By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Sept. 30: The elected representatives of the 17th Tibetan Parliament in Exile have approached His Holiness the Dalai Lama for direction, after the two-and-a-half-day internal meeting at Dharamshala held since Monday failed to gather consensus to resolve the ongoing parliamentary deadlock.
According to a credible source who wishes to remain anonymous, the representatives discussed on various possible solutions to resolve the matter but could not secure majority for any of the solutions. At the end, the elected representatives voted through a secret ballot and reached a consensus to approach the octogenarian Tibetan leader and ask for forgiveness as well as appeal for direction on the matter.
The spokesperson from the two oath-taking sides, elected representatives Khenpo Sonam Tenphel and Dolma Tsering, along with Pro-tem Speaker Dawa Tsering visited the Dalai Lama’s private office on Wednesday afternoon and submitted a letter of appeal.
Since the internal meeting began on Monday, the members of the media were not given any details of the meeting or any collective statement despite repeated request for updates of the discussions.
The meeting convened by the five MPs from abroad was participated by 44 members, barring Australasia elected representative Tenzin Phuntsok Doring, due to the country’s Covid-19 restrictions. Sources say that expenses for travel and accommodation arrangements are being borne by the participants themselves.
The impasse that has dragged on for almost four months has been noticed by international community including the US government as well as New Delhi among others. Last month, in a letter addressed to TPiE Secretary Tsewang Ngodup, the US Department of State’s Acting Secretary of State Lisa Peterson wrote, “We note there has been a long delay in swearing in the new members of the Parliament. The September session is eminent and there is much to do in very little time.
“Disputes over parliamentary procedures which are not resolved in timely manner and in accordance with the rule of law risk undermining the confidence placed by the Tibetan diaspora and the international community in the CTA and TPiE. We urge the elected members to move past their differences and turn to the pressing matters that need their attention”.
The 17th Tibetan parliament is yet to appoint the new Speaker, and approve the Kalons or the ministers of the respective departments under CTA. The ongoing parliamentary deadlock stemmed from two oath-taking ceremonies on June 8, as 21 MPs took oath from the Pro-tem Speaker Dawa Tsering as mandated by the Charter, whereas 22 MPs took oath in front of His Holiness’ portrait and the Charter.
24 Responses
This is very disgraceful that this 17th elected parliament members decided to request to intervene the problem created by previous Kashag, speaker, deputy speaker and other members. Why this 17th Parliament members follow this same steps of 16th parliament members. All the Tibetan people in and outside Tibet were disgraceful of your decision to approached HH Dalai Lama to solve the problem which was created by few people. These member have wasted lot of their precious time to work for Tibetan cause. If they cannot work together then they should quit the Chitue and need to have fresh election.
Nothing is a shame and disgraceful to request His Holiness for intervention. Firstly, our people should read Chapter one of the Charter, Directive Principal, what does it mean to all of us. The article 1 under the Directive Principal clearly provides authority to His Holiness to intervene any matter such as spiritual, politic, social and communal harmony whenever its needed or necessary for the well-being of Tibetans. Requesting His Holiness to redress the issue by any group of Tibetans indicates faith, trust and source of amicable solution. The only genuine, impartial and dynamic leader who can resolve internal matter. It is not a sin to seek blessing and true direction towards democracy.
Secondly, the social harmony that is dismantled through unavoidable circumstances where definitely two parties are involved and both trust only to His Holiness, is a big slap in the face of the Communist regime. It is a breakthrough of our silence that though His Holiness devolved his political authority to the elected political leader but still trust him only.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the vanguard of Tibetan democracy. Democracy is built on We The PEople. The people are represented by our elected representatives, our chitues. Three justices were removed by two third majority of the Tibetan parliament. Their reinstatement should have also followed due parliamentary process. This flagrant grab of power by the three justices is something you only see in despotic kingdom. It should not be tolerated in a just and democratic society. The three justices should have honored their resignation and not put his holiness in such a precarious political position.
These 22 Chithues who had not yet taken oath accordingly are nothing but a disgrace to Tibet and Tibetan. They don’t actually love and respect HH and they don’t care people’s feelings too. They are mostly uneducated, self centered and ego maniac people. They have done what the Chinese couldn’t do for the last 60 years. They can never be an able and respectful Chithues even if they take oath. They should just leave !
