The Ngaboization of Tibetan Society and its dangers
By Vijay Kranti
It’s surely not a happy situation when an Indian like myself, with over 37 year long association with Tibet and Tibetans, is suddenly inclined to underline the differences between his own society and that of his Tibetan friends. The way the Tibetan government and Tibetan refugee society have reacted to the death of Ngabo Ngawang Jigme, the most notorious Tibetan ‘traitor’ in historical memory, has been a very disturbing experience to most of friends of Tibet like me. During past one month I have come across quite a few Tibetans who are surprised to find their friends like Vijay Kranti and Claude Arpi looking far more ‘sensitive’ and ‘disturbed’ on this development than an average Tibetan refugee appears to be. To such friends I can offer only one humble explanation – it is only ‘sensitive’ individuals who have the guts and fire to make it their priority to stand by the victims of injustice. ‘Average’ people have too many other good things to worry about rather than issues like Tibet.
The only reason behind this apparent abnormal sensitivity on the part of friends of Tibet like me is that rehabilitation of Ngabo indicates towards the onset of an unfortunate process that I would like to term as the ‘Ngaboization’ of Tibetan refugee society. The ease with which this community appears to have accepted this historic development, has disturbed most of those ‘outsiders’ who care for Tibet and Tibetans. I doubt if any government of India could ever get away with a blunder of making a ‘national hero’ out of a most hated national ‘traitor’. Nor the intellectual and political leadership of my society could have been as indifferent as the Tibetan community leaders appear to be, to let such an issue go by so easily. As I present my reasons of such fears I pray that my fears prove wrong and misplaced.
First, it was the alacrity with which Dharamsala reacted to Ngabo’s death. The Kashag (central cabinet) of the Tibetan ‘Government-in-Exile’ (TGIE) took less than 24 hours to issue obituary to its parted ‘former minister colleague’ and officially certified him as ‘Honest and Patriotic’. Perhaps, to ensure that the emphasis on his ‘honesty’ and ‘patriotism’ as a Tibetan was not lost, the Kashag also certified in the same breath that Ngapo “.always spoke out the truth even under the most trying and difficult circumstances.” Interestingly, the Kashag has based this surprising claim about Ngabo’s ‘truthfulness’ on the inputs fed to Dharamsala by its ’Representatives’ and ‘Fact Finding Delegations’.
Prior to this Kashag statement, the only known public relation between Ngabo and the people of Tibet has been that while Ngabo has been doing and saying everything that China needed to justify its colonial control on Tibet, the Tibetan people have been referring to him with adjectives like ‘traitor’ and ‘sadri’ (Tib : a social parasite) with all the hatred and contempt that is reserved only for a national traitor.
DEAFENING SILENCE
But worse than this has been a deafening quiet, indifference and inertia on the part of Tibetan community’s leadership on a historic development like rehabilitation of a traitor of Ngapo’s rank to a respectable national hero. This leadership includes elected members of Parliament (current and former), former Kalons (ministers), leading socio-political groups like Tibetan Youth Congress, Tibetan Women’s Association, Gu-Chu-Sum, the National Democratic Party of Tibet (NDPT) and well known ‘dissident’ Tibetan political leaders and thinkers. In a society where a popular section of political leadership has been known for falling over one another in expressing opinions on issues of lesser significance, it was surprising for an observer like me to note that till today (26th Jan, 2010), over a month after the Kashag announcement on Ngabo, not (repeat NOT) even one among them has opened his/her mouth in approval or disapproval of this dramatic rehabilitation of the most controversial Tibetan of living memory. They seem to have left this responsibility to young bloggers who have been energetically expressing themselves in websites like ‘Phayul’ and ‘High Peaks Pure Earth’ in whatever language and terminology they choose. In my private phone talks, most of the Tibetan opinion leaders whom I could contact were very critical of the ‘homage’. But almost all of them were holding back for the fear that their opposition could be interpreted as challenging the authority of the exile government and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Mercifully, a few individuals like Tsoltim N. Shakabpa, Bhuchung D Sonam. and Khechog did show the courage to speak out in clear voice. But their number is too small to write much home about the fire in the exile community’s belly. Despite amidst this intriguing quiet on the exile side of Himalayas, the most admirable surprise came from Beijing in China from where famous Tibetan intellectual Ms. Woeser once again demonstrated her courage to stand up and be counted. Referring to the Xinhua interview with Ngabo on 2008 incidents as ‘most shameless behaviour’ of Beijing leaders, she paid a wholesome tribute to Ngabo saying : “… the grand and solemn memorial ceremony with Chinese characteristics, the government media and those government agents disguised as ordinary netizens, all gave him fulsome praise, honouring him as a ‘Chinese with great accomplishments’ and as a ‘great patriot’. These trites and commonplace expressions in fact humiliated him one last time….”
