By Phuntsog Wangyal
Let me begin with a note from our traditional cultural background in which I was brought up in the early 1950s. We were all taught to respect and obey our lamas, leaders, teachers, and our parents. We don’t argue with them, let alone disagree with their opinions. Thus, we don’t talk with them on an equal footing. The context of communication changes in such a situation. Direct or straight communication with them is less likely. We become more implicit or indirect in our communication. This is clear, even today from the fact that ordinary Tibetans find it difficult to openly disagree with decisions made from above even when such decisions are presented as an opinion and not as a rule.
Soon after we were exiled in India, the Tibetan administration (then The Tibetan Government-in Exile) andthe people both had independence as their aspiration, and openly declared this. The change from wanting independence to accepting autonomy in the 1980s was “the greatest setback in Tibet’s history” as I wrote at that time. The Tibetan administration had then become just “a Tibetan Organisation”, not The Tibetan government any more in the eyes of the world. Our people and their supporters began to lose their focus and the Chinese government took this as weakness on the part of the Tibetans for their advantage. This was their “magic power” as they call the works of the United Fronts Work Department that won the Chinese Communist Party a victory from the Nationalist Kuomingtang Party in 1949 and kept the Chinese people under strict brutal control ever since.
With the same magic power, the Communist Party cultivated their support internationally by winning over people like former US president Jimmy Carter to support their ultimate objective. In the case of Tibet, this meantbringing Tibet back into the family of the Great Motherland. Our hopes of president Carter having influence over the Chinese leaders in our favour came to nothing.
With great enthusiasm ordinary Tibetans continue to demonstrate with slogans like “Free Tibet”. But their demands seemed to gradually become simply a human rights issue rather than seeking Tibet’s freedom from China, without which Tibetans will never be able to live in peace with their own culture.
I fully and totally agree with John Billington’s statement that Tibetans have never in history or for that matter in the last seventy years been treated equal to the Chinese. Recent history has proved that trusting the Chinese government or hoping they would change did not bring any tangible result for Tibet. They have certainly won or are winning their game of creating disunity amongst the Tibetan communities and destroying or minimising the Tibetan people’s will to assert their right to determine their own future.
The challenge we face is enormous, but giving up our dream is not the option. I clearly remember His Holiness telling our people in Tibet in the 60s never to give up but “to keep up their spirit and resolve to regain their independence”. During the Tibetan Fact Finding Delegation (which included myself as a member) to Tibet in 1980 and during all my numerous visits to Tibet and China from 1980 to 2019, I was fully convinced that Tibetans did take His Holiness’s advice to their hearts and continue to demand freedom from China, independence from China to determine their future. The Tibetans in Tibet don’t trust the Communist Party and any of us living in the free world believing they will change are being misled by the Magic Powers of the Chinese Communist Party.
A large majority of countries in the free world today have begun to realize that the current Chinese regime is a great threat to the free world, oppressive and brutal to their own people and disgraceful and humiliating to the compassionate Dalai Lama and innocent Tibetan people. In this changed geopolitical situation and His Holiness having handed over political power to the elected representatives of the people, the Tibetan leadership’s joining other people in condemning communism and defending democracy is not enough. The Tibetan leadership has to move forward with a long term strategy and clearly tell the world that we want freedom from China and once again to revive the appeal His Holiness the Dalai Lama made in the 60s “to help to restore the independence of Tibet”. The Tibetan leadership and people must speak with one voice and demand freedom from China. The time is right and Tibetans must take the first step, make others understand what we want and need, and then together we can all move forward.
To my fellow Tibetans, I repeat what John has quoted, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”. “For evil to prosper it is only necessary that good men do nothing”
(Views expressed are his own)
The author is a former representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in London, a former member of the Tibetan Parliament in Dharamshala and a former chairman of the Tibet Foundation, UK.
19 Responses
I understand the author’s sentiment and agree with his call for Independence. The only obstacle in bringing back our collective fight for Rangzen is the possibility and ability to convince HH Dalai Lama.
Our politicians are mere puppets. They stand in the shadow of HH Dalai Lama and don’t have the backbone to do anything different.
