 Autocratic nature of Dalai clique's theocracy
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-13 08:07 A signed article by Yi Duo on Friday provided an insight into the autocratic nature of the Dalai Lama's theocratic rule. The article said the Dalai clique had been using every opportunity to talk about its democratic achievements for years, while some Western forces have also been trying to portray the Dalai Lama as the symbol of democracy. The article said anyone who knows the Dalai clique would be able to tell that it is an autocratic theocracy that is any thing but democracy. The article said, the Dalai clique had tried to lay a legal basis for its rule. Although it borrowed such concepts as "separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers" from the West, it is still a theocratic system with the Dalai Lama acting as both the head of the government and the religious leader - a system continued down from the old Tibet. The article cited a 1963 document and a 1991 charter introduced by the Tibetan separatists as examples. In the 1963 document on Tibet's political system and constitution, the group stated that major powers of the Tibet government would be in the charge of the Dalai Lama. In 1991, the group adopted the Charter of Tibetans-in-Exile, where the 3rd article stipulated that the Tibetan political system would be an integration of politics and religion, and articles 19, 29, 30, 55, 97 and 101 outlined the powers of the Dalai. Yi's article charged that such detailed and systematic stipulations laid a "solid legal basis" for the Dalai Lama to arrogate all powers to himself and questioned the democracy of such stipulations. On Nov 26, 2000, the Dalai Lama at a seminar in Dharamsala in India claimed that theocracy had a broad meaning and a future Tibet would benefit from the implementation of a theocratic system. He claimed that Western countries, like the United States, were also run by a theocratic system. In November, the Tibetan separatists held a special meeting on Tibet's future amid intensifying internal conflicts. The first of five decisions of the meeting called for the Dalai Lama's continued leadership of Tibet's political and religious cause. The second called for "all Tibetans" to respect and support any decisions made by the Dalai Lama at anytime. The decisions further ensured the "legal validity" of his continued powers. The article said the Dalai clique is a theocratic regime run by prominent monks. Political favoritism and nepotism is widespread. The "Tibetan government-in-exile"'s Chief Kalon (premier minister) Samdhong Rinpoche and one of the Kalons (ministers) Tsering Phuntsok were monks. Another Kalon, Thupten Lungrig graduated from the "Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies", a Buddhist school in Varanasi of north India's Uttar Pradesh. One of the Dalai Lama's private representatives and also a former Kalon, Lodi Gyari is a living Buddha as well.
According to their election rules, 10 of the 43 members of the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile must come from different sects of Tibetan Buddhism. The article says the Dalai clique still represents the interests of remnant forces of the feudal serfowners in old Tibet. All the brothers and sisters of the Dalai Lama served in high positions in the Dalai clique. His late eldest brother Taktser Rinpoche used to lead the New York and Japan offices of the "Tibetan government-in-exile". His wife and three children are now living in the US. The Dalai's second eldest brother Gyalo Thondup, the second most powerful person in the Dalai clique, had held the post of Chief Kalon several times. Gyalo Thondup owned houses in Delhi, Kalimpong and Darjeeling of northeast India as well as Hong Kong. His third elder brother Lobsang Samten had long taken the post of Kalon in charge of health and head of Tibetan hospitals. His wife was also a secretary general in the "ministry of health". His brother-in-law Phuntsok Tashi Takla, husband of his eldest sister Tsering Dolma, had been the Kalon of "the ministries of the interior and security". The Dalai's younger sister Jetsun Pema was one of the founders of the "Tibetan Youth Congress" (TYC) and Kolan several times while running the "Tibetan Children's Village" in Dharamsala of India for 46 years. A considerable part of foreign donations to the Dalai clique was handled through her in the name of the "Tibetan Children's Village". Ngari Rinpoche, the Dalai's youngest brother, was the second president of TYC. After serving in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police for five years, he has taken charge of the Dalai Lama's private office, the power center of the Dalai clique. Ngari Rinpoche's wife Rinchen Khando Choegyal served as the president of the "Tibetan Women's Association" for nine years till 1993 and then became the Kalon in charge of education for eight years, a powerful position to decide whether young Tibetans would be sent to college in Europe and North America. And in today's Kashag (cabinet) of the "Tibetan government-in-exile", two members are from the Dalai family, Tempa Tsering, Jetsun Pema's husband, and Kesang Yangkyi Takla, the second wife of Phuntsok Tashi Takla (Tsering Dolma had died in 1964). Since the founding of the "Tibetan government-in-exile", seven family members of the Dalai had held the posts of Kalon and Chief Kalon, the article