By Shashi P.B.B. Malla
The Government of Nepal [until now GoN, or has it now become GOON?] has rescinded a prestigious week-long international Tibetan studies conference that had been four years in the planning in a stroke (TKP/The Kathmandu Post, Aug. 6).
In its very hasty decision, the government overrode its own security agencies’ assessment that the event posed no security threat, and reversed even the public assurance from Home Minister Sudan Gurung that it could go ahead.
This very regrettable incidence raises some very troublesome questions:
- This is indeed a great loss of prestige for the country as a whole.
- The Chinese diplomats have massively interfered in a purely domestic matter that posed absolutely no security threat to China’s national interests.
The conference was a purely academic exercise that would in any way further the political ambitions of the so-called ‘Dalai clique’.
On the other hand, the Chinese government has not at all been receptive to Nepal’s genuine concerns regarding Lipu Lekh.
- This deplorable incident has brought to the fore the government’s terrible decision-making process.
It does seem that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand’s doing.
There is little coordination between the various departments of government.
- Moreover, there is a definite paucity of knowledge – history, geography and institutional memory – in those making decisions.
According to TKP, Chief Secretary Govinda Bahadur Karki, after consultations with Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai, personally called senior Kathmandu University officials and instructed them to categorically stop the conference.
The decision was never brought before the cabinet, despite what one minister described the event as having significant foreign policy implications.
The bureaucrats have a right to make inputs leading to the decision-making process which is reserved for their political masters. The actual decision should have been made by the politicians in power.
This was indeed a grave error of judgement and should have consequences.
Now adding insult to injury, Hem Raj Aryal, spokesperson at the prime minister’s office, claims that the government has not given any instructions to cancel the event.
How come the government didn’t realize that Nepal and the Nepalese people have a legitimate and ancient interest in Tibetan culture.
After all, it hosts thousands of Tibetan refugees, and swathes of the country’s high Himalayan north, bordering Tibet, share its culture, Buddhist religion and language.
Nepal is also the only country in the world with a functioning consulate general in Lhasa – documenting our very close ties.
The writer can be reached at:shashimalla125@gmail.com
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