7/29/2017

The myth of Bhutan’s happiness

Recently Singaporeans have been bombarded with the myth that Bhutan is the heaven on earth where the Bhutanese are the happiest people in the world. There are some truths on this statement without the ’buts’ being exposed. The happy Bhutanese are as happy as the caged canaries. A caged bird’s happiness is about living in a cage with food provided, secure and safe from the paws of a hungry cat and ignorant of what lies outside the cage.
 

Bhutan is in all definition a protectorate of India. It has an agreement with India, supposedly signed voluntarily and happily, that India guides its foreign policies ie India decides its relations with other states. In the current border dispute with China, or India’s border dispute with China by actually hijacking Bhutan’s border to start a dispute with China, it was repeatedly highlighted that Bhutan has no diplomatic relations with China. It did not say that Bhutan also did not have diplomatic relations with all five powers of the UN Security Council. Why would not Bhutan want to have relations with the five powers or with more countries of the world? Because India decides it to be so. Having relations with other powers and countries would be bad as it would reduce the influence and control of India over Bhutan.
 

Why didn’t Bhutan wants to participate in the BRI project? A landlocked country would definitely benefitted from more access to the rest of the world. No, India would not allow that. India would not allow Bhutan to have FDIs other than those from India. Japan and European countries and now China would like to invest in Bhutan. But permission was not allowed. Whose permission? Bhutan or India?
Bhutan has very little trading activities and trade relations with other countries, not allowed to participate in such activities. On the surface, Bhutanese love to remain in their present state of heaven and are very happy with their way of life and want to be protected to be in this state of living forever.
 

Is this what the Bhutanese want or what India imposed on the Bhutanese? The current border trouble with China, or is it Bhutan’s trouble with China or India’s trouble with China? India is claiming that China wants to invest in Bhutan, wants more relations with Bhutan and wants Bhutan to participate in the BRI project. But Bhutan refused and wanted to remain a protectorate of India, did not want to open up, want to remain a happy cage bird, look after and fed by India, and to remain a nation of very happy canaries. Oops.
 

What do you think is the truth? Do the Bhutanese have any aspirations and ambitions to be a free people, to decide what is good for them, to be a normal country like everyone else? Are they really happy to be canaries in a cage?
 

The current border dispute is India's excuse to move in troops into Bhutan to strengthen its control over Bhutan in the name of protecting Bhutan. And Bhutan could hardly say anything within the approval of India. The canary can only sing but not speak up for its own interests

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Bhutan King looks very Chinese - can pass for a handsome Chinese actor.

Bhutan people looks like Chinese ! The Indians have no business in Bhutan.

Anonymous said...

If Bhutan participate in the BRI project it surely will become possibly more develop and that is what India is afraid of.

The power that be in India wants Indians to remain dejectedly poor and thus more easy to control so that they can remain in power for decades to come . That is why they do not want Bhutan to be a showpiece for the poorest in India. And that is why India will remain poor because whenever they tried to change direction, the ohjections are almost always violent. Instigated by who? Of course those that stand to benefit the most and that is the rich and ruling class.

Of course India is also trying to wear big hats and shoes now. Monkey see, monkey do!

Anonymous said...

Today's Straits Times reported that the Singapore Medical Council's disciplinary tribunal found Dr Sanjay Srinivasan of Khoo Teck Puat Hospital guilty of "serious negligence amounting to professional misconduct" for wrongly diagnosing a patient's eye condition and for letting him drive with affected eyesight.

At the end of the ST column, it says Dr Sanjay is a doctor from India, and the defendant's witness was a colleague of Dr Sanjay's supervisor and was involved in processing Dr Sanjay's work application. The tribunal said Dr Sanjay's supervisor would have "a vested interest in the outcome of this inquiry," and it was not lost on the witness that it would not be good for the place where they both worked if the supervisor was implicated in any way. So the tribunal discounted his opinion, saying he lacked independence.

Virgo49 said...


Bhutan stupid to have the Ah Nehs in.control of them.

See one documentary of the Sikkim mountainous region where the bumis prefered the PLA to guard them rather than the Ah Nehs.

The peasants women folks climbed up the mountains to being fresh supplies of vegetables for the PLA soldiers guarding the Pass.

In return, the soldiers have them their ration of rice.

The Peasants of Tibetan stocks called the PLA soldiers as their children.

One of them said they prefered the Chinese rather than the Ah Nehs.

If over run by the Indians, it be like Shit hole like India. Now, its sobeautiful and calm.

Only Sinkies government wants to do there and be night soil carriers to clear their Shits.

And allowed millions of them here to Shit in sinking land.

Matter of time, Sewerage charges gonna increase soon with your already spent GST credits.

Anonymous said...

India is expanding its territory and influence all over the world.

In its south, Indian Ocean, it has acquired two islands, the Agalega from Mauritius and the Assumption Island from Seychelles and put military forces on them, and is now developing them with infrastructures, etc..

Also, in the South-west, the huge island of Madagascar, East of the African Continent, India has been exerting her influence and putting about 20,000 civilians and soldiers on that island, indirectly as a form of control and domination.

In the North-west, the State of Kashmir, (which is divided into East and West, controlled by Paskistan and India respectively), India has openly declared unilaterally, at the United Nations, that Kashmir solely belongs to India.