People write letters on their own discretion and not on someone’s behest. It’s insulting to claim credit by so called Bomei as if the letters on the topic of FREEDOM FROM CHINA were solicited by him! This is how CCP wumaos co-opt free discussion to influence in their favour. This is how they plant themselves to gain legitimacy in order to influence the topic of discussion. The very fact the guy speaks with a forked tongue shows his agenda. He plays with the audience by using the name of the Dalai Lama to legitimise himself but then says, while fighting for independence one must also maintain the Middle Way! You can’t have both ways! Either you believe in independence or you don’t. This fellow insists one can’t discard Middle Way because of the Dalai Lama and so called “common welfare”! Common with whom? The Chinese colonisers? This is how deceitfully, the wumaos play with the sensibilities of Tibetans to influence people to follow their agenda unwittingly. Tibetans must be on our guard to the Machiavellian ways of the CCP at all times!
Ok it seems you are only for rangzen. That is your right. I am fully on your side. But I think we have make room for other people who have other opinion. You want to make me silent and you want to put me in the line of wumaos. It is very sad if the rangzen let no room for rangwang. Yes, we have to be careful. But we cannot try to make other silent with certain blames without proof.
I am working for Tibet for the last 35 years. I am working with Tibet support group of the country where I am living and I am speaker of one of the 35 regional groups of this Tibet support group. I am translating almost all the unfortunately sad news from Tibet which appear in Tibet.net, Phayul, Tibettimes, Radio Free Asia and so on in the language of the country where I am living and distribute to over hundred addresses (of organistions, Tibet support group and its regionals groups) and ask them to distribute further to their friends and members etc. Morover Association of Tibetans in the country where I live have a homepage and where these translated news appear. In this way I hope to get still more help. I am doing all these things voluntarily.
We have to stop blaming each other without grounded proof, instead one has to say what one want and how and what one can do to reach this goal. I hope I have tried to calm you. You see our real enemy is Communist China and not the rangzenpas and MWAs. Tashi Delek!
The Chinese constitution states in their Article 4, “All ethnic groups of the People’s Republic of China are equal”. We could all see that ever since the occupation of Tibet by China, Tibetan people never enjoyed equal treatment. Brutal history of their rule in Tibet (since 1949-50) is there for all of us to see.
For over 30 years the CTA, perhaps with good motivation tried with the MWA to achieve a mutually beneficial agreement with Beijing, Not only Beijing rejected it totally but they launched a systmatic cultural genocide, slowly destroying Tibetan heritage, language and religion, and gradually rewriting Tibet’s history as a part of China.
We have to remind ourselves of some historical facts. “The Seventeen Agreements” was signed in 1951 by China for a “Peaceful Liberation of Tibet. In 1959 the PLA shelled Norbulinka, killing thousands of people and His Holiness followed by thousands of other Tibetans had to escape into exile. “The Sino-British Joint Declaration” was signed in 1984 by China under which Hongkong would continue to enjoy its separate identity and existing freedom. In 2020 introducing a “Special Security Law” China broke the agreement. The world has seen how the people of Hongkong were treated by China . Similarly, we can see what is happening in Xinjiang (East Turkestan) under Chinese rule.
We wasted over thirty years hoping to be able to reach an agreement. We failed miserably and the Chinese succeeded creating confusion and disunity among our people. We cannot afford to waste thirty more years. Now is the crucial time to reclaim our independence for our children and for future generations. Let the world know that the Tibetan people are determined to continue fighting for independence.
I admire all the Tibetans and other supporters working in different capacities for the benefit of the Tibetan people. It is a great shame that someone like Bomi who claimed to have worked so long and in so many different organisations could not find a seat or voice in the CTA. Wherever one may be and whatever one does, the ultimate goal of independence must not be compromised. Yes, we must all unite to fight for Independence. We must never forget all those brave Tibetans who died in the past and who are still sacrificing their lives for freedom, and that they want and deserve their independence.
I may sound to some people like playing a piano to the cow. But I am confident that the vast majority of the Tibetan people are not too naïve to understand what is going on. I am encouraged to read well versed letters by highly educated and intelligent people on this platform. Finally, a message I would like to add is that no one becomes a XIAO FENHONG for the Chinese Communist Party.
My mission is fulfilled. I wanted more discussion on this topic. It was not my intention to criticize one or the other. I am very much with rangzen as well as with actual middle way. MW is, as His Holiness says, a way to the benefit on both sides. It is also way to get immediate remedy to the sufferings for our people in Tibet, without loss of lives and goods.
We must stop criticizing each other. We must discuss how and what must we do and that also with real sense of the unity and harmony. It is not enough to say I am for rangzen, we must fight for our rangzen. On the other hand we need those who are for MW that they say and tell us how and what we we have to do. As Sir John Billington says, the cithues CTA must seriously discuss the right way to go forward.
