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Our King- the beacon of hope for the people of Bhutan
I would like to start by submitting my heartfelt thank you to His Majesty the King for being solicitous of the well-being and acknowledging the efforts of all Bhutanese like me studying hard abroad.
I would like to set the context of the 114th National Day Address by mentioning His Majesty's address on the 113th National Day to realize a dream of making Bhutan a developed/wealthy nation within our lifetime. The 114th National Day address is a continuation of this relentless and altruistic vision of His Majesty the King. Analyzing all 16 National Day Addresses, His Majesty the King has firmly established himself at people’s hearts as the symbol of unity and protector of people and most importantly the beacon of a brighter and wealthy nation for Bhutan. A hope that gives us all a purpose in our life. A hope of a wealthy nation not built around effortless Paksamjenshing or natural resources or lies and deceit. But a wealthy nation built on a true and sustainable wealth accumulated through hard work, knowledge, and skills of resilient and future-ready citizens.
A TRUE Chakravartian King putting Good governance at the centre
Perhaps, listening to His Majesty’s speech today, any Buddhist philosophers can undoubtedly say that Bhutan stands forth the closest resemblance to Buddha’s concept of a republic governed at the centre by a powerful but compassionate people’s King- a Chakravarti King or King Mahasammata- Mangpรถ Kurwai Gyalpo, whose legitimacy was based on popular consent of ensuring good governance to the people. I see Chakravartian King when His Majesty uses the powerful narratives of i) allegorical nuances of a woman requiring money not only to finance her day-to-day activities but also to fulfil her family goals, and ii) making a Royal Command on the National Day by rearticulating people’s hopes and aspirations and conversations of every household at the dinner table. His Majesty the King is rightfully people’s King.
The way forward- Removing pervasive poignance and enhancing governance through “Nga”
I am confident that the vernacular “Nga min du” repeated several times by His Majesty will have ubiquitous realization and influence for all Bhutanese people to walk away from the abyss and precipice of our ugly truth of misplaced compassion that hinders the vehement vision to become a wealthy/developed nation. His Majesty has consistently expressed pervasive poignance necessitating deep reflection of stagnancy, complacency, and inadequacy of the systems to move forward for progressive 21st century. On the 113th National day, the solution from the King was to bring reforms in the civil service and education. On 114th National day, the solution from our King is to revitalize the lost “Nga”.
For the RCSC- Revitalizing the lost “Nga” to ensure accountability
The RCSC is empowered with a weapon to revitalize the lost “Nga” to fix accountability. Some immediate steps I recommend the RCSC to revitalize the lost "Nga" are: i) implement aggressive exit management strategies to get rid of the underperformers, nonperformers, and corrupt officials to rebrand the Civil Service away from mediocrity to Civil Service with “best and the brightest”; ii) handpick performers to the right positions even at the executive level if required iii) establish rigorous platforms to upgrade/upscale skilling programs to the entire civil servants like De-suung re-skilling programs. In particular, I see there are lurking maladies in a few people and chronic systems that His Majesty wants the rectify.
The road ahead is intimidating for many. But our destination of a “wealthy nation within our lifetime” is not insurmountable and it provides enormous hope for a better future. Let us not waste our time. Let us gather our arms and ammunitions and rip-roar to move ahead to pursue this common destination of a “wealthy nation within our lifetime”. Thank you, His Majesty, for your enlightened leadership.