Come on Pema Pem: Give me a break a big break. These 22 Chithues are most respectful to His Holiness the Dalai Lama that’s why they took oath under H.H. the Dalai Lama’s great portrait and our Chatrim Rinpochhe. So, you think that those three illegal judges are higher then HH the Dalai Lama? I think you are a really uneducated person. I am not but I see you on your way of saying. མིའི་རི་མོ་ནང་ལ་ཡོད། སྟག་གི་རི་མོ་ཕྱི་ལ་ཡོད། It is very sad that we have to put this problem on H.H. the Dalai Lama but there is no alternative since our elect president ཅོ་མི་འདུག doing nothing. ཕྲུ་གུ་ངུ་ས་ཕ་མ་ཟེར་བ་ལྟར་རེད།
But in the constitution there is no mention to take oath before the constitution and the photo of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Read please the Article 47. I can’t understand the people who take oath before the Charter or Constitution which they don’t respect. It is absurd. When they respect His Holiness the Dalai Lama so much, why didn’t they do so as he wished and worked so hard for many years and finally laid a foundation for the democracy with a constitution with his blessing and agreement from Tibetan masses. Moreover don’t discriminate a person. Let’s think properly and wisely with due intention for the best of our society and country. Sorry!
This is the biggest heart breaking to the Tibetan people in and outside Tibet to make his holiness to intervene in politic.. disgusting chetue specially religious Chethue. No more respect to those so called religious chethue..
Dragging HHDL into this counter intuitive madness is unforgivable. We all ought to hang our collective heads in shame in my humble opinion. No winner except Ccp.
Now the dirty game involvement who were behind the scene in reinstating the three Tibetan judicial commissioners ( after legally expelled from their duties by two third mandated majority by the 16th elected MP of TPIE last year) will be exposed to the attention of HH the 14th DL after failing to resolve the CTA charter crisis. I appreciate the initiative taken by five TPIE elected members from aboard with the good intention to restore our broken democratic system since last year. In my opinion, the elected Sikyong, Penpa Tsering la has also equally involved by not respecting the rule of law ( by knowingly taking oath from from three expelled Tibetan judicial commissioners ) goes to the contrary to his widely publicized statement in believing and respecting the rule of law by opposing the authoritarianism system of leadership. And he might be also involved together either directly or indirectly for unnecessarily extending the support in reinstating the expelled judicial commissioners in the hope to assume his Sikyong leadership under great rush without thinking about the serious implication in causing irreparable damage to our CTA democratic governance system is a matter of great shame on his part. I also want to add here something which I think is relevant in wrongfully electing our Sikyong as a result of having any constructive debate being coordinated between the elected Sikyong, Penpa Tsering la and other potential Sikyong candiadate, Aukartsang Kalsang Dorjee la, particularly when the whole world has been turning against the CCP under its brutal dictator, Xi because of spreading the most deadly COVID19 pandemic. What I want to referring to is the poor judgement being exhibited by CTA chief election commissioner, Wangdu Tsering la by giving a free pass for PT la by denying the opportunity of constructive debates to other competitive Sikyong candidate, AKD la as much as he wanted to. And surprisingly only 18 days had been allowed for the campaigning to the public which not even a month. I therefore blame him for electing the wrong candidate as the elected Sikyong which as a result he has indeed proven to be very poor leadership as reflected through many statements and behaviors too ( which has negatively caused much damage towards our cause which is well known by everyone who’s taking a keen interest about Tibet in exile issue. In future, we need to have at least one constructive debates if not two or three between or among the competitive Sikyong candidates in the final Sikyong election with the minimum duration of at least a month for campaigning to the public with the hope to advance our cause on the international stage. One more thing I need to stress here is, the CTA election commissioner being an autonomous body must and should go through the intensive background investigation of every candidate who stands for the election in Chithue and particularly for Sikyong whether properly quailed or not, because it seems that it was not done so very constructively which as a result we have the elected Sikyong like, PT la. Now whether we like it or not he still is the elected Sikyong for all but I am not yet considering him as the Sikyong because of his oath taking under illegal means!
Disgraceful
They (Chi thue) messed up and now making His Holiness their escape goat. Shame on them.
If these folks are unable to sove an internal problem which is of their own making, what could we expect them to do when it comes to resolving Sino-Tibet issues. Why are they not paying attention to what the general public have been saying- just follow the protocol prescribed in the Charter. Accordingly, take the oath from the pro-tem speaker and move forward with the proper functioning of TPIE as required under the stipulations of the Charter.
