“Development of Democracy in Bhutan – a Personal Perspective” I
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Translation Role of Bhutanese Media in Democracy: Case Study of the 2013 General Election
Translation Role of Bhutanese Media in Democracy: Case Study of the 2013 General Election Keywords: Bhutan, Monarchy, Democracy, Information Society, Media Hitoshi FUJIWARA, Waseda University. Abstract The Kingdom of Bhutan, located in the Himalayas, closed its doors to foreign countries until the 1960s. After it reopened, Bhutan was a modern state for half a century. In 2008, the King of Bhutan decided to relinquish his power and democratize the country. It was an unprecedented event in history. On the other hand, there was no mass media in this tiny country until the 1990s. In 1999, the King lifted the ban on information technology such as television and the Internet. It was a rare case where television broadcasting and Internet services commenced at the same time. This study illustrates the history of democracy and the media in Bhutan and examines the correlation between them. Before commencing with such an examination, the theoretical stream of the relationship between democracy and the media in modern history should be reviewed. The primary section of this paper comprises field research and analysis regarding the National Assembly election of Bhutan in 2013, as a case study of the practice of democracy. The research questions are as follows: ‘What was the role of Bhutanese media in this election?’; ‘What kind of information led Bhutanese voters to decision making?’ In conclusion, the theoretical model and the Bhutanese practical model of the relationship between the government, media, and citizens are compared. This comparison shows the progress of democracy and the role of the media in modern-day Bhutan. 16 Journal of Socio-Informatics Vol. -
The Next Generation Bhutan Foundation Annual Report 2016
The Next Generation Bhutan Foundation Annual Report 2016 Our nation’s vision can only be fulfilled if the scope of our dreams and aspirations are matched by the reality of our commitment to nurturing our future citizens. —His Majesty the King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck Table of Contents 4 A time to invest in the Future: Letters from our Co-Chairs and President 8 Youth citizen scientists research how environment responds to climate change 10 Tiger, tiger, burning bright! 13 How solving a community problem can protect snow leopards 15 Bhutan’s history, my history: A student explains the importance of cultural heritage 16 Teaching the next generation of health-care workers 18 Young medical professionals take health care to mountains, glaciers, and beyond 21 Specialized training means better services for children with disabilities 23 How simple agricultural innovation can provide hope 24 How the young and old bring a community back to life 26 Civil society organizations play important role in youth participation 29 Our Partners 30 Bhutan Foundation Grants Fiscal Year 2016 34 Financial Overview 36 Ways to Give 38 Our Team Table of Contents 4 A time to invest in the Future: Letters from our Co-Chairs and President 8 Youth citizen scientists research how environment responds to climate change 10 Tiger, tiger, burning bright! 13 How solving a community problem can protect snow leopards 15 Bhutan’s history, my history: A student explains the importance of cultural heritage 16 Teaching the next generation of health-care workers 18 Young medical professionals take health care to mountains, glaciers, and beyond 21 Specialized training means better services for children with disabilities 23 How simple agricultural innovation can provide hope 24 How the young and old bring a community back to life 26 Civil society organizations play important role in youth participation 29 Our Partners 30 Bhutan Foundation Grants Fiscal Year 2016 34 Financial Overview 36 Ways to Give 38 Our Team A Time to Invest . -
DRUK Journal – Democracy in Bhutan – Spring 2018
Spring 2018 Volume 4, Issue 1 The Druk Journal འབྲུག་୲་䝴ས་䝺བ། ©2018 by The Druk Journal All rights reserved The views expressed in this publication are those of the contributors and not necessarily of The Druk Journal. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without permission from the publisher. ISSN 2411-6726 This publication is supported by DIPD and Open Society Foundations A Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy Publication PO Box 1662, Thimphu, Bhutan www.bcmd.bt/www.drukjournal.bt Printed at Kuensel Corporation Ltd., Thimphu, Bhutan Dzongkha title calligraphy: Yonten Phuntsho Follow us on Facebook and Twitter འབྲུག་୲་དམངས་གཙོ荲་宱་譲མ། Democratisation of Bhutan www.drukjournal.bt The Druk Journal འབྲུག་୲་䝴ས་䝺བ། Contents Introduction 1 Editorial 2 DEMOCRACY IN BHUTAN Political Parties in the 21st Century Bjørn Førde 3 Democracy in Bhutan Dr Brian C. Shaw 14 DEMOCRACY DECENTRALISed Dhar from the Throne : an Honour and a Responsibility Kinley Dorji, Tashi Pem 24 The Micro Effect of Democratisation in Rural Bhutan Tshering Eudon 28 The Thromde Elections – an Inadequate Constituency? Ugyen Penjore 38 POLITicS OF DEMOCRACY Socio-economic Status and Electoral Participation in Bhutan Kinley 46 National Interest Versus Party Interest: What Former Chimis Think of Parliamentary Discussions Tashi Dema 59 The Bhutanese Politicians Kesang Dema 66 Youth and Politics in an Evolving Democracy Siok Sian -
