Quick updates on my previous post:
Screaming for help
Are you an important government official? If so, did you receive an invitation to attend Young Zoom on Garbage, the art festival currently on at the Clock Tower Square? And if so, did you make it to the festival?
Chances are that you didn’t.
Young Zoom on Garbage is meant to be an innovative and powerful way of drawing much needed attention to a very serious problem. So the organizers sent out more than 200 invitations for yesterday’s opening function. But only a handful showed up: barely 10% of the invitees were able to attend the inaugural ceremonies.
That’s too bad.
The participants – about 60 children, mostly students, who, incidentally, took part in the project’s many activities during much of the last year – have put on quite a show. They have transformed the Clock Tower Square into an awesome display of Thimphu’s waste, as they caused discarded cardboard boxes, beer bottles, cement bags, newspapers, mobile voucher cards, prayer flags, cigarette boxes, computers, and heaps of plastic bottles, wrappers and bags to effortlessly morph into a video dome, a walk-in pinhole camera, a robot, a towering monster, giant raindrops, a plastic monument, a photo gallery, and an enormous hand clutching our vulnerable world.
At the Clock Tower Square, our garbage looks strangely attractive. But the message is not lost: we produce too much waste.
I congratulate VAST, the organizers of the event, for continuing to champion what their founder, Asha Karma, calls ABC on NGP (Advocacy Behavioral Change on National Garbage Problem).
And I congratulate TCC, for co-organizing the event, giving support and adding to the event’s success.
To register your support, and to make the festival a bigger success, visit the Clock Tower Square, especially if you are one of the 200 important invitees.
Our banner, featuring the “Walk the River” photo exhibition, is an open invitation to you, your family and your friends to zoom on garbage at the VAST art festival. The festival runs through Sunday.
Functional literacy?
The ECB’s “functional literacy and skills test” for candidates to local government elections is comprehensive. Aspiring candidates will have to take a written test to determine their computational, analytical, managerial and correspondence skills. And they will have to undergo an oral test to demonstrate their reading, writing and speaking skills.
ECB’s diligence will, no doubt, ensure that only the most competent can stand for the local government elections. And, that must be good.
But I’ve been wondering: how many of our current MPs would have passed the functional literacy and skills test?
I don’t know about my colleagues in the Parliament, but since the test is conducted in Dzongkha, I, for one, would have failed.
Photo credit: Bhutan Observer showing graduates re-learning Dzongkha for RCSC exams.
Obviously wrong
Earlier this year, in “Mining our business”, I’d explained why it would be unlawful for the government to permit L&T, Gammon and HCC to operate stone quarries for the Punatshangchhu hydropower project.
I don’t know for sure, but it looks like L&T, Gammon and HCC are now not operating the stone quarries. That is very good.
But what I do know for sure is that L&T, Gammon and HCC have each established stone crushing plants. That is bad. And that is illegal.
Stone crushing is a specific business, one that requires a separate industrial license, and one that is not open for foreign direct investment. Added to that, the lucrative business is surely outside the scope of the construction contract packages that L&T, Gammon and HCC have with the Punatsangchhu hydropower project.
So why have they been allowed to establish their own stone crushing plants?
I’ve written to the minister for economic affairs alerting him that the plants in question may be unlawful.
The prime minister, in his State of the Nation address, on employment:
I am pleased to report to the Hon’ble Members that a total of 320,900 are now employed. This shows that 96.69% of our workforce is employed leaving an unemployment rate of 3.3%, marking a downward movement for the first time in recent years. This indicates very clearly that this government is well on track to achieve its ambitious target of 2.5% unemployment rate in the next three years with a huge labour market in the making.
This is good news. After all, unemployment, especially youth unemployment, is one of our biggest concerns.
It’s been almost two weeks since my last entry. Some people have asked me why I’ve been quiet. On the other hand, “Linda Wangmo”, a regular reader, scolded me for spending too much time bicycling.
“Please do not waste time on our OLs blog….” advised Linda, “our dear OL is busy Bicycling and bicycling is every thing to him. It is now very clear that he will have no time for his blog and he would have no time to say what the government does….”
Yes, I have been cycling a lot recently, especially during the weekends. Last Saturday, some friends and I cycled to Lobesa and back. The Saturday before that, we cycled to Haa and back. And, we’ve already made it to Dochula and Paro several times.
