By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Oct. 11: The 17th Tibetan Parliament-in-exile (TPiE) convened its first parliament session on Monday, pledging their commitment to resolve the issue of Tibet peacefully. The proceedings also saw the approval of three women cabinet (Kashag) ministers after voting by the MPs. As of Monday, Kasur Gyari Dolma, former school Principal Tharlam Dolma, and TCHRD researcher Norzin Dolma were approved by the parliament.
TPiE Speaker Khenpo Sonam Tenphel presided over the session attended by the Deputy Speaker Dolma Tsering and CTA President Penpa Tsering. Two other nominees for ministership, former Kalon Thupten Lungrik and TCV Director Tsultrim Dorjee failed to secure 50% votes of approval by the parliament. Scores of MPs walked out during the fifth Kalon nomination of MP Ngodup Dorjee, citing incompetence of the nominee.
“With the rapidly evolving global politics, China is impacted to gradually shift its policy toward the changing spectrum of global governance. This shift in China’s global policy is evidently impacting its hardliner policy toward Tibet,” remarked the Speaker in his opening address. The Speaker Khenpo Sonam Tenphel further urged the members to relay constructive suggestions in a healthy manner in accordance with the parliamentary procedures.
The inaugural session also unanimously proposed a resolution to thank His Holiness the Dalai Lama for his timely intervention and his invaluable advice that has swiftly ended months of parliament deadlock. The four-month hiatus ceased when the Dalai Lama on Thursday intervened with his recommendation to the parliamentarians to take oath as per the Charter of Tibetan government-in-exile.
The two-day session is set to appoint the seven cabinet members for the respective departments under the CTA, also known as the Tibetan government-in-exile. The appointed Kalons; Gyari Dolma secured 30 votes, whereas Tharlam Dolma and Norzin Dolma secured 27 votes in the elections. The nominees Thupten Lungrig and Tsultrim Dorjee secured 18 and 13 votes respectively.
6 Responses
Kalons for actions. Chethus must be sellective but fair to nominated kalons, all must have long tenures of service to our society. Their choice of three has majority support but other kalons must be appointed in timely manner to expedite Sekhung’s agenda for Tibet.
Hearty Congrats to all 3 new women cabinet ministers. I am pretty sure We the mostly Tibetan public, believing in two top priorities to work upon in these your 5 year working term.
1) Strengthening Tibet cause in the arena of current International Politics & try your best to resume the talk with the Chinese counterparts resolving the Tibet issue through promoting CTA Middle Way Approach. What we really expecting from the Chinese government, we want to have a GENUINE AUTONOMY within the framework of Chinese constitution, respecting the Chinese laws & policies. The chief aim of our struggle demanding genuine autonomy of Tibet is that we can run our own internal-administration in Tibet mainly protecting our own distinct culture, language, custom & religion. Besides, we also believe that protecting the fragile precious environment of Tibet is important. That’s the only we simply demand from the Chinese government. The remaining rest, they can fully control over the foreign affairs of Tibet. We don’t object at all. This is the win win proposition proposal for both sides.
I must say, having Good International political awareness & learning the CCP behavior tactics from time to time are very significant for us.
2) Public welfare or improving the basic amenities helping the public to live comfortably & successful life, esp. assisting to the poor families as per the words recommendation of His Holiness.
My Appeal & message to our Sikyong PT la: As a major responsibility of Sikyong, Please focus more on Political affairs, international politics, the current developments in the world, the behavior of CCP rather than spending valuable time on usual activities. I know those things can be important however, these works are going to perform by heads of CTA seven major departments under your leadership discretion powers, namely the Dept. of Education, Health, Finance, Home, Security, Religion & Culture & the DIIR(Dept of Information & International Relations).
Thank you & Bodh Gyalo!