All agree that the MWA was proposed in good faith in the hope of, “getting immediate remedy to the suffering of our people in Tibet.” The Chinese have clearly rejected it and our people continued suffering and in fact the suffering of our people increased and criticism of our leader intensified. The CTA has discussed with the Chinese for over thirty three years with no success. The right way forward is no more discussions but to resolve gaining our independence. Don’t let the Chinese Communist Party succeed in using our uncertainty to their advantage and using more “debates” to ferment disunity among our communities.
Now is the right time for the CTA and the Tibet Parliament to make Tibet’s objective clear that the Tibetan people have the right to their independence and Tibetan people are determined to fight for independence.
Yes, I was saying the same thing. Unity and harmony among ourselves and seriously discuss what and how we have to do. Only to say I am for rangzen or I am for MWA ist not enough.
If some Tibetans don’t say “ we want total independence from china”, and 100% of the Tibetans agree “ independence impossible, better compromise, then the Midway policy of the Tibetan exiles government will be like a beggar’s begging bowl.
The point is not whether independence can be achieved or not, the point is – what if all Tibetans agree that Midway is the best way. And that way, Midway itself gets diluted. Midway will be new rangzen, and semi-midway will be new Midway. Then goes the sliding slope where the only claim against china will be freedom of speech. And that will be no different from American protesters protesting against free speech rights as Americans. The nature of struggle will totally change, and will convert from political issue of territorial invasion to human right and religious issue.
Phuntsok Wangyal is a respected elder statesman among the Tibetan community. He was one of the member of young Tibetan delegation who visited Tibet during the 1980s. When he became the Representative of the Dalai Lama in the UK, he was outspoken about the Chinese manipulation of words in dealing with Tibet. I remember him bristling with Chinese lexicons such as Chinese history, Tibetan legend while being interviewed. In other words, the Chinese were denying that Tibet had any history to speak of which means we didn’t even exist!
Having been a loyal Civil servant of the CTA, he has every right to express his opinion freely and frankly without fear or favour. He was also contributing articles to the Tibetan Review in which he had asserted that the future Tibet should be loose federation rather than a monolithic entity. Those were exciting days, when the Tibet issue was hogging the lime light of International headlines thanks to the contribution of a young and charismatic Dalai Lama who strode the world with an infectious smile and a placid nature that enthralled everyone he met! Among that generation were the great independence advocates like Jamyang Norbu, , Lhasang Tsering and his brother Karma Choephel, who were the most vocal and out spoken but others like Tethong Tenzin Namgyal, Phuntsok Wangyal, Gyari Lodi and Tashi Topgyal and many others were all independence advocates. That era produced Tibetan writers in the English language like Professor Dawa Norbu, Jamyang Norbu and K Dhondup who was a communist in his ideology. The Tibetan youth during that era was full of zest for Rangzen and there was no other topic other than Rangzen to talk about. We regarded communist China as our mortal enemy and spat on the photos of Mao and other Chinese leaders when we saw them in books or newspapers! I look back to that era with nostalgia. We were filled with optimism of achieving our goal!
There was much dissatisfaction when the Strasburg declaration was made in 1988. Most young people felt a great sense of disenchantment but continued all the same with our activities. The Dalai Lama never said fighting for independence was not right but clearly enunciated that it was his own personnel opinion and the final decision lay with the Tibetan people.
However, as he took less responsibility in order to help the elected leader to take independent decisions, one of our leader from 2000 to 2010, made some fateful choice to malign and discredit the Rangzen advocates. This destroyed the most versatile, dedicated and devoted Rangzen fighters and made them redundant! They were made to feel they were in fact responsible for the lack of “talks” with communist China. It’s the same delusion that plagued the Tibetan Government in Lhasa during the nine years (1951-1959) of “peaceful co-existence” with communist China! During this time, the Lhasa Government blamed the Khampa freedom fighters for the testy relationship with the Chinese generals like Tan Kunsan who would bang his fist on the table to intimidate the Tibetans and complain about the “Khampa bandits”!
History was repeated in exile during this particular incumbent and Rangzen advocates were ostracised and banished from Tibetan civil society! This has had a profound negative impact on the commitment of young Tibetans to the Tibetan cause and today, you can count on your fingers the few young people who are sticking to their guns and advocating independence!