This is shocking. They are making a mockery of the public trust placed on them when they were elected.
since all of the parties have made some mistakes out of their egos, neither of the sides are able to accept others faults but we public could see that our justice ministers were so strickt, our chithues were so sectarians and the good thing is that they all have the same parents or guru which is HH the Dalai Lama. so this time exceptionally they all should prostrate to his feets, ask for the forgiveness, and take oath from him to serve his people and country, tpie can amend all the rules which was not clear after that. for us His Holiness is the most important for our life, we have everything because of him,those who move abroad should also keep in mind, and also by taking his name you get refuge in the West too. Long Live His Holiness The Dalai Lama
This matter is not worth to blame those who already left their positions. The root cause of the problem at this time is the Chief Election Commissioner. He was notified 14 hours before the actual Oath taking ceremonies were begun, and if he wanted to stick on his later decision to favour those who took Oath from Dawa Tsering, he should have discussed the Secretary of Parliament. What he was doing within that long hours in Gangkyi, and all of sudden rejected the Oath ceremony officially taken by the 22 Chithues. The Secretary of parliament who has official rank, portfolio, authority to organize Oath, and technically Oath ceremonies were arranged through official authority than how could EC reject it. How could official memo of Oath taking issued by the Secretary of justice department is legal and one of his equal rank Secretary’s official memo is nullified. The fundamental issue is not about who is legal or not. It is a conspiracy and politic of under world involved to defeat self made enemies.
The scholars and righteous group, misled public through misinterpretation of the context of the Charter’s Chapter one, the Directive Principle, article 5 and the Chapter six, Judicial power. Whereas article 5, is the validity of the Charter and its clause ii clearly explains that the court can make decision when dispute arises regarding the validity of law, regulations and executive matters. Article 5 comes under the Directive Principle and as such it is not the judiciary power. Hence, how come people are misled by calling it Sue moto power given to Supreme Justice Department. If the word Directive Principle is the synonymous to the word Judicial power than the article 5 should be categorized under the Chapter 6. Since the Directive Principle is not the synonymous of the judicial power, it is not sue moto/ arbitrary power granted to the TSJC. Therefore, Tibetan Charter cannot compare to Indian constitution where the Supreme court is granted reviewing and advisory power apart from being the highest court of appeal in the country.
Our Charter described TSJC, an apex court of appellate where it can make legal decision or nullify law or regulations as per directions given in the Article 5 clause ii and judiciary power granted under the article 66. It cannot act itself and declare punitive to any organs of the exile government without due process of hearing being held in the court as the power granted to it in the charter is limited. Unlike it, the Supreme court of India has the reviewing and advisory power granted under article, 32, 226, 142, 143, 148 etc. Our Charter do not match the judiciary power granted to Supreme court or lower court of India. Thus, TSJC expressing their status and legal jurisdiction imitated from India is completely wrong or misinterpretation. No single article of the Charter grants a kind of judiciary power to TSJC as it claims suo-moto or arbitrary. In fact, it claims that the article 67 of the Charter grants them power to review and make laws yet it is on condition to follow existing Charter and law passed by the legislative assembly. Hence, granting itself sue-moto power is forgery and conspiracy that started in 2017.
Now that those who were involved in the dirty game of power struggle behind the scene in reinstating the three legally expelled Tibetan judicial commissioners from their duties by two third votes mandated majority by the 16th elected MP of TPIE last year) will be exposed to the attention of HH the 14th DL after failing to resolve the CTA charter crisis in the recently held internal meeting of 17th elected TPIE for two and a half days in Dharmsala. I need appreciate the initiative taken by five TPIE elected members from aboard with the good intention to coordinate such important meeting in the critical period of our history to restore our broken democratic system though failed but very well attempted.
In my opinion, the elected Sikyong, Penpa Tsering la might also been equally involved by not respecting the rule of law ( by knowingly taking oath from from the three expelled Tibetan judicial commissioners ) which directly goes to the contrary of his widely publicized statement in believing and respecting the rule of law by opposing the authoritarianism system of leadership. And he might be also involved indirectly for unnecessarily extending the support in reinstating the expelled judicial commissioners in the hope to assume his Sikyong leadership under great rush without thinking much about the serious implication in causing irreparable damage to our CTA democratic system and to our cause, is a matter of great shame on his part.
I also want to add here something which I think is relevant in wrongfully electing PT la as our Sikyong as a result of having any constructive debate being coordinated between the two Sukyong candidates, Penpa Tsering la and his competitor candiadate, Aukartsang Kalsang Dorjee la, particularly when the whole world has been turning against the CCP under its brutal dictator, Xi for its wrong doing in deliberately spreading the most deadly COVID19 pandemic world-wide. We could gain a lot of unprecedented supports towards our cause after CCP has been exposed it’s true nature of brutality but incompetent or incapable leadership we have elected for the Sikyong by not exercising our fundamental right votes ( being fooled by deceptive campaigns and empty promises ) costs a lot for the destruction of our democratic system and for our cause too.
