By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, March 9: The two 2016 Sikyong candidates on Tuesday met for the second public debate at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts at an event organized by National Democratic Party of Tibet (NDPT). The event that took almost two hours languished upon clarifications of the two candidate’s stand over a range of issues.
The incumbent Sikyong Lobsang Sangay and Speaker of Tibetan Parliament in Exile Penpa Tsering exhaustively provided clarifications on their stand on the row over the postponement of the Kalachakra initiation, the unity quotient of the exile Tibetans, the status of Tibetan women in exile and other issues largely covering less significant issues.
Among the queries from the public, former Gu-Chu-Sum Political Prisoners Movement Ngawang Woebar questioned the standard of the debate for the highest office in the Tibetan polity and the lack of discussions on the political struggle. He exclaimed, “It is disheartening to see the two candidates mull almost exclusively on how and what they will accomplish in the exile community which is essentially catered to the vote banks in India, Nepal and Bhutan. The larger topic of political struggle has not been brought up as it should have been. Issues like that of political prisoners and what has been done for them was not discussed. I have been following the campaign developments from both the candidates and the larger issues have been sidelined.”
Both the candidates responded that the issues discussed on their campaign tours and debate were what the Tibetan people wanted to know and hence they obliged.
A public participant in the event and the President of the Jhonang Welfare Association in Exile Tsangyang Gyatso, speaking to Phayul, remarked, “The debate went fairly good although the larger issues of dialogue between the exile government and Beijing and the political struggle were not raised.”
On the two candidates engaging in clarification and questioning each other’s stand during a public event, he said, “I believe that these are a part of a democratic institution. The fact that we are having debates, questioning each other on such platforms and providing clarifications is a message to China. It’s a part of the democratic institutions all over the world; I don’t see it as a faulty element.”
Zhu Weiqun, chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference’s Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee, recently at a government event in Beijing opined that the developments of the Tibetan exile polity as being a society engaged in infighting and fragmented along the lines of various social diversities.
Responding to such claims, the incumbent Sikyong Lobsang Sangay told reporters, “I feel that today’s event has been successful in accordance with His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s gift to democratize of the Tibetan exile government. Although China is pointing fingers at exile government, they should know that when you point a finger, four fingers from the same hand are pointed towards themselves. I feel that today Beijing should be a little frightened by what has happened here”.