As an Indian, I am well aware of many deficiencies in the Indian culture and social behavior which cannot be defended. But I can still say that no Indian government or leader can ever imagine of getting away with expression of even an iota of praise or social honor for its own Ngabos like Jaichand or Mir Jafar who, just like Ngabo, paved way for Moghul and British occupation of India respectively in past centuries. In Indian society, naming kids after any imaginable character of famous epic ‘Ramayan’ (the story of Hindu God Rama) is a fashion with millions of families since immemorial times. It is not surprising if you come across families who named their son even after Ravan, the main villain of the story as he is still revered by a few for his wealth of knowledge and skills. But you will never hear of a family having named their child after Vibhishan, a ‘good guy’ character of the epic who committed treachery with his brother Ravan; joined Lord Rama’s side; and played pivotal role in killing of Ravan.in the final battle — just because he was a ‘traitor’. The cases of L. K. Advani and Jaswant Singh are too fresh to miss in this context. These two top national leaders of a prominent political party BJP lost face and their positions just for praising Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.
WHAT MESSAGE TO TIBETANS IN TIBET?
By declaring Ngabo as ‘Honest and Patriot’ one wonders what message TGIE wanted to convey to those millions of Tibetans inside Tibet who are fighting against an occupying regime that is known for adopting any means, whatever inhuman, to crush their resistance? Hopefully, this statement is not aimed at conveying to these brave Tibetans what kind of ‘national heroes’ they should follow. In light of Ngabo-obituary, it might be an interesting exercise to figure out how Tibet will now position those thousands of brave men like Andrug Gompo Tashi and Lobsang Wangdu who, unlike Ngabo, made a different choice of standing by the national honor and laid their lives for the freedom of Tibetan motherland?
In sharp contrast to such martyrs, Ngabo lived like as perfect a traitor as any text book on earth could have described one. On each day and in each event of his life, either as a Governor and Cabinet Minister of free Tibet or a willing collaborator of his Beijing bosses over next six decades, Ngabo opted for every option that ensued him a comfortable life in Beijing, good companions like Deng Xiaoping to play Bridge and Mahjong with, a cozy death bed in a five-star Chinese hospital and a front row burial site in Beijing’s ‘Babaoshan Revolutionary Funeral Parlor’ that is reserved for the exclusive club of top ‘patriotic’ and ‘revolutionary’ Chinese leaders.
EQUATING NGABO WITH 10TH PANCHEN LAMA
Despite my not-so-perfect knowledge of Tibetan history, I find myself at total loss to understand the logic of Kashag so generously placing Ngabo on a par with 10th Panchen Lama. It is not a state secret that during fateful years of Cultural Revolution it was only Ngabo among top Tibetan and Chinese leaders who escaped jail or even an elementary session of ‘Thamzing’– those notorious, horrifying and unending sessions of public trial and humiliation. In 1960s and 1970s when Ngabo was enjoying the best of honors and comforts in Beijing in the royal company of occupiers of his motherland, the 10th Panchen Lama, who, interestingly, was recognized and brought up in Beijing by the Chinese government since his childhood, was made to undergo worst kind of humiliation and physical torture for two decades in Chinese jails and labor camps. The only reason of this differential treatment to these two Tibetan ‘collaborators’ was that while Ngabo remained exclusively focused on promoting his personal interests at direct cost of his own fellow Tibetans and used all his talents to keep himself on the right side of Mao and his cronies, H.H. Panchen Lama chose to show the courage of challenging the false claims and misdeeds of Mao’s representatives and Party officials in occupied Tibet.
