Thoughts and Observations on the Election, 2011

(This is an article by Pema Dorjee la from California)

The election is over, and those of us who were deeply and emotionally involved are now somewhat relieved. Overall I’d say the election was a success for Tibetan democracy, although if we compare ourselves with many developed countries, we are a little bit behind. However, in order to save our precious religion and culture for the sake of our future generation, it’s never too late for good political reform.

I wanted to share some of my thoughts and observations during the campaign process as a Dr. Lobsang Sangay supporter. I became an LS supporter because I was convinced that if anyone could make a difference in Tibetan politics, Dr. Sangay had the potential do so. This young man is charismatic, energetic, hard working, and he has lots of courage. Above all, he is truly patriotic and very intelligent. If you add his academic achievement to his credentials, he represents a world-class political candidate, and I was very proud that we had a young man like him. When I looked into his life, there were signs of leadership from the time he was very young, even as a student in Tibetan refugee schools in Darjeeling. He was known to have defeated his opponents in high schools debates who came from prestigious private schools. Whatever he was involved in, he never failed. I must say I was equally proud of our other two candidates; they too are world-class and both are good men. But I didn’t see them as representative of fresh new ideas and change. Furthermore I believed this young man to be a rare breed, a revolutionary type. Our other two candidates were not revolutionary types; they were the kinds of leaders you have in peace time.

Unfortunately others had different observations, and their thoughts and opinions were broadcast loud and clear during the campaign from all the articles and board messages on websites like Tibetan Political Review and Phayul. Supporters of Tenzin Namgyal Tetong-la would like to think and believe that their candidate is a superior, incorruptible man of great principles and integrity, with an upper class background, etc. They view LS as low class, coming from a poor family, corruptible; and they maintain the attitude that we definitely cannot trust him. Here I would like to tell you something about human beings. Unless a person is truly an enlightened bodhisattva, no one exists who is incorruptible. In ordinary samsaric reality, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Unfortunately the entire situation of this world of ours falls within this reference point. Some people are more sophisticated or cunning than others in terms of hiding their true character, and some are less disciplined and less careful. In general I do believe there are some who behave more ethically than others, but it’s only a degree of morality, not an absolute morality. As I said, there are no ordinary people who are perfect and incorruptible, and we know this to be true from world history. The good news is we are moving towards a society based on the institution of democracy where there are checks and balances of power, so nobody needs to worry too much about one particular person.

Although most of the messages posted on English websites are primarily from Tibetans living in North America, and are therefore from people who should have a better understanding of democratic principles, surprisingly there seems to be a great lack of understanding of constitutional rights such as individual and human rights, equality, etc. I could quote from many sources, but to give just one example, there were the so-called ten questions to LS by his opponents which were posted in TPR and also circulated by the supporters of TNT. The last question was, “Why do you want to be PM?” To me this is questioning LS's fundamental constitutional right to run for higher office. Before posting such a question, the person who is asking it needs to first prove that LS has no constitutional right as a Tibetan to run for office. My dear friends, in a democratic society the government does not belong to a small elite group. Government is of the people, by the people, and for the people. In such a system everyone has the right to run for higher office, including stupid people like me and you. When one understands democratic ideals, one must support others' rights even if one disagrees with them, because if others' fundamental rights are in jeopardy, so are ours.

By the way, as to Rebuttal Question ten posted by LS supporters, the answer to the last question (“Why do you want to be PM?”) was not very convincing because TNT said that actually there should not have been an election to chose the PM; he should have been appointed by H.H. As much as one pretends to be loyal and devoted to H.H, this is a sign of preferring the privileged system and old ways of governing over love for Tibet’s future and its democracy.

Actually, opponents of LS resembled the right wing group (US Republican Party) with their extreme energy and views. They appeared to be very self centered like the tea-party people who do not care about the greater issues, doing whatever is necessary to get their narrow minded wish. I came to this conclusion based on all the negative attack articles and messages by supporters of TNT. You guys did everything you could to disrespect and bring LS's candidacy down, regardless of Tibet's image in the International community.

