Month: November 2008

China Looking Towards “post-Dalai Lama era”

You stay classy, China:

Senior Chinese leaders taunt Tibetan leader, speak of his passing

GEOFFREY YORK

From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail

November 11, 2008 at 5:15 AM EST

BEIJING — After the near-total breakdown of talks between China and the Dalai Lama’s representatives, Beijing has made it bluntly clear that it is looking beyond the Dalai Lama to the era that will follow his death.

The 73-year-old Tibetan leader, who has suffered a bout of ill health and hospital treatment in recent months, has already given up most of his political duties. Now he faces taunting from Chinese officials, who yesterday spoke openly of his “poor health” and his “passing away.”

The Dalai Lama, hugely popular in the West and in the exiled Tibetan community, has been the nemesis of the Chinese government for decades. Beijing accused him yesterday of planning “apartheid and ethnic cleansing” in his Tibetan homeland.

In a report later, China’s state news agency said the government is looking to the “post-Dalai Lama era.” It quoted an official who made repeated references to the advanced age and “poor health condition” of the Tibetan leader.

The remarks are certain to deepen the gulf between Beijing and the Tibetan exiles, who are planning a major summit from Nov. 17 to 22 to decide on a new strategy in the aftermath of the failure of the latest talks between the two sides.

Not really much to add to this other than to say that this is just another reminder that the Chinese government is not a good faith partner in any negotiations with the Tibetan Government in Exile.

HHDL Message on Tibet Policy Meeting

The Dalai Lama has issued a statement as preface to the special meeting to discuss the Tibetan Government in Exile’s policy towards China, autonomy, and independence in Dharamsala, India. The whole thing merits reading, but this passage in particular stood out:

In March this year, Tibetans from the whole of Tibet known as Cholka-Sum (U-Tsang, Kham and Amdo), regardless of whether they were young or old, male or female, monastic or lay-people, believers or non-believers, including students, risked their lives by courageously expressing their long-felt dissatisfaction with PRC policies in a peaceful and lawful way. At that time I was hopeful that the PRC government would find a solution based on the reality on the ground. However, on the contrary, the Chinese government has completely ignored and rejected Tibetan feelings and aspirations by brutally cracking down on them, using the accusation that they were ‘splittists’ and ‘reactionaries’ as an excuse. During those testing times, out of profound concern and a deep sense of responsibility, I exercised whatever influence I have with the international community and with China, including writing personally to President Hu Jintao. But my efforts hardly made any difference.

Since everyone was preoccupied with the issue of the Beijing Olympics, it did not seem appropriate to consult the general public at that time. Now, since the time is more appropriate, in accordance with clause 59 of the Charter for Tibetans-in-exile I have on 11th September, requested our elected leadership to convene a Special Meeting soon. It is my hope that participants will be able to gather the opinions of their respective communities and be able to present them on this occasion.

Taking into account the inspiring courage being shown by people all over Tibet this year, the current world situation, and the present intransigent stance of the government of the PRC, all the participants, as Tibetan citizens should discuss in a spirit of equality, cooperation and collective responsibility the best possible future course of action to advance the Tibetan cause. This meeting should take place in an atmosphere of openness, putting aside partisan debate. Rather, it should focus on the aspirations and views of the Tibetan people. I appeal to everyone concerned to work together to contribute as best as they can. [Emphasis added]

Change in the Tibet Movement

My friend Tenzin Choeying of SFT India is one of the Tibetan exile community’s sharpest organizers in India. He is quoted in an AFP story on the debate that is are currently underway in the Tibet movement about how it needs to respond to Chinese obstructionism.

He still commands vast respect and almost total loyalty, but many Tibetans — including the Dalai Lama himself — acknowledge that their freedom movement must learn to stand on its own.

“We have been relying on him for so long,” said Tenzin Choeying, national director of Students For a Free Tibet.

“The Chinese are just waiting for His Holiness to die because they think that will be the end of the Tibetan movement,” Choeying said.

“We must not fall prey to the same assumption … It is time for the Tibetan community to take responsibility for its future.”

China’s policy of stalling all negotiations towards progress with Tibet is premised on the belief that once the Dalai Lama passes away, so too will the cause of Tibet. They are counting on a leadership vacuum and demoralizing the Tibetan people both inside and outside of Tibet. They are counting on the world not caring once Tibet’s charismatic leader is dead. Choeying’s framing of the current situation is both the process that needs to happen to ensure that this movement doesn’t lose force and that process happening in itself. This kind of leadership is critical.

Bloggers In Pajamas

First, Rachel Maddow clearly rocks. And hard.

Second, the bloggers in pajamas slur is a long-standing straw man. As Jane Hamsher recently noted, top liberal bloggers are some of the best educated people in the political cohort. Attire has no bearing on accuracy or clarity of analysis.