At last all the hullabaloo is over and once again the wheels of sanity is returning to Dharamsala. It’s time all the viciousness and rancour is laid to rest and work for Tibet. All the anger and frustration that had accumulated over these many months must be channeled against our enemy and not against fellow Tibetans. Tibet is being erased by making Tibetans hybrid Chinese by brain washing young Tibetan children to Chinese culture, language and totally rob Tibetan children of their rich Buddhist spiritual heritage. Tibetans are force fed Chinese culture and even Tibetan religion is cannibalised to conform with Chinese culture! Tibetan language is the best medium to study Tibetan Buddhism which was specifically tailored by the wise Tibetan translators such as Kachok Shang sum (ཀ་ཅོག་ཞང་གསུམ་) For those who know little about Tibetan translators, these three ལོ་ཙྭ་བ་སྐ་བ་དཔལ་བརྩེགས་ ཅོག་རོ་ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ ཞང་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་ are the foremost translators during the reign of Chogyal Trisong Deutsan. There is no other language on earth to teach and study Tibetan Buddhism than Tibetan language itself. HH The Dalai Lama has been encouraging non-Tibetan Buddhist followers to study Tibetan in order to understand Tibetan Buddhism. However, the CCP is now undermining the Tibetan language by forcing Chinese as the medium to learn and study Tibetan Buddhism!!! This is a sacrilege!!! The flourishing of Tibetan language and Tibetan Buddhism go hand in hand. Whenever one suffers, the other will suffer too and vice versa. In their attempt to completely destroy Tibetan language, the CCP has come up with a sinister plot to replace the traditional language as the medium to learn and study Tibetan Buddhism. It is forcing Chinese as the medium instead, ostensibly to make it more accessible to a greater audience! This is the kind of deception the CCP has mastered in its diabolical attempt to transform Tibetans into Chinese.
The approval of Gyari Dolma as Kalon is encouraging. What I admire about Gyari Dolma is her passion for Tibet. She is often emotional because of her intense feeling for Tibet. She may seem soft and emotional but she is also a strong woman who has her own values and ideology. She is well known among the Indian diplomatic fraternity through her late brother. This would be a great asset in galvanising support from the Indian diplomats. We must go all out to confront communist China when people in the corridors of power have an appetite to listen and gather strength to speak up for us. She has the experience, having been Kalon in the previous administration. With her strong demeanour, she will be a stabilising factor in the new administration.
Tharlam Dolma is a respected teacher from South India. She has been teaching in the Central School for Tibetans in Bylakuppe for many years, ultimately becoming the Principal of the School. She has been a strong supporter of the Sikyong but little is known about her political philosophy. She is a woman of substance and is expected to do well in her capacity as the Education Kalon. Little is known about Norzin Dolma until now. If she is a researcher, she might be well versed in International relations and political diplomacy. She might therefore be given the Foreign Minister portfolio. All three women are representing their respective cholkas. Gyari Dolma is from Kham Nyarong, Tharlam Dolma is from Kongpo and Norzin Dolma is from Amdo.
It’s time to bury the hatchet and get on with the job of fighting the enemy. There is no point in settling scores among ourselves. It will only cause pain and diminish ourselves. So, let bygones be bygones and never forget the greater goal of liberating our country from the oppression of the CCP (Chinese Criminal Party).
You now seem to have regained your conscience. Thank you. Indeed ccp has to be fought and banished away as we do with the nyishughu lue by our United action. Our disunity only fuels ccp aggression and propoganda which we never intended but I am afraid some some might have and we must investigate and identify them before they make us hollow, fragile and weak.
Infact the issue we faced is one great lesson for all the three provinces of Tibet. We better get rid of choeka choeluk shengog for once and for all for the sake of saya druk and come out united in our struggle against our enemy the ccp. If wise
you think of youself should see the wisdom by now or it’s too late.
Hearty congratulations to the three female Kalons. Indeed it’s high time women should lead. Man are just 🐕 egoistic.
Tashi delek, agree with all but a couple of things. It appears you did not watch the two day proceedings. There is still much negativity, hate and contempt. I am embarrassed to admit that our monks in the Parliament are at their worst behaviour and the language they adopt. I was shocked to also see what Junchen Kunchok was saying. She addressed Samdhong Rinpoche as Samdhong lama and the day is not far when our MP’s will openly address HH in that manner trashing the very institution He has provided us. I hope things are much better in the next session. Also, Norzin Dolma is not from Amdo, she is from Kham. King regards.
Congratulations to the three confirmed appointed cabinet minsters( women) so far. I would be very happy the remaining posts are to be filled by the women candidate as well. No male political leaders in the world today are inspiring at all. The out going the chancellor of Germany-Angela Merkel and the serving New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern are great decision makers and awesome inspiring leaders of out time today. Go Girls.