NGABO : HOW ‘HONEST’ AND ‘PATRIOT’ UNTIL HIS LAST WORDS?
In paying its tributes to Ngabo, Kashag appears to have chosen to exclusively rely on what was communicated to it by the “Tibetan Representatives and Fact Finding Delegations” in their closed door meetings with Ngabo in Beijing. While doing so, the Kashag has chosen to ignore what Ngabo actually said and did throughout his real life.
That should be a good clue for a researcher to go through the life history of Ngabo and take note of what kind of statements he has been reading in Chinese People’s Congress and other public forums while Tibet and her millions of Tibetans were undergoing most agonizing days of torture, cultural destruction and hunger during decades of Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap?
Following my first analysis of Ngabo’s contributions to Tibet and the glowing tributes he received from TGIE a day after his death (published in Phayul – 30th Dec 2009), I have come across three of most recent statements of and about Ngabo which, I am sure, the information office of TGIE, could never have missed. Had TGIE taken note of even one of these statements of Ngabo, the Kashag would have surely paused for a second thought before believing Ngabo as telling the Dharamsala delegates that believed or told Chinese leaders that “..there was never a history of Tibetan Government paying taxes to China..” OR that “in 1989 he clarified (to whom?) with historical backgrounds and facts that the Chinese propaganda (sic) about the Tibetans enthroning the present Dalai Lama with the acceptance and the permission of the Chinese Government is not true.”. Another hilarious briefing of certain delegates, which Kashag has chosen to believe about Ngabo is his reported assertion in 1991 (40 years after he signed on dotted lines to sell off Tibet) that “.. he called on the Central Government to implement articles of the ‘17-point Agreement’ in general and specifically those articles which state that Tibetan political status will not be changed..”
First statement is his interview with Chinese official news agency Xinhua, released on 24th March, 2008. In this report titled “Senior Political Advisor : Dalai Lama Backs Up Riots In Tibetan Regions” quotes Ngapoi (that is how his name is spelled in Chinese English versions) Ngawang Jigme as saying that “The Dalai Lama was the wire-puller of the riots which broke out in Tibetan regions in China..”. Referring to Ngapoi’s eulogies about “the great progress Tibet has made under the socialist system after liberation.” the Xinhua reporter (not identified by name) quotes Ngabo condemning the Dalai Lama and his TGIE with the assertion that “All Chinese including the Tibetan people would not allow any forces to split Tibet from the Chinese territory and would come together to fight for country’s unity and for Tibet’s welfare.”
Interestingly, exactly a year later (24th March, 2009) Xinhua released
the advance copy of Ngabo’s article ” Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme Hails Serfs Emancipation Day”, which was to be published four days later in People’s Daily on 28th March, the day PRC leaders decided to ‘celebrate’ as the 50th anniversary of Dalai Lama’s escape from Tibet in 1959. Giving his personal endorsement to this ‘celebration’ of PRC Ngabo wrote’ “Now we commemorate the Serfs Emancipation Day and will let our children remember history and look into the future. The Tibetan people will realize a united, prosperous and harmonious society as long as they depend on the leadership of the Communist Party of China..”
What a perfect example of Ngabo speaking ‘truth’ under ‘most trying and difficult’ circumstances?
NEED FOR A SERIOUS REVIEW OF ‘NGABOIZATION’
After knowing what Ngabo believed in and what Kashag wants Tibetan people and their friends to believe about Ngabo, what should be questioned? Genuineness of Ngabo – the great Tibetan ‘honest patriot’? OR wisdom of the Kashag that chose to pick up only selective information which, it says, was brought about Ngabo by the TGIE contacts and representatives? OR the wisdom or integrity ( both?) of those channels (referred to in Kashag’s obituary as ‘Tibetan representatives and fact-finding delegations’) who were bent upon creating a suitable atmosphere for rehabilitating Ngabo? The last one will call for a detailed, impartial and honest review of the inputs brought in by both ‘formal’ as well as ‘informal’ Tibetan ‘representatives’ and also those non-Tibetan individuals and groups who have been actively shunting between the two sides in past two-three decades. The Tibetan Justice Commission or a special committee of the exile Parliament or, may be, a mix of both institutions can do necessary justice to such a task. It would also have to include the much discussed (though in hush-hush manners) issue of alleged plantation of Ngabo’s son, a ‘Chinese’ national, first into the Tibetan movement in exile and then as the head of the Tibetan service of Radio Free Asia.
