Lukar Jam in McLeod Ganj on 1 January 2014. Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal
By Lobsang Wangyal
MCLEOD GANJ, India, 2 January 2014
Activist and writer Lukar Jam disputed the upcoming election process for the vacant seat of the Amdo representative in the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile.
In a press note he criticised the Election Commission’s announcement of election of a new member following the resignation of Kirti Dolkar Lhamo in late November.
Dolkar Lhamo resigned due to “personal reasons” according to her resignation letter submitted to the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament.
Lukar has stated that a new law for handling vacancies is not being followed.
On 14 October 2011 Sikyong Lobsang Sangay signed into law a new rule passed by the members of the Tibetan Parliament that required appointment of the unelected candidate with the highest number of votes in the last general election.
The law also removed the minimum requirement for election of 33% of the votes. Each voter votes for up to ten representatives from their respective provinces of Amdo, Kham and U-Tsang.
Lukar was at eleventh place in the Amdo election, making him the legal replacement in Dolkar Lhamo’s position under the new law.
However, officials of the Tibetan Election Commission say that the new law is not applicable in the case of an election which took place before its enactment.
Since Lukar Jam’s case was before the passing of the new law, he does not qualify for the appointment according the interpretation of the officials.
In the press statement Lukar has asked for a debate in the March parliament session to clarify the implementation of the new law. He has asked for postponement of the special elections until there is a resolution of the issue.
Countering Lukar’s charge that the elections will cost more than 20 lakh rupees (30,000 USD approx), the officials said that the costs will be less than 10 lakh rupees.
The preliminary round of the special election to fill the vacancy is likely to be held in February, with the final voting in June. Tibetans of Amdo region living in India, Nepal and Bhutan will vote in the elections.
The 44-member 15th Tibetan Parliament was elected in March 2011, for a five-year term.
I am a high school student and i am not really interested in politics, but now i am see lots of changes in the Tibetan Parliament and i think this is a great thing. So, nothing much to say, bho gyalo.
What’s happening in India today is that another white woman was gang raped there. We can be sure those people who committed the crime will be caught and punished by the Law. Meanwhile in Dharamshala, the Tibetan Election Commission also stand accused of rape: of raping the electoral process.
But, this can’t be true!! The Tibetan election Commission is an independent agency with no political bias toward anyone! It would be against the very constitution which they are charged to uphold! It would be beneath them to play the handmaiden to Middle-Way parochialism, therefore, we can be certain, they wouldn’t do that.
I like to listen to lot of His Holiness lectures. He often teaches that human beings are nice by nature, I too, firmly believe it, which gives me the confidence to say that the Tibetan Election Commission is as innocent as a new born cuckoo bird.
http://www.rfa.org/tibetan/exile/election-commission-explains-bye-election-laws-01142014122423.html/f51f56f74f66f0bf60f7cf66f0bf56f66fa1f74f0bf63f66f0bf41f44f0bf53f66f0bf58f51f7cf0bf66fa8f51f0bf66fa4fb1f72f0bf60f50f74f66f0bf42f45f72f42f0bf42f72f0bf56f62f0bf58f60f72f0bf60f7cf66f0bf56f66fa1f74f60f72f0bf51f40f60f0bf62f99f7cf42f0bf42f72f0bf50f51f0bf42f66f63/inline.html
Listen to the above RFA talk about the Lukar Jam election result related story.
It’s good to see all Tibetans are interfering about our CTA matters.
Hhh Lukar Jam la, why you got the 11th number of Domey Chithue? Funny.
I haven’t seen you personally but I heard a lot about you. Good luck for your Domey Chithue position. I think you will win Chithue even if they send for public re-election. You are much much better than our Chithue fighters.
If the election commissioner is not doing fair for your Chithue turn. We are showing our standard to Chinese Communist Party. Its shameful of our administration management. Hope everything will be straightforward and fair. If they decided something, there should be some truthful clarification.
