Give, and you Shall be Given Kick.

If you give anything free, you will be misrepresented and wronged someday. I have learned this, that free without heart kills. DPT is right in some ways. Go on banning Druk Prohibition Party (DPT), if you win the next time.

Sometimes, religious philosophies mislead you. Says the religions, “Give, and it shall be given to you (Luke 6: 38),” “Give to those needy poor (a common Buddhist saying),” and etc. The truth is everyone needs; the rich need to get richer and the poor battle to become richer.

Give. I bet these human species will not give you back. They have learned to take and forget the good deeds. I have never heard anyone who has got so much free just like that. This freeness creates misapprehension in relationships as well. Because of giving, I lost many people in my life. One was my relatives, whom he had smilingly borrowed Nu.10, 000, but later he stopped talking with my family. I have had many grave experiences in my life like this. There was a boy. This crook has a grouchy mouth and has a habit of showing very bad behaviors. I taught him to be free many times. I expected nothing, but I was afraid of kicks. The Bhutanese has a saying, if you raise a horse, you will only get kicks. And the next time he asked me again. I have a job too. He became so dependent and so lazy that he couldn’t even read a single line from a book. The more I tell him to learn and improve himself, the more dependent he becomes. He wouldn’t listen. That’s how he gets angry. Now, I am considered mean and selfish, and he gets me wrong, and I get myself into a most awkward predicament, and I was in a problem, not him, at times.

Last time, we had a guest lecture, and it was free. Nobody attended it because it was free. Free seems to be worthless sometimes. Sharchops word for free is ‘Tongpa,’ and it literally means nothing, an empty. You have got to think about this.

This freeness has become an impediment to a peaceful life. Everything in life doesn’t come free as we think. Everything is cost-effective. It's do and get, pay and receive, not all the time receiving. Learn to give back. The receiver becomes lazy and dependent. The Buddhist teaching says that to reach an enlightened state, and if you want to see the door of heaven, one mustn’t search for and receive free but submit to get freedom.

In giving anything free, I feel we must take into some considerations, which I have listed as per my own experience.

1.      Why do you give free?

2.      How to give it?

3.      What will be the consequences?

4.      Future position?

5.      Only give it twice or thrice, and you will know the person. If you do every time, you are a fool.

I support DPT for their forceful and valid way of banning many things to bring to the right track. Go on DPT. And PDP (People’s Dead Party) farcically gives deadly attacks and deadly promises to kill DPT’s banning. Here is a small, a favorite joke of mine, where Prime Minister Jigme Y. Thinley (JYT) proudly declared in one of the gatherings before the 2008 election in Nanong. He said that there are three ‘JIGMEs’ in Bhutan, in which the country may not function if two are missing; the BIG Jigme (the king), the Small Jigme (JYT), and the Smaller Jigme (JD) who is not in the picture. The survival of smaller Jigme makes me laugh. The smaller Jigme survives his life beating his goat skin-coated Dramyang (Bhutanese guitar).

This autocratic statement by JYT to the Bhutanese media was really striking and strong.  (Click for more info. The Bhutanese). He warned media house owners and also accused the media of creating disharmony and spoiling the country’s image. The DPT President said, “I will not leave you.” I am with him. The media will become strong. Facts and concrete prove will be reported. The freedom of the press doesn’t mean that they have the freedom to give false information or news to the public. In a free society and especially democratic rule, we should not take offense at our beliefs or wrongs being criticized. That is the hallmark of a healthy vibrant democracy. Though, censorship and banning is the character of totalitarianism. Yet some standards of totalitarianism regime must not be allowed to drop, if so, that would bring hatred and stifle the very liberal ideas of a vibrant democracy. The cost of freedom comes with the cost of sacrificing another.

Some media must be banned to have a humane lifestyle in society. Some harmful social media like Facebook, Omega, etc, kill times, distract life, erode culture, and direct a false life. China had banned many such media to bring goodness to the country. We too can live without some of these harmful channels. If we can ban, we are moving forward, not backward; to a civilized;  culturally, and socially attached life. Banning Tobacco has a significant benefit, and it was the right move. Ban. Ban freedom to understand what freedom is, and to value freedom. Ban.

The Worst Win

The second term MP election is about a few weeks from now,and people, by now, must have matured the politicking canniness, shrewdness, and tactfulness affairs. The voters should have some qualifications of the right person already in their minds. People had very good choices. They had four parties in their hand. And hope they selected the best two in their preliminary round.

