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Dramatic Progress
All these years, the community-in-exile had not wished to accept the suggestions by the Dalai Lama that limits be placed on his powers. But thirty years after initiating the democratic process, he announced a quantum change in 1990. His address on May 11, 1990, to the assembled Deputies of the Tenth Parliament and other eminent Tibetans in Dharamsala merits a place in the annals of democratic advancement as does his address, a year later, appreciating the outcome. In his address in May 1990, the Dalai Lama announced that he was renouncing the ultimate authority vested in him to approve the members of Parliament and to supervise its functions. "From now on," he declared, "the people's decision will be final. I feel that the Dalai Lama should have no role here. The future assembly will be entrusted with the power of appointing the Kalons." He then declared the Tenth Parliament dissolved. That was not all. He outlined proposals for expanding the membership of the Parliament, for electing Kalons (who are not members of the Parliament), for giving more representation to women and on the advisability of setting up two houses of the legislature. He spoke of the need for a judicial tribunal to look into citizen' complaints and other requirements of a fully democratic administration. The administration-in-exile was thus projected as a functioning democratic government fully capable of shouldering greater responsibilities.
On May 29, 1991, the Dalai Lama addressed the Eleventh Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, the outcome of his epoch-making pronouncement of the previous year. The membership of the Parliament has risen from 17 to 46 to represent all sections of the community. The Dalai Lama's self-denying approach of relating advances in democracy to a corresponding reduction of his own powers was expressed right away. He began his address with the statement, "Last year, we introduced important reforms in our administrative set-up by which we not only increased the number of the Parliament members but also did away with the system which required the members to receive my approval before they could be declared elected".
The Dalai Lama then proceeded to provide valuable insights into his political thinking. "When we first came into exile in 1959," he told the Parliament, "we decided that the future Tibet would move with the times while retaining the virtues of our traditional value system. We decided that, although we would borrow retain our own traits, which are appreciated even by outsiders.
With this in mind, we made efforts towards the democratisation of our community through measures like the election of the members of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile. We decided that the democratic reforms thus introduced should be documented in writing so that in future there would be clear-cut guidelines and a basis for further thinking and improvement. We started working on this in 1961 and promulgated a draft democratic Constitution in 1963. Of course, the ultimate decision as to whether to adopt, amend or reject this Constitution is left in the hands of the Tibetan people when we are united in Tibet in future".
The Dalai Lama stressed the relevance of what they had achieved for Tibetans in Tibet and for countering Chinese propaganda. "Although the Chinese have dubbed our national struggle as one aimed at reviving the old society," he said, "the steps taken by us so far prove their accusation wrong to all those who are aware of our situation. Therefore, our efforts at democratisation have had a very strong impact on Tibet also".
"There had been many opinions," he admitted, "that my proposal gave too many concessions to China. I made that with a hope of finding a solution to the Tibetan problem. It was aimed at the urgent need to put an end to Chinese demographic aggression which our people continue to suffer in Tibet. However, the proposal has not succeeded in doing this. Therefore, as I said in my March 10 statement this year (1991), if China did not respond positively, I would not consider myself bound by the concessions made in the Strasbourg statement. This means there is now no existing agenda for future Sino-Tibetan negotiations: the table is empty."
He reiterated his intention to withdraw even further from governmental responsibility. "I have made up my mind that I will not be the head of, or play any role in, the government when Tibet becomes free," he said. "The future head of the Tibetan government must be someone popularly elected by the people. Such a step, as I have been saying repeatedly, has many advantages and will enable us to become a true and complete democracy".
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