Good luck Lukar Jam la.
I can cite at least one appointment of chithue after the enactment of the new law. Go to this link: http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=30790
Why did the EC not feel the need to announce election then?
This looks like TEC dancing to the tune of CTA to prevent Rangzen advocates like Lukar Jam, one who has a mind of his own, from having a voice as an MP.
Aren’t we tired of hearing the same story of a father telling his son to educate a cow? Move on!
Concern, i hope you might be heard the quote: “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” While, he was one of the researchers in our community. You must watch these videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQcl5IQ1Oak http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a88hZkuOtSc — then you will realize his capability.
I think few people are amazed with what I have written. With no objection to a person who host or stays at Parliament!! or where he came from? Are we looking into [people who do not do right in their position in Parliament?] Instead of speaking against [them] … [The parliamentarians do not seem to stand up for what is right.]
Regarding Lukar Jam… I never saw him hosting any activities in exile and never heard of any book which he had written!!! I only saw him at MT… That’s all….
Lobsang Sangay though is a different issue. I saw their campaign during the Kalon election but didn’t see anyone from India competing [with] those two superior people from USA.
I think people will be amused with what I am saying? Keep on thinking.
We and CTA all knew that [Lukar Jam] possesses capability, experience and courage. He has written articles in Tibetan and Chinese, and a few years back CTA had given research work on the Middle Way Approach. Am sure if he is not good in anything then probably the CTA would not have given him that task. I hope I answered your every doubt.
I sympathize with Tenzin Nyinjey, as Dharamshala oftentimes don’t seem to take democracy seriously, which worries some of us Tibetans who love democracy, don’t take it for granted, and see the humane value of fairness for all individuals within this system.
How is democracy enacted? Protected? By Laws. So the arbitration of this dispute should be based on the Law. Therefore, the crux of the matter is, were the officials of the Tibetan Election Commission on the level when they stated, “the new law is not applicable in the case of an election which took place before its enactment?” If they are being honest, which is to say, the new law came into effect after the election or, if one likes, before Lukar Jam’s case, then he does not qualify for appointment and the case is moot as interpreted by the officials.
Lukar la does have a case if the officials are lying.
“སྤྱི་འཐུས་དུས་ཡུན་ནང་ས་མིག་སྟོང་པ་ཐོན་ཚེ། བར་མའི་འོས་བསྡུ་མ་དགོས་པར་སྒུག་ཐོའི་གྲལ་མཚམས་གར་འཁེལ་ནས་ཚབ་གསར་འཇུག་རྒྱུའི་ཆེད། འོས་ཐོབ་མང་རིམ་བཞིན་ཐོར་བཀོད་དེ་འོས་བསྡུའི་འགན་འཛིན་དང༌། ཟུར་དཔང་རྣམས་ཀྱི་མཚན་རྟགས་བཀོད་པ་འོས་བསྡུ་ལས་ཁང་དུ་ཉར་དགོས།”
“If a new Chitue seat becomes vacant, without having the need for a by-election, the one who’s waiting on the line, who’s secured the most number of votes, should be appointed, and the list bearing his name should be signed by the chief election commissioner and other neutral judges, and be kept at the election commission.”
The above is the new law passed unanimously by ATPD and signed into law by Sikyong. According to this new law Lukar should be the new MP.
And Lukar’s case is being supported by the editor of Tibet Express, Mr. Sertha Tsultrim, who’s also an MP. Here’s an excerpt from his editorial on this issue.