Mi-Khung-Vol-4 Issue 2
མི་ཁུངས། Media and Democracy in Bhutan | www.bcmd.bt | Volume 4, Issue 2, August 2014 The Space for Democracy’s Growth Siok Sian Pek-Dorji, Director, BCMD Bhutan has taken on the task of build- ing a system of governance as a democratic constitutional monarchy. The evolving po- litical system is shaping a new space and culture that gives us the opportunity to lay the foundations so that citizens can find the means and the encouragement to shape our future. In the process, we are learning to un- derstand and assume new responsibilities as the citizens of a new democracy. In a country where the state has been a strong driver, perhaps the only driver, of change, we need to now consider how to BCMD’s ‘exploring democracy conversations’ provide public space for discussions get the state to provide more space for citi- zens to interact, associate and to share their reflected a sense of helplessness, and even free press has suffered a famine,” said No- views. We are talking of “public space”, a remorse, at how they had simply “reported” bel Laureate, Amartya Sen. Sen’s analysis is concept that has been described as a physical the events at the last elections without giv- that a free press helps a country to keep tabs or virtual space that facilitates the creation ing deeper thought to the political negativi- on what’s going on and to enable decision- of an enabling environment for democratic ties and mud-slinging that will have an im- makers to respond to felt needs. -
Silence in the Land of the Thunder Dragon
SILENCE IN THE LAND OF THE THUNDER DRAGON by Line Kikkenborg Christensen Thesis submitted May 2018 . Thesis submitted: 31st of May 2018 PhD supervisor: Associate Prof. Simon Turner, University of Copenhagen Assistant PhD supervisor: Associate Prof. Bjørn Møller, Aalborg University PhD committee: PhD Series: Faculty of Social Science, Aalborg University ISSN: ISBN: Published by: Aalborg University Press Skjernvej 4A, 2nd floor DK – 9220 Aalborg Ø Phone: +45 99407140 [email protected] forlag.aau.dk © Copyright: Line Kikkenborg Christensen Printed in Denmark by Rosendahls, 2015 Cover photos by Signe Ravn-Højgaard (Copyright). Front cover: The Thinker from Paro. Back cover: Goooooodmorning Trongsa. Normalsider: 78 sider (á 2.400 anslag inkl. mellemrum). Standard pages: 78 pages (2,400 characters incl. spaces). CV Line Kikkenborg Christensen holds a Master of Social Science in Development Studies and International Relations from Aalborg University and a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from Aarhus University. She worked as a research assistant at Global Refugee Studies at Aalborg University before becoming a PhD fellow in the University’s Department of Social Science. ENGLISH SUMMARY In Bhutan, old codes of secrecy are part of the political culture. This creates societal silences around politically sensitive issues such as ethnicity, citizenship and the domestic conflict of the past. This article-based thesis raises the overall question: what forms of societal silence exist in Bhutan and what consequences do they have for the political culture of the country? Four articles answer this overall question. The article ‘Freedom of Speech and Silent Youth Protest in Bhutan: ‘Plz Delete it from Your Inbox’’ contributes to our understanding of silence as sensitivity and how obliviousness, self-censorship and silent protests play out in the political culture of Bhutan. -
Bhutan Center for Media and Democracy with the United Nations Democracy Fund And
Bhutan Center for Media and Democracy with The United Nations Democracy Fund and United Nations Development Programme “Strengthening Media and Civic Education to Enhance Democracy in Bhutan” FINAL EXTERNAL PROJECT EVALUATION Conducted by Ms. Chimmi Dolkar for UNDP Bhutan, July 2013 Table of Contents Acronyms .................................................................................................................. 3 Glossary of Terms .................................................................................................... 3 Executive Summary ................................................................................................. 4 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Democratic transition in Bhutan .............................................................. 9 1.2 Importance of CSOs in the democratic transition ............................... 10 2. The Project and its Developmental Context .............................................. 11 2.1 Project Initiation ...................................................................................... 11 2.2 What the project sought to achieve ........................................................ 12 2.3 Purpose of the Evaluation Study ............................................................ 12 3. Evaluation Methodology................................................................................ 13 3.1 Project Monitoring & Evaluation .......................................................... -
Brief Remarks by Chief Election Commissioner, Election
