constitution – Tshering Tobgay

Acting late

August 1, 2012Democracy35 Comments

Four years ago the prime minister pledged to enact a right to information law. The prime minister didn't give a definite time frame, but he promised that it would be done "soon". It's already been four years since the government made that promise. And we are still waiting for them to keep their word. Now, however, finally, there seems to be some movement: the Department of Media and Information has conducted an RTI awareness workshop, and the Ministry of Information and Communication has distributed a draft RTI Bill for public comments and feedback. But all this is for nothing.…

Ambassador for life?

July 12, 2012Legislature126 Comments

Should Parliament make the Prime Minister GNH Ambassador for Life? The proposal to make the Prime Minister GNH Ambassador for Life was tabled by the Speaker. But it was not discussed in the National Assembly. Yet, the proposal was forwarded to the National Council. And it was almost included in the Assembly’s resolutions as a proposal that had, more or less, been accepted. The Speaker also made indirect reference to the proposal in his address during this session’s closing ceremony. So should Parliament make the Prime Minister GNH Ambassador for Life? No. First, the Parliament did not follow due…

Rule of the mob

July 8, 2012Democracy67 Comments

Last week, when the government introduced the Land bill 2012, I had exhorted the MPs to reject the motion to discuss the Bill. The prime minister reacted strongly to my statement, disagreeing with all my arguments. I had wanted to respond to the prime minister's strident remarks, but had not been given leave to do so. It would have been good if we had had the opportunity to discuss my arguments and the PM's counterarguments in a bit more detail. But we didn't. There were several issues that I thought merited the Assembly's, and the nation's, attention through discussion,…

More essential stuff

April 17, 2012Economy, Legislature21 Comments

In my previous post I had proposed that, “the government is getting ready to sell even more foreign currency from our reserves.” What if I am correct? What if the government is, indeed, preparing to sell foreign currency to alleviate the rupee crunch? If so, what is the procedure? Last year, four months ago, the government sold US$ 200 million of our foreign currency reserves. At that time, US$ 200 million worked out to Nu 10.3 billion, which in turn worked out to 14% of our GDP. That was, and is, a lot of money. But no one questioned…

Essential stuff

April 13, 2012Government27 Comments

Article 14 Section 7 of the Constitution requires that, “A minimum foreign currency reserve that is adequate to meet the cost of not less than one year’s essential import must be maintained.” But what constitutes essential import? Salt, shoes, sicnidizole – surely they are “essential”. But what about construction material, like, say, CGI? And raw material for industries? Are they essential? And how about arms and ammunition? I think they are essential, very essential. It’s important to have a proper definition of what, in our context, constitutes essential import. It’s important because that definition will determine the “minimum foreign…

Right to information

March 28, 2012Democracy, Media36 Comments

Article 7 of the Constitution is about our fundamental rights. Section 3 of that important article declares that "A Bhutanese citizen shall have the right to information". By this provision, any citizen has the right - a fundamental right - to ask the government for any information. And the government must provide that information, whatever it may be. That is because the fundamental right of the citizen to government information, as granted by the Constitution, is unqualified. And it is unconditional. "A Bhutanese citizen shall have the right to information" - that's all the Constitution says, simple and straightforward.…

Extremely determined disrespectful opinion

March 5, 2012Government12 Comments

The government has decided to discontinue the constituency development grant. That is good news. The government had bulldozed the CDG through the Parliament, without a full debate, without a vote, and without any support of the National Council and the opposition party. The ECB had objected saying that the CDG undermines free and fair elections. And the media has repeatedly questioned the legality of the grant. So the government’s decision to discontinue the controversial grant comes as really good news. But there's bad news too. The prime minister has not accepted that the CDG was a mistake. He has…

Oath of Allegiance

January 5, 2012Legislature1 Comment

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 and our people to the best of our abilities. We bow at the feet of the supreme golden throne of the Druk Gyalpo Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the upholder of the Chhoe-sid-nyi of Bhutan. We, the Members of the First Parliament of Bhutan, hereby…

