My Vote!

It is raining in Gelephu.  I am reading, “Following the money trail in politics” on Kuensel. Just makes me wonder if we are heading towards managed democracy, more specifically money managed.  May be not, considering that the voters are not as politically raw as they were first time around and if we can call 2008 result a trend. The July 13 is approaching fast and the choice is in the hands of every registered voter including me.  This is how I would decide which ballot button to press.

First and foremost I will identify candidate who is more authentic. Only genuine persons will better serve the community, society, constituency and the nation. The authentic persons will not try to mortgage community’s future with offers of telecom vouchers/gho pieces/money/personal packages. They do not believe in building legitimacy but believe in building legacy. They do not view not winning an election as rejection.  Rather than rejection, they see it as constituency’s loss and politely move ahead to next platform for some pragmatic contribution. The more you are genuine a person, the less you need to prove yourself to others. So authentic persons are in positive frame of mind to better serve the nation.  How do I know who is more genuine? 

Ten-point principles will help me identify:

(i)   I will categorize the candidate promising development handout as if he/she will be doing people a favour as non-genuine. Every citizen has a right to development. Development is not prerogative of politicians. I would rather go for a person who promises how best he/she will utilize the political positions, authorities and services to mobilize resources to help achieve constituency’s growth objectives.  For example, one promises feeder road and the other says how resources (men, machinery, material and money) for the feeder road will be mobilized and community empowered to value and maintain the feeder road for longer-term benefits of the people. One is about giving handout and other owning and supporting the transport problem. My support will go to latter.

(ii)  My vote will not go to a person who talks top-down considering himself/herself as super being for acrimonious reasons. Authentic persons are levelheaded and humble, not arrogant, and know how to talk to people at every level from village illiterate to intellectuals, and with peoples of every region and background.  I respect humility.

(iii)  I will not vote for a person who tries to take advantage   of others’ mistakes. Persons enhancing their own status/positions at the expense of others never make good leaders. We all make mistakes. They are essential for improvement. Albert Einstein said," A person who never made mistake never tried anything new."

(iv)   I will not support candidates who live on hardened attitude and bitter prejudices of past.  Persons coming forward with such frozen negative sentiment lack rational thinking. First step to improving life is to improve thinking.  We need leaders with ability to think deep to guide us with foresight and courage.

(v)   I will classify the candidates who had opportunity to contribute but did not do it in the past, and now talk about doing things (which they have no clue about) as insensitive, irresponsible and incompetent. Such candidates do not deserve my support.

(vi)  I will not vote for person who works hard but with no sense to add value. In new economy you are compensated by not how hard you work but how much value you add.

(vii)  I will discard a candidate whose coordinators, tshogpas and  jabchorpas (paid workers) are of dubious integrity and shady background and are trying to lure voters through illegal means. They deserve last minute dump (no need to teach anyone this) because  superficial persons make shallow promises and have no credibility to make contributions.

(viii) I will vote for an unorthodox person. Unorthodox people are far more real, distinct and productive than people taking shelter under custom as cover of their shortcomings. As Rousseau says, “Take the course opposite to custom, you will almost always do well.”

(ix)  I will vote for candidate who accepts complete responsibility for the way things are, looks for new ideas and pioneers rational reforms.  Ability to introduce new dimension in your thought process is an important characteristic of a leader.

(x)   I will vote for a person who, in my opinion, has intellect for deep understanding of and acting on His Majesty’s message to the elected representatives

(a)on importance of shouldering duties and responsibilities;

(b)in providing service  to achieve the national goal to fulfill the aspiration of the people;

(c)in upholding democratic values including rule of law, good governance and  equitable prosperity;

(d) in maintaining tranquility; and

(e) in safeguarding security of the nation.

If you think I am looking for a person with all these attributes, I am not. When the choice is limited it is  relative, not absolute. In Bhutan almost everything is relative and one-dimensional. I am not looking for an ideal member of parliament. It’s the question of who is more authentic of the two. Not even more authentic, potentially authentic will be acceptable. So, my vote  (and yours) is (are) our future.  And, at no cost (you and ) I should let it go waste!

