Are we politically impassive at our own cost?
by Chime Tenzing
Jamyang Norbu’s recent opinion piece “waiting for mangtso” served as, among other things, a timely reminder to our (or at least to me) collective political insensitiveness and indifference that has become the norm of our exile community. Apart from mechanically going about our daily life as business-as-usual, most of us do not have the time and enthusiasm to do a reality check on the politics of our cause and affairs. As a result, we deem ‘political affairs’ a kind of societal pariah and let it manage by a handful of politicians of our own making (through our ‘unmindful’ ballot vote)!
Today, what we see is a small coterie of Tibetans (both youngsters and elderly included) who are at least ‘hot and bothered’ about what is going on within ‘our’ political world. These are the select men and women who have the guts and patriotism to cry boo, break their head, burn their leg, risk incarceration, shout slogan and raise their brows whenever some untoward political twists and turns appear on the surface. These are the few bunch of ‘nationalist’ or ‘patriots’ who spearhead and organize numerous unto-death-hunger-strikes, peace marches, candle-light vigils, embassy wall-scaling, boycotts, special prayers, petitions to the U.N.O, hair-tonsuring, day-in and day-out programmes at Jantar Mantar and at other ‘strategic’ places. The rest of us, if we in a mood or find time or if we happen to be at the places of such political gatherings, we join them with a short-lived and charged-up nationalism. But, the moment such flock disperses, we go chuckling all the way to our homes! This shows nothing less than our indifference and insensitiveness for our national cause, which is inescapably seeped in our political mission.
To connect the context with something new and fresh, the eight session of the fourteenth parliament have just concluded amidst intermittent exchange of niceties, boisterous hoo-ha, halla-gulla, finger pointing games and walk-out dramas! And in Dharamsala it somehow managed to replace popular ‘saas-bahu’ soap series with the cable telecast of the ongoing parliament-in-session (much to the chagrin of our sentimental and serial-addicted aunties and grannies). Whereas in the settlements, a bunch of devoted grand-papas and uncles wait religiously for the bi-weekly VOA telecast of the Tibetan news to lend their ears and eyes and be the witness to the parliamentary proceedings, while a bunch of younger lots spend their time reveling in illusion of the three B’s – Bikes, Babes and Booze! The remaining ‘in between’ mimaangs are either obsessed with making their ends meet or busy tending their rose gardens! This is the testimony to the fact that a real ‘political verve’ is still yet to invade our private world and our democratic administration is, though comparatively new, still slogging at snail’s pace. This becomes clear from the fact that ‘politics’ finds best place to talk about only at tea-shops, bus-stops, sumdos (3 crossroads), lunch-breaks and other everyday gossip renzedvous. It has never been able to capture our attention in a more serious atmosphere and climate. Instead, what we mostly tend to chat about is petty ‘politicking’ and the real politics. This may be reasoned out as one can not always spot the wafer-thin difference in meaning between ‘politicking’ and ‘politics’!
To make it clear once and for all, ‘politics’ in its truest sense, is not as bad as what we’ve come to understand! Politics is nothing but an art or science of running a government. Therefore, if understood and taken in the right spirit, it has the potential to bring about a practical solution to our ailing democracy. On the other hand, ‘politicking’ is widespread in every sphere of our social lives. So we can’t help!
There’s no denying the fact that the best thing about a democratic government is the fundamental nature of the ‘universal suffrage’, where every adult citizen have a say in choosing their leaders and likewise elect only those who are bona fide candidates. His Holiness has seen and realized this as raison d’être and one of the corner stone of good governance. Since then Tibetans in exile have been gifted with a privilege (untested and untried before) to vote their representatives in the parliament-in-exile for the first time in the Tibetan political history. It’s been a while, but not so long, since we have been endowed with this gift in the form of ‘democratic governance’, but it is sometimes dispiriting to see pathetic voter turnouts, lack of ‘real’ understanding about the potential candidates and apathy of the general electorate during such important election times! This is not only an abuse of our democratic rights, but also an insult to the tenets of our constitution. This endorses the view that “bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don’t vote.”
If you will trust the wisdom of our age-old gurus, it is never too late when you realize it is too late! If we have the intelligence to learn from our past political blunders, we are still not ‘behind the schedule’ to reverse our political psychology and bring about a new political spin-off before the formation of the fifteenth parliament-in-exile and 2011 Kalon Tripa in the offing. Unlike other established democracies such as India and America, we do not have enough human and material resources to put up a flamboyant campaign and go canvassing around. But, the least practical thing we can do is to use the ‘available’ resource to educate and encourage the community for a fierce political participation, which will consequently help in pulling more practical talents from the exile crowd. This would eventually give a face-lift to our paralyzed public voting quotient. A silver lining of sorts, amidst such cloud of political indifference, it is endearing to see unique initiative by individuals like Mr. Thupten Samdup, now the representative of His Holiness in London. He has created a specific website to encourage public participation in choosing our next Kalon Tripa (i.e. 2011). With an open heart, I expect some more initiatives like this from our Tibetan media (both print and electronic). Such initiatives may be just the tip of the iceberg. But any change, for that matter, must begin from the grass-root level. Therefore, our journey towards a ‘politically sane’ society must begin with the first step. And, let us bring and time this ‘change’ with the next Kalon Tripa election in the year 2011.Before I conclude, let me SHOUT – POLITICS IS NOT BAD, AT LEAST FOR US! Full Stop.