Opponents of LS made a very big deal out of the “Overseas Chinese National travel document,” on which LS travels to China. They put a copy of the document on the TPR website with the intention of undermining and humiliating him. (By the way, Tenzin Dolma and Dawa Lokyitsang , whoever you are, I have a question for you: I would like to know why the two of you have this document in your possession?) If traveling to China on an OCN document is a basis for disqualification, then the Tibetan Government Election Commission would have disqualified LS from running for office. Since the Government Election Committee did not deem him disqualified, it is clearly not an issue. TNT and his supporters know this very well, but they want to make it an issue so that they can cheaply capitalize on it, regardless of whether it is right or wrong.

Here is my analysis of this matter. At first it seemed that LS made a major mistake in accepting the OCN document in order to travel to Beijing. But if you analyze further you can see that our struggle against Communist China is according to H.H. Dalai Lama; we small numbers of people in exile keep saying that we are fighting mainly for our six million brothers and sisters in Tibet. Currently our six million fellow Tibetans are all Chinese citizens, and they have Chinese ID cards and carry a Chinese passport when they travel. If acceptance of a Chinese government-issued document is lost as a Tibetan national right, then there is no basis on which to fight for all our brothers and sisters, because they have all accepted Chinese citizenship. Clearly this is not the determining factor or the main issue. It would be interesting to know what kind of documentation Indians had to carry when traveling during British rule. I do know for a fact that Hong Kong residents all had British ID and passports while under British rule. These are temporary, circumstantial situations and do not apply to the bigger territorial question; otherwise we are finished, because all of our brothers and sisters are Chinese citizens right now. Our rights actually come from historic statutes of Tibet, not from current circumstances and situations.

The other point is that when he (LS) did accept the OCN, he did it as one individual person, not on behalf of the government and all Tibetan people symbolizing surrender to Chinese rule. Those of you making a big deal out of this, let me ask a question: are you guys going to deny all six million Tibetans in Tibet who accepted Chinese citizenship their Tibethood, or call them traitors? If so, on what basis are you going to tell the Chinese about our right to self determination or freedom? If it is not for the six million Tibetans inside Tibet, do you guys seriously think a small number of defectors outside Tibet have the sole right to demand everything from China? Liston guys, this position is ridicules, because it would mean stripping all the Tibetans in Tibet and newcomers (sarjor) of their right to run for higher office in the exile government. In other words, 90% of Tibetans would not be qualified to run for any government position in Dharamsala. DaSa based Tibetan government is only for the elite few like TNT and the like. Is this really your position? Be serious, this is not a joke.

And, in case you guys didn’t know why LS went to Beijing, he went for the greater cause of Tibet. It was not for leisure or personal business, and he did not have the luxury of Chinese government officials picking him up in HK as did TNT. Don’t forget the fact that he made a request to the government in Dharamsala to go to Beijing for the conference. Didn’t you all hear the Prime-minister Zamdong Rinpoche himself regarding this matter? (By the way, to the person who questioned PM Rinpoche, shame on you for not having any better questions to ask.)

Supporters of TNT keep boosting his experience and some of his accomplishments over LS’s inexperience. This is not a fair comparison, primarily because of the age factor. It would only be fair if both of the candidates were the same age and one had accomplished a lot and the other nothing. I believe by the time LS is 62 years of age he will have achieved many things in life. One could also question, if TNT and LS had been on an equal footing all the way back to childhood, such as from the same refugee schools to their current prime-minister candidate status, could TNT have managed all the success in his life? If he had had to work from the bottom up like LS, would he have made it to where he is right now? These are fair questions to ask.