Bhutan Votes .....(2)

Sanney , from Dovan village under Sompangkha constituency (Sarpang Dzongkhag), lives in Gelephu and drives our tipper truck. About a month back he came to me saying tail light of the tipper was not working. It was high time we fixed it because local police caught him thrice but he got away with some story. I asked if it was the same police. He said different person every time. There was high chance that one of those three would catch him again. We fixed the light. He got away thrice. A street-smart fella ! I know it because he also gets away from me with his little story when he does a small “side business”. He does not know that I let him get away because he is pretty resourceful at the level and gives good output.

Last Wednesday (29 May) he asked permission to go to Dovan to vote (31 May primary round) because people there were telling him that he must come.  He said he would return on Sunday (2 June). The truck had to be parked for three days. I let him go. He returned to work on Monday (3 June). I asked Sanney, “ how did the voting go”?  He said he had to walk for more than a day to reach his village because the feeder road was completely blocked with landslide. He only knew “Chara (bird) Party” and “Ghora  (horse) Party”. His “sathi-bhai” (friends and family) told him to press “Chara Party” button, and he did it. Didn’t he see four black buttons? He said there were  quite a few but he did not care to see. He just pressed the "bird" button with right thumb. I asked, “you did not think of the feeder road and having to walk  more than a day while pressing the button?” He answered with a question  ” sir, wasn’t that feeder road constructed by the government?”  The street-smart guy is politically inert! And so are most of the rural population.There you have the educated/uneducated, urban/rural votes split.

Yes,  it was  either “Chara Party”  or “Ghora Party” , not so much DPT or PDP leave aside Druk Phuensum Tshogpa or People’s Democratic Party, in villages.   I do not need to tell you what “equity and justice” or  “empowering people for liberty, equality and prosperity…”  … blah … blah … means on ground or above. 

The “Chara Party” and “Ghora Party” are  not just village jargons.  These are political space carved out since 2008. It was much easier then because there was no primary round, the political space was empty  and there were just “bird” and “horse”.  You will know how difficult it is to carve out a space if the space is already  more or less occupied. You need to penetrate and convince people to shift position not with the intention of additional occupancy but replacement of one of the two.  Did Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) or  Druk Chirwang Tshogpa (DCT) try to penetrate gewog, chiwog and remote communities? It was out of their reach, and they did not even try. So why would you be surprised with the DNT result? I am not.

Is there additional primary round space  for two/three more parties? Well Sanney did not care to look into other buttons when there were just four, and then why would the others look elsewhere  when their “friends and families have told them to press specific button”.   The “friends and families” do not tell to press specific button out of nowhere. Primary round of three would make strategic sense, more than that is new parties’ dilution of the chances.  I am not saying, the primary round result is.

The primary round election result did not have big surprises but had some results that raised few eyebrows.  The DPT walked away with 33 seats, PDP 12 seats and DNT just 2.  The Pelela-east were swept by DPT except DNT stronghold, Thrimshing (Trashigang), but Pelela-west was dominated (9 seats out of 14) by PDP. You may call sympathy votes/stronghold or whatever, East going with DPT was expected. Looking at DPT-PDP nexus and also because DPT being the ruling party, the voting pattern in west tend to point towards anti-DPT pattern rather than pro-PDP  drive. The south is somewhat balanced. I call balance even though  DPT grabbed 7 out 10 seats mainly because the differences are marginal.  So how did PDP pull the rabbit out their hat, when everyone thought the “horse”, only a few weeks ago, was  hardly breathing. Did it get injected some oxygen drips? You will find out. It isn’t rocket science. The fact is the “horse” is up and running (the race).

Assuming voters turn-out of around 55% (same as primary round), 23% of the DNT & DCT votes (of which 33%, 9%, 24% and 34% are in the pockets of eastern, central, western and southern regions respectively) are up for grabs in general election, and will be shared by DPT and PDP . The share gets added to DPT’s primary round slice of 44.5% or PDP’s 32.5%. Without going too far, anyone in the street will tell you that DCT/DNT supporters are less likely to press the “bird” button in the forthcoming general election. And the shocking comment like people did not vote for DPT because they are ungrateful for what DPT has done in last five years  is not going to help them. The setting makes figures exciting and race competitive.

