The opening ceremony of the 8th International Tibet Support Groups conference in Dharamshala, India, on 3 November 2019. Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal
By Lobsang Wangyal
McLEOD GANJ, India, 4 November 2019
The Middle-Way Approach and the issue of the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation remained the focus of the 8th International Tibet Support Groups (TSG) Conference, held in McLeod Ganj, the capital of the Tibetans-in-exile.
As many as 180 supporters of the Tibetan cause from different backgrounds such as politicians, intellectuals, and activists, from 42 countries have gathered for the three-day conference that opened on Sunday on the premises of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA).
They met Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Monday morning.
Puma Jungney, Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile, who was the chief guest, said that Tibetans have opted for autonomy through the policy called Middle-Way Approach, rather than independence, even though Tibet was an independent country before the illegal Chinese occupation in 1959.
Jungney stated that the Middle-Way Approach has been the political stand of the CTA since the early 1970s, and is the most sensible step in solving the conflicts of Tibet and China. He appealed to the participants to support this policy.
“This is a mutually-beneficial step in solving the Tibet-China issue.”
CTA President Lobsang Sangay spoke on reviving the spirit of activism of the 1990s to organise more activities around the world to resolve the Tibetan issue. He also spoke on the reincarnation of the current 14th Dalai Lama, who is now 84.
Sangay rejected the Chinese “Order no 5” as illegal interference in finding the reincarnation of Tibetan lamas, saying, “The reincarnation system was invented by Tibetans, and Tibetans own it.”
Vijay Kranti, a Tibetologits based in Delhi, speaking to Tibet Sun said, “I attended the first TSG conference in 1990. I have seen that the awareness and commitment by these groups for Tibet is improving, which shows there is hope for the future of Tibet.”
“These groups are going to give the response to China’s bullying designs, which is often missing from different governments.”
Chin Jin, a pro-democracy China activist from Sydney, Australia, said that the conference brings the people of Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan, East Turkistan, and Inner Mongolia (all subjugated by China) together to become a force to fight the communist China.
“The United States has the biggest responsibility to fight the communist China, as it was because of them that Mao Zedong was able to establish the People’s Republic of China. They now have to rectify the policy to change China into a democratic country.”
The first TSG conference was held in 1990 in Dharamshala. It was organised to bring more awareness about the issue of Tibet to a broader platform for bigger support from the international community. Today, there are more than 250 Tibet Support Groups around the world, actively working towards resolving the issue of Tibet.
The 8th TSG conference was convened by the Core Group for the Tibetan Cause, India, under the facilitation of the Department of Information and International Relations, CTA. Rinchen Khando Khrimey, the National Convenor of Core Group for Tibetan Cause, India, made the opening speech. He expressed full support for the Middle-Way Approach, and for reopening of talks between the envoys of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government.
continued ….. While the Tibetan movement has suffered significant setback in the last decade, the Uyghur people’s movement has taken centre stage in International politics. Most democracies of the west and especially the US and it’s allies have openly criticized China for its incarceration of up to a million in concentration camps. The US has come down with sanctions on those Chinese officials who are responsible for rights abuse and are barred from visiting the US or their assets frozen as retaliation. The movement has been resuscitated owing to the fact that the resistance inside and outside of East Turkistan is strong and they are not hampered by ideology or China friendly policies that has bedevilled the Tibetan Movement.
Idealism and realism are two entirely different things. Pandit Nehru was a great idealist and he sacrificed Tibet on the alter of Sino-India detente. He believed China and India would be a counterweight against western imperialism and keep Asia free to develop themselves without western influence. It was a fatal mistake and India is paying dearly for its foreign policy blunders with China and Pakistan joined at the hips and breathing down India’s neck. The idealism of Tibet being treated as an autonomous entity to keep its language and culture is another pipe dream that will suffer the same fate like that of Nehru’s ill-fated idealism. Communist China declares itself as a unitary state. It doesn’t accept federalism of any kind and it seeks to create a mono Han culture that it sees as “superior” to all of the other cultures and languages of so called minorities. Even in Hong Kong, they are forcing mandarin over Cantonese which is the language of the locals. Owing to this fear of losing their culture and identity, Hong Kong is burning today!
I don’t really know how the gathering is in Dharamsala this time. The days when the support for Tibet was overwhelming are thing of the past. The ascendancy of communist China as a global power with strong economic credential has blunted the enthusiasm of western democracies to support Tibet. China has used blackmail to toe its line of so called “one China” policy relentlessly to browbeat and bully every nation that has diplomatic relations with it. On the other hand, the policies of the CTA has also let to uncertainty, disillusionment and estrangement of many well meaning Tibetans and Tibet supporters. Samdhong Rinpoche declared that “China is no more our enemy”. From that time onward, the policy of the CTA has been reduced to “not angering” China at any cost. All Tibetan nationalists were portrayed as dangerous and demonised. The most powerful Youth Group was dismembered and weakened to the point of no return. It’s leaders were discredited. As a result, the Tibetan movement lost its most committed members which ultimately impacted the movement to be a sluggish and polarized entity that lumbered on like a rusty locomotive out of steam. The movement suffered a paralysis as the talks went no where. It’s likely it will further decline as the years pass by because the next generations would be mostly integrated into their host countries and would have even lost their language skills to identity as Tibetans. This is evident already in the west. They will have no or little appetite to fight for something they had never seen or had any physical or metal connection. They will identify themselves as Indians, Canadians, Americans and Swiss than Tibetans. If we don’t change tactics now to keep the fire of Tibetan nationalism burning, it will be too late in 20 years time……