The 8th Session of the Parliament concluded last Friday. It was easily our shortest session: we started on 4 January and ended, barely 12 working days later, on 20 January. But the 8th session was historic. Her Majesty the Queen graced both the opening and closing ceremonies; and the members of Parliament got to offer [...]
Is it legal? Is it logical? Is it needed? Three questions that we, members of Parliament, should ask ourselves today when we talk about state funding for political parties during the joint sitting. Is state funding for political parties legal? No. Article 15 Section 4(d) of the Constitution clearly forbids political parties from accepting “… [...]
The National Council and National Assembly will meet in a joint sitting tomorrow to discuss two important matters: the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill, and state funding for political parties. On the first matter, the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill, I’m delighted that the National Council has come through. Their recommendations aim to amend the draconian law [...]
The National Assembly has passed the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill. 39 MPs voted for the amendment. One MP voted against it. And I abstained. I believe that the proposed amendments do not adequately address the shortcomings of the Tobacco Control Act. That’s why I didn’t vote for the amendment. But I couldn’t vote against the [...]
In 2010, when the government announced that 1,000 acres of land had been allocated to build the Education City, I had worried that, “government policy is being formulated around a particular project.” Formulating government policy to benefit one particular project is never a good idea. There’s simply too much room for conflict of interest, favoritism [...]
The 8th Session of the Parliament began yesterday. The 8th session will be remembered as, during the inaugural ceremony, the Members of Parliament took the Oath of Allegiance to His Majesty the King. I’m posting a (unofficial) translation of the Oath of Allegiance as a reminder of our promise to serve our King, our country [...]
The eighth session of the Parliament will start on 4th January. Here are the bills the National Assembly will discuss: Tobacco Control ( Amendment) Bill 2011 Druk Gyalpo’s Relief Fund Bill 2011 Disaster Management Bill of Bhutan 2011 Education City Bill of Bhutan 2011 And here are the bills that the National Assembly and the [...]
The National Assembly’s live TV broadcasts are proving useful. One observer, for instance, a senior civil servant, followed the recent debate on the Anticorruption Bill, and noticed that I “didn’t utter a word” during the discussions. She spoke to Kuensel about it, which reported that: A senior civil servant said the opposition leader was very [...]
A joint sitting of the Parliament passed the Financial Services Bill. 66 members voted for the Bill. Only one member voted against it. That solitary member was me. I voted against the Bill because it is discriminatory – it favors foreign investors over our own people. Section 50 of the Bill specifies that a Bhutanese [...]
Yesterday, members of the National Assembly met to discuss the preliminary agenda for the Assembly’s next session. During the discussions, the members also considered if the entire proceedings of the National Assembly should once again be broadcast on live TV. After exchanging the same old arguments – from the need to promote transparency by those [...]
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.
Is ACC taking too long to start investigating the Gyelpozhing land case?
Total Voters: 352