Read Online So Close to Heaven by Barbara Crossette - Free Book Online Page A

“What can I lose when what is at stake is the future of the Bhutanese people?” Recognizing that monarchy is not a very popular form of government at the end of the twentieth century, he says that ultimately the Bhutanese must be free to choose whatever system they want. He is doubtful about democracy, however, saying that a society needs to achieve some kind of “perfection” before it will work. He noted that the expansion of voting in Bhutan in 1992 had almost instantly produced a political bribery case, the country’s first.
    He greatly admires the king of Thailand’s devotion to the development of his country. The Thai monarch has made himself an expert on, among other arcana, urban sewage treatment, what to do with the water hyacinth that clogs the canals, and the dangers of planting too many eucalyptus trees, while also very skillfully using his immense moral and mystical authority to support democracy in times of crisis. “His Majesty in Thailand is one of the few monarchs who is keeping the flag flying for a dying race of kings,” King Jigme Singye Wangchuck says with a touch of sadness. Aware of the Thai king’s immense popularity and power of persuasion over the Thai people, the Bhutanese king is more deeply hurt by the personalization of the southern rebellion. Stricken by the image, he describes almost mournfully how southerners hang pictures on their walls of the king and queen of Nepal. “In their minds and hearts,” he says, “they feel they are Nepalis.”
    Increasingly disheartened and even desperate, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck takes his message to the south, from village to village where citizens have applied to leave to join refugees in Nepal. His ministers and family fear for his safety. Since he has pledged his throne to the cause of peace in that turbulent region, he says he has no option but to go, again and again.
    “I have no hatred for southern Bhutanese people,” the king said. “I don’t have any hatred or anger against antinationals who have perpetrated a tremendous amount of violence and bloodshed in southern Bhutan. Our hope was that if we could develop the south, this would go a long way toward winning the hearts and minds of our people. I had hoped that they would realize the benefits of remaining Bhutanese citizens, and I explained to them that if you emigrate, or if you abscond, or if you go to Nepal or to India, your future will be bleak. There is chronic unemployment in India, there’s chronic unemployment in Nepal. I cannot understand how they could possibly have a better livelihood outside the country.
    “But the dissident groups who are outside want to make very sure that the development plan fails, because only in the atmosphere of discontent and only in a situation where there is a lot of suffering and unhappiness and disgrundement in the south can they be successful in getting the support of the local people. So their objective and our objective are at opposite poles.”
    As if the disruption of a southern rebellion cloaked in a democracy movement weren’t enough to keep a monarch busy, the king of Bhutan also feels pressure from various factions within his own Buddhist community. The new middle class, allowed in the early 1990s to privatize the previously government-run tourism industry, now wants to expand it to make investments—in hotels, restaurants, trekking and camping equipment, and imported vans and cars—pay off more expeditiously. With only a few thousand tourists (not counting Indians, over whom Bhutan has virtually no control) allowed to enter the country every year, profits are not large. Furthermore, dozens of small enterprises jumped into action when government ownership of tourism as well as national bus routes ended and services were sold into private hands. If tourist numbers remain small, there is bound to be a shakeout of unviable businesses, some of them operating more or less from the backseats of battered jeeps. When the consolidation