Tenzin Lekshay

Democratic Governance
May 18 2007

Tibetan Democracy in Exile: Sustainability in risk

Background:
Tibet for the last few centuries were little known to the outside world and was
regarded as a theocratic state, though early history shows some evidences of its
predominance in the Central Asia. During the great 13th Dalai Lama, Tibet chapter
was highlighted significantly to the outside world as he declared independence of
Tibet in 1913 and introduced many reforms to reconstruct and strengthen the political
system of Tibet. The Tibetan government since then administered both domestic and
foreign relations by introducing the use of Tibetan currency and coins, postal
services, strengthen military and foreign relations. However, the conservative
mentality of the Tibetan people couldn’t gauge the importance of the farsighted
reforms and were voluntarily rejected by the ranks and files of Tibetan government in
fear that the Tibetan Buddhism will annihilate with an introduction of modern
reforms. It was because of this fear that many reforms were not able to succeed and
thus became one of the weakest states of the 20th century.

In 1949, after the Communist China rose to power, they declared to liberate Tibet and
started moving into Tibet from the eastern and northern borders and occupied Tibet in
1959. Soon after they declared to liberate Tibet, the Tibetan government enthroned
the present Dalai Lama at the age of sixteen (traditionally correct) as the temporal and
spiritual leader of Tibet*. Due to the persistence threat from China, the Tibetan
Government sent many missions to different countries to consolidate support for the
dying state of affairs. The Tibetan government even tried to join the member of the
United Nations in the early 1950s in a hope that China will restrain from attacking
Tibet.

* Most of his predecessors were also enthroned at a very young age and it was traditionally valid to enthrone the 14 th Dalai Lama
at the age of sixteen.

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In 1951, Tibetan government was forced to sign the infamous 17 point agreement in
Beijing which was later repudiated by the Dalai Lama. For more than 8 years of
transitional period, the Tibetan government negotiated and tried to accommodate
various changes in consultation with the Communist China but the policies
implemented were focused on exterminating Tibetan culture and identity. His
Holiness the Dalai Lama was then forced to seek asylum in India which was followed
by thousands of Tibetan refugees. Soon after coming to India, His Holiness
reestablished the Tibetan Government-in-Exile (TGiE), formally known as Central
Tibetan Administration (CTA) at a small town at the foothill of Himalaya called
Dharamshala*, which was a remnant of a British legacy in Northern India.

The Exiled government under the leadership of His Holiness the Dalai Lama put
forward two main policy oriented objectives to sustain the hardship faced upon by the
Tibetan. The two objectives are rehabilitating Tibetan refugees and restoring freedom
and happiness in Tibet. The rehabilitation agenda includes three important programs:
a) promoting education among the exile population; b) building a firm culture of
democracy; c) and paving the way for self-reliance so that the Tibetan people are able
to survive with self-esteem and confidence that flows from not having to depend on
external assistance. The Central Tibetan Administration’s experiment with
democracy, in particular, is a preparation for the reconