Minister of Department of Home of Central Tibetan Administration, Gyari Dolma, answers questions during a session of the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile in Dharamshala, India, on 20 September 2013. MP Karma Chophel is seated front row second right. Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal
By Lobsang Wangyal
MCLEOD GANJ, India, 21 September 2013
Following criticism within the Tibetan community over a statement by a Parliament member, the member decided to withdraw all his statements regarding the matter. His controversial statement had expressed the opinion that the Dalai Lama might be saying he is “seeking autonomy”, but has “independence” at heart.
Member of the Tibetan Parliament Karma Chophel has submitted a letter to the Dalai Lama seeking forgiveness for his statement.
On Thursday during the current sixth session Chophel stated that he had written the letter of apology to the Dalai Lama, and pledged not to speak on this issue in the future.
The whole of the afternoon session of the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile on Thursday was occupied with a resolution motion by the Standing Committee of the Parliament in the House. The motion concerned views that the Dalai Lama had expressed during an informal meeting to Tibetan civil servants on 2 September.
The Dalai Lama had met all staff members above the rank of department officers at his residence, after the Kashag (Tibetan Cabinet) had requested the Dalai Lama for an audience for the purpose of encouraging the civil servants in their daily works.
The heads of the democratic institutions were also present, along with the heads of the autonomous bodies of the administration, general and civil service Commission.
Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile Penpa Tsering was among those attending the meeting and talked to Tibet Sun in an exclusive interview on Friday. He said that during the informal meeting the Dalai Lama expressed his views on various issues, particularly on the behaviour of civil servants in dealing with peoples’ grievances.
During the meeting the Dalai Lama elaborated on his three main responsibilities, particularly after the devolution of his political responsibilities. And he sought views from the civil servants as to the present condition and working of the Central Tibetan Administration.
In the second half of the meeting, the Dalai Lama elaborated on the reasons he chose to adopt the Middle-way policy — to seek autonomy for Tibet rather than independence.
“In the course of explanation, there were three references made regarding three people — Dhondup Lhadar (former Tibetan Youth Congress Vice President), Karma Gyatso (staff at the Radio Free Asia), and Jamyang Norbu (writer), who had expressed their dissatisfaction with His Holiness’ decision to change the name of the “Tibetan Government-in-exile” to “Central Tibetan Administration”, said Speaker Penpa Tsering.
“They felt that His Holiness, by changing the name, was responsible for not having a government in exile.”
“In those matters His Holiness expressed his anger at the low confidence that these people have shown towards the responsibilities that His Holiness has undertaken since the age of 16, in the last 60 years.”
Tsering said that under very trying and difficult circumstances, the Dalai Lama had brought the Tibetan Administration to its present position, whereby the Tibetan issue remained alive in the international community.
“So on those matters civil servants also were outwardly grieved, and many of these civil servants were shedding tears at that meeting. And that’s the issue that eventually spread in the Tibetan community.”
Tsering stressed that this was the first time that the Dalai Lama expressed the sentiments contained in his words: “There is this low confidence in me. Earlier I used to think that because the Tibetans inside Tibet has a lot of faith in me, I thought that I should remain alive till the age of 113. But since such things are occurring, I think it might be now appropriate for me to live up to the age of 108.”
“This was a matter of grave concern for all the Tibetans inside and outside Tibet. That’s why the Parliament made this resolution motion. Thirty members took part in this deliberation. Each and every one expressed their faith in His Holiness, and resolved to request His Holiness to commit himself to live up to the age of 113 and beyond. That was the first point of the resolution,” the Speaker said.
The second point of the resolution referred to the issue of how the Administration should handle such internal squabbles. Both the Cabinet and the Parliament, which represent the Central Tibetan Administration, pledged to confront such issues without any hesitation in future.
The third point of the resolution reflected on the Dalai Lama’s contribution to the world and to the Tibetan public. The Tibetan administration pledged to abide by the democratic polity that the Dalai Lama had endowed on the Tibetans. “We fully commit ourselves to work with much more effort than before to fulfill the aspirations of the Tibetan people in line with the democratic polity that we have adopted,” Tsering said.
This resolution is connected with a statement by one member of Parliament, in his private members’ clarification in the last House in March 2013. The member, Mr Karma Chophel, whose name had also been referred to by the Dalai Lama on 2 September, said that in terms of his interpretation of the Dalai Lama’s thinking — that “the Dalai Lama may be seeking autonomy, but he has independence in his heart.”
On those matters Mr Karma Chophel had also issued two press statements over the last few weeks. Those matters were also reflected upon by the members of the Parliament. The members were not happy with some of the references which Karma Choephel had made, saying that he had never ever mentioned such a thing in Parliament. And that if he had said such a thing at that time, none of the members had responded or spoken about it, the Cabinet had not spoken about it, nor had the public written about this matter to the Parliament or the Cabinet.
“Those were in a way completely untrue. We have made very clear opposition. And during the discussion here also the Cabinet said that what Mr Karma Chophel referred to as his issue being completely separate from this resolution motion is not acceptable to the Kashag. And many members also expressed their views on this. But Mr Karma Chophel also observed a certain level of dignified silence, and expressed his regret at having hurt His Holiness’ feelings, regarding what he had said in the House. And that he had written a personal letter addressed to His Holiness seeking repentance.”
Penpa Tsering said that the speaker decided, seeking the approval of the House, that Karma Chophel’s statements be receded. Of course the statements he had made in the previous House could not be removed from the records, since they had already been published, but through the recedement, the statements would not be referred to in future.
“Of course in any society, problems great or small emerge, and there has to be an end to the problem as well. People make mistakes, and he recognised his mistake, and he sought forgiveness and repentance. Therefore the Parliament took this decision, and the session went on till 7:30pm [on Thursday],” continued Speaker Tsering.
On asked how the Dalai Lama made reference to Karma Chophel during the informal meeting on 2 September, Penpa Tsering said, “When His Holiness spoke about why he decided to adopt the Middle-way approach, he referred to a parliamentary proceeding whereby Karma Chophel had made a personal clarification in the house in March.”
Tsering said that the Dalai Lama also made a reference to a question by a young Tibetan in Madison, US, on 16 May. The Dalai Lama had said “He’s (Karma Chophel) making me a liar, that’s not the truth. I believe in the Middle-way approach and I speak the same. There are no two thinkings about this.”
And the second instance, again, while speaking about reasons for adopting the Middle-way approach, “His Holiness said did he (Karma Chophel) not ask for review of the Middle-way approach in the past?”
In the third instance, the Dalai Lama had said, “Karma Chophel said that one of my prayers is seeking freedom for the whole of Tibet.” In reference to the stanza that Karma Chophel had quoted from one of His Holiness’ compositions, the “Words of Truth” prayer, the Dalai Lama had said, “What he (Karma Chophel) said was being used by Chinese. So it has come of use.”
Karma Chophel issued two press statements clarifying his position. Tsering said, “In the first press statement, in the first point, the meaning that I got from the words and the sequence that he had used, it was as if he is not at fault. And that whoever had informed His Holiness have resulted in His Holiness being hurt.”
The second press statement was in response to the Cabinet’s press release, which quoted what Karma Chophel had said in the House at that time. Karma Chophel had refused to accept that again.
Tsering said that just a few days before the Parliament session, Karma Choephel had made an application to the speakers, requesting the speakers to expunge the words that he had said in the House, apart from the written statement. In that he had said “in relation to what I have said in the House, that has resulted in hurting His Holiness’ feelings, and I seek forgiveness, and as a symbol of that I withdraw all my statements regarding this matter in the past. And as a future pledge, I decided not to speak on this in future.”
Penpa Tsering said that on that basis, the Parliament took this decision, but that they cannot act further on it, because they still don’t have a copy of Karma Choephel’s personal memorandum to the Dalai Lama. “Since we don’t know the content of that letter, we don’t know if he will be forgiven or not. That depends on His Holiness.”
“From our understanding, he has accepted that he made a mistake, and now he is seeking forgiveness. If he had not made a mistake, there is no reason for seeking forgiveness.”
“In regard to whether he made any changes to his first personal memorandum to His Holiness — that we don’t know.”
This whole story is very comical. I asked my friend the other day if he could live till 70 years of age. He said not sure. I guess some people just don’t have the wisdom and the will.
Please keep things how they work. Freedom or democracy does not mean that you can just speak anything that comes on your mind. That someone’s words led to this kind of controversy is not the issue. The issue is that some of you people who have lived and been educated abroad are not in a position to ignore His Holiness the Dalai Lama. You got this life because of the courage of His Holiness a long time ago. I personally do not welcome you, if you who have experience only in non-Tibetan-communities come back with that kind of education in which one might not even care about their parents.
Please, no words against His Holiness.
Guys, don’t make things complicated. Let’s be calm, think and listen to me.
British invaded a huge India simply with the method of ‘divide and rule’. I as a student of political science, I admit that we are dividing ourselves talking about this issue. Autonomy or independence both the issue we have to face. But without unity, other people will run us down and that time I think we won’t even see independence or autonomy. Think wise dear.
Dadon Sharling was a fresh breath of air. You go girl! Every one else were repeating the same exact thing with a change of few sentences here and there. A topic of discussion of this magnitude and importance and emotional, most of the speakers appeared (at least to me ), way too cautious; making sure nothing goes wrong.