I’ve spent time blogging in my pajamas. I’m comfortable to admit it. When I worked from my apartment as a consultant between the Dodd and Begich campaigns, I would often not leave my home for the entire work day. In those situations, it was totally understandable for me to stay in comfortable clothes and yes…gasp…even pajamas. What’s the big deal? Attire during work is no more disqualifying of quality or the moral ability to do good analysis of political events than chain smoking. I don’t recall anyone getting their skivvies in a twist over Woodward and Bernstein filling the Washington Post offices with smoke during their Watergate investigation. Nor have I ever heard political reporters who pile into the bar at the Hotel Fort Des Moines during caucus season bemoaning their lack of professionalism because they spend much of the Iowa winter drunk.

But I sometimes write in my pajamas, so what do I know?

Arguing Rangzen

Jamyang Norbu has re-issued his important essay, “The Case for Independent Tibet.” I’d highly recommend it for anyone curious about what rangzen (Tibetan for independence) is the necessary position for resolving China’s ongoing military occupation of Tibet. This essay is especially important now as the Tibetan Government in Exile is currently holding talks with key organizations and decision-makers in Dharamsala about the future of TGIE’s policy towards China and how they will pursue resolution of the Tibet question. I and many, many people I know are hoping that the result of these talks will be the return to rangzen as the official position for the Dalai Lama and the TGIE. It’s long been clear that this is what Tibetans inside of Tibet want and Jamyang Norbu makes the case very clear.

Making It Up

Atrios:

Shorter Hank Paulson:
We are making this up as we go along.

Seriously folks, this is not inspiring confidence. But it strikes me that part of the reason that Paulson et alia are forced to make it up as they go along is that they’re clinging desperately to outmoded ways of solving problems. Funneling massive amounts of taxpayer dollars to big corporations to keep their stock values high and their executives compensated is not a way to solve the financial crisis. Had the bailout included meaningful oversight and taxpayers getting something in return – ie ownership of these banks and insurance companies – then we would have greater reins on what is happening now. We would have been able to force the money to be used in a way that actually helped homeowners and small businesses from the pending crisis. But that would have undermined the kleptocracy built over many long years, with the help of the GOP and corporatist Democrats. So it was a non-starter. Instead we went with something that we could easily see would either fail or leave the American taxpayer on the short end of the stick. Now Paulson has to keep making this up as he goes along, which in turn undermines our chances for financial stability.

On Debate

Thers is right:

The most ridiculous thing anyone seriously interested in politics will ever try to do is to “debate” an opponent. You’re much better off trying to win. Try to fight for things like, say, a responsible environmental policy, or equal rights for homosexuals, or no more stupid wars that get a lot of people killed. Win one of these points, and I’ll cheer you on, even if you had to stomp your opponent to do it. Go figure!

I dislike the notion of “debate.” It is naive and counterproductive.

Ye take the high road, and I’ll take the low road, and I’ll get to gay marriage before ye.

Just getting things done is a much better plan than building consensus and finding points of agreement through debate of conflicting sides of an issue. What Thers doesn’t highlight in these three paragraphs, but points out earlier when discussing what it takes to be a member in good standing of the conservative coalition, is that some things are true and some things are false. Some are right, some are wrong. And on most issues, Republicans are wrong. Thus any debate that seeks a compromise solution necessarily involves mixing what is the right thing to do with what is the wrong thing to do. That just doesn’t work. It’s senseless. And it’s why we’re very likely to end up with a crappy health care plan and not health care for all. What we need is forceful advocacy for progressive policies that manifests itself, first and foremost, through the uncompromising.

Deconstructing Propaganda

Rebecca Novick has a long piece in the Huffington Post deconstructing Chinese propaganda in Tibet. She goes into great detail exploring one particular news report of Chinese development in Tibet. What’s remarkable is how incredulous the piece she breaks down requires readers to be. It’s like the Chinese government learned their propaganda techniques from watching late-night infomercials and 1940s war reels, and just threw in a dash of abject Han chauvinism and anti-Tibetan racism to make it uniquely Chinese. Fortunately, according to Novick, no one buys this propaganda:

So who is buying this? No one according to Tenzin Losel, a Tibetan human rights researcher with the International Campaign for Tibet. Losel was raised in Lhasa and now lives in Dharamsala, India. “Tibetans and Chinese both understand that the government report only the good things, never the bad. It’s clear that these people are coached. You can see from the way they speak they’re trying to think about what they’re supposed to say next. We see it as more like an annoyance. When they criticize the Dalai Lama on the TV, my mother would just say, ‘Change the channel'”.

Kunga Samten, a former monk, also grew up in Tibet. “No Tibetans believe it,” he says. “They know it’s all fake.” Samten is from a nomadic family and when he would watch stories like Red Flag Village on TV, especially those where Party officials visit nomad villages, he says he could easily see that it was staged. “The villagers will be in their best clothes when they’re supposed to be working. The authorities tell people what to wear, what to do, and what to say”.

Propaganda won’t make Tibetans stop yearning for freedom. It won’t make them stop celebrating their holidays.  It won’t make them stop worshipping the Dalai Lama. All propaganda will do is put the tacky veneer of control over Chinese ongoing, illegal military occupation of Tibet. And as we saw this spring, Tibetans reject Chinese rule as much today as they did fifty-eight years ago when the first Chinese troops invaded Kham and Amdo in eastern Tibet.