Recently, there was a discussion with some young college students organised by Tibet TV. The penalists were Tibetan two chitues; Tenzin Chodzin, Choedak Gyatso and the current President of TYC Gonpo Dhondup. When Chitue Tenzin Chodzin was asked why there is lack of attendees in Tibetan protests these days, she seemed to suggest that the current lack of enthusiasm for Tibetan Youth political activity might be owing to the “monotony” of protests that has been conducted for the last six decades! So, she suggested something more novel should be introduced in order to attract young people to stand up for Tibet. This shows clearly the mood of the young people for the Tibet cause is all but lost! This is the direct result of killing the most dedicated bunch of activists and now it has invariably left a gaping hole in youth enthusiasm for the Tibetan struggle! Chitue Choedak was asked what should U-Mey lam followers should do because the student said, “there is not much you can do with U-May Lam”. Chodak Gyatso’s answer was, “sometimes its best to do nothing”! This clearly shows another devastating policy failure of the U-May Lam which virtually professes to do nothing that would “hurt” the Chinese communist Party! Remember the infamous quote of chitue Dolma Tsering, who said calling བོད་རྒྱལ་ལོ་ would be detrimental to our cause since it will hurt the CCP!!! This is the pathetic state of affairs today with the Tibet movement. It is in state of limbo or in Tibetan it is in the state of bardo བར་དོ་ This is by no means to belittle the chitues or question their patriotism but it shows the state affairs of the Tibet movement now in its last gasp! The only way to resuscitate this dangerous lurch to oblivion is to reinstate RANGZEN as our stated goal and demand for the ownership of our nation.
John Billington and his organisation has been supporting Tibetan independence for a long time. I tend to trust the British more than others. This is because the British have a greater sense of strategy in geopolitical affairs and they are well experienced in the art of diplomacy owing to having an empire on which the sun never set! The British regarded India as the jewel of their great empire and jealously guarded it from the predatory behaviours of Czarist Russia and China. It created a buffer all across the Himalayas from Ladakh, Sikkim, Bhutan, Tibet and Nepal in order to guard India from foreign invasion or encroachment. It kept all these areas free foreign influence from its main competitors like the Russians and Chinese. Tibet remained independent from any foreign influence. The British never allowed the Chinese or the Russians to have any foot print in Tibet but it also kept Tibet virtually locked away from the world. Alexandra David Neil, the French Buddhist who was the only woman to visit Tibet complains bitterly about the British attempt to bar her from travelling to Tibet. She writes, “why should you bar me from travelling to Tibet, when it’s not even your country”! The British clearly played a role in isolating Tibet from the rest of world. On the other hand, the Chinese were at their game in fomenting discord between the British and Tibet by telling the Tibetans, not to allow the British into Tibet or else, they will transform Tibet into a Christian country. It looks like the monk community especially the powerful monasteries bought the Chinese disinformation and stopped the two schools that were opened by Tibetans with the help of the British in Lhasa and Gyangtse. This is part of the so called great game played by the great powers of the time. However, when India became independent in 1947, the Indian leaders overlooked the strategic British buffer wall to protect India and made a monumental blunder in allowing the Chinese occupation of Tibet in the believe that there was no danger to India from the Chinese communists!!!! This clearly shows that the Indian leaders had no clue about the dangers lurking in the vicinity of India because the Indians lost their country to foreign domination close one thousand years. It was ruled by the Moguls for eight hundred years from Barber to Aurangzeb and then the British ruled it from Robert Clive’s East India company close to three years until August 15 1947. They had no clue about the security environment of the country and hobnobbed with the Chinese communists and did nothing to help Tibet protect its sovereignty. The British never recognised Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. Article 1 of the Anglo Russian Treaty of 1907 clearly elucidates that, THE TWO HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES ENGAGE TO RESPECT THE TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF TIBET AND TO ABSTAIN FROM INTERFERENCE IN THE INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. Both imperialist parties agreed to enter into negotiate through the intermediary of China. This treaty was an attempt to dispel the suspicions of both parties in dealing with Tibet. China was offered a bonus over the heads of the Tibetans. It’s therefore an imperialist instrument. If the Chinese accept this as legitimate suzerainty over Tibet, it must also recognise the 1913-14 Simla convention between British India and independent Tibet! This imperialist instrument greatly diminished Tibet’s sovereign status and the Chinese used it to their full advantage to make dubious and unsubstantiated claims over Tibet. Pandit Nehru and his colleagues should have maintained the British stance as their colonial inheritance and kept Tibet free from Chinese occupation but Nehru was more concerned about the Korean War than the Chinese invasion and occupation of Tibet! Nehru remained reticent about the Chinese conquest of Tibet in his belief that remaining friends with China was more important than protecting its northern borders from the soon to be India’s nemesis. I therefore have more trust in John Billington and his friends policy concerning Tibet which is to fight for Tibet’s independence than the namby-Pamby policy of the CTA.
