Message on Happiness Day

March 20, 2013Posted inGovernment, Monarchy7 Comments
Today is a big day for Bhutan … and the world. Today, people all over the world will come together to observe the first International Day of Happiness. My family and I join the people of Bhutan in celebrating the first ever global happiness day. I thank the prime minister and the government for their hard work and perseverance in advocating Gross National Happiness at home and abroad. I congratulate them for for successfully promoting happiness in the international agenda, and for pushing the United Nations to adopt the resolution on happiness. Their efforts have led to the adoption…

Disloyal? Unpatriotic?

November 18, 2012Posted inDemocracy26 Comments
The opposition party's statement on the government's failed UNSC bid drew a strong response from the prime minster. Instead of clarifying the government's position, or responding to the our request for a full disclosure of the expenses incurred, he called my remarks "disloyal and unpatriotic". We will not engage in personal attacks. But we cannot ignore the PM's malicious assault which was obviously intended to malign the opposition members and undermine institution of the opposition party. So we felt compelled to issue the following  statement to the press last Friday:   The Opposition Party deeply regrets the unwarranted remarks…

Clear to run(?)

September 13, 2012Posted inDemocracy, Political parties82 Comments
About 6 weeks ago, at a press conference, the prime minister claimed that the Election Commission of Bhutan should disqualify the opposition party from taking part in the next round of elections for failing to clear its debts by the 30 June deadline. Remarkably, the prime minister also suggested that the two members in opposition should not be permitted to run in the next elections … not as members of their current party, not by starting a new party, not by joining another party. As it turned out, the election commission, having reviewed the status of the two existing…

Hejo vs Denchi

August 16, 2012Posted inGovernment154 Comments
About two years ago, I'd written about a group of residents in Hejo, Thimphu. Their land had been taken over by the government. But they had not accepted the government's compensation for their land. They claimed that the government's compensation rate - set by the Property Assessment and Valuation Agency, PAVA - was too low. They protested that their land, located adjacent to Thimphu's dzong and close to the capital's business center, fetched much higher prices in the market. And they pointed out that even PAVA's rates were considerably higher for land that is located further away from the…

Expensive talk

July 30, 2012Posted inEconomy34 Comments
The Ministry of Agriculture says that the prices of local vegetables is increasing. They are right. In fact, the prices of local vegetables have not just increased; they have skyrocketed. Between this time last year and now, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, the price for local cabbages increased from Nu 37.43 to Nu 48.75. That's an increase of 30.25%. The price of local chillies increased from Nu 270 to Nu 300 or by 11.11%. And the prices of potatoes and beans have jumped by a massive 47.22% and  39.40% respectively. So what's driving the prices of local vegetables? …

Ambassador for life?

July 12, 2012Posted inLegislature126 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…

Ordering people

June 13, 2012Posted inGovernment25 Comments
At the end of the second Pedestrian Day, I reproduce below a comment posted by “Dala”: Can anyone provide a copy of the executive order circulated by PM.I want to see the content of the order because the Police and the RSTA people are not allowing vehicle movement even in remote places forget about towns and cities. I was on the way to Dagana from Dagapela and they stopped my car and said that I cannot go to Dagana. When I asked why I can’t go, their reply was that there is executive order from PM to restrict all…

What we really need

June 2, 2012Posted inGovernment11 Comments
Our country is going through an unprecedented economic crisis. So why is the government establishing a “Secretariat for the new economy”for the United Nations? Instead, what we need is an office – a war room – dedicated to planning and directing the recovery of our economy. And why is the prime minister preparing to “make a statement promoting the vision for a new economic system” for the world? What we really need – desperately – is a head of government who is genuinely and fully committed to understanding, planning and directing the recovery of our economy.

But nat!

May 15, 2012Posted inGovernment40 Comments
At school, we, like all children, all over the world, loved playing pranks. Our arsenal boasted an impressive range of innovative pranks. But the simplest and the most popular of them by far was the very versatile but nat! prank. This is how it was administered: We’d go up to a fellow student and excitedly declare, “I found your wallet!” And then, very slowly, add, “But nat!” Or we’d tell him, “Our math test is postponed … but nat!” Or, “She says she likes you too … but nat!” The but nat! was meant to negate whatever news had…

Rupee statement

April 2, 2012Posted inEconomy30 Comments
Some friends have suggested that I should use my YouTube account to incorporate a bit more audio-visual in this blog. I agree. Here is the statement I recently made on BBS TV urging the government to inform the people about the rupee situation. I'm happy to report that, according to BBS, the acting prime minister and finance minister will appear on TV tomorrow, Tuesday, 3 April. I've posted the English transcript of my statement after the video.   Our economy is in a crisis. Just last year, the government was forced to sell US$ 200 million from the country’s…

On ECB’s side

March 20, 2012Posted inDemocracy14 Comments
Elections are the single most important part of a democracy. They allow people to participate in the democratic process by directly choosing who they want as their representatives in the parliament. And they provide political legitimacy to elected representatives and to democratic governments. That's why it's important to allow as many people as possible to take part in elections. So, naturally, I'm happy to hear that the Election Commission has decided to allow Bhutanese citizens living in America to use postal ballots in the next elections. They were not allowed to do so in the past, and, as such,…

Flirting with danger

March 6, 2012Posted inGovernment59 Comments
Last month, on 17 February, at about 8:45 PM, a policeman was shot and severely injured when gunmen opened fire on the Rinchending check post. Moments later a bomb blast ripped through the check post. The United Revolutionary Front of Bhutan, an armed outfit based in Nepal, has claimed responsibility for the attack. URFB is just one of the many Nepal-based organizations committed to spreading terror in Bhutan. Last week, on 1 March, less than two weeks after the attack on the Rinchending check post, the prime minister announced that he is willing to repatriate bona fide Bhutanese living…

Rupee questions

January 16, 2012Posted inEconomy11 Comments
Last Tuesday, during question hour, I asked the Prime Minister to explain the rupee crisis: what has caused it, what the government is doing about it, and when we can expect it to be over. I directed the question to the PM as I had assumed that our head of government would be the most concerned and, as such, would be happy to reassure the nation that he has contained the crisis, and that the rupee deficit will not spiral out of control. Too bad then, that the PM made the Finance Minister answer on his behalf. Too bad…

Home is where the hurt is

November 9, 2011Posted inGovernment59 Comments
The prime minister was in New York when the September 18 earthquake struck. He’d left Bhutan on 12th September to address the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly on 23rd September. Most heads of government would have rushed home if, during their absence, an earthquake that hit their country caused widespread destruction. Our PM did not. He chose to stay on in New York. And from there, instead of returning home, he chose to go straight to Tokyo to address the 24th Congress of Architecture on 28th September, and then to Kolkata to meet the chief minister and…

DHI and us

November 7, 2011Posted inGovernment27 Comments
Kuensel quietly carried a corrigendum today clarifying that DHI had not given iPhones to the PM and the cabinet. And in it, the editor helpfully points out that: “Officials from the PM’s office, meanwhile, said the reference was to an occasion that happened in 2009.” The corrigendum is helpful. But it is quiet. Too quiet. Kuensel must now ask the PM – not “officials from the PM’s office”, but the PM himself – why he did not clarify that he was talking about something that took place almost three years ago, and why he misinformed the public about DHI…