Constitution matters

November 28, 2011Government16 Comments

“Constitution doesn’t imprison and shackle”. With these five words the prime minister argued that the government could raise tshogpa salaries without consulting the Pay Commission.
Indeed, the Constitution does not imprison; the Constitution does not shackle. That is not the purpose of the Constitution. And we know that.
We also know that the purpose of the Constitution is to provide a set of rules outlining how our kingdom must be governed. These rules define the responsibilities of the various institutions of the State – the monarchy, the executive, the legislature, the judiciary, constitutional bodies, local governments, and others – and authorize powers to these institutions so that they can fulfill their respective responsibilities.
But none of the institutions, not a single one of them, enjoys unlimited powers. That’s why the rules also specify checks and balances limiting the scope of their authority. These checks and balances are intended to minimize the risks of mistakes from being made when governing our kingdom. They are also intended to prevent dangerous concentrations of power and authority.
So yes, the Constitution does not “imprison and shackle” the prime minister and the government. But whether they like it or not, the Constitution does subject them to various checks and balances to ensure that our kingdom is governed well.
But it wasn’t just those five words. A story by Bhutan Observer shows that a lot more words were used, and excuses made, to argue that the Pay Commission did not have to be involved to raise salaries. It’s worth reading the entire article again. So I’m reproducing it here, along with my comments which I’ve inserted, in parenthesis and in red, inside the article.

Quiet!

March 17, 2011Legislature30 Comments

Several readers have repeatedly asked me why the opposition party had not taken the ECB to court for disregarding the Constitution during the recent thromde elections. “Guardian”, for example, has argued that since the opposition had taken the government to court for violating the Constitution, it should, by the same measure, also take the ECB to court for allowing candidates to stand for election even though they had not been registered in their respective constituencies for the minimum one-year period. And Since I hadn’t responded to these concerns, “Guardian” challenged, on several posts, that “by going against the government…

Saving face

March 9, 2011Government35 Comments

The Supreme Court has ruled that the government violated the Constitution by raising taxes without seeking the Parliament’s approval. This is a landmark verdict. But the verdict should not be seen as a loss for the government. Nor should it be seen as a win for the opposition party. In fact it should be seen, and celebrated, for what it really is: a resounding victory for the democratic process. Even so, the government made a mistake – a serious mistake – by imposing taxes unilaterally and, in so doing, violated the Constitution. For that, the government must accept moral…

Vast paintings

March 2, 2011Miscellaneous2 Comments

A painting of the Punakha Dzong has graced the banner of this website for about two weeks. The beautiful painting was created by Rajesh Gurung. I saw Rajesh Gurung’s Punakha Dzong at the VAST gallery. It’s still there if you’d like to see it. And so are many other paintings, all by Bhutanese artists. I’ve uploaded photographs of a few of the paintings to tempt you to visit the VAST gallery. Enjoy …

Great expectations

January 20, 2011Towns

Tomorrow, registered voters in Thimphu, Gelephu, Samdrupjongkhar and Phuentsholing will elect their respective thromde tshogdes or city councils. As we discussed in my last post, the Thimphu city council – the new mayor in particular – will have to sort out the capital city’s water problems. But the mayor and his council will also have to attend to many other competing priorities. Sewerage, solid waste, public transport, roads, traffic, housing, schools, fire, parks and income generation are some of the issues that should demand the city council’s immediate attention. The thrompons of Gelephu, Samdrupjongkhar and Phuentsholing will find that…

2 Letters

January 3, 2011Legislature, Media9 Comments

I sent two letters today. The first letter was to the Chief Election Commissioner informing him that the ECB’s recent decision to revise the criteria for candidates to local governments may violate provisions of the Constitution, Election Act and the Local Government Act. The second letter was to the Director of BICMA complaining that The Journalist had quoted me in their article when they hadn’t even interviewed me. And that, in that article, they had inaccurately claimed that I had supported the ECB’s decision.

Fundamental question

December 22, 2010Government

Last week, Kuensel reported that the prime minister had announced that: ... import of private light vehicles will be temporarily stopped until the Supreme Court comes out with a verdict on the government's appeal. My last entry, on interpreting the Constitution, made me wonder if the PM’s announcement to ban the import of private light vehicles is – you guessed it – constitutional or not. Why? Because Article 7 Section 10 of the Constitution guarantees that: A Bhutanese citizen shall have the right to practice any lawful trade, profession or vocation. In other words, as long as your business…