Another issue which needs to be studied seriously is the impact of such ‘inputs’ on the appeals and instructions issued by HH the Dalai Lama and the Kashag to Tibetans and Tibet support groups (TSGs) during the dialogue period (2002-2008) which required them to tone down their public protests against China and its leaders or scaling down their demands from ‘Rangzen’ (independence) to something less. This review will ensure that all these appeals from Dharamsala to its supporters was a result of genuine thinking on the part of TGIE and not a result of some calculated efforts and manipulations from other sources. It will also help in recovering some loss of zeal and faith that the Tibetan community and TSG movement have been undergoing since past over a decade.
Only a detailed review and inquiry by a competent statutory authority will ensure that no deliberate process of Ngaboization is going on in the heart of Tibetan exile system. It will also eliminate the fears whether certain individuals or groups among the exile community are gaining strength and influence who, like Ngabo, will find it more ‘profitable’ to reach an ‘amicable’ agreement with PRC on a ‘suitable’ day in future?
MAKING DALAI LAMA A SCAPE GOAT?
In my interaction with many well meaning Tibetans, including some senior government functionaries, opinion makers and members of exile Parliament during past month, I was (sadly) amused to note that there is no shortage of people who decided to keep quiet just because they sincerely believe that expressing a different opinion on this issue would amount to challenging the authority or personal wisdom of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Most of them religiously believe that they can not challenge the Kashag because it could not have issued the Ngabo obituary without instructions or expressed consent of His Holiness.
As a citizen of India where democratic expression has become a part of near genetic behavior, I could not imagine such an ingenious way of sabotaging a leader who has been busy all his life in instilling democratic values among his people. In a world where almost all governments and rulers are busy inventing clever and ingenious ways of grabbing and usurping the rights of their own people, we have an example of Dalai Lama who has been consistently transferring his own powers to his people through an unending chain of political reforms. And this list includes even the right to dethrone Dalai Lama from his position as the Head of State, if the elected representatives believe that his commitment to the country and performance are not up to the mark. Knowing His Holiness as much as I do as a friend, I can vouch for his faith in people’s democratic rights, rather ‘responsibility’, of expressing their opinion, especially when they disagree with the government on issues of serious national importance. I am sure he would have been happier to hear even some unreasonable voices amidst serious opinions rather than the ongoing total silence.
Far from an expression of loyalty towards HH Dalai Lama and Tibetan patriotism, by keeping their mouths shut during delicate times, the opinion leaders of Tibetan community are depriving their supreme leader and supreme executive from meaningful and genuine inputs. That will make the job of only Ngabos easier.
One dominant argument taking rounds in favor of Kashag’s obituary to Ngabo is that it will help TGIE in winning over those Tibetans who are working for the Chinese government inside Tibet and China. Anyone even with elementary knowledge of Tibetan situation will have serious doubts on how many such Tibetan collaborators will return to TGIE fold after noticing the rehabilitation of a national traitor like Ngabo. I am afraid this act of TGIE is rather going to break hearts of millions of patriotic Tibetans and will demoralize their supporters across the world. Worse than this, it will only encourage those Tibetans, especially among exile community, who have tendencies to opt for a more ‘profitable’ choice between fighting for Tibetan people’s rights and siding with the Chinese occupiers of their motherland.
History of Tibetan movement shows that Tibet can afford living with a thousand Ngabos in Beijing, but it cannot afford even one in Dharamsala.
In light of all this, I am still of the opinion that the best way for the Kashag today is to withdraw, or at least, redraft, its obituary to Ngabo. For, in the history of nations and societies, there are certain moments when the ‘shame’ of admission of a blunder at the right time and the courage of undoing it even at the risk of inviting ridicule and shame will add much more magnanimity to its leadership than thousands of routine good works put together can ever bring.
The writer is a veteran Indian journalist and a photographer who has had association with the Tibetan community for more than three decades. He has documented the exile Tibetan community’s journey through his lens. He lives in Delhi. He can be reached at vijaykranti@yahoo.com
[OPINION-DISCLAIMER]