India gained independence from a great empire that encompassed two thirds of the world through sheer tenacity and dedication of great freedom fighters through both non-violent and violent means. Gandhi led a non-violent movement but Netaji Subash, Bhagat Singh and Chandra Shekar Azad were revolutionary freedom fighters who took to militant liberation movement. Through the efforts of countless freedom fighters, India gained independence from one of the greatest empires the world has known. The British rulers had a conscience and self respect which made the Indian non-violent movement a viable solution. But the Chinese communists have no such virtue. Vietnam was under Chinese domination for one thousand years from 111 BC to 938 AD during the Han dynasty. The Chinese ruled the Vietnamese with brute force and tried to assimilate the Vietnamese just like China is doing in occupied Tibet today. The feudal Han rulers carried out a policy of systematic cultural assimilation. They imposed the veneration of of the emperor, Son of heaven and use of the indeographic script as a vehicle for official doctrine and Confucianism. You can see the same pattern of indoctrination in present day occupied Tibet where the CCP demands absolute loyalty to it and Tibetan language is suppressed and mandarin is enforced to wipe out the identity of the Tibetan people. The more the Chinese tried to assimilate them, the more they resisted. The first attempt for Vietnamese independence was made in 40 AD. This first revolt was led by the Trung sisters, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi who led a peasant army against the Chinese. The Trung sisters came from a military family. They fought the Chinese army and the Chinese general had to flee. But it was short lived as the Chinese sent reinforcements and took back power within two years but the two sisters jumped in the river rather than be captured by Chinese forces. Today, every street has a name of the two sisters in Vietnam. Vietnam had many heroic women such as the Trung sisters and Lady Trieu Who had a burning sensation to fight foreign domination and liberate her country and launched large scale movement against the Chinese occupiers in 248 AD She proclaimed, “I would like to ride storms, kill the sharks in the open sea, drive out the aggressors, reconquer the country, undo the tics of serfdom, and never bend my back to be a concubine of any men”. After ten centuries of Chinese feudal domination, exploitation and plundering of their natural resources and enslavement, Vietnam finally threw the Chinese yoke and achieved their independence in 938 AD after NGO Quyen fought with the Chinese army and defeated them at Bach Dang River. Tibetans must learn lessons from the Vietnamese resistance to Chinese occupation and never give up our fight for our nation’s sovereignty. If we give up our fight for our country’s independence we will forever be condemned to servitude and enslavement for eternity. The nation of Tibet and its people will cease to exist. Chinese occupation of Tibet is an existential threat to the Tibetan nation and its people and we have no choice but fight with every means available at our disposal!
In this debate certain facts stand out. Overwhelmingly, Tibetans want a restoration of their INDEPENDENCE from China. They have had more than seventy years of being treated as inferiors and second-class citizens in their own country. The CCP of China has shown not one shred of interest in compromising its determination to assimilate Tibet and make it just a region of China.
HH the Dalai Lama has sought to establish Tibet as a DEMOCRACY where policy is determined by the TIBETAN PEOPLE and/or their delegates in the Assembly. Currently, we are stuck with the MWA because this is favoured by HHDL. HHDL withdrew from politics in 2011 in order to ALLOW secular democracy to determine the way forward. This is a critical time in Tibet’s history where opportunities may arise that will not come again. Surely it is time for the Tibetan Assembly to return to this
urgent topic and debate it carefully and seriously — putting aside regional and sectarian differences in the interest of securing a FREE TIBET for ALL Tibetans everywhere. Politics and democracy lie in the secular realm and it is the Assembly that should take responsibility for the decision as to Tibet’s future.
I live in hope.
John Billington
From His speech after escaping into exile in India it became clear that His Holiness the Dalai Lama sought Freedom from China for Tibet and democracy for the Tibetan people. His Holiness proposed the Middle Way Approach in the hope of resolving the urgent and acute suffering of the Tibetans in Tibet under Chinese control. The Chinese Government not only rejected it but even intensified and demonised His Holiness. Now is the time for the Tibetan people to make it clear that they cannot and will not accept this humiliating insult to our leader. The only way for the Tibetans to live in peace and enjoy their cultural heritage is to free Tibet from China, independence for Tibet.
