Let this new year mark a special epoch in our quest for Tibet
By Chime Tenzing
As we marked the end of 2009 to give way for a brand new year 2010, one can not but look back in retrospect over the past political adventures and misadventures experienced and perpetuated both by Dharamsala and Beijing. And one can not escape from feeling a tinge of remorse and hopelessness at the thought of spiteful and lingering political cross-fire that has maimed the hopes of our optimistic citizens in the past one year. It is apparent from all the news and the headlines in the international media that Beijing have spent most of its political oomph and energy in 2009 in finding ways to derail and disrupt prospective ‘dialogue’ with the Dalai Lama’s envoys instead of bridging the gap for a bilateral solution. Instead Beijing chose to work day in and out to up its ante against the wishes of the Tibetan people to the hilt!
It appears that Beijing had dedicated almost all the good part of 2009 to book, capture and incarcerate those ‘perpetrators’ of the 2008 protests in Tibet and those, that Beijing claimed were , behind the attempts to disrupt Beijing Olympics. As a result they’ve managed to put many innocent Tibetans behind the bar without access to any legal recourse, transparency and free trials. Today all those hapless political prisoners languishing in different cells in China’s Tibet cries for help but the flaws in the Chinese laws thwarts the international sympathizers from making their helping hand reach to them before they are sent to the gallows! The great shocker came in the form of the unfair and brazen imprisonment of its own citizen like Liu Xiabo, which showed to the world that even China’s own citizens are deprived from the freedom of expression and free speech to the extent that one could face imprisonment up to 11 years like Mr. Liu, if one dares to contradict and open his/ her mouth against the State and its machinery!
Back home – like its winter, Dharamsala is reeling under a cold and silent political climate – savoring some garam chai, some gossip & some moments under the sun seems to be the best part of the winter, everything else appears to have stood still like the snow-laden boughs of the Christmas trees. This simple arithmetic explains everything: Less people + less activism + less noise = more peace in Beijing! More peace at Beijing means more time for them to plot and plan for more counter-attack strategies and the cycle goes on until March when Tibetans will have celebrated Losar and also returned home from seasonal business spree. Then the reverse cycle begins: more people + more activism + more noise = less peace in Beijing! Therefore, the cycle of attacks and counter-attacks keeps going on between Dharamsala and Beijing under the cloud of looming uncertainties. This kept going on for 50 years and it’s time we put a full stop to this trend of power play & political gambit. We can not afford to waste no more time. The time is ripe to think out of the box and chalk out new strategies to break the lingering political stalemate and eventually come to a common ground through real talks and dialogues. We have already spent enough resources and time to create ‘conducive’ atmosphere for dialogue and now it’s time for making real breakthroughs rather than remaining submerged in the halo of hope and political hallucinations! The time has come to walk the talk!
The recent statement issued by the Special Envoy Lodi Gyari on Sino Tibetan Dialogue Process states – “during the most recent 8th round held in November 2008… the outright rejection of the Memorandum by the Chinese side, without even looking into many of the points raised therein, did not leave any scope for further contacts”.If Beijing persistently insists on downplaying with the compromised demands from the Tibetan side, we can not afford to keep aghast and mum anymore. The option of retaliation and retribution is always open with the Tibetans, especially with the youth. If Beijing plays truant all the time, it’s our unquestionable prerogative to set our priorities right. Rangzen or otherwise – we shall keep the ball rolling. Let’s do our best to make this year a special epoch in struggle for our rights and freedom. Let ‘tit – for –tat’ be our political mantra for 2010. After all, Tibetans know very well what the phrase nga-la-pa-pe-cham-gyap (dance according to the beat of the drum) means! Oh yes, Happy New Year!
[OPINION-DISCLAIMER]
