By Thubten Samphel
Chinas Sleeping Beauty, Tibets Four Uniques and Wonders of Other Devolution Packages
Never Lose Hope
Globalization is generating relentless homogenizing forces that make everyone in the world think, eat, buy and live alike, more or less. However, there are people in various parts of the world, who, while embracing the benefits of globalization, have successfully retained their distinct cultural and linguistic identities. They have done this by achieving a variety of autonomous arrangements, which have enabled them to retain and expand upon their distinctive cultures and languages.
Tibetan exiles have been fascinated by the “secret of survival” of the Jews. Now they are turning their attention to various forms of autonomous arrangements in the world to learn how the continued existence of the cultural, linguistic and ethnic identity of the Tibetan people can be ensured in an imaginative partnership with the People’s Republic of China.
The question is, is this possible?
“The case is not hopeless,” said Lord David Steel, a key player in engineering Scottish devolution. He gave the example of China’s handling of Hong Kong, which operates under the one country, two systems principle, that has drawn much praise from the rest of the world.
Dr. Felix Marti of Catalonia said, “The trick is never to lose hope.” He himself is an inspiring example of this conviction.
A Lot of Fur and Skin as a Part of Autonomy Package
Pride in their varied autonomous existence was on full display when the experts on various forms of autonomy and activists in autonomous movements around the world met His Holiness the Dalai Lama on 16 November here in Dharamsala. The president of the Saami parliament dressed himself to meet the challenges of the Arctic cold, despite the fact that Dharamsala then was enjoying the fag end of a pleasant summer, in reindeer skin and fur. Not to be outdone and regardless of the clement weather, the representative of Greenland was all wrapped up in the regalia of polar bear skin. We don’t know what His Holiness the Dalai Lama thought about all this sudden appearance of fur and skin in his audience room. However, the representatives from all these autonomous regions were proud of their autonomous existence, be it in the form of their traditional dress or their language.
These experts held an intensive discussion with His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the Tibetan efforts for a new autonomous arrangement for the whole of Tibet. The experts were also briefed by Professor Samdhong Rinpoche, the Kalon Tripa of the Central Tibetan Administration, on the five rounds of discussions the two envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama so far had with the Chinese leaders.
These experts were further briefed by Kalon Tempa Tsering when they travelled down to Delhi and held a two-day session in neighbouring Manesar. Kalon Tempa Tsering said, “The administration of all the Tibetan people under a single autonomous unit is indispensable for the preservation of Tibetan identity, since all Tibetans, in and outside the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region, share a common language, religion and culture. Such an arrangement will also help realize peaceful co-existence and harmony between Tibetans and all other nationalities. It is not a question of greater or smaller Tibet, but the implementation of the principle of regional national autonomy as enshrined in the constitution of the People’s Republic of China.”
Devolution as a Process
These experts in turn briefed the Tibetan participants on the various paths each autonomous region took and how the Tibetans could benefit from the different autonomous models. The experts cautioned the Tibetan participants that there was no one single path to autonomy. Each autonomous region grew out of different history, different set of circumstances.
But Dr. Felix Marti, director of UNESCO Centre of Catalonia and an organiser of seminars on self-determination, said that the overwhelming common feature of every autonomous movement in the world was the ability of each movement to never lose hope.
Dr. Felix Marti was a key figure in the movement to recover autonomy for Catalonia from Spain based on the Catalan language. Justifying the existence of the Catalan Countries on the basis of language, Dr. Marti said, “”It seems that the world is evolving towards greater respect for cultural diversity…And it seems that cultural and linguistic diversity are not viable without empowerment of cultural and linguistic communities…In other human communities we call peoples or nations must have structures of self-government allowing high levels of political autonomy. In an increasingly interdependent world, negotiations must lead to exercises in shared sovereignty making belonging to large political units compatible with reasonable levels of self-government among communities that are members of such large shared political spaces. The case of the Catalan Countries vis-a-vis Spain and Europe can be a relevant reference.”
Lord David Steel, member of the House of Lords and who served as deputy leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Lords to Roy Jenkins, said, “We often say that devolution is a process, not an event. At present the Scottish Parliament and its executive is wholly financed by a block grant from the UK Treasury, but there is growing pressure to devolve taxation so that our parliament would raise the money it spends. There remains a lively and complex debate.”
Lord Steel wondered what the lessons of the Scottish devolution package had for Tibet. He pointed two conditions that must exist if Tibet were to follow the path of Scotland. He said there has to be a “consensus among the residents of Tibet that such a process is desirable, akin to the 75% support we had in the Scottish referendum. In Tibet as in Scotland there is one minority which desires to see a wholly independent nation with its own seat at the United Nations, embassies and defence forces. In Tibet as in Scotland that is wholly unrealistic. In Tibet as in Scotland, there is another minority content with direct rule from a distant capital –Beijing and London. The first question is therefore whether there is sufficient political unity in the majority to be able to prepare detailed proposals for workable autonomy.”
