Bhutan: Asking To Be Spoon-fed Again?

A well-respected and prominent Bhutanese journalist who has a large following in Bhutan recently posted on his Facebook wall : "Bhutan one day could be crippled by political corruption which is why the institution of Monarchy is so important for the long term stability and the continued existence of Bhutan."


In Bhutan - where the Kings have been loved/are loved, where the institution of monarchy is highly respected because of all five King's who have placed the interest and the welfare of the country and people before themselves for as long as a 100 years - a statement like this seems fair and taken at face value it is well meaning.


It, however, takes much more to see through such a statement; especially when it is coming from a journalist who has built his reputation with great investigative pieces that have exposed large scale corruption leading him to become extremely popular and held in high regard by the common people. 


While in all fairness the journalist has a right to make any ambiguous statements he wants, I sought more clarification because I really wanted to know if there was more to what he meant with this statement. Was he :  i) asking that Bhutan eventually return to being a monarchy ii) that the monarchy have more say in the present system or iii) that the institution of monarchy which is a constitutional monarch, continue to remain this way?


Again, let me reiterate, taken at face value it is a fair statement in that the Institution of Monarchy is important and does provide the checks and balances to a democratic system. However, we need to strike the right balance and Bhutan - as of now - does have that, and I wanted to be clear that that was what he was implying.

Bhutan: Please, A Little Sympathy and Understanding for Our Youth

Four students from Yangchenphug High School ranging from ages 17 to 21 were sentenced from 2 and a half to 5 years in prison on May 31 for allegedly attacking a school caretaker and trying to steal exam questions.

This is not the only incident in which we have seen young people in Bhutan involved in such violence and senseless acts of crime. Amongst the many other news reports on increasing youth violence and criminal activity, there was also this incident during which one young man was sadly, killed.

But what is missing from every newspaper that I have read is who these children are; where they come from; what kind of life/childhood they had; who their parents were/are (if there are any. And I don't mean naming names). As somebody who is interested in these social developments in my country, that was once rightly known for its peaceful way of life, and where violence and crime to this scale by young people was rare if not non-existent, I am curious to know more about them than just the crime itself.

From all that the newspapers cover day in and day out about how many young people are involved in beatings, robberies, violence, attacks, drug abuse and overdoses, we know NOTHING about who these kids are, where they come from, and what their childhoods were like. In essence we know next to NOTHING about them.  Believe me, if the journalists covering these stories were more interested in adopting this approach; taking an interest in the lives of these people who are involved in such crimes, we as a society would and could probably arrive at a better understanding of the cause and begin to view these problems in a different light. Of course like any society we will never be without them, but we will better equipped to deal with it in a way where we  address the causes and the problems with a better understanding of the issue thereby mitigating the negative repercussions that will arise from our handling of it otherwise.