Where bogus and non-bogus worked for each other

Life is never free from repression. 

1-1-15, Amsterdam.

I had many bosses in my carrier varying from Hindu, Buddhist, Christians and Muslim faiths that enriched my life to see beyond the material repression. Of all those, more typical than double Dutch types, the last boss of my country of birth, Bhutan, comes often in my mind. He is formerly the director of Bhutan's Radio/TV, the BBS, now His Excellency the Ambassador for The Netherlands including Belgium and other European countries, Dasho Sonam Tshong.

Sonam Tshong with his wife
(foto courtesy Baden Newspaper, R.Eggstein)

He was neither compassionate Buddhist monk like my earlier boss, lama Tshewang Ngedup, the Principal of Dechenphodrang Monastic College in Thimphu, nor simultaneously accommodating and repelling mind-set blokes of Amsterdam. He was brave to be able to challenge against the Home Minister Dago Tshering's written order for my eviction and timid as well being afraid of my profiling my existence as a refugee in my own country. 

 'Maintain low or no profile and work hard, that you are a bastard, bogus, so then only I can help you out here'. He often said. At the end he flew to Fiji and I to The Netherlands for life, he could make it better being a Buddhist non-bogus son of the land while I, being a bogus there in Bhutan's definition based on my ethnic minority background Lhotshampa, had to ask the mother and go out to look who my father-land is.

My service under him as a journalist was rewarding though. Now Sonam Tshong, with his wife Nima Zam, posing to the camera of Rita Eggstein for Baden Newspaper- see foto, is also drawing closer to represent where I am.

As the director for the mouthpiece media of the Royal government of Bhutan, Sonam Tshong’s resolve to give continuity to my broadcasting duty revealed a considerable trust in me that I would always revere. Being belonged to ethnic minority Lhotshampa who are treated as ‘enemy/ngolop’ by the state continue functioning as a journalist for the state media was disputable, while others in such sensitive position were driven out regularly.  It is also his fair observation to my loyalty and the love of my profession varying from news reporting, editing,translating, broadcasting, radio program production and manage the Lhotshamp language department of the Bhutan Broadcasting Service with care and diligence for the Royal Government’s norms and values, that gave the impetus to love each other as master and servant, until my days were counted. He never spoke with me in a friendly way. He knew that my parents and entire family members were forcibly exiled, house demolished, citizenship as a Bhutanese unjustly stripped of and the royal order issued demanding to retrench from my job and force out of the country will come again and again, yet observing my conduct as a journalist unmoved by such human cataclysm created by his own kinsmen triggered his conscience to believe that Lhotshampas are as patriotic as the elite Drukpas or even more.

As an example in this regard, I am not just the one, but the entire ethnic Lhotshampas, 110,000 of whom were forcibly exiled and more than these still surviving in the country. If he did not have this confidence built up, Sonam Tshong would have closed the Lhotshamp (Nepali) language department of broadcasting radio news and programs as soon as such a demand was raised more than once in the National Assembly sessions. It is a blessing to the heritage of the Lhotshampas that they still have their language on air, which in all other faculties has been permanently shut down. This is his creditable contribution to the Lhotshamp community, albeit the nation.

All depends in the attitude of the managers on the top. The print media, Kuensel that published weekly newspaper in three languages since the time the country was very poor financially, stopped Lhotshampkha/Nepali edition abruptly at the time of transition to democracy. The reason cited is really ridiculous. Early 2002, the Kuensel’s managerial board decided to seek approval from the government to stop the Nepali edition of the newspaper, attributing falsely as ‘financially not viable’. The fact is that the managers never tried to promote its sale, nor brought it to the consumers. Even then the production cost was funded by the donors. Dissatisfied with this move though, one of the UNDP officers leaked this decision before the government declare its approval. I requested the Dutch government to prevent against the closer of this newspaper. The ministry indeed tried to intervene. The Bhutanese Embassy in Delhi then assured the Dutch Embassy there saying that; ‘Kuensel’s publisher has acquired enough funding for the publication of the Nepali edition of the newspaper..’. This was communicated to the Dutch ministry for foreign affairs- Asia and Oceania department on 2^nd May 2002. Strange!. No one protested against closing this Newspaper, not even by the dissidents political parties in exile.

A few years later the government closed the publication. It is the result of the sick mentality of Kuensel’s chief, Mr. Kinley Dorji. The social trend at that moment among the Drukpas was to show hate and disgust against every existence of Lhotshampas in order to get favour from the government. Racial hatred was openly expressed by the government machinery.

Responding to the deliberations by the national assembly members in one of its earlier sessions to close down broadcasting and printing Lhotshamkha media, the king, agreeing to it, however showed some benevolence and asked the trade and industry minister Lyonpo Om Pradhan to give his opinion. The only Lhotshampa minister Pradhan said; ‘I will speak for the good of the nation as a whole and not in favour or against any regional section. When the country is facing some internal problems, communication medium is very important because the public has to be informed of the engagements of the government. Use of the languages in the media therefore is very important. So this language in the media should not be stopped..’. The king nodded for the continuity, and it continued of course for some more years.  Sonam Tshong used to remind me of this assembly deliberations sarcastically hinting that my prospect will collapse at any moment.  

If there were many many Sonam Tshongs in the polity of Bhutan, who would take virtue of equality and justice of all irrespective of ethnic background, I think sometimes, the ethnic cleansing would not have been implemented by the regime, and we Lhotshampa Bhutanese need not face forcible exile to forced migration to the Western world. 

Nanda Gautam

platformbvcn@hotmail.com

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