Lord Steel said that the second condition is the need to have the political will in the distant capital to accept the principle of handing over authority to a devolved administration. The political will did not exist in London before but when the political will changed, “we were ready to put our plans into action. The political will does not currently exists in Beijing, but the case is not hopeless.”
Lord Steel cited the case of Hong Kong. He said before the handover, there were many voices, which predicted doom and gloom on the Crown Colony, about political and social disaster. The Chinese government has gained immense credit for the way it has handled Hong Kong so far. Lord Steel said, “There is nothing to stop a similar success in Tibet if only the Chinese leadership would realize it.”
Direct Actions Taken by Scots for Devolution
The devolution in Catalonia and Scotland was achieved with no violence. This reflects well on the maturity of political discourse on both sides in these two cases. The same is true in cases of devolution of autonomy of Aland Islands from Finland, Greenland from Denmark, South Tyrol from Italy, and the Saami people from Sweden, Finland and Norway. There was no violence at all.
Lord Steel said, one of the two “direct actions” Scottish part of the throne from beneath the throne of England during the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in the fifties. The other direct action was when Scots erased Elizabeth II from some post boxes in Scotland. The Scottish logic was that since Elizabeth I never ruled Scotland, how come Elizabeth II is in our midst.
A theft of a part of the British throne and a minor defacement of public property were the only direct actions taken by the redoubtable Scots for a separate identity from England. That was sufficient. The Scots got their parliament. In fact, one is pleasantly surprised by the total lack of violence in all these autonomous arrangements. The only exception is the case of Bougainville. There was serious violence between Papua New Guinea and Bougainville. The others arrived at their autonomous existence through protracted dialogue. In many cases, their autonomous existence was based on a separate language alone, as is the case with Catalonia and Quebec. And the Canadian government has just recognised that Quebec as a nation in Canada.
China’s “Sleeping Beauty”
Professor Fu Hualing, Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law of the University of Hong Kong, described the constitution of the People’s Republic of China as “sleeping beauty.” One feels that China’s constitutional “eeping beauty” realising its full potential would make an unbeatable team with China’s wide awake economic “dragon” to spread prosperity and freedom to a large part of humanity.
Professor Fu Hualing began his presentation by stating that China is a unitary state and is the only country which does not practise federalism. He then went on to spell out four forms of federalism that China is carrying out or toying with at the moment. He said that the newest form of federalism is the latest offer China has made to Taiwan, which in essence says that as long as you don’t demand independence, you can have whatever you want. The other form of federalism is the one put in place in Hong Kong, in the form of one country, two systems practice. The third form of federalism is the one based on national minority autonomy in places like Tibet and Xinjiang and others. Then there is the Special Economic Zone as practised in Shenzhen.
Professor Fu Hualing said that there is a lot of debate behind closed doors on how much legislative powers should be given to Tibet and Xinjiang. He said that the Chinese leaders are hampered in this effort by the inevitable demands that would be made by other autonomous regions. He said, “If there is the political will to grant autonomy for Tibet, there is the fear the same should be given to other four autonomous regions.”
Professor Fu said China is further constrained in its autonomy efforts because it is in a messy situation now. Therefore, he said, the Tibet situation is not high on the agenda of the Chinese leaders, the nine men in the Politburo who control the destiny of China.
Tibet’s Four Uniques
Other working papers at the conference expressed a degree of optimism in attaining a new autonomous status for Tibet based on the Chinese acknowledgement of Tibet’s “four uniques”: region, culture, significance and treatment. The opinion is expressed that this may provide justification for special treatment of Tibet within the national autonomy arrangements.
Other presentations made consist of autonomous arrangements for places as diverse and geographically removed as Quebec with Canada, Bougainville with Papua New Guinea, South Tyrol with Italy, Aland Islands with Finland, Catalonia with Spain, Greenland with Denmark and Saamiland with Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia and Hong Kong with China.
Dr. Rene Klaf, director of the Friedrich-Naumann Foundation, South Asia, said that his foundation supported autonomy for Tibet because the Middle-Way Approach was based on interests but also on compromise, accommodation and non-violence, which were compatible with the agenda and values of the foundation. He assured the participants of the long-term engagement of his foundation and the Tibetan Parliamentary and Policy Research Centre (TPPRC) with the concept and content of autonomy, which was a political process.
Penpa Tsering, the executive secretary of the TPPRC which organised the two-day conference and the Dharamsala trip, said that 10 countries, including Nepal, were represented at the conference. He said that His Holiness the Dalai Lama when in South Tyrol wanted a “minorities in Europe for Tibet,” and a new platform for new autonomous arrangement for the Tibetan people. This conference was a result of that wish, Penpa Tsering said.
(www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.)
