Sensitive Mind & Modern Outlook
In the contemporary world of changing political systems, it is not often that one comes across a personality like that of His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the King of Bhutan, whose sensitive mind and the modern outlook sustains the unity of the state and obtains the loyalty of the people.
I feel that the people of Bhutan are lucky to have His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck at the helm of at a time of rapid change of nations and societies due to continuing strides of science, technology and multimedia. Bhutan is no longer Shangri-La. It is a nation modernizing itself under the direct leadership of a man of vision who is not tempted by the glitter of borrowed modernism, but has the wisdom to find a judicious balance between the traditional and the modern. Under His Majesty’s guidance, Bhutan has arrived from the edge of time to the mainstream of global change. While its vision of the future are riveted on the great heights of the mighty Himalayas, in whose bosom it nestles, its feet are firmly on the earth that has sustained the Kingdom since it was created as the unified political entity in the 17th century. There may be no country like Bhutan that so well combines change with stability, the new with the ancient. The credit goes to the King as well as the people of Bhutan. The people are gentle, honest and hard-working. Their King laces power with compassion and humility.
My personal acquaintance with the Kingdom of Bhutan goes back to the coronation of His Majesty. The golden occasion was celebrated with Bhutan’s typical mingle of austerity and appropriate extravaganza; the solemnity of the occasion made almost more poetic by the youth of the new King and the dignity with which he ascended the throne. The year was 1974 and the new monarch was just 19 years of age. Since then I have had the pleasure of visiting Thimphu and other places several times and the honour of an abiding personal friendship with the King. I chose Thimphu as the first foreign capital to visit when I became Prime Minister of India in March 1997.
Impressions and Tributes
During his reign, Bhutan has grown from almost a pastoral economy to a steadily modernizing one, while its monarch has grown from a visionary youth to a mature person who is still young and, happily, has many, many years to pilot his Kingdom through the inevitable turmoil of growth and modernization. His matured youth has acquired some of the wisdom that is native to the Himalayas. He has drawn from the eternal storehouse of wisdom of the ever-enduring teachings of Gautama Buddha. Mixing caution with dynamism, at times with radicalism, he has brought his Kingdom to a stage when it has a surplus budget; finds most of its development funds from its own resources; has built and is still engaged in building institutions of the state as the habitat of a people on the move from one milestone of growth and development to another; and is steadily widening its horizons in education, health and freedom from want, as well as in political, economic and social development.
I have watched with admiration how the King of Bhutan has navigated the shoals of development. Bhutan is the most stable country in South Asia and in much of the wider world. He has not allowed Bhutan’s lavish wealth of forests to be ravished in the name of development. He has not allowed the fresh air and pure water of the rivers and rivulets flowing down from the Himalayas to be spoiled in the name of tourism. The big power plant at Chukha and the bigger one that is being built at Tala, both with India’s co-operation, provide enough electricity for Bhutan’s confident strides forward in the new millennium.
King Jigme Singye Wangchuck has crafted a process of democratization on Bhutan’s own cultural and civilisational tracks. From the village to the district to the national level, Bhutan is governed by elected representatives of its own people. It is they who determine the priorities of development. Never colonised by British, Bhutan has not tried to graft a foreign political model on its rocky and, at the same time, green pastures. Last year, the King delegated all executive power to the cabinet, and much against its will, persuaded the National Assembly to put before the people, for a whole year’s debate, a royal Kasho which makes it obligatory for the Parliament to express, in total freedom, its confidence in the monarch himself, If the vote of confidence does not pass, the monarch will step down in favour of the Crown Prince. Bhutan, then, is building its own democracy in accordance with its own design, with its own characteristics.
Bhutan is India’s closest neighbour, friend and ally. Its foreign policy is anchored on non-alignment. It has been playing an important role in SAARC since the creation of the regional body. Bhutan has long borders with Asia’s two largest countries, India and China. Both borders have remained peaceful and tranquil.
I began by saying that the people of Bhutan are fortunate in having as their monarch a man who has attributes of Plato’s philosopher-king. Let me end by saying that India is fortunate in having Bhutan and its young, dynamic, wise and progressive King as its closest neighbour and friend. I wish His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck a very long and active life engaged in one of the most fruitful models of political and social engineering of our time.
HE Mr. I.K Gujral, MP
Former Prime Minister of India
1999
Source: The Legacy of a King