The straight line extrapolation will throw light on the election scenario, even though actuals may be pretty far from what is deduced here. With less than 75% of DCT/DNT votes to PDP, DPT will form the next government hands-down and PDP will sit once again in opposition benches.  If PDP can grab 75%,  one constituency of eastern, two constituencies of central, two  of western and solid four of southern region will move to PDP basket. The score: DPT:- 26; and PDP:-21. Still DPT government.

With 80% of DCT/DNT votes to PDP, one more constituency  each from eastern, central, western and southern region will take PDP side.  The result: DPT-:22; and PDP-25.  PDP forms the government, DPT is pushed to opposition benches.

Let DPT/PDP do their due diligence to find out which are those  13 critical seats  (east:2, central:3, West:3 and south:5). And,  they have to be smarter than going with blank assumption that the educated and/or urban votes will go along with the dropped out candidates,  Not only these, work out strategies to win those borderline 13.  Wow, borderline?  The 75-80% of DCT/DNT votes a borderline? No way, skeptics would say. Ladies and Gents, I am talking politics, not mathematics! The Bhutanese Politics, which gave us last five-year the Parliament of 45:2 ratio.

Bhutan Votes !

I write with no individual,  organization and/or political party in mind. It is about the issues that are of extreme importance for the nation.  If you think  the issue relate to an individual/organization/party, it is because no issue exists in isolation. And, my conscience does not permit me stooping low to target anyone.

First, let us look at the political democracy. After technical success of National Council (NC) election, we are in the midst for selecting National Assembly members: members of parliament (MPs). With four political parties in the run, primary round (on 31 May 2013) will select the winner and a runner-up parties, who will go for general election (13 July 2013). The party candidates have been introducing themselves, party presidents , party ideologies/manifestos, their plans/programs and/or “khicheri” (hotchpotch) of everything at high-school-level deliberations, as far as substance is concerned, in Dzongkha. The presentations by southern and eastern candidates are entertaining and humorous. I am not saying… those smart villagers with Dzongkha as their mother tongue are. They even have compiled few pieces for their comical amusement I was told.

So, the campaign continues with normal political bickering and the candidates’ own perception of why they/their parties are best suited to represent the constituencies. Mostly they think they can resort to seduction of societies, and live life on their own terms once His Majesty bestows dhar on them. In my humble view dhar representing delegation of power and authority is a dated interpretation.  His Majesty’s address on 25 May 2013 to the newly elected NC members emphasized on importance of shouldering genkha (duties and responsibilities); serving  to achieve the national goal to fulfill the aspiration of the people; upholding democratic values including rule of law, good governance and equitable prosperity; maintaining tranquility and safeguarding security of the nation.  It would really make a difference if the NC members (and MPs later) deeply understood the difference!

So NC members and MPs need to show complete commitment to living a life that is true and honest and authentic to themselves. People bowing and begging for kidu (favour) to their own elected representatives is not democratically authentic. They should not underestimate the power of authenticity and also the power of word of mouth.

The primary round result will be party-based and decided on overall national electoral votes. I am not sure if the logic of identifying the candidates before the primary round while the vote buttons are to be pressed against bird/horse/flower/duck will give clear idea of primary round democratic selection process. If the purpose of party-based primary round is aimed at selecting a political party best suited to serve the King, country and the people; the people are likely to cast their primary round vote mostly keeping in mind which candidate should get through to general election. And so, is the environment leveled for four parties to compete for party-based national electoral votes? I am not sure!

If primary round performance of a party (essentially candidate because candidates have been going around blowing their own trumpets) in a constituency is poor fourth position but party is voted top two nationally,  the party (and the candidate) is through to general election. I am not convinced if it is democratic.

Second, frankly I have had no time (and patience) to sit and listened to all parties and candidates. I heard nothing, absolutely nothing, about where we are and where we are going. Have they told us anything on the following?

(i)                    What policies,  strategies, plans and programs they will pursue to enable the people of the country to enhance their capacity to earn;

(ii)                  How will they ease rupee crunch and what specific plans and programs they will pursue for it? What is the time frame?;

(iii)                 How they will deal with the mounting debt, and what is the economic model;

(iv)                 Is the current open-ended development investment model  (hydropower projects, domestic airports, feeder roads, IT park, Supreme court buildings, education city etc.) appropriate for the country?  If not, what is the appropriate model?

