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Upsurge of Tibetan democracy and Beijing propaganda

By Dhundup Gyalpo | Tibet.net

Dhundup Gyalpo Lobsang Wangyal

Just what does it takes to knock some sense into the brainwashed Chinese scribes? In her recent article, Pipe dream-see through ‘chief Kalon’s’ illusion, Mirenda Wu of China Tibet Online claimed that the new Kalon Tripa-elect Lobsang Sangay has been spending “bittersweet days” since his successful election. She thinks that “the bleak prospect of the ‘government-in-exile’ which has been rubbed through with the ‘big name’ of the Dalai Lama is a big headache for him.” Let’s examine the logic behind her amazing theory:

Unlike the Dalai Lama, Losang Sumgon [sic] has only a limited acquaintance with Buddhism, as a result, the mix of happiness and fear has been preying on him as time goes on, and has eventually evolved into serious delusion. How childish Losang Sumgon is by imaging that he could one day take the place of the Dalai Lama and become qualified to negotiate with the Chinese Central Government. To him, it is a “negotiation between two countries”.

But who said Lobsang Sangay is a spiritual leader? Last time I checked he was the new, democratically elected political leader of Tibetan people. And since His Holiness the Dalai Lama has already retired from his administrative and political responsibilities, the new Kalon Tripa will have to be spearheading the political leadership of the Central Tibetan Administration.

Now, let’s see through the whys: First of all, he was unaware of the fact that no one has ever recognized the legitimacy of the so-called “Tibetan government-in-exile”. Secondly, he turned a blind eye to the China’s consistent stand on Tibet issues, indulging in his pipe dream instead.

If no one has ever recognized the legitimacy of the “Tibetan government-in-exile” then why is she still referring to it as a “government”? We Tibetans have been using the title of Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. And as far as the legitimacy of the CTA is concerned, it is ultimately the Tibetan people who will decide whether it is their legitimate representative. Furthermore, if the recent political changes in exile are any indication, the Tibetan people have no illusions about the so-called China’s consistent stand on the Tibet issue either. The Tibetan people perfectly understand how serious China really is in its attempts to resolve the Tibet problem through dialogue, or otherwise known as, their “waiting game”.

I believed Losang Sumgong would one day come to realize that everything is merely an illusion-”flowers in a mirror”, as a Chinese saying goes. In fact, were he chew the cud, he would have found himself on the verge of extremity by discovering the fact — at least, the Dalai Lama’s ambivalence towards him. “I will always play as a spiritual leader in my lifetime, keeping out of politics like the deceased four generations of the Dalai Lamas,” said the Dalai Lama in June at an interview in Australia.

Whoa, wait a minute: His Holiness the Dalai Lama never said that he would retire from his role as a global spiritual figure. He has only retired from his administrative and political responsibilities as the head of the Central Tibetan Administration. His Holiness is and will always remain the spiritual leader of not only the Tibetan people, but also millions of people across the globe, including a significant number of Chinese people both in and outside China.

At the same time, Losang Gyaltsen, the Dalai Lama’s special envoy to Europe, put forward a contrary statement in his article: ” We publicly admit that it is His Holiness Dalai Lama who governs our government”, and “All Tibetan people will forever regard His Holiness as the real representative, and his administration center, the legal government.”

The fact that His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s representative in Europe is Kelsang Gyaltsen, not Losang Gyaltsen, effectively resolves the veracity and accuracy of what has been cited above as having said by the envoy. But what did the envoy actually say? Commenting on the mass anxiety and tension raised by His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s decision to devolve his administrative and political powers, Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen has in actuality said that “On arriving in exile in India in 1959 His Holiness the Dalai Lama stated that wherever he and his Kashag (Cabinet) are the people of Tibet will continue to consider them as their government and true representatives.”

He further said that “There is no serious dispute about the fact that the people of Tibet will continue to regard the Central Tibetan Administration as their true authority as long as the leadership of the Central Tibetan Administration has the blessing and full backing of His Holiness the Dalai Lama — irrespective of the recent changes. Only the people of Tibet can decide whom they consider and accept as their true representatives.”

It couldn’t be clearer that Losang Sumgong is merely a chessman of the Dalai Lama, who had better not think otherwise and behave properly. The scheme of the Dalai Lama is not so much what it is as how it looks like. While repeatedly putting forward that he would “resign from his political position,” his followers refused to change, so how could Losang Sumgong go away from depression and sadness?

Nearly 50,000 Tibetans living across over 30 countries had cast their ballot in the Kalon Tripa elections last March. Out of which, 55% were cast in favour of Lobsang Sangay. Thus, to say that Lobsang Sangay is “merely a chessman the Dalai Lama” would be a gross misrepresentation of facts. It is also extremely laughable that Merinda Wu would try to pit Lobsang Sangay against His Holiness the Dalai Lama in a manner that reeks of political one-upmanship. Despite over 50 years of China’s rule in Tibet, some Chinese still can’t handle the fact that the Tibetan people’s faith in and loyalty toward His Holiness is absolutely rock-solid and cannot be tinkered with cheap insinuations and innuendos.

The new Kalon Tripa had already said that there is no way he could replace His Holiness the Dalai Lama. “Instead, I am going to try to make his vision of a secular democratic society come true. I will do my best to act as the new image and the new political spokesman for the Tibetan movement,” he was quoted as saying in an interview published in Time. When asked about his priorities as the Kalon Tripa, Lobsang Sangay replied that his “two key points are freeing Tibet and helping His Holiness the Dalai Lama return to Lhasa, Tibet’s capital city.”

The direct election of Kalon Tripa and the recent devolution of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s political powers represent a culmination of democratic reforms consistently initiated by His Holiness for over half a century, at times even in the face of stiff opposition from the Tibetan people. But why is China going hammer and tong against these landmark democratic changes? According to envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen, “these initiatives by His Holiness represent a number of new challenges to the Chinese leadership. First of all they dismember the basic tenets of the Chinese justification propaganda narrative of ‘liberation’, as well as of their claim that the Dalai Lama is bent on the ‘restoration of feudal theocracy’ and they bring into question their calculations on the issue of reincarnation.”

“By devolving his political powers His Holiness is once again emphasising that his engagement for the cause of Tibet is not for the purpose of claiming certain personal rights or political positions, nor in order to stake claims for the Tibetan administration in exile. Once a satisfactory agreement with China is reached, the Central Tibetan Administration will be dissolved and it is the Tibetans in Tibet who should carry the main responsibility of administering Tibet.”

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