The Dalai Lama may no longer the Tibetan Prime-Minister-in-Exile (he was replaced by newly elected Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay), but the Tibetan government-in-exile has announced it will offer the Dalai Lama a specially created ceremonial head-of-state role. From the Associated Press:
Tibetan exiles in India planned Tuesday to urge the Dalai Lama to stay on as the ceremonial head of state of their government-in-exile even though he has turned political authority over to an elected leader.
The Tibetan parliament is discussing amendments to its constitution, which are required after the 75-year-old spiritual leader announced that he wanted to end his political role. The deliberations included more than 400 exiles and lasted four days in the northern Indian hill town of Dharmsala, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
A parliament spokesman said if the Dalai Lama turns down their proposal, they would then consider making him the protector and symbol of the Tibetan nation.
Tibetans don’t want the Dalai Lama to retire quietly and strongly feel that they should be able to use his influence with world leaders and the respect he commands worldwide as a spiritual leader to further the Tibetan cause.
This decision was reached after the Tibetan government-in-exile convened the National General Meeting this week to officially amend the constitution so that the Dalai Lama can retire his political position. However, many in the Tibetan Parliament do not want the Dalai Lama to retire. From Sify News:
The parliament-in-exile on the last day of the budget session March 25 formally accepted the Dalai Lama’s proposal to relinquish political authority and decided to hold its special session by May-end to amend its charter to pave the way for retirement of the 75-year-old spiritual leader.
The parliamentarians also agreed that they were bound by a ‘special responsibility’ to find a logical conclusion to the issue before the five-year tenure of the 14th parliament comes to an end May 30.
They also accepted the recommendations of a three-member committee submitted to the parliament March 23.
The committee, that also included Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche and Deputy Speaker Dolma Gyari, suggested that the majority of the powers vested in the Dalai Lama be transferred to the prime minister, including the power to make laws, by amending the constitution.
The Dalai Lama formally announced his political retirement at the onset of the budget session March 14. On March 18, the parliament passed a resolution urging the Dalai Lama to reconsider his retirement plans. The resolution was signed by 37 of the 38 members.
These are further indications that the Tibetan government-in-exile is trying to adjust to a post-Dalai Lama future. This week also marks the 60th anniversary of Tibet being incorporated as an “autonomous region” of China. Tensions are still high between the Tibetan government-in-exile and the Chinese government.From the Economist:
So, as it celebrates, on May 23rd, the 60th anniversary of the “17-point agreement” in which a young Dalai Lama agreed to accept Chinese sovereignty over Tibet, China knows there is no immediate threat to its rule, but that many Tibetans still resent it. Still, it is, for China, a peculiar document to commemorate. The Tibet it envisages—under Chinese sovereignty but autonomous—seems closer to the Dalai Lama’s demands than to present arrangements. China promised not to alter “the existing political system in Tibet”, a promise swept aside in 1959 as it crushed a Tibetan rebellion and the Dalai Lama and 80,000 followers fled into exile. In 1951 the political system was a feudal theocracy. Now that exiles enjoy the forms of parliamentary democracy, they find China no more trustworthy. China, in turn, finds the exiles’ political system no more appealing.
Note: the “17-Point Agreement” was renounced by the Dalai Lama after he fled to India in 1959.