In the North, India has stepped up surveillance along the Himalayas belt and put Nepal almost totally under her armpit and Bhutan under her command and control.

In the South China Sea, India's Navy has started to display her strength and prowess, together with the Navy of the Singapore Armed Forces, in order to defy China's strategic and national interests.

Internationally, India is moving nearer towards the US's strategic alliance and at the same time also maintain a close relationship with Russia in order to counter China.

Anonymous said...

Sikkim was annexed by India in the 60s.
Hope China would free Nepal and Bhutan from the crutches of India.

They also built a strong naval base in the Andaman Islands to control the Straits of Malacca.

Anonymous said...

What do Bhutanese and Singaporean workers have in common?

Answer: Bhutan intruded by unwelcomed India forces, Singapore workplace intruded by unwelcomed CECA India nationals !

Anonymous said...

India is buying 57 new aircrafts. Evaluating F18 and Mic29 to put in the new carrier Vikramaditya:
"With two aircraft carriers and over five squadrons of maritime strike aircraft, the Indian Navy would be emerging as a very strong force to reckon with."

Sinkies now can take in more Indians under CECA to serve in Navy and airforce. They will be cheaper labor than sinkies. Similar to TC tender, Indians navy and pilots should be hired similar to cleaners from Tamil Nadu. What do you think?

virgo49 said...


Do not have the false notion that a Super Mighty Aircraft Carrier with all the Eggs in one basket, you are a Super Power held in awe by the lesser nations.

One torpedo or one direct target missle can sink it to the oceans to feed the fish.

War stragedy is based on craftiness and not just aircraft Carrier.

Indian navy can fight meh??

Anonymous said...

India has given different versions of the reasons why its troops crossed the border.

On June 26, Times of India reported that a PLA team invaded Indian territory by crossing the Sino-Indian boundary line in Sikkim section and triggered the face-off. Two days later the Hindustan Times reported that General BipinRawat, chief of army staff of the Indian Army, denied that Indian territory was invaded by PLA troops.

On June 30 the Indian Ministry of External Affairs issued an official document on the "recent development in Doklam area," which gave a different explanation of the incident. It said a PLA construction party entered disputed territory between China and Bhutan, and "in coordination with [Bhutan], Indian personnel approached the Chinese construction party and urged them to desist from changing the status quo." This indicates that where China entered is not Indian's territory but Bhutan's territory, and the purpose of India's action is to protect Bhutan's territory from China's invasion.

However, as a third party of the Sino-Bhutan border dispute, does the Indian military have the right to trespass across the Sino-Indian established border to stop China's road construction?

Moreover, in a statement issued by the Bhutan government on June 29, there was no mention of asking for help from or consulting with the Indian government. According to diplomatic sources, the Bhutan government even didn't know about India's move to cross the border in advance.

So what are the benefits to India in the Doklam face-off? The area is of very huge significance in military and geostrategic competition. When China started to construct the road, India feared this would facilitate China's projection of military forces and weaken India's advantages.

However, the construction of a single road cannot change the military balance between China and India and the status quo. Therefore, it is India's illusory fear of losing its military advantage in the South Asia that leads to its overreaction in the Doklam region. This triggered the face-off in this remote mountainous area, although the site of the road construction is well within China's territory.

The other factor that should be considered is the ongoing border talks between China and Bhutan, a small mountainous country of only 700,000 people, deeply influenced by India in economics, politics and diplomacy. Since the 1980s China and Bhutan have conducted 24 rounds of border negotiations. Although the final delimitation hasn't been completed yet, consensus has been reached on the practical geographic conditions and the direction of the boundary lines.

However, the progress of border talks is thought not to be in the interests of India, for if the border dispute is settled, China and Bhutan will establish a normal diplomatic relationship, which will strengthen Sino-Bhutan ties and weaken India's influence over Bhutan. Many Bhutanese people complain that it is India's interference that impedes the Sino-Bhutan border negotiation.

Moreover, the ongoing border row in Doklam has put India in a better position to increase its military presence in Bhutan, which will further strengthen India's control over Bhutan. Therefore India sent its troops into the Doklam area in the name of helping Bhutan, but in fact, India is making use of Bhutan to increase its strategic advantage over China.

So the Doklam face-off is in nature a great power competition in the disguise of border dispute, a more complicated situation than past border disputes between India and China. Over a month into the standoff, the intention of India is becoming increasingly clear to the world, and more and more people believe that China has the right and power to defend its territory. As long as India keeps its military force there, it will fall deeper into the strategic dilemma created by itself, so withdrawing its troops out of the Doklam area is the only right approach to solving the crisis for India.

Anonymous said...

https://youtu.be/StViuIdB0ZE

Please go read history and get facts right.

Anonymous said...

In May 17, Singapore and India had naval exercise on advance drill at South China sea, not India Ocean.

India navy when assisted by Singapore navy is a formidable force inspiring fear in Chinese navy.

India navy sure can fight. India naval personnel should join Singapore navy as suggested to take over the command under CECA. The joint command will spell the raise of India naval power.
Indonesia Jokowi wants to be a naval power. Singapore India joint forces will be the answer.