Why this sudden interest in long-distance cycling? Because the people I’m biking with, plan to bicycle from Bumthang to Thimphu in one day. And I plan to join them!
But that’s not the reason why I haven’t been updating my entries regularly.
In fact, while I’ve appeared inactive, I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about this website – wondering if we’ve been constructive, questioning the quality of our discussions, and inquiring if we’ve made any difference.
Yes, I’ve been doing some soul searching … and in that respect, “Madman”, who asked if I was lost, is quite correct.
Bhutan Today has quoted MP Ugyen Wangdi, the National Assembly’s legislative committee chairman, of accusing the opposition leader of trying to “hoodwink the people of Bhutan” and taking “the people of Bhutan for a ride”. He was referring to my continuing protests over the government’s unlawful tax increases.
Obviously, Dasho Ugyen is entitled to his views. And, yes, I’ll defend his right to express them. But I’m surprised at his views. After all, he’s the very MP who tabled the motion in Parliament to amend the provisions of the Sales Tax, Customs and Excise Act 2000 that he considered to be inconsistent with the Constitution.
Here’s his Notice of Motion:
Amendment of the Sales Tax, Customs and Excise Act of the Kingdom of Bhutan, 2000.
As per Part I, Chapter 3, Section 4.2 of the Sales Tax, Customs and Excise Act of the Kingdom which was passed by the then National Assembly of Bhutan, the Royal Government is given the power to approve the fixation of the rates of Sales Tax and any revision thereof, and the range of commodities and services under the Sales Tax Schedule. On the other hand, Article 14, (1) of the Constitution states that taxes, fees and other forms of levies shall not be imposed or altered except by law. As such, any change in sales tax and customs duty needs to be done in concurrence with the Parliament.
In accordance with Article 1(10) of the Constitution, the undersigned would like to propose to the House that the relevant agency shall be directed to make necessary amendments to the Sales Tax, Customs an Excise Act of the Kingdom of Bhutan, 2000 and submit it to the National Assembly for amendment.
In his motion, Dasho Ugyen refers to Article 14, Section 1 of the Constitution and concludes that, “As such, any change in sales tax and customs duty needs to be done in concurrence with the Parliament.” And that’s exactly what I’ve been saying: only Parliament can raise taxes, not the government.
Dasho Ugyen also refers to Article 1, Section 10: “All laws in force in the territory of Bhutan at the time of adopting this Constitution shall continue until altered, repealed or amended by Parliament. However, the provisions of any law, whether made before or after the coming into force of this Constitution, which are inconsistent with this Constitution, shall be null and void.” Again, exactly what I’ve been saying: the provisions of the Sales Tax, Customs and Excise Act 2000 that gave the government the authority to raise taxes are now “null and void”.
So I really don’t understand why Dasho Ugyen is so upset that I’m continuing to challenge the tax increases imposed by the government.
Perhaps it’s because I did not, as he put it, raise my voice at all on this issue in the House when he tabled the motion. He’s correct: I did not take the floor then. But I did not speak for a very simple reason: I supported the motion. In fact, every member of the National Assembly supported the motion!
I’m surprised at the number of comments generated by “Foreign trips”. And I’m surprised that many of them are by first-time commentators. But, somehow I’m not surprised that virtually all the new commentators supported the prime minister’s frequent travels abroad last year.
The effects of inflation on the prices of essentials …
|
Items |
Rates |
||
| May | June | July | |
| Stone Free Rice (ST Rice) |
980 |
1050 |
1100 |
| Nestle Every Day Milk Powder |
190 |
215 |
245 |
| Red Label Tea Leave (500 gms) |
145 |
145 |
145 |
| Natural Gold Refined Oil (1Kg) |
55 |
60 |
65 |
| Maida (1Kg) |
20 |
22 |
22 |
| Salt (1Kg) |
10 |
10 |
10 |
| Sugar (1 Kg) |
40 |
40 |
45 |
| Amul Butter |
100 |
110 |
120 |
| Amul Cheese |
190 |
205 |
225 |
Tshering Tobgay is a Member of Parliament representing Sombaykha Constitutency in Haa. He is the Leader of the Opposition Party in the National Assembly of Bhutan.
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