(v)                  How they will mobilize resources to meet their pledges (bulldozer for every gewog, Phuentsholing-Thimphu railway, Phuentsholing-Samdrupjongkhar railway, encouraging foreign direct investments (FDIs) and unending lists)?

(vi)                 What is their financial forecast for next five years, and  standby plan if there is hard landing of economy?

It is worth asking hard questions if your NCs and MPs have to be authentic to themselves first and to you next, so that His Majesty’s words of shouldering genkha (duties and responsibilities); serving  to achieve the national goal to fulfill the aspiration of the people; upholding democratic values including rule of law, good governance and  equitable prosperity; maintaining tranquility and safeguarding security of the nation reverberate next five years into their ears!

Third, on the political commitment, the ruling party candidates seem more relaxed on assumption that they will ride on the party's shoulder to general election. I saw neither deep commitment taking into account their past experience nor in-depth understanding of the trend set with NC election. People say power is intoxicating. I do not know. I have never been in the position. The other three are more on "enemy's enemy is a friend" pitch. When 47 is just a number, why worry front-footing three times over. There we go, the 2013 general election with results that will not really shock anyone this time!

The Macro-financial Reform

One of the best advices to me came from a traditional Chinese doctor in Beijing. She spoke beautiful fluent English (traditional doctor and fluent English are rare but impressive combination I thought). I had gone with a pre-conceived notion that all traditional treatments are good for chronic diseases and have low side-effects. In my case it was not even chronic. After  “dungso” (Bhutanese traditional doctor), Korean ginseng , fish-oil capsules and western medications failed to produce satisfactory result, I had the opportunity to try traditional Chinese medication to lower my cholesterol level : the higher it got, lower became my body energy level.

Of the one hour consultation only 10 minutes were allocated on check-up, the rest were more of question (hers) and answer (mine) session including why I had so much trust on traditional Chinese medication, why I thought traditional medicines had low side-effects and so on.  At the end she prescribed food and exercise regimes and told me to come after a month for next consultation. No medication! In the next visit, cholesterol  level showed slight decline.  Good, she said and so I thought, thinking Chinese drugs would now be apt. This time she spoke and I listened.  It was all about “adjusting life style with time”.  Yes, “with time” including age, environment, situation and pace. People destroy their lives because at 60 they still live the life-style of 25, she said.  I understood but what about the cholesterol medicine. “Adjust your life-style  to properly suit you to live long”, and that was her medication for cholesterol. In other words, if I did not change my life-style with time ( “reform” in structural context) I will not live long.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently approved a grant of $20.81 million and program loan of SDR 9.224 million (a total of $35.00 million equivalent) under the Strengthening Economic Management Program (the Program). The Program is aimed at pursuing policy reforms through budget support for the Government, “which currently faces weakening growth prospects and challenges in macroeconomic management.” The figures look generous. Generally, the generosity of ADB (for that matter all international financial institutions) is associated with seriousness. So “budget support”, “weakening growth prospects” and “challenges in macroeconomic management” are not to be taken lightly by any stretch of ingenuity.

And, the Program is pinned around “Over time, as construction (of hydropower projects) is completed and plants go onstream, exports increase, the trade balance gradually improves, and export earnings meet loan servicing requirements. In the meantime, sizable positive capital inflows from capital grants and development assistance keeps Bhutan’s balance of payments in surplus.” With no analytical support some may find the deduction cautious, I do not. In fact I am happy with it given the natural environment, technology, management and capacity factor of the existing hydropower plants. These may be the reasons why the Program outcome and performance targets and indicators are net of hydropower loans, meaning risks associated with hydropower loans are not taken into account in the Program formulation. If we add, it is heavy!

The ADB’s Program is generous with serious forewarnings:

 “If the critical factors are not properly addressed, the economy may be headed for a hard landing with potentially large economic losses reversing recent gains in socioeconomic development”

“In the absence of reform measures—with inflation, fiscal deficit, and current account deficit increasing and already at relatively high levels—the economy may run the risk of a hard landing and even recession.”

