutanese were a bit too conservative, because the priority of the government was developing rural areas, where the majority of the Bhutanese people live.

While more and more people are pouring into the towns every year, he said the development of the urban centres has not received as much attention as the development of rural areas in the country.

"The reality is that people are now moving into urban areas. So we have a challenge there," he said. "The focus in Bhutan is on rural development rather than on urban development."

The constitution of Bhutan maintains that 60 per cent of the country should be covered by forest for all time to come.

"On one hand we have agricultural land to be protected, and on the other hand we have to maintain 60 per cent forest coverage," Megraj said. "So where do we go from here?"

Another Works and Human Settlement official said there were many problems in protecting the cultural and heritage precincts. The establishment in 1974 of a central town planning committee to guide urban development kicked off the process of town planning in the country. 

However, Works and Human Settlement officials said it was unsuccessful then because no donors were interested in supporting infrastructure development in the country.

The ministry's "Bhutan Urbanisation Strategy", drawn up to ensure balanced and equitable regional development, projects that by 2020 more than half of the country's population will live in urban areas.

Source

Murdered Bhutanese refugee came to St. Louis 'full of hopes and dreams'


June 11, 2013 6:30 am  •  


Mon Rai told friends, customers — anyone who would listen — that he was going to be the father of a baby girl. He told his manager at the 7-Eleven where he worked in south St. Louis that his overnight Monday shift would be his last for a while so he could spend time with his wife, who is expected to give birth any day.
About 12:30 a.m. Monday, a gunman walked into the store at Gravois Avenue and Bates Street and fatally shot Rai, a Bhutanese refugee who moved to St. Louis nine months ago.
Customers found him in an aisle, shot in the back. Police said nothing was apparently taken from the store, including money from the register, but employees are taking inventory.
For years, Rai had dreamed of coming to the U.S. He lived 19 of his 29 years in a refugee camp in Nepal, where there was a perpetual shortage of food, no toilets and poor medical care. He, like thousands of people from Bhutan, were forced to flee the country over cultural and religious differences and live in refugee camps throughout Nepal.
Rai came to St. Louis with his wife, Susila, 25, and their son, Sujal, 7, on Sept. 5, 2012. Six months earlier, his parents, brother and sister arrived here.
“I hoped it would be a better life than in the refugee camp in Nepal,” Rai wrote in an essay for a Thanksgiving program at the International Institute last year, two months after his arrival.
“When I came to St. Louis ... my heart was full of hopes and dreams.”
The International Institute is the region’s primary agency for resettling refugees. It’s where Rai was taking English classes and helping serve as interpreter for other Nepalese refugees.
“All of us at the Institute are devastated,” said Anna Crosslin, president and CEO of the International Institute. “He was somebody who worked hard to get others resettled as well.”
The personable Rai was excited about the birth of his daughter, Crosslin said.
“A first child born in America is a big occasion for refugees,” she said. “It symbolizes the start of a new life. In this case it’s tragic because this life starts with the passing of another.”
Rai lived with his family in a duplex in the 3800 block of Dunnica Avenue, where neighbors and friends stopped by throughout the day Monday to offer condolences.
“They’ve been crying all day long. They can’t believe it. They still hope he is coming back,” said Ranga Nepal, a caseworker for Rai and his family at the International Institute. A family spokesman said the family needed time to grieve for a few days before making a comment.
In his essay, Rai wrote about the struggles of settling in St. Louis, including language and culture. But the biggest challenge, he said, was finding a job. That’s why he was delighted to start his 7-Eleven clerk job three days after Christmas, Nepal said.
The convenience store was abuzz with activity Monday afternoon. Just outside the front door, a regular customer set up a memorial, using a milk crate as the base, draping it with an American flag and placing a pitcher with multicolored flowers on top. The man, who is Bosnian, also included a blue and yellow flag from his home country.
Late in the afternoon, Joseph Duke stopped by to drop off a bouquet of yellow and white roses at the memorial.
Duke lives nearby and is a frequent early morning customer, getting coffee on his way to work.
  
   
“He was very cheerful,” Duke said of Rai. “He talked about the kid. Said it was going to be a girl.”
Duke said he could not understand the violence, especially two convenience store shootings in St. Louis less than two weeks apart. In both cases, a refugee was fatally shot.
“Our neighborhood’s better than this,” Duke said.
Duke also knew Haris Gogic, 19, the Bosnian man killed in a robbery at his family’s Quick Stop convenience store at Chippewa Street and Alfred Avenue on May 31.
“My daughter went to Bayless High School with him,” said Duke, 45.
The two stores are about a mile apart on foot. Police said there was no reason to suspect the shootings were related.
“We have no other witnesses, and we believe only one suspect was involved” in the shooting of Rai, said Police Capt. Michael Sack. “We’re working on pulling surveillance video ... It’s just wide open right now.”
Police on Wednesday charged Joseph Fox, 23, of north St. Louis County, with murder in the death of Gogic. He is being held without bail.
St. Louis is home to more than 1,000 Bhutanese, who began resettling here as refugees in 2008.
“I am so glad to be here in the United States,” Rai wrote in his essay. “I will be a good citizen and help those who are in need of help.”
A fund has been set up at Southern Commercial Bank to help Rai’s family with expenses for his funeral — and to take care of his new daughter. Police are asking anyone with information to call CrimeStoppers at 1-877-725-8477.
Joel Currier and Christine Byers of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.