Regarding (Tenpa Dhargyal Gashi), who wrote a nice article and made several good points; I agree with him on the issue of regional sentiment, Khampa verses Utsang. It is absolutely no good for Tibet and should be condemned. The importance of unity is also number one on LS's campaign agenda, as you all know. However, in his writing TDG mentions that he was joking to his friends that LS had inspired half of the Tibetans and the other half were terrified that he might actually win the election. I would like to ask him to explain to us what it is that terrifies him and others like him, if the sentiment is not that of LS not being Utsang, or that he does not come from good Kudak family pedigree? Can he give us examples of past misdeeds or character traits that would make him and others think it’s really a terrifying danger for Tibetans to elect LS as our prime-minister?

Then there is the guy from Boston (Dhondup Phunkhang) who threw a cheap shot. He tried to put the final nail in the coffin by joining the bandwagon in bashing LS. He pretended to take no side with the suggestion that LS did not and would not come to Boston to talk, implying something was wrong and maybe Bostonians ought to think twice before voting. According to his logic, the criterion for choosing a PM is based on whether a candidate comes to your community or not. Sorry, that is not a correct method to assess candidates, and people are not stupid. Everyone knows where you coming from, DP.

I heard from one of my Minnesota friends that most Tibetans in Minnesota are from central and west Tibet, and they are very much pro TNT. They invited TNT to come there, but would not invite LS. A few eastern Tibetans who reside there demanded that their community invite LS too. Under pressure, they had to invite him. During the visit supporters from both sides asked hard questions to the candidates. Minnesotans have put all the recorded videos of people asking tough question to LS on YouTube, but you won't see recordings of difficult questions being posed to TNT. They try to hide them from the public. I would ask, if you believe your candidate is superior, don’t you want everyone to see how he handles difficult situations? It’s counterproductive to hide them as well because there are very few YouTube videos about TNT, therefore he gets a lot less public exposure.

I must also mention something about Jamyang Norbu La. Right after the preliminary vote he questioned LS and gave his support to his cousin, TNT. Some Tibetans give a great deal of credence to JN, and would think that his questioning of LS indicates there must be something really wrong with him. Analyzing JN, I do have some opinions about this, but I prefer not to mention them at this point because there is no nice way of putting it. I will say that, with all due respect, I seriously doubt that any of JN’s opinions had anything to do with a legitimate concern for our nation and its future. If JN really cares about Tibet, he owes LS an apology, because by now he should know it was wrong of him to question LS.

When one of the Tashi Wangdu-la supporters said something negative about TNT, someone jumped right in and said that TW has to take responsibility for the action. If this logic is correct, then TNT has to take complete responsibility for all the very disrespectful attacks made by his supporters on LS ; there can be no double standard.

I knew people had already made up their minds way before Election Day, whether their reason to vote was based on 1000 green cards or whatever, and that all the negative publicity would not work; but they kept posting all kinds of negative publicity up to the last minute. Luckily, in a democratic institution the common people get to decide who is fit for leadership roles. The fact is, if the candidate himself does not have real merit, he will not be able to fool everyone.

There was an accusation that LS made an issue of Kudak (Aristocrat) verses commoner. Personally I do not know if he did or not, however judging from all the articles written by supporters of TNT, it’s clear that they think their candidate is better because he comes from a superior background. Therefore you cannot accuse LS or his supporters of raising the issue. You guys are the ones who started it.

In the end, if Lobsang Sangay wins the election, it’s to his credit; he worked very hard for it. His victory would mean Tibetan people responded to his genuine wish to serve. He deserves a place in modern Tibetan history. However I feel for him, because in reality there is very little he or anybody else can do to make a big difference in Tibetan politics. Our opponent is gigantic and we have very few bargaining chips. My own hope is things will get better, and I do feel some change of karmic force in the air. Anyway, if there is an opportunity to improve the lives of Tibetan people inside and outside Tibet, I believe LS will try his best to do so. For those who did not vote for him, perhaps he will be able to win your hearts in the future. If not, hopefully five years from now there will be a candidate according to your wishes and everyone will have the opportunity to vote again.

I am sorry for being very blunt. If I don’t express myself in this way, some people just don’t get it.

May Tibet be free from tyrannical rule, and may our precious spiritual tradition and culture last forever.

Bho-Gyal-lo

Pema Dorje California