What I want to referring to is the poor judgement being shown by CTA chief election commissioner, Wangdu Tsering la by giving a free pass to PT la by denying the opportunity of constructive debates between them, as much as the other competitive Sikyong candidate, AKD la would like to. And to our further surprise, only 18 days has been allowed for the campaigning to the public which’s not even a month. I therefore blame Wangdu Tsering la for not doing his job properly ( by not enforcing the common sense regulations as strictly required ) by allowing himself to be unfairly leaning towards the wishes of Sikyong candidate, PT la which as a result we have witnessed the election of wrong candidate for the leadership of Sikyong.
No doubt, the CTA elected President. PT la has indeed shown very poor leadership skills has been exposed one after another through his numerous public statements including his behavioral postures. As a result, he has negatively caused much damage towards our cause which is well known by everyone who’s taking a keen interest about Tibet issue in exile since assuming his leadership duty since May this year. Though we don’t have any appointed ministers Kalons) for the various executive departments but we have seen him abusing his authority by illegally using Khashag’s official stamp and his arbitrary decision in getting rid of the existing Sino-Tibet negotiation team by appointing the new members and so on. Under the current crisis of our CTA charter deadlock he can’t decide anything by himself for any important issue without firstly having consulting with other Kalons and that too, must go through the deliberation in 17th Chithue when in session for the final approval process to become some what like the CTA official policies.
And this’s the advice for CTA election commissioner, Wangdu Tsering la, or anyone who holds his position In future, we need to have at least a minimum of one constructive debates if not two or three debates between or among the competitive Sikyong candidates in the final Sikyong election by ensuring the minimum duration of, at least a month for doing campaigns to the public. If we have such effective systems in place, we have a great hope that whosoever gets elected for Sikyong, will definitely lead in the right direction and advance our cause to a higher level on the international stage. One more thing I need to stress here is, the CTA election commissioner being an autonomous body, he must and should go through the intensive background investigation of every candidate who stands for the election in Chithue and particularly for the Sikyong leadership whether someone is properly quailed or not. This’s because our last year election of Sikyong was not done justifiably under any means as explained here. Now whether we like it or not PT la is still the elected Sikyong for all but I am not yet considering him as the Sikyong in terms of legal ground because of his involved illegal oath taken simply for want of Sikyong position at the cost of our cause ( by disrespecting the rule of law). In other words, If some one like the elected Sikyong, PT la even can’t respect the rule of law as much as he has acted through the double standards how can he lead our struggle against illegal occupation of Tibet by Communist China. If the rule of law is lost the very foundation of any democratic governance ( the basis of securing peace, justice, equality snd freedom) will be gone which in turns ultimately lead to the dictatorial system. Though the Communist China has been re-writing of our history through manipulation and by distorting the facts while enforcing her oppressive rule in Tibet but the facts still remain intact and alive that Tibet was an independent country ( and has the right to be free from CCP) not based upon some fictitious history but in the larger context of legality on the international stage!
Same answer…..
You conveniently seem to forget that Sikyong Lobsang Sangay la and his Kashag tried to install three new Supreme Court Justices but failed to do so in their attempt. You seem to forget that the Speaker and the 16th Parliament Working Committee resigned for the mess they created. Time ran out on the 16th Parliament and 16th Kashag. If it weren’t for the three recused Judges taking their rightful place, we would not have witnessed the transfer of Sikyong power from Lobsang Sangay la to Penpa Tsering la officiated by the Pro Tem Speaker and most importantly attended and blessed by His Holiness. If it is acceptable to the former Sikyong, if it is acceptable to the current Sikyong and if it is acceptable to His Holiness for the Pro Tem Speaker to administer the Oath, who do you think you are to not accept the Pro Tem Speaker and our new Sikyong Penpa Tsering la???? You really need to get off the high horse, smell the rose and move!!!
Former Sikyong Lobasang Sangye was wrong to hand over to the elect Sikyong in presence of illegal Khrim Shibpa. But he had no choice but to hand it over. He was under great pressure from people like Ama Jetsun Pema and so many others. And blessing from H.H the Dalai Lama was all set up by the staff of Gaden Phodang mainly by Samdong Lama who keep H.H. the Dalai Lama uninformed.
Leave His Holiness from this mess. You have created this mess and it is only you to clear this mess. What are the Election Commission & other Tibetan Government offices doing to this day? Wake up. Fight for the Tibetan charter and don’t let it down even if you have to sacrifice your chair. Common fellow Tibetans.
What is the guarantee that the bad Chithues will not repeat the same arrogance in the next election? Will you still drag His Holiness into that mess? Shame on you all, who holds the constitutional posts in Tibetan Exile Government.
