By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Oct. 7: After almost four months into the parliamentary impasse, elected lawmakers have unanimously agreed to follow the recommendation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and take the oath of office as per the Tibetan charter.
The elected lawmakers met for a two-day crisis-talk last week but failed to resolve the stalemate. The closed-door meeting then reached a consensus to approach the Tibetan leader for advice to resolve the issue and a letter was subsequently submitted to the private office on September 30.
On Thursday, the Tibetan leader responded through a letter where he said that he is “disappointed” that the 17th Tibetan Parliament in Exile was unable to convene and that the incident may cause Tibetans, especially those in Tibet to lose hope.
The Dalai Lama while giving his recommendation said that his guidance cannot be in breach of the Charter. The Tibetan leader wrote that all elected MPs must take their oath of office as per provisions prescribed in the charter, or the election commission must exercise its authority as per the charter to secure a majority in the parliament to move things forward.
“All 45 elected MPs have unanimously agreed to follow by the recommendation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and take their oath of office from the protem speaker. We have approached the parliamentary secretariat to that affect,” spokesperson and elected MP Doma Tsering told Phayul.
Sources say that the elected lawmakers may take their oath of office on Friday and convene for a short parliamentary session to elect the Speaker and the standing committee of the parliament.
The incident has visibly left a gaping trust deficit for the elected members of the parliament from the public with many saying that the incident could have been avoided if cooler heads prevailed. The 17th TPiE has not convened two of its mandated ten sessions due to the crisis.
10 Responses
His Holiness has given the gift of democracy to the Tibetan people and today his advice is also filled with wisdom and compassion. I hope Penpa Tsering does not tarnish the office of the Presidency and waste the opportunity His Holiness has provided him to run a Tibetan administration for ALL Tibetans. He should refrain from hate speech against nyingmas and khampas. His Holiness speech on unity and compassion for all Tibetans should be his guiding principle.
“He should refrain from hate speech against nyingmas and khampas. ” ——Completely false allegation without any proof like this IS “hate speech”. This kind of irresponsible remarks are the causes of disruption of social harmony. Therefore, if you really respect what His Holiness have said, then stop your false allegation, instead just go criticize Penpa Tsering’s governing style, his plans, or any thing he really have said.
Please refer to Penpa Tsering’s speech on Tibetan democracy day, September 2021. He made unsavory remarks about khampas and nyingmas. I am sure there is a transcript of his speech somewhere. His words, even when mentioned recklessly, has consequences. The context is often lost. The message is not intended to cause disharmony. The message is just to remind him that as President of ALL Tibetans he needs to be sensitive and not undermine the minority group in Tibetan diaspora. A characteristics of a true leader is one who can be magnanimous and look beyond clanship, just as His Holiness the Dalai Lama has done. His holiness has worked tirelessly for a United and inclusive community. Today, he has given Penpa Tsering a new leash on his presidency, hope he does not waste this opportunity. Thats all.
Please stop the chölka and chölug dissension. We must respect people from all the three chölkas and chölugs. We are all Tibetans and consider ourselves as sisters and brothers from one family. So please stop criticizing or defaming each other which is actually very childish. Besides it is not correct to blame someone by saying what she or he has said which can not be proved in detail. If you are sure what the others have said, then you must write what, when and in which situation and why she or he said so. Moreover we are not small children. We must ignore when some one says some thing which you think is in fact nonsense.
We have members of parliament from all the chölkas and chölugs so that they can work harmoniously in unity. As long as we have no different political parties the present way of choosing parliament members from all the chölkas and chölugs is a wise decision. But we must keep in mind to respect the constitution without self interpretations. The points or chapters of the constitution are very clear. As long as there is no change or additional points fixed with majority power, we must respect and act according to the existing constitution. Every one of us must contribute for our unity and see that every thing goes well without deadlock. That I want to appeal our Tibetan sisters and brothers from all the three chölkas und chölugs humbly with folded hands. Tashi Delek! 🙏
His Holiness gave a right direction to the elected Chithues . We are very much optimistic about good governance with good government.
Tashi Deleg and Bod Gyalo
༄༅། །བོད་མི་མང་གི་རེ་ཆེན་ལ། ད་བོད་དང་བོད་མིའི་རྩ་དོན་ཐོག་ལ་སྤྱི་འཐུས་གསར་པ་རྣམས་ཕྱག་ལས་གང་ཟབ་ཡག་པོ་གནང་རོགས་ཞུ་རྒྱུ་ཡིན།། ཚང་མའི་མཁྱེན་གསལ་ལྟར། ནང་འཁྲུག་རྒྱོབ་ན་གང་ཅི་ལ་ཡང་མིན་ཕན་པ་རེད།།
What a magnificent news! Win win for all concerned Tibetans. Frome now on the Tibetan unity should be priority.
Best wishes.
Now that as requested by elected chitues, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has given the common sense advise to them to take oath as per the Charter, ex-sikyong Lobsang Sangay and his aides like Sonam Frasi of Office of Tibet in London, who tried to misguide people by saying there should be “ghu-shang” should hold their heads in shame. Truth and charter-based democracy always wins. His Holiness and the Tibetan people are too smart to be fooled by people with egos and selfish, evil motives. The interest of Tibet and our suffering Tibetan brothers and sisters inside Chinese-occupied Tibet should always come first.
To me, the second recommendation, that is, “in the event of first not happening…then EC should do whatever necessary within the framework of our charter….” is something everyone but EC in particular should take note of. Just the first recommendation is sufficient but Kundun has taken the effort to suggest the second is particularly significant. Long live our democracy!
With blessing from HH XIV Dalai Lama, now finally we can move forward. I hope we Tibetans can move forward with positivity, and work together to fulfill our goal. We as Tibetans need to be united for our dire cause, and all the politicians need to cease playing sectarians politics! Long live Kundhun, we will never able to compensate your kindness and pivotal guidance.