says. "The 14th Dalai Lama's family is much more powerful than the families of all the previous Dalai Lamas." In addition, a number of powerful people in the "Tibetan government-in-exile" are from old Tibetan nobility or families of old tribal chiefs. Yi's article claims that in order to secure its autocratic rule, the Dalai clique even resort to assassination and poisoning to persecute political and religious dissidents. In the 1970s, Gung-thang Tshul-khrims, one of the leaders of the Group 13, who failed to obey the Dalai's orders, was killed. In the late 1990s, Kun-bde-gling Rinpoche was stabbed at his home. Two young Rinpoches, Chi-jang and Sun-po, received a death threat. All the cases were directly linked with the Dalai clique. Vjigs-med Tshe-ring, who once was one of the key members of the Dalai clique, testified that at least 10 Tibetans, who disagreed with the Dalai Lama, had been assassinated. In the 1990s, the Dalai clique suddenly began attacking the Tibetan deity Dorje Shugden, who had been worshiped by Tibetan Buddhist for hundreds of years, calling it "a pro-Chinese demon". On June 6, 1996, the "Tibetan government-in-exile" adopted a resolution to prohibit all staff with the "Tibetan government-in-exile" as well as all Tibetan communities, lamaseries and schools from worshiping the Dorje Shugden, saying that those who would not stop following the deity would be labeled as a public enemy of the Tibetan society. Later, the "Tibetan Youth Congress" and "Tibetan Women's Congress" sent a large number staff to search Tibetan communities and lamaseries, and damaged statues of the Dorje Shugden and attacked its followers by smashing windows, burning houses and beating them. Many of the Dorje Shugden followers were forced to leave their homes and lamaseries, Yi's article says. In early 2007, some Dorje Shugden followers went to a court in India, to sue the Dalai Lama for political persecution. This year, the Dalai met strong protests by Dorje Shugden followers, when he was visiting some foreign countries. Yi's article said the Dalai Lama's demonstrations of democracy were done for show. For instance, the Tibetans in exile were even allowed to set up a Tibetan Communist Party and run a number of unofficial newspapers, as part of the Dalai Lama's democratic test in the 1960s. But once those organizations and newspapers hurt the interests of the old Tibetan aristocrats in exile, they were threatened and asked to shut down. As a result, the organizations and newspapers quickly disappeared. In 1995, the fall edition of the group's magazine "Independence" carried a caricature on its front page entitled the "Current situation of the Tibetan democracy", which satirized the democracy of the Dalai Lama. In its editorial, the magazine said the supervisory departments and check-balance mechanism in the current governing system of the "Tibetan government-in-exile" have failed to work. In May 2007, Tibetans in Dharamsala and local residents were involved in a fist fight, which strained Tibetan-Indian relations. The Palyul Web site run by the Dalai clique published a series of articles criticizing India's policies toward Tibetans, further straining the relations. To ease pressure from India, the Dalai clique forced the website to remove these reports and relevant commentaries, while issuing a letter of apology to the local media. The issue showcased the tight grip on the media by the Dalai clique, which often played up its democratic achievements. The article said though the Dalai Lama has pushed its theocratic autocracy under the pretext of democracy, the world has come to see the true nature of his rule. Germany's newspaper Die Welt published an article co-authored by Victor and Victoria Trimondi, in early August, criticizing Germans who consider the Dalai Lama as the "Jesus Christ of the new era". Democracy in Tibet could not be promoted as long as the Dalai Lama's position as leader of the exiled Tibetans could not be changed through election, the German article said. Die Welt's article said the Dalai Lama could only sell "humanistic values" to some innocent and naive Westerners as he and his supporters have hidden the violent and dark side of Lamaism (Tibetan Buddhism). On May 19, a report carried on the website of Die Welt reported that some exiled monks were no longer blind followers of the Dalai. Some of them even described the Dalai as a "chameleon", "dictator" and " politician in monk's robe". After the Dalai's testimony in the British parliament, The Times newspaper on May 23 released a sketch by Ann Treneman saying the Dalai Lama was "pure box office" and "the crowd-pleaser to end all crowd-pleasers." The story also described him as "a great ham actor" and a "Drama-Lama". In a separate online report of the British newspaper Daily Mail, the Dalai Lama was described as "a dispossessed political figure from a distant mountain kingdom, and a shrewd bird (who) knows that a little oriental mystique goes a long way in the religiously untutored West." The article said democratic politics has become a universal goal of all countries in the world in the 21st century, but the Dalai Lama is still attempting to realize a theocratic system in Tibet in which he would hold the absolute power. It urged the Dalai to conform to the trend of the times and not to earn himself eternal infamy in history. Xinhua (China Daily 12/13/2008 page4) |
