PM, Bhutan

I like the way Mr. Hari and Mr. Parsu expressed their opinions on NRB, I even like the most, the way Mr. Dev and Gopal professed their opinions on the matter. Thank you all, but still I have some apprehension about the opinions of friends who think everybody need to come out of the camp in order to established the NRB. We can always consult the people wherever they are be it in the camp or United States.

Why should we wait for such a long time to start a good program. I don’t think NRB will solve the political agenda and establish vibrant democracy in Bhutan. I foresee it as the organization who works to meet the social, economical and spiritual needs of the Bhutanese people who are resettled all over the world.

Dr. DNS Dhakal ,pioneer in classifying this term and latter supported by Druk Nation Congress(DNC) led by Mr. Rongthong Kinley Dorji should come forward to express their opinions on this issues. (I invite both the leaders to clearly spell it functional aspects of NRB.) The political parties constituted in exile should always sphere head the political mission until and unless multiparty democracy is established in Bhutan.
I don’t think the NRB will in any way take the political standpoint to lock the horns with the RGOB. There are already acclaimed political Parties who want to fight until the last.
As Parsu said I don’t have any political mission or expectations from any of the said organizations/groups. I m a simple man just like to comments when I just feel it. I don’t want to influence anybody in this matter. And in any form I m not scared or interested in any of the portfolios in the said organizations. It is a strait comments from the observer point of view .Having said this Mr. Parsu I don’t have any intention to promote somebody or let down others. It is none of my business.
But I feel myself responsible to say” yes” to good things and” no” to oblivious act that I presumed.
Thanks
Lok

India has a Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs that looks after the interests of Non-Resident Indians. We do not yet have that kind of a connection to Bhutan. And I personally don’t think we will have, not anytime soon anyways. Forming an organization and being self-righteous about it is one thing. Selling the idea of that organization, gaining popularity and being successful requires that ‘others’ understand it correctly. Nuances matter. Implied meanings matter. Precedence matters. How our allies and our opponents may see it matter.

Calling ourselves NRBs and naming ourselves not only belittles but ignores our state of exile. As long as we are stateless, we should not really use descriptions that imply that we are accepted as belonging to somewhere. Our rush to start organizations, outdoing each other with gusto, rendered us incapable of putting a good enough fight for more than 20 years. We should debate more, and really try to do sincere research and accept what is right for us to do.

Mr. Subedi, there is no benefit in beating a dead horse, but I was involved in the formation of AMCC from the very beginning, even if at the periphery, and the naming exercise was more than a naming ceremny. It enabled us to explore the idea of what we wanted to do, how we were describing it, and what our fundamental approaches were. It was soul-searching, it was intense in the fact that we really debated more about what we were intending to do rather than the name itself. We can go ahead and name this new association whatever we want and it may not make a difference as to what it will exactly do. The difference lies in the soul-searching that is lost, in the introspection that is lost, in the sincere and intense debate about the intention/mission/vision/objectives of such an association that is lost, and possibly in the wrong messages the name sends to the world. There may not be much of a difference between Druk National Congress and Bhutan National Congress of yore, but there IS a fundamental difference in the message they each send to folks inside Bhutan. Need I say more?

Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in New York changed its name to Human Rights First a few years ago, after many years. International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet renamed itself as the Tibet Justice Center few years ago. The group I work for, Doctors of the World-USA renamed itself HealthRight International in February this year. None of these groups changed their activities significantly. Their missions remain the same. They needed a name that reflected correctly what they did and who they were. There is something to be said about a name and the description attached to a group, and it does deserve some debate and discussion.

I have seen our own Bhutanese folks folks meet one night, form an organization, name the office bearers, and register it the next day, only to go kaput in less than a month, without so much as sending out an email about the formation. I would suggest that we don’t do that.

NRB is a platform of all of us to take pride of. It is a platform that will be responsible to guide our society in overseas countries to become successful immigrants. The NRB should have its own website and publish all the achievements of our people and encourage them to do better. It should organize networking among our people so that they help each other to compete with the rest of the world.
Earlier, we have had been contended within the boundary of Bhutan. Now that is not the case. Nepal provided great deal of support to the Bhutnese refugees without that support we would have been begging in the street of Calcutta. NRB will have to establish itself in Kathmandu to work with the government of Nepal and should serve as informal ambassador of Bhutanese people.
We cannot delink with India because of our cultural or religious connection. There is a need to establish a mechanism for NRB to work with social or cultural organizations of India so that when our people visit India they face no undue difficulties. There is plenty fo work to be done outside the country before NRB establishes itself within Bhutan. We need have this organization sooner than later.
Elderly people resettled abroad would like to return to India or Nepal for cultural or religious reasons. Who will be talking on their behalf with the authorities in Nepal or India if they wish to stay longer? Normally, the visa expires within 90 days!
There are more urgent issues at hand, and NRB is needed to handle them. It would be difficult to handle these issues without the cooperation of the political parties in exile. The political parties in exile who have spent more than 20 years in exile have access to right places to help sort out these issues. In fact, the political parties will make NRB work easy if taken in right perspective.
NRB will have to be a organization like NRI and NRN. It must be able to establish working relationship with NRI and NRN. There is already a great deal of support comming from NRI and NRN to the resettled refugees. We need to strength it based on the organizational contact.
NRB will have to guide our people to succeed. Only Our success could buy our access to Bhutan and recognition by the parliament of Bhutan. We are not a useless people as perceived by Bhutan government. We are a hardworking people, and we will prove our worth.
To do that we have to organize ourself and work with in cooperation. So don’t think of excluding anybody. We have limited resources, we need to make optimim use of each and everyone if we aim to have a place wherever we are living or in the region.
Dev