the debates revealed some surprises. the biggest one was sonam tobgay dorji, the madmax of south thimphu. his performance at the debate with yz was unexpected as he spoke loud and clear about his political aims and ambitions. he also managed to answer yz questions and raise his glass for a proverb which no rural person listening to his radio would understand, but he over all would have convinced his rural voters that he is not intimidated or lost as they might have expected. yz could have done better but he must have approached his debate with too much emphasis on being the good guy from the good party thinking people would dislike tobgay dorji anyway. he lost in my opinion and tobgay dorji simply took a big step in th winning direction
the other winner was dr tobgye wangchuck who completely overshadowed the quiet ex minister ut. tobgye made lot of mistakes with his dzongkha (which madmax did not) but he was more vocal and confident
chhundu tshering didnt have much of an opponent but he speaks well and eloquently
i cant remember the others i wanted to praise but i do remember looking closely at the savior of pdp in gelephu tshering dolker and noticed that her eyes if you stare hard enough look like two dpt cranes flying toward each other! amazing

The great debates

The pompous former pm against the spoiled former PM: you take your pick as to who is JYT and who is SN. Is it only me who sees the resemblance of both to actors from Chinese movies. jyt being the kung fu hero’s funny looking weakling sidekick who gets beaten up by the gundas and the hero takes revenge. sn being the comedian who is the butt of everyone’s jokes and prances around while everyone is kung fu fighting. Let me get back to the debate. The debate (as a speaking competition) was won by JYT but the debate as an issues competition was lost by both. in the end we will only remember the namaste they both performed in true south asian politics fashion

The quietly ambitious schemer against the country’s first female engineer: YZ started very well but his joke about obama and Clinton fell flat mainly because he probably hadn’t thought of it himself. He also preferred to skip the issues and focus on the form filling of the pdp. Dorji choden focused on her own experiences with regard to election corruption in answering the question which was probably because she cant defend the actions of some of her colleagues in the pdp namely sn and few others. But it was a good tactic. The sad part about dorji choden doing well was that it showed how badly SN did a week ago. YZ seems to have learnt some of his new boss’ moves when he said as lyonpos he saw absolutely no chance of losing after all they are great achievers. Famous last words?????????

Bring on the ministers’ wives pleasssssssssssssssse ECB why did you disqualify them?

When I went to shaba paro to meet a friend the other day
Who did I happen to meet but khandu along the windy way
Hello lyonpo! (Couldn’t possibly have said former lyonpo, no?)
Wai apwangdrugay how are you, we haven’t met for so long, mo?
No la when you were a minister I couldn’t come to see you
Then you began your campaign and I have been very busy too

He smiled and laughed and said a thousand things in that little chatter
So much more than the thousand times I met him as a minister
So how should we use this to our advantage now I contemplate
Parties eager to give everything to the people on a plate

Then I heard their speeches and their proclamations in print and press
They say they will right the wrongs of the past and the policy mess
But did they not have that chance for 10 long years as big ministers?
Fancy cars, wives, RAPA and foreign visits, good examples this
Now with new friends they roam the country with promise after promise
Creepily humble like scalpers smelling dollar bills on tourists

The new parliament of Bhutan will be quite a treat just you see
Gone the flowery language and great oratory in Choekhey
In its place lots of bad Dzongkha and chunks of Indian English too
Rustic and rough image gone but experience and knowledge too
Big talk and egos will fill the large hall of all empty spaces
Minus wisdom culture knowledge and unity of the ages

where is wangcha sangay the intellectual?
he is the man, the future, he knows it all
what words what poetry what praise
Alas all in his own honour he does raise

this leaves the great chor malik
but hes in jail his wounds to lick
what about chang dorji and chang chimi and chang ugyen say ye?
oh but there is that little thing they call the university degree!

this leaves the kalyon and the speaker of the former parliament
both still reeling in shock from how fast the glory days went
as i said before one sits alone on his seat in the assembly hall
the other moans ‘the higher you are the harder you fall’

day to day life hasnt and wont change much
though they keep promising such and such
country will continue to require every ministry
running well in the good old bureaucracy

if politics is good then by the great heavens, its a miracle!
if not, for their each bad deed, the bureaucracy an obstacle
fear not, good bureacrats have joined the parties you say
they’ll be as lost, for all their good intentions, as a needle in hay

so in the people that in the civil service remain
we place our faith and trust to ease away the pain
of a democracy of good thoughts and intentions
led astray by over ambitious novice politicians

one claims royalty and great intelligence
he says hes from harvard in order to convince
the other has a quiet and simple manner
oh yes he too studied in good old americana

max joined, we dont know why
zimba joined just by the by
both born in punakha, census here
real ambitions, the true reason is clear

no claims to alleviate poverty
cant do much of that in the rich capital city
instead max says zimba is ineffective and slow
the question is whether max himself is all show?

mad max saya he is committed to be one of the people
by that did he mean fighting with the kids under the billiards table?
Zimba says he is but a simple and spiritual and humble man
forgot to mention rich and powerful and godfather of his clan

like sangay n and jigmi t little to differentiate between the two
one is old and one and young, other than that who is who?
both want power both want glory
same people from the same story