The above is not a real criticism. It’s just a personal opinion based on my observation. I felt it that way. I would appreciate any one who can throw light on what I said here. I am willing to learn.
It’s not about hurting His Holiness’ feelings. Of course, in a democracy, a person/citizen is free to express his feelings. But Karma Chopel la did not express his own views, he made an assumption of somebody else’ views and made a disaster of misinterpreting them. Clearly, His Holiness is not trying to assert his supremacy or power here, he just wanted to get his words right. Long live His Holiness the Dalai lama!
Resolution to write a Apology letter, are you fken kidding me! The is a spit to the face of Democracy! In a true democracy everyone has the right to speak their mind no matter how unpopular without fear of repercussion. Most disappointing is that Dalai Lama hasn’t criticized the parliament for how they have brutally and maliciously attacked Karma Chophel just for speaking this mind, and indirectly hurting his feelings. Without separation of religion and government, democracy can not function. We do not have democracy right now, we have a theocracy.
And Dalai Lama has the power. People are using the Dalai Lama to play politics and sadly Dalai Lama has used himself to play politics against those who do not agree with his policy. We must separate Church from State or in our case Monastery from State. When Mao said religion is poison, there is some truth to that. Because Religion obstructs reason logic and operates on Believe/faith, and chains freedom of thought. Believe/faith is that which brainwashes people into blowing themselves up and killing innocent people to get to Heaven. Believe and faith takes away self determination of his or her mind.
We are not ready for Democracy, and Democracy is not ready for us!
And Dalai Lama is a human being just like each and everyone of us. In a Democracy, everyone is Equal! And No one should be forced to write an apology letter in a True Democracy.
So those who have to be publicly lynched have been named. And now the lynching is happening and being led by powers that be in Dhasa!
What democracy is this? What retirement from politics is this? What civil society is this?
Both Tibetan Democracy and Tibetan Freedom are doomed! Ask our poor fellow countrymen in Tibet to stop killing themselves. It is not worth it!
These selfish people have already sold Tibet to the Chinese. Now they just want everyone to endorse the deal.
This is political arm twisting in its worst form because it is happening under the garb of a democratic process!
We have to decide whether happiness of one person — be it Dalai Lama or anyone else — is so important as to sacrifice the freedom of speech guaranteed in democracy. Democracy is about diversity, tolerance of dissent views, acceptance of unpopular ideas. Ok Dalai Lama reigned Tibet since the age of 16. But is leadership a burden? People fight sleepless election campaigns to lead a nation for five years and have to fight again — if he/she lose the chance to lead if he/she doesn’t do well. Anyone would gladly jump at an opportunity to lead Tibet.
‘Excellent people are honoured wherever they go’. If you are that much good, come in exile [in India] and contribute to our society rather than enjoying in foreign country. Welcome.
Tibet comes first and foremost. Tibet’s chance for independence should not be sacrificed just for the sake of avoiding “hurting” His Holiness’ sentiments.
Tibet existed as a sovereign country before the Dalai Lamas. Dalai Lamas did not create Tibet and it is not for a Dalai Lama to give away its independence in exchange for “Genuine Autonomy”.
In Old Tibet Karma Chophel would have been put in chains and displayed in the town square for what he said. Now thanks to the wonderful democracy that His Holiness gave to us, Karma Chophel is merely made to feel like [a bad person], beaten down, muzzled and shunned, all because Karma naively assumed that Tibetan democracy included freedom of speech.
The Motto Karma Chophel need to learn fast if he wants to be a successful politician in Dhasa is, Never make the boss sad.
To fake Tsering Woeser, don’t use the name of your betters. Lowlife!
Karma Chophel should not say whatever comes in his mind when speaking in public and media. It’s hurtful for the younger generation… us!!
Did you forget way back from 1960s? His Holiness is our father, guidance and Lama. What are we, without him? Little knowledge is always dangerous. Let the barking dogs bark. Freedom of speech? Thats true but nobody has rights to hurt the person who is everything for six million Tibetans.
Tsering Woeser, you should go to school and get educated. Just because you have strong faith in HHDL doesn’t make you a good person nor does it give you the right to make accusations without evidence. If CTA and Samdong and Penpa Tsering had proof of these people’s link to the Chinese, then what do you think is stopping them from revealing those evidences. Stop being childish.
We are really upset to hear such news.
One can express his or her view but using His Holiness name just for the sake of making his or her point strong and noticeable isn’t the right thing to do. One has mentioned that where is Democracy? I must say that in democracy, you can speak your own thoughts but not others.