With powerful and influential candidates, people’s minds were loaded and taken over by DPT in 2008. That was good. People’s choice was right. DPT ruled the country with much peace and happiness. They brought development to many rural sides.  On the other hand, DPT taught Bhutanese people the value of money, and this is good. Bhutanese by nature were spendthrift and didn’t care much about balance and saving. The financial crunch did. It was a blessing in disguise.

Now the two political parties’ promises look lofty and wonky sometimes. If their manifestos were to come true, every Bhutanese needn’t work. We will be spoon-fed. Government budget to each gewog, a health centre in every chiwog, community-based services, blacktopping farm roads, 100% job, etc and etc.   

But, if lessons were to be learned, there were scores of very bad examples of the elected members who have joined the politics for the love of power and money. A few of them turned out to be worse than statues, stealthily, filling up their stomachs. Some have even bought three or more bulldozers and excavators and are running a business in projects like Punatsagchu. A few of the elected members had used lip services and faked promises to garner votes. People knew. These types of malfunction especially by the ruling party will downsize our small nation.

Bhutan didn’t know much of these would happen in the 1^st election. Now people know; there are tensions lurking between the horse and the bird; there are blame games being played; there are differences, and trying to come to a common conclusion. There are talks in every small gathering and sorts like that about choosing a leader of good heart, responsible, capable, understanding, etc. The group, who needs to remain apolitical, civil servants, are by name only, they are the most politically active in the faction of the society. They influenced the voters the most. The majority of voters think that educated people's choice would be right, not going by grassroots need. And similar is the case with the religious body. In the name of religion, religious anti-political people become very much politic. For example, to conjecture to the people that if anyone votes for Mr.X, he/she will bring good luck, good power, good things, etc to the place.

Politicization is important. Therefore,voters shouldn’t be moved by any shaft of hope. People must, by now, also know that the individual mustn’t decide the candidate, but, rather it is the responsibility of people coming together and deciding on their representative. Democracy is sometimes described as communities of people coming together, and it imagines many voices pouring into a unified whole. Democracy should permeate the world beyond politics, making itself felt in the ways people think, speak, work, fight, and even make forte.  No nepotism, no relations, no bribery, nothing, but electing through the collective decision is the true principle in democracy. Because it’s for the greater goodness and well-being of the whole, not an individual.

Time to Wag Tails Politicians

Now the 2^nd term election is about a few months, people must have some qualifications of a right person in their minds. That’s good.  Bhutan was in the middle of an enigma in 2008. There were instances of choosing the wrong person. Or, was it because of the less choice?

I write this because I am reminded of a bad example of how our government can be irresponsible in choosing the right ministers for the Ministry. I am lifting an old example from The Journalist newspaper (13/6/10, on page 5),the confession made by Health Minister, Zanglay Drukpa.  He said to the paper, “I came with an open mind since I knew nothing about health.” I laughed at his frankness but at the same time felt ashamed.  From there on, I knew there was something artificial in the function of our system. There are many ‘hotch-potch Dashos’ like him. It is like the right person for the wrong job. There are scores of others in the present batch of the elected members who have joined the politics for the love of power and money. Some of them turned out to be worse than statues, stealthily, filling up their stomach. As they don’t speak a word in the National Assembly.  Some came out to be surviving with lip services and faked promises.

Bhutan didn’t know much of these would happen in the 1^st election. Now people know; there are talks in every small gathering and sorts like that about choosing a leader of good heart, responsible, capable, understanding, etc. Politicization is important, therefore. People must by now also know that the individual mustn’t decide the candidate, but, rather it is the responsibility of people coming together and deciding on their representative. Democracy is sometimes described as communities of people coming together, and it images many voices pouring into a unified whole. Democracy should permeate the world beyond politics, making itself felt in the ways people think, speak, work, fight, and even make forte.  No nepotism, no relations, no bribery, nothing, but selecting through collective decision would have a good leader. Because it’s for the greater goodness and well-being of the whole, not an individual.

Coming back to the right person, right job; the subject matter is very important; every job demands specialization in a specific subject. One cannot be a jack of all trades. An untrained person suddenly cannot declare as a carpenter. An educationist cannot become a doctor.  An accountant takes his/her profession because his/her profession is professional. But when it comes to society like ours, everyone wags tail in front of money( and barks back nonsensically to their own people) and the post, not necessarily thinking about their area and the outcome, which as a result becomes our government buoyant and susceptible, where everyone makes the bulb with no knowledge of it to light but nobody succeed.  Because of this, we had so many problems in Health Ministry, I think. This type of malfunction which pulls our nation shouldn’t be repeated as the society depends upon them. And in turn, they depend on society.