ད་དུང་གཞུང་དམངས་ཚང་མས་ངེས་དགོས་པ་ཞིག་ལ་སྤྱི་འཐུས་ཚོགས་གཙོས་གྲོས་ཚོགས་ནང་གཏམ་བཤད་ དང། འགྲེལ་བཤད་གནང་བ་ཚང་མ་ཁྲིམས་ལས་ཀྱང་གལ་ཆེ་བ་ཞིག་ཏུ་རྩ་འཛིན་བྱེད་དགོས་མིན་དེ་ཁྲིམས་ལུགས་ཀྱིས་དབང་བསྒྱུར་བའི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ཤིག་གི་ནང་དུ་ཧ་ཅང་དྲི་རྟགས་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་ཡིན་པ་མ་ཟད། དེ་ལྟར་ཡིན་ན་གྲོས་ཚོགས་འཚོགས་དགོས་དོན་མེད་པར་མཚམས་མཚམས་སུ་ཚོགས་གཙོས་གཏམ་བཤད་རེ་གནང་བཞག་ན་འགྲིག་སོང་བ་མིན་ནམ།
“Both the authorities and the public should remember that considering the speeches of Parliament speaker more important than the laws raises serious questions about the principle of the rule of law in democracy. If the speeches of speaker are more important than the laws passed by the parliament, then there’s no need to have parliamentary sessions” – excerpts from the editorial by Tibet Express Editor, MP Sertha Tsultrim.
Here’s the link to the article: TibetExpress.net/bo/2010-02-06-06-49-13/11405-2014-01-02-10-57-29
And please don’t try to hijack the issue, which is: whether a law is being violated by the Speaker. The issue is not about who’s more intelligent, Tibetans from inside Tibet or born in exile; this is divisive politics, and the editor of TibetSun must contain such irresponsible views.
Isn’t India other country for us. Our country is Tibet and Lukar Jam came from Tibet.
Lukar la, can you tell me your qualifications and names of books that you have written? And what exactly are you doing right now?
Dorjee —
Do you mean to say that every Chitue has written a book and has qualifications? This seems like backward thinking to me, and a reason why we as a community do not stay united.
Sincerely working in Tibetan society is better than those persons who kept the hot seat of higher authority since from long time and used big words in front of the public.
Do you judge a book by its cover? A degree is necessary for all these things? (hum) What we need is the knowledge! not a degree. A degree you can buy with some bucks. Can you buy knowledge?
Does he have any book to see the cover? Does he have any degree to prove his knowledge if any?
I saw this guy just staying at Delhi in 2001 at Majnuka-tilla. I occasionally saw him roaming here and there at Majnuka-tilla with no work at all and saw him singing in a rented room when he was newly arrived from Tibet.
Though there is no issue with where he came from? But strange to see him claim his seat at Parliament? Are we all lacking of choosing Member of parliament or aren’t there any other people who is more capable of becoming Parliamentarian?
Since we have imported our Prime Minister from USA? What else for future Prime Minister? Is there no one in India to rule our Parliament? Just stuck that in my mind all the time?
Are we going to import people from other countries again in future?
Better to read more about Lukar Jam then you will know his qualification and capabilities. Afterward, you might be realized asking such question.
You saw him in 2001 at MT. Today is 2014. If you do your research, you will know that this guy has done much more. Also if you read the article properly, it says activist and writer.
We follow a democratic system and everyone should be allowed to express their views. CTA is for all the Tibetan people in exile, and if one is capable of becoming the PM, it doesn’t matter whether he/she is from India or US or any part of the world.
I am not sure where you are getting the idea that Dr Lobsang Sangay is a Western product. His bio indicates that — sure he is, academically speaking, a Harvard product — however, he is homegrown in India. His honourable Amala even had to sell the family cow in order to pay for his education, or so the legend goes. A cow is not an alternative currency in the West.
India is starting to produce some good Parliamentarians in my humble opinion. There is the young Tibetan MP Sharling Tenzin Dhardon la, who seems to be progressive and fair.
Dear Concern, I am not understanding your point.
I am little bit confused with the way you talk about Lukar Jam. I think you are looking down on the people from Tibet. What you want to prove? Do you think he is not a capable man? To my mind he is much more better than those officials in our government. He is a highly educated man and i think maybe you don’t know the fact?