Status on Democratization Process in the Kingdom of Bhutan: Briefing by The Chief Election Commissioner of Bhutan to The Eleventh Round Table Meeting, 2011 1. I would also like to join Dasho Karma and the preceding speakers in welcoming all dignitaries and development partners to our country. 2. I am grateful for this opportunity to brief the distinguished delegates on the status of democratization process in Bhutan as I see it. 3. In 2008 at the Tenth Round Table Meeting I had the opportunity to talk on parliamentary democracy and the first-ever parliamentary elections in Bhutan. Since then, a lot of progress has been made. With the conduct of the much-awaited local government elections in 2011, we can claim that Bhutan has now in place all the institutional arrangements necessary for democracy. Local Government Elections 4. Today I will first touch briefly on the local government elections of 2011, in order to save time, as a more detailed account of the same, is being distributed to read at your leisure. I will then focus more time on certain topical issues having direct bearing on the Status on Democratization Process in the Kingdom of Bhutan. 5. The first-ever local government elections under the Constitution were conducted more than 2 years after the conduct of parliamentary elections. 6. The local government elections were conducted against the backdrop of a long standing national debate on the legality and constitutionality of conducting the elections without 1 certain conditions provided for in the Constitution being fully met. After the inordinate delay, elections were conducted for all 205 Gewog Tshogdes, 4 Dzongkhag Thromde Tshogdes and 16 Thromde Tshogpas to Gewog Tshogdes Tshogpas by June 2011. -
The Politics of Gross National Happiness Image and Practice In
The Politics of Gross National Happiness Image and Practice in the Implementation of Bhutan’s Multidimensional Development Strategy by Kent Schroeder A Thesis presented to the University of Guelph In partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science and International Development Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Kent Schroeder, April, 2014 ABSTRACT THE POLITICS OF GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS Kent Schroeder Advisor: University of Guelph, 2014 Craig Johnson This study investigates the practices of governance in Bhutan and how they shape the agency of diverse actors involved in implementing development policies related to the country’s Gross National Happiness (GNH) strategy. It examines whether Bhutan’s GNH governance framework is able to shape the politics of policy implementation in a manner that generates multidimensional development outcomes that are consistent with GNH policy intentions. Using an analytical lens rooted in the state-in-society approach, the study comparatively analyzes four GNH policies – media, tourism, farm roads and human/wildlife conflict – and the GNH governance tools that seek to shape their implementation. Semi-structured individual and focus group interviews were undertaken with 157 state and non-state governance actors supplemented by site visits, participant observation and document analysis. The findings demonstrate several interconnected themes. First, GNH policy implementation is a complex process of conflictive, cooperative and isolating practices characterized by fractured expressions of power. Governance actors have different degrees of influence in different policy fields, geographic regions or constellations of governance actors. These fractured expressions of power are not shaped in any meaningful way by GNH governance instruments. Nor are they rooted in a common understanding of GNH itself. -
Nitasha Kaul [email protected]
Dr Nitasha Kaul [email protected] DR NITASHA KAUL CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF DEMOCRACY (CSD) UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER, LONDON, UK [email protected] MONARCHIES IN TRANSITION WORKSHOP CDDRL and FRDME STANFORD UNIVERSITY, USA 5-6 JUNE 2008 First draft. Please consult author before quoting from the memorandum. Comments welcome. 1 Dr Nitasha Kaul [email protected] BHUTAN GENERAL Bhutan (‘Druk Yul’, land of the thunder dragon) is a small landlocked country in the Eastern Himalayas, having a border with Tibet in China in the north and with India in the south. The Bhutanese are under a million people (main ethnic groups being the Ngalops of the West, the Sharchops of the East, and the Lhotsampas of the South) with a very distinctive sense of identity and culture that is reinforced by its history and underlined by its geography. Notable events in Bhutanese history include the spread of Buddhism following on from the visit of Guru Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) in the 8 th century CE/AD, and the unification of the country under a dual system of secular and religious administration (‘Choesi Nyiden’: with separation of religious and temporal rule under Je Khenpo and the Druk Desi respectively), instituted by the dynamic leader Zhabdrung Nagawang Namgyal who came from Tibet in the 17 th century. The effects of the European imperial-colonial endeavours that shook large parts of Asia in the subsequent centuries were tangential in Bhutan until the start of the twentieth century, a time when the Bhutanese monarchy was established with British support in 1907. -
