By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, March 20: The Speaker of Tibetan parliament who faces the incumbent Tibetan Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay in the final elections on Sunday said that the race for the highest office of the Tibetan polity is going to be a close one. “In the prelims I got only one-forth of the votes but this time it is going to be competitive. I travelled to several places and made every effort to aware the general public about the reality of the situation and my manifesto, which gives details about my future plans. I am hopeful that I have made some influence on the electorate and I have a good possibility.”
When asked what major changes his government would bring, he said, “For some things we have to go back to former PM (Trisur) Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche’s time, where the government was more important than the individual heading it.”
The candidate also said that it is essential to give due importance to the rules and regulations in a democracy and to the CTA staff members since they are the backbone of all the policies and programs implemented for the Tibetans. “May be for western politicians it is a good thing to keep up the image but for Tibetans modesty is more important.”
“The reason why we are here in exile is because of the political situation in Tibet. So we have to find ways and means to reach out to the Chinese leadership and resume talks. I will try every possible means and ways to resume dialogue and resolve the Tibetan issue as soon as possible,” he said regarding the Sino-Tibet dialogue.
He said the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama has an important role despite his devolvement of all political powers. “Since the incumbent Tibetan government has made clear that Beijing won’t engage with CTA’s representatives, the only other way is through His Holiness’s representatives.”