Honestly these Chithue elects are shamelessly impossible and now they are requesting His Holiness to intervene!!!
His Holiness gave us democracy and these idiots are squandering that gift.
What I don’t get and baffles me is that if its good enough for His Holiness to participate and give his blessings for the Sikyong inauguration administered by the Pro Temp Speaker and if its good enough and accepted accepted by the former Sikyong, then who the dickens do these 22 Chithue elects think they are to reject the Speaker ??? The audacity of these idiots to then take their oath in front of HH’s picture is mind boggling!!! They profess to protect and respect the Chatrim but their very first act even before being recognized as a sitting Chithue, violates the very Charter they seem to protect by taking their oath before a picture of HH and a Chartrim book. This option is clearly not provided in the Chatrim!!! Shame on them!
It is now time for the Election Commission to disqualify these 22 Chithue elects and recognize the next 22 in line.
This is really a sad moments for tibetans that our elected parliamentarians, supposed to be the cream of our small world, succumbed to their egos. And the three justices and the New Sikyong are no exception.
The elected parliamentarians, I believed are also scared of their constituencies and that means they love their pocket and position more than the country.
The one thing, I would like to ask these parliamentarians, is please do not hide behind the HH.
I still believe there are some young parliamentarians and I hope they will escape unhurt. Hope for the best.
It’s very sad that Lobsang Sengay destroyed our 3 pillar of democracy and left our community deeply divided for his own personal interest.
༄༅། །སྲིད་ཟུར་བློ་བཟང་སེངྒེས་དམངས་གཙོ་ཀ་བ་གསུམ་རྩ་གཏོར་བྱས་པའི་ཁུངས་སྐྱེལ་ཡོད་དམ། ཕྱོགས་ལྷུང་གི་སྐད་ཆ་ཤོད་མི་ཉེན། ཁྲིམས་ཞིབ་པ་གསུམ་ཕྱིར་ཕུད་གཏོང་མཁན་སྤྱི་འཐུས་ ༣༡ ནང་མང་ཆེ་བ་སྤེན་ཚེའི་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་བ་རེད། དེ་ཡང་སྲིད་ཟུར་གྱི་བྱ་སྤྱོད་རེད་པས། ཞ་ར་དང་འོན་པའི་བྱེད་ལྟངས་མ་བྱེད། བློ་སེང་གིས་མི་བཅུ་ཧྲིལ་པོ་བོད་མིའི་ཞབས་ཞུ་ཞུས་པ་མཐོང་ཐོས་མ་བྱུང་ངམ། བདམས་ཐོན་སྲིད་སྐྱོང་སྤེན་ཚེ་ཡར་སླེབ་པ་ནས་བཟུང་ཉི་མ ༡༣༠ ཟིན་ཁར་མ་སྒྲིག་མ་ཐུས་མི་འདུག་ཀྱང་ཀྱང་ངང་ཉི་མ་སྐྱེལ་བ་དང་བཀའ་ཤག་ནང་བཀའ་བློན་དང་གྲོས་ཚོགས་ནང་སྤྱི་འཐུས་གཅིག་ཀྱང་མེད་པས་བཀའ་འཁྲོལ་གང་ཡང་མེད་པར་ལྭ་དགས་དང་ཀ་རྡོར་སྒང་གསུམ་ལ་ཡུལ་སྐོར་སྤྲོ་འཆམས་ལྟ་བུ་འགྲོ་བསྡད་པ་དེ་ཚོའི་འགྲོ་གྲོན་སུས་གཏོང་གི་ཡོད་དམ། དེ་ཚོ་ལ་དོ་སྣང་བྱེད་དགོས་རེད། མ་གཏོགས་སྤེན་ཚེས་གང་བྱས་ལ་དོ་སྣང་མེད་སྲིད་ཟུར་གྱིས་བྱས་པ་ལ་བཟང་ལེན་ངན་འཇལ་བྱེད་མི་རུང་།
I think you also seam to be biased. No doubt I consider Dr. Lobsang Sangay has done a perfect job. But Mr. Penpa Tsering is also doing his job very good. Why shouldn’t he go around for example to Ladakh and meet the people so that he can see what is their situation and what do they need. That is his job and you can’t say he is wasting the money. He went to all the camps in Ladakh in a week without rest. He didn’t enjoy the landscapes in Ladakh and forgot the people there. So please think wisely. Don’t only criticize the people who are serving our administration.
Andddddd,,,, Can we have some explanation about your accusation “left our community deeply divide for his own personal interest” ? How so?