Comments on: Excavating dirt

By: tshangla

tshangla — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:04:23 +0000

Dear OL,
I am sorry that i have to link the ‘Controlling Influence’ and ‘Excavating Dirt’ as one.
Since TR has explained his stand for helping BT in Bhutan Times Sunday issue (14.3.2010), you as OL ought to explain to the Nation that your wife owning Excavators does not in anyway affect the sacred duty as OL in the slightest thought of Conscience.
If it were for Amartya K. Sen and Jeane Dritz, its a question of who plucks the bigger fruit from the tree given a choice. A choice termed RATIONAL BEHAVIOR…
OL ought to explain the nation of your non-involvement with your wife’s business…..
Cheers Ol

By: Dozer

Dozer — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 06:59:53 +0000

OL,
If the excavators were bought after your election and appointment, then I suspect you have no moral authority to questiont the government.

By: friend

friend — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:37:03 +0000

Absolutley nothing wrong in anybody doing business, we are now a democracy and it is a free world. Only thing is how do you get a loan of 90 lacs when the two excavators cost 94 lacs, I thought the banks give only 50% or 40% of the cost of the items.

By: Tangba

Tangba — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:34:26 +0000

Mr Viewer, yes, you are getting the point. If anyone has any evidence of our Honorable OL involved in his wife’s buying of the excavators such as accompanying his wife to the Bank and do the talking with the manager “for her”, or he signed some papers “on behalf of her”, or he called someone to do something “for her”,or even has some indirect evidence which can implicate him doing something “for her”, then, sorry honorable OL I admire you but I love my country more, charges should be filed against OL at the Supreme Court and get his dirty ass kicked out of the National Assembly. That’s it. That’s how it should be. Nobody should be above the law, NO ONE.

By: Mr. Viewer

Mr. Viewer — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:45:09 +0000

Dear readers,
It is true with what Tangba said about the 1st phrase but if our honorable MP was at the BNB processing for loan I guess it is obvious that it is his and more over when is there doing his personal work where we could be of adhere for his due responsibilities for the public.
any way as we say seeing is believing, we look forward for a clear story

By: helaer

helaer — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:17:54 +0000

where is this site

By: ShantiVajra

ShantiVajra — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:45:18 +0000

By the way, how many wives/family members of MPs own such excavators?

The point I’m trying to make here is, if most of them owned such machinery, then there is something wrong. Why must most of them go for investing in excavators and not undertake other business? How did they come to consensus that they must invest in excavators? On what basis did the bank approve 90 lakhs of loan? How many of the wives/family members of MPs availed such loans? How can/did the banks approve loans amounting to such huge figures? Has it ‘not’ got to do with their husband/family member being the MP? If the fish is smelly, then there is something fishy…

By: mediawatch

mediawatch — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:42:34 +0000

There is a thin line between the issue of MP’s wives and the MP’s owning the excavators. The business venture could be a family business while it’s on the name of the spouse. And there is definitely a vested interest. MP’s would want his/her spouse do good business which means more money for the family and more money for the MP.
I don’t say MP’s spouses cannot do business. As individual citizens they have the right to do any kind of rightful business. However, what is possibly rotten about Punatshangchhu Project and MP’s excavators is that there is a probable chance of authority being misused. Perhaps intentionally or unintentionally.
The facts are:
1) The project is a massive undertaking and huge money is involved
2) There are MP’s wives’ excavators and other business competing for work
3) There must be a process of selection based on tender and quotation of price

The possibility here is that MP’s wives’ excavators may be given preference while normal businessmen may not. The subtle underbelly of the issue is not a blatant act of corruption but a craftier, ingeniously done business. And that the Journalist should dig out.

All of us know how this kind of arrangements can be easily made. Period.

Nepotism and favoritism are not new to the Bhutanese society. In a more simpler phrase, they call it “pull the strings”. And this can be easily done when you are in a position of power.

The bottom line is, while leaving the debate of “should MP’s wives own excavators” aside, the probability of corruption is there.

By: mediwatch

mediwatch — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:14:54 +0000

The OL wrote: “Passang Dorji didn’t contact me. Nor did he contact my wife. And this is what The Journalist had written:

“The opposition leader, Tshering Tobgay, also confessed to having two excavators in his wife’s name and that one was already deployed at the PHPA site. He could not be contacted for further details. He was in Haa and was unreachable through cell phone.”

Going by your own explanation Mr OL, I think there is not much wrong the Journalist has committed. Passang did not know that your wife owned two excavators before you told him. If Passang ‘confided’ in you, i guess it was a cordial way of yours in return to ‘confide’in him by giving the information about your wife’s excavators. And well, when you confide in somebody else, basically you are trusting somebody with something. If you did not want Passang to publish the the part of your story, at the first place you should not have given him the piece of news.

Passang had mentioned the bare facts that you gave him. And the Journalist also mentioned that you could not be contacted as you were out in Haa.

If you think the Journalist had tried to insinuate meanings other than what was intended, i think you did too much reading between the lines.

By: Tsheeri

Tsheeri — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:56:27 +0000

Tangba, forget much of today’s failed democracies, name even one democracy that has failed because of incorrect or incomplete reporting by journalists? One must not make up blatant lies and stories to suit ones end. You are giving journalists too much power with your assertion that many democracies have failed because of journalists.

Keep up the fantastic reporting Passang Dorji and reveal the truth, even though it may hurt people like Tangba and make them defensive and who probably is a MP or a relative of an MP and has a stake in the excavator business. We are behind you all the way Passang.