His Holiness successfully introduced democratic system of government for the Tibetans in exile and he withdrew himself from politics in order to allow the democratically elected government to determine their policy. To show our gratitude to His Holiness for granting democracy and to reaffirm our commitment to democracy principles, the time has come for the Tibetan Parliament to speak up and stand firm on these major issues,
Majority of the Tibetans and many of our supporters like John currently live in hope. The Tibetan Parliament should now seriously consider making it a reality, I join all others in requesting current members of the Tibetan Parliament to debate on these issues in the coming session of the parliament.
Phuntsog Wangyal
A former Representative of HH the Dalai Lama in London and a former Member of the Tibetan Parliament in Dharamsala
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Bomi said his/her “first comment was partially a provocation. I want to raise more interest.”
Why “partially”? “ What interest? Readers of the article may like to know what you meant by these hidden words. A person can be considered strong only when he is able to withstand all the blows of faith and maintain the courage to move forward. Why you are less willing to publicly speak up your mind. What restrain you from speaking your mind? This is the time to stand up for our moral duty to defend our right, right to independence. This is the time to be bold to speak up loud and clear. Unless you dream of living under Mr Xi, remember that you are in a free world with right to voice your opinion freely without fear of persecution.
I am happy to see more comments after me. That is what I wanted. We have to keep our common interest in mind and fight for it. Our common interest is Tibet and Tibetans in Tibet. Tibet is our country. The Chinese have illegally occupied our country mit military force. And they are still in Tibet illegally. The situation in Tibet is getting worse to worse as you say. Common interest I mean to think and fight for whole Tibet and for alle the Tibetan welfare with a mind of unity in harmony.
I respect majority of the Tibetans for their sacrifices for Tibet. I want every one of us should (from top to bottom) think of the situation in Tibet and do every thing possible unitedly in harmony. I don’t have to say any more than to say, we should honestly listen to our one and only His Holiness the Dalai Lama and do, think and say accordingly in every situation.
My first comment was partially a provocation. I wanted to raise more interest.
One must not lose the main focus. We are talking about Tibet, which is under illegal occupation and our people are suffering under the Chinese ruthless regime. We Tibetans are not living under a dictator like Xi Jinping. Under his rule no one has any voice other than his. We are luckily living in a free world where we have individual rights, the right to voice our own opinions.
Our leader has proposed the MWA with great compassion and understanding. But the Chinese regime has not shown any understanding. Can’t you see they have intensified their repression on our innocent brothers and sisters in Tibet and created disunity amongst the Tibetans living abroad. Chinese have a saying, “People who are pretending to sleep will never wake up”. Are you sleeping, not speaking up for your right, the right to your own freedom and independence? Or are you pretending to sleep, not to offend someone? Only in an independent Tibet, Tibetan people can survive and live in peace. This is the time to wake up, stand up and fight for our independence. Bod Gyal-lo! Free Tibet!
It is the Tibetan people’s aspiration to be free from China. They have the right to reclaim their independence. Tibetans hoped the Chinese government would come to understand their aspiration and move forward for a mutually beneficial solution. Sadly, the situation has gone from bad to worse. The Chinese are now rewriting Tibetan history, torturing and killing Tibetan people, taking away and indoctrinating Tibetan children and denouncing and demonising Tibetan leaders. Did you take notice of these facts? Did you really mean you “know these things very well”? Do you wish to close your eyes, not to see them and let these continue to happen until Tibet as a nation and Tibetans as a people disappear from this world. Here we are not talking about personal likes and dislikes but we are talking about SURVIVAL of the Tibetan people.
It is clear from his article that Mr Wangyal stands for freedom from China, for an independent Tibet. What “common welfare” Bomi are talking about?Tibetans did their best to compromise for mutual benefits but it is the Chinese government that not only refused to understand the Tibetan aspiration but intensified their atrocity against the innocent Tibetans in Tibet and created disunity amongst the Tibetans living abroad. It is not a time for Tibetans to remain silent and let the Chinese get away with their desire to increase their subjugation of the Tibetan people and domination of the world. Silence, not speaking up, is a killer. It is not a question of like and dislike. It is a question of the survival of Tibet as a country, a nation and a people.
I find no new things how the communist Chinese treat the Tibetans since their militarily invasion. We know these things very well. We don’t need some one to tell us newly as if it is some thing new. And I don’t understand what Mr. PW stands for. He was und is working for and with Tibetans since long time. I find him in a dilemma.
Of course our ultimate wish is independence. But when you see how our parliament members behave in the parliament, one gets doubts how it would be in a free Tibet. Therefore, we have to build the people how to work for a nation with an affinity to common welfare. Many are mixing private likes and dislikes with public affairs and vice versa.