Abstract
The chapter aims to comprehend how the roles of and relationships among monastery, monarchy and parliament have been transformed under the recent “democratization project” of Bhutan and how those transformations have influenced the value system of the society. When the Election Act of 2008 stipulated that “religious personalities” shall be excluded from any polls, certain confusions occurred due to the uncertain definition of the term. Lay monks who had worked astride both spheres and acted as mediators became the ones facing the most difficulty to choose a single identity to live with. Although the reformed polity of Bhutan praises the value of the public sphere as a discursive space in which people congregate to discuss matters on the basis of a multivalue system, it appears also to restrain people from having plural attributes simultaneously. The chapter attempts to describe the features of the ongoing democratization project of Bhutan and examines the possibility to create an alternative form of democracy.
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Notes
- 1.
In the history of the Wangchuck dynasty that started in 1907, only the fifth king succeeded to the throne before the previous king passed away. Although in the Constitution a retirement age of (65 years) for the monarch was implemented, the coronation ceremony of 2008 was organized before King Jigme Singye reached 65 years.
- 2.
According to an interview with a village woman living in Lhuntse Dzongkhag who was selected as one of the first female representatives from the area in the 1990s, her work at that time was to circulate the resolutions of each assembly session among every village household in her constituency and receive seals (fingerprint of the representative of the household) from each household and then to send them to Thimphu .
- 3.
Dzongkhag is the administration unit equivalent to district or prefecture, and Bhutan is divided into 20 Dzongkhags. The unit below Dzongkhag is Gewog . A few bigger Dzongkhags have Dungkhag as a medium administration unit before Gewog.
- 4.
In Bhutan, broadcasting service in radio started in 1979 and in television in 1999. Live broadcasting service in television came in 2007 when the first parliamentary election happened. Now, speeches and debates during parliamentary elections as well as during parliamentary sessions are broadcasted through multiple media such as radios, televisions and newspapers .
- 5.
One of the factors that have restrained people from creating a new family might be a conventional labour tax imposed on the household . This system has continued until recently, and most family members have attempted to minimize the tax by restricting themselves from setting up a new house and household.
- 6.
In most rural areas of Bhutan, most households need to rely on remittances from family member working for the government whenever they need cash, and thus those officials are a representative for the members living in their villages . When the first National Assembly election result came out as a landslide victory of Druk Pungtsom Tshokpa against the expectation of having a well-balanced parliament where seats are divided between two parties almost equally, there was a rumour saying that strong influences were brought to the villages by many government officials who went back to the village to vote before the polling day. This was because a majority of them were seemingly supporting Druk Pungtsom Tshokpa due to their relatively conservative policy and attitude.
- 7.
Shabdung is an honorific title which means the great master who integrates and leads both the religious and secular worlds.
- 8.
In 2011, the palace established a new fund-raising system “Kidu Foundation” on the initiative of the young fifth king Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck as an alternative resource for royal kidu. This new institution can make kidu as an autonomous activity because of its separate funding scheme from the government and has become a symbolic institution to represent the apolitical nature of the king in the new governmental system. The beneficiaries of the Kidu Foundation focus more on vulnerable sections of the society such as poor, sick, disabled, and children (http://www.kidufoundation.org/about-his-majesty/).
- 9.
The article declares “Proclamation of Emergency under section 1 or 2 of this Article shall remain in force for a period of not more than twenty-one days from the date of the proclamation unless parliament , in a joint sitting, resolves by not less than two- thirds of the total number of members of parliament to extend it within the said period” (33–3), and “Not less than one-fourth of the total number of members of the National Assembly may move a resolution to disapprove such a Proclamation of Emergency or disapprove the continuance in force of such Proclamation by writing to the Druk Gyalpo if the House is not in session and to the Speaker if the House is in session” (33–4).
- 10.
Under the Local Government Act 2009, GYT changed its name into Gewog Tshogde, and DYT changed its name into Dzongkhag Tshogde (Royal Government of Bhutan 2009).
- 11.
After the first national election, in an article of the newspaper Bhutan Observer in 2010 , a staff member of a religious organization commented that if a person is disenfranchised due to participation in a religious organization, applicants for membership will decrease, and it will be difficult to manage such an organization itself, and thus it might prevent them from accessing and participating in the development of the organziation (Bhutan Observer, 24 September 2010).
- 12.
The Election Act of Bhutan was approved only after the first national election was completed. It was promulgated officially at the first National Assembly in 28 July 2008.
- 13.
In the Election Act of Bhutan, there is still much room for alternative interpretations, and thus during each election, Election Commission receives various complaints and inquiries. Therefore, the Election Commission announced “Election Dispute Settlement Rules and Regulations of the Kingdom of Bhutan, 2013” in 2013 in order to legalize the procedure of investigation for inquired-about cases (Education Commission of Bhutan 2013c).
- 14.
At that time, all other party leaders together requested the Election Commission to let this party be registered. However, the Election Commission did not withdraw the final decision.
- 15.
Among them, the Bhutan Observer later withdrew from the print media to specialize in the Internet media.
- 16.
http://jabbhutan.com (viewed on 13 September 2014) <http://jabbhutan.com> (viewed on 13 September 2014)
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Miyamoto, M. (2017). A Form of “Democratization Project” in Contemporary Bhutan: Being Apolitical and Being Religious. In: Schmidt, J. (eds) Development Challenges in Bhutan. Contemporary South Asian Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47925-5_6
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