I read several places the words “hard landing”. Believe me, I know what goes into writing such sentences.  I am not implying anything but emphasizing at this critical juncture the importance of sound macroeconomic reform. The general attitude that program loan/grant  agreement covenants are to be implemented lightly aiming mostly at timely release of loans/grants, with low priority on in-depth  longer-term policy impacts because reforms are politically difficult to swallow, is misguided.  It would be a big mistake if we take lightly ADB’s timely offer to improve (i) budget and debt management system, (ii) revenue management system, (iii) macro-prudential management framework, and (iv) external and internal audit operations. If we just consider the Program as an instrument to meet the resource gap, we will miss the boat. I am quite definite about it.

I do not believe the macro-financial reforms under the Program are adequate to ensure macroeconomic stability and/or even ease rupee liquidity crunch near-term, but it is a good beginning in the right direction. I do see small weaknesses  on some aspects of the Program, e.g. the shallow mitigating measures for the risks identified and so on, but then it is up to the Government to go deeper. The fact is we live in a globalized world that moves fast, and  have to move with the flow with step-by-step integration of the economy with ICT sector. Those who do not follow the pace are bound to get dragged or even stepped on.  The choice right now is still with us: the wrong pick will take us to hard landing of economy. If you have doubt read carefully ADB’s Report and Recommendation of the President to the Board of Directors for Strengthening Economic Management Program, and Financing Agreement.

It would make much difference if the new Government is capable and credible to understand and undertake the reforms agreed with ADB with sincerity and diligence. To ADB the change of government  would not make a difference considering that the "Beneficiary" (changed from  "Borrower" for the Program) is the Kingdom of Bhutan, not Government of Bhutan.  The Financing Agreement is between the Kingdom of Bhutan and ADB.

The Knowledge Economy..(3) - Positive Contribution

            I do not feel comfortable chasing name, fame, limelight and/or attention. May be  because I always thought power, position and/or authority as outcomes, not objectives.  Some might think I am insane and talking rubbish. The fact is I have never been desperate for success. I enjoy creating value, no matter how small. I believe success follows automatically. If I think I did something of a substance that is of some benefit, I am happy. But it is not charity. If I am not good to myself how can I be good to others. If others fail to recognize and/or appreciate what I did, its up to them and not my problem. I move on. A simple bloke with a straightforward thought, I am.

I worked for the Royal Government of Bhutan from 1973-90, of which 16 years were with Public Works Department (still known around as PWD), the biggest department in terms of number of workers and budget in 1980s. I started as a young civil engineer. By 1985 at 35, I was the head of PWD and put my young energy and time -- most valuable resources -- into the department. Today, no one remembers who was responsible for constructing Tangmachu bridge  and driving the first motor vehicle to Lhuntse Dzong in 1982. No one cares who contributed most in the construction of road from Tsirang to Dagana Dzong including first bridge over Sunkosh river enabling 1986 National Day celebration in Dagana. No one knows who walked on foot from Wangdue to Damphu to finalize the Wangdue-Tsirang road alignment (initially planned as 2-lane) that forms today vital link of the national road network interconnecting south with west.  No one is interested in finding out who negotiated the PWD take-over of Simtokha-Trashigang and Trongsa-Gelephu highways from Dantak. And, so on. To me none of those impressions/opinions/views/appreciations/condemnations are important. What I value most is my fulfillment that I enjoyed working and made some contribution. I gave my energy and time to the benefit of the people.

I sincerely believed then and am convinced now that construction sector plays a very important role in positioning private sector on strong footing and therefore in building the nation. This is particularly so in a small landlocked country. During 1980s and before, PWD was undertaking most of the construction works in the country and therefore led construction sector by setting professional standards, ethics and discipline. Strong support was provided by senior engineers on deputation from Government of India. I, as head of PWD, wanted to put into proper footsteps the development of road construction with the help of Asian Development Bank. We formulated the Road Works Mechanization Project  under the guidance of late Dasho Lam Penjor, then Deputy Minister of Planning Commission, to enable systematic development of private sector  to take up road works within the country first, and in the region, yes in the region,  longer term. The concept involved  setting up of mechanized road construction units (in three specialized categories: formation cutting - 4 units, basecourse - 2 units and bituminious sealing - 1 unit), corporatizing first and then privatizing those units eventually. This, in my view, would have helped not only road construction but development of construction sector as a whole. The disciplined construction sector has positive influence on the environment in which private sector operates.