Raven 01 06.Pdf
APRIL/2013 COVER STORY 01 10 MEET THE NEW POLITICAL 10 Cover Story 47 What’s Your PARTIES Quirk? 14 Article DJ Phuntsho Zen & The Art of Wangdi, popularly PHOTO ESSAY Weaving known as Dj Pee 24 Happenings 48 Know Your Food Belgium Observes first 18 THE PURSUIT OF International Day of 52 Restaurant HAPPINESS Happiness Review Zhay-Go Express 26 Feature LIVING WITH How important are the 54 Movie Review arts to our society? sonam & SONAM 30 Travel 56 Book Review 64 LIVING WITH HIV When in Delhi... Dancing to Death 34 Fiction A Favour 62 leisure INTERVIEW 36 Feature 68 Most Discussed Ablaze in The Land of Snow 70 Art Page 40 The Challenges 58 TÊTE Á TÊTE of Employment 72 Last Word With the Chief Election Commissioner, Today Dasho Kunzang Wangdi 42 Fiction We are all going E-reader Vs Book 45 Thumbs Up & Down 46 What’s New? Trends The Raven April, 2013 1 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Sir/Madam, Difficult but excellent work your team is doing I noticed a dip in the advertisements in your last for The Raven. issue. This has got me wondering if The Raven Trisha Nicholson. can continue sustaining itself each month and for how long. I look forward to the magazine I have always been an avid reader of your maga- because it brings out a lot of issues we otherwise zine ever since it hit the news-stands. Each issue tend to overlook. As I offer my good wishes to of The Raven has been thought provoking. But the team, I pray that you will not fold like the of all the stories that you have published, I really first monthly magazine that we had gotten so ac- enjoyed the one on special needs in your last customed to. -
Thrims Khang and the Setting for Justice: the Spatial Evolution of the Courts of Justice in Bhutan
Thrims khang and the Setting for Justice: The Spatial Evolution of the Courts of Justice in Bhutan Richard W Whitecross Introduction On 16 June 2014 a ceremony was held to inaugurate the new Supreme Court complex in Thimphu. The Supreme Court complex represents the most recent expression, if not the culmination, of a process of court design and judicial architecture in Bhutan. The evolution of the design and construction of Bhutanese courthouses1 is an important, if overlooked, feature of the modernisation of the Bhutanese legal system. Even more than the creation of new demarcated spaces for the operation, display and manifestation of judicial authority, the modern courthouses are part of a broader programme that underpins the ongoing process of democratisation. In this chapter, the role and function of the courthouse and courtroom in Bhutan is considered from a brief consideration of the dzongs established to secure the power of the Drukpa state, the changing engagement between ordinary people and the formal structures of the state and state law and the relationship between the Bhutanese state, its judiciary and foreign donors and advisors. The approach adopted in this chapter draws on studies on architecture, history and legal history and seeks to consider what new understandings can be gained in the development of court architecture as part of the promotion of the Rule of Law. This chapter intentionally draws on studies of court architecture from beyond Bhutan and the immediate region to illustrate how Bhutan has sought to accommodate, engage with and adapt to existing and emerging perspectives on court architecture and its presentation of judicial and state power. -
The State of the Tsa-Wa-Sum
(Check against delivery) THE STATE OF THE TSA-WA-SUM TSHERING TOBGAY PRIME MINISTER ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF BHUTAN FIFTH SESSION OF THE SECOND PARLIAMENT OF BHUTAN 16 JUNE 2015 THIMPHU, BHUTAN TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT ..............................................................................1 HIS MAJESTY THE KING ..........................................................................................4 COUNTRY .................................................................................................................10 • Security .................................................................................................................................10 • Foreign Relations ...............................................................................................................10 • Gross National Happiness ................................................................................................17 THE FIRST PILLAR OF GNH: SUSTAINABLE AND EQUITABLE SOCIO- ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ....................................................................18 • Social Development...............................................................................................18 • Health .......................................................................................................................18 • Education. ................................................................................................................20 • Poverty .....................................................................................................................24