This is no DEMOCRACY. I am saddened by how hurting Dalai Lama is made to be such a big deal. His Holiness is one individual, just like he has all freedom to say what he wish. Others also should be allowed to speak out their mind.
Please don’t worry about HH the Dalai Lama. Just worry how we are going to move forward in practicing real democracy. If we are Buddhist practitioner, we should have the compassion to accept what all the above 6 named individuals said. Of course in Democracy they can express whatever they would like to. It is their basic fundamental human rights. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has retired from Politics, so why does he still push for Middle way approach which is a failed policy and wasted so much time. Stop demonizing free thinking individuals.
State sponsored “WITCHHUNT”. I thought that Tibetan democratic system would improve after the departure of HHDL from the political stage. However, the complete opposite is happening. What is the big deal about one man getting mad? Give him some time and he will get over it if he truly cares about his people.
What happened in Dharamshala seems like some Tibetans were sacrificed (like it used to happen) at the Chinese altar. “Rangzen” people are branded traitors and sent to the wolves. It seems like, “To hell with Democracy.” If you ever wondered why the Chinese call us barbarians? Case in point.
I am ashamed of being a Tibetan and I feel sorry for my brethren in Tibet. But you guys get your torches and sharpen your knives, it’s time once again to show loyalty and be patriotic.
Which democratic system we are talking about, in which SAMDHONG lama who led for 10 years and after his tenure, he gave a statement saying that he never worked for people, nation or politics, he was just obeying his teacher’s orders. What kind of democratically elected government in exile is this?
I watched the Parliament proceeding and was very impressed with the different views expressed by the Chitues on the recent turmoil in our community. I saw our Chitue Norbu Tsering la taking a very strong stand against those people who are creating disharmony in our society. I applaud that.
My views are, that whether we are for Autonomy OR the Rangzen, we need to work together as a team. When someone from any group blames His Holiness – that becomes unjustifiable. We all know His Holiness took the responsibility for Tibet at the age of 16 and to this day. No Tibetan will forgive anyone who is making false accusation to his Holiness. His Holiness is our jewel and that’s the truth. I hope this 16th Parliament proceeding will come up with some sort of deterrent or measures on how to counter these false accusations to His Holiness. And thereby creating harmony in our community.
Middle Age.
We all should go back and remind ourselves when His Holiness introduced the constitution to the world based on the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the early 1960s.
Democracy lets every citizen have a right to expression/speech no matter what, and if they are being stopped in any way then it’s a violation of an individual’s right. It feels like we are living under the communist/dictatorship and not democratically-elected government.
Most of the time the leaders use His Holiness to get to their point and credit, I wonder whether this is happening at the moment. Instead of initiating new ideas and leading us internationally organized campaigns against the Communists, they are wasting so much time, money and energy discussing a few people. Independence or Middle Way Approach — it’s all for the sake of Tibet and its people, so what the heck!!
Meenakshi Gopinath in the Bulletin said “The real challenge now is to find in the current generation of Tibetans a leadership that is modern and secular with a deep empathy for Tibetan culture and values, along with the skills needed to negotiate and pilot the future agenda of Tibet.” We need to prove to the world that we are better than the Chinese and have the potential as well, and we have chosen the right leaders – Didn’t we ??
Thanks to all the NGOs and individuals who work for Tibet’s Independence, and also thanks to all the Middle-Way Seekers for your continued effort — but we need to work together as a TEAM.
Rangzen!!
Chitue and Kashag took very long to deal with this problem despite the sadness expressed by His Holiness The Dalai lama in several public talks and interviews. We must find a way to kick out all those demoralized elected Chitues from the Parliament. It is high time that we must have an ethics commission to deal with such issues. Will any one of the present elected Chitue have the moral courage to come up with such a proposal in the house? Truth is always bitter and who wants to taste it in the house!
Six persons were named by His Holiness during the staff meeting on 2 September 2013: 1. Karma Chophel; 2. Tsewang Rigzin, former TYC President; 3. Dhondup Lhadar former TYC Gen sec; 4. Jamyang Norbu; 5. Lhasang Tsering; and 6. Karma Gyatso.
CTA must release the video and educate our public. These six individuals, their sympathizers around the world must and should be exposed. Do they have any link with China? or Shugden group? Advocating Rangzen by these six individuals was never an issue with His Holiness, but under the mask of Rangzen, and constantly using and abusing the TYC forum, they have been advocating anti-Dalai Lama and anti-Tibet activities for many years now.
Look at the fate of TYC today? Tibetan parliament and Kashag are both spineless. If they don’t act this time, then I will conclude that they are equally responsible and culpable like the TYC leaders. Long live His Holiness the Dalai Lama!