Dasho Lam Penjor died in a road accident in 1985. The new road construction equipment under the Roadworks Mechanization Project started to arrive in 1988. In 1989 I was asked to hand-over PWD to Dorji Tenzing, a semi-literate bigot who did not know  "E" of engineering, and was transferred to the then National Urban Development Corporation (NUDC) that had nothing to do with road works. That was the first time in the history of PWD, the department was being headed by non-engineering person whose qualification and competency were nothing compared with what were required of a head of PWD position. Thus the beginning of an era of treating all senior positions as favours, instead of high level professionally responsible positions requiring dedicated hard work. 

   Tenzing sold all road mechanization equipment to private individuals who believed road engineering was nothing more than owning bulldozers, excavators, road rollers, dump trucks. The road works mechanization and modernization concept, and strategy to develop competent private road contractors died with it. The skeptics  may have argued then that as the beginning of a technical attrition. I know where we would have been today if specialized and technically competent road construction units had been created, developed, corporatized and privatized. But I do not know where the sector currently is in terms of technical discipline, ownership and commitment. Do these carry any meaning in today’s Bhutanese professional world? You do not need to go too far for an answer. The writing is on the wall. I tried technical mainstreaming but it did not materialize. I have the satisfaction of trying my best. I did not worry then and do not now. Worry weakens the mind of its power to think and analyze, and takes us on more negative track. I opt for positive route. So I moved on. As simple as that, as far as I am concerned! But the fact is heavy prices are being paid. If you pretend not to see now, the forces will multiply and events will catch-up one day, not very far from now. 

            So, did I do enough to offset the fact that I, a son of poor villager who could not afford a pair shoes for his son, had an opportunity to study in India including in prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur? I do not wish to put myself on the weighing machine. I'd rather see from an angle if I am making any contribution to benefit human kind. I feel good that road financing in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyz Republic are more efficient because of the influence of the ADB-financed projects that I developed introducing road fund concept. It makes me feel happy in learning that Pakistani private contractors are gaining better traction in dealing with their government clients by signing more balanced contracts, and gives me good feeling that the Chinese are going ahead with the showcase workshops, the concept I introduced to mobilize their in-country knowledge products from advanced eastern coastal region to backward western and inner provinces. I believe positive contributions, as long as they benefit human kind, have neither boundary nor expiry date.

Positive contribution emanates from knowledge/wisdom and is the way to fostering knowledge economy. Loyalty is a poor substitute of knowledge/wisdom.. Those who do not believe, pay the price. There is no other way!

The Knowledge Economy..(2) - Positive Balance

I do not believe that our level of creativity and innovation is to be interpreted in terms of  doing anything near the development of general theory of relativity by Albert Einstein,   invention of the World Wide Web by British computer scientist Timothy John Berners-Lee, or the level of “deep collaboration”, “cross-pollination” and “concurrent engineering”  applied for innovation by Steve Jobs in Apple Inc.  Our creativity and innovation are about thinking and doing new things on whatever we are doing regularly and adding positive incremental value, in whatever small way or amount, to the routine works instead of heading in reverse direction with negative attributes.

Even for such creativity and innovation, you need adequate time and space in addition to positive attitude and some ability to explore (I prefer the word analyze) things at the individual’s level enabling minute incremental value addition. The Bhutanese by nature are with positive attitude, leaving aside some exceptions. The analytical ability develops through an atmosphere of positive cross-pollination culture. It is almost impossible to create such positive, in the context of development, environment with over-loading of responsibilities which creates time and space (mostly functional space but also physical many times) congestion. The gridlock impairs  individual’s as well as institution’s ability to perform with creativity and innovation.

I earnestly believe that first step towards balancing power, authority, responsibility and accountability is through provision of proper time and functional space in a work environment with an aim to achieve shared balanced responsibilities. The responsibility defines an individual’s work and institution’s function, and therefore has to fit well in the time and space slots.

First, the government and private sector have to share the responsibilities pertinently allocating the tasks that can be best performed by private sectors to private, and leaving government to carry out its functions effectively. In a government-led economy, the government tend to do practically everything exercising its authority leaving largely the uncertainties to private sector. This, in my view, is one of the main reasons for  brewing/incubating/fostering corrupt, coercive, collusive and fraudulent practices (example below). The Anti Corruption Commission (Bhutan), Discipline Commission (China), and Central Bureau of Investigation and Income Tax Department (India) are not the solution to minimizing such practices. Nowhere it has worked, not even in China with very high level Discipline Commission to take severe actions to curb corruption with the help of networks of informers and complete control over personal files.

The step-by-step transformation of economy to knowledge-based is difficult if it is mostly government-led and does not enjoy the confidence of private  and non-profit sectors. I talked to several prominent contractors and private entrepreneurs. All of them felt that Bhutanese economy is predominantly government-led and private  entrepreneurs did not have conducive environment and  opportunities in equal footings for competing and performing with creativity and innovation because the business environment favoured "interfaced influential” (ii) or simply (i2) or those with unfair means as an edge over others. The contractors say, ”we are treated shabbily. If I raise my voice or protest against government wrongdoing, I become the black sheep and  will be out of future tendering process. It is like a system of informal blacklisting of contractors. Where is question of my performing with creativity and innovation?”  A emotional outburst and sign of frustration! The fact is the development model is imbalanced and government-led. The government does not want to share its responsibilities (which essentially means doing away with its power) and therefore land up doing practically everything creating time and functional space congestion for staff. As an ordinary citizen, I have had experience of mostly not being able to meet or talk to the government officials for my legitimate work: it is always a meeting, tour, leave, hospital or just too busy. Appointments without links seldom work.

Few contractors pointed out that the construction business is highly imbalanced. As an example they pointed out that there was no cost escalation clause in Standard Bidding Document (SBD): Procurement of Small Works (up to Nu 4 million). The  Clause 14.3 under C. Preparation of Bids of Section 1: Instructions to Bidder  of SBD stipulates:

“The Bid price shall take into account the cost of materials, transportation, labour, taxes, levies, overheads and profit and any other cost. The Bid price shall be fixed for the duration of performance of the Contract and shall not be subject to any adjustment on any account. The Bid price shall be applicable for the whole works described in the Drawings, Specifications and Schedule of Works.”

I explained with an example of a water supply project involving galvanized iron (GI) pipes, and asked what happened if there was global increase in iron price after contractor signs the contract for a water supply project with the government. As per Clause 14.3 the contractor is not eligible for additional payment due to such global price increase. They said they “managed somehow”. The “managed somehow” refers to following practices I mentioned above, sacrificing work quality, using substandard materials, underpaying contractor’s labour, and/or so on. The government supervisors have to be kept satisfied obviously. I asked if “managed somehow” referred to offsetting the price increase with contractor’s efficiency gain.  They said it was just not possible because the government  supervisors were to be kept pleased. Even if it was, efficiency gain should go to profit, not offsetting price increase upon which they have no control what-so-ever. An example of contractors routing their creativity and innovation to the heinous inclination because of imbalanced sharing of the contractual responsibility and risk.

Also I have had few personal experiences to substantiate the imbalance, but do not wish to narrate here now. The realization of the environment and trend is more important than disturbed outburst. Because it is important that the current trend makes a hair-pin turn with improved environment enabling the creative and innovative minds with shared responsibilities to move  slowly and steadily towards knowledge economy.

There are 8 students doing manual work in our Gelephu workshop under construction now. Yesterday I met them and told them that:

(i)            I appreciated their positive attitude towards work and thanked them for working in our workshop during their winter holidays. There is no small or big work. But there is sincerity, dedication, commitment and hard work to any thing they did. They should remember that there is no shortcut on these aspects.

(ii)        when they spend their money, think about the hard work they did. They should appreciate and value their hard-earned money and realize the difference between hard-earned money and easy money that their rich friends may have got from their parents.

(iii)           when they work -- no matter what, be it carrying bricks, moving stones or digging pits – they should keep their minds open and learn new things. In the workshop they should try to understand functions of different rooms, and what and how we are trying to establish the workshop and the business model. Ask questions and learn new things!

(iv)         at the end we would be  giving them a certificate of appreciation to each student. They should show the certificate to their friends and teachers, and be proud of the fact that they spent their winter holidays doing some constructive works. Try to influence their colleagues to be positive and productive.

The private sectors do have shared responsibility towards developing young  minds in the direction of creativity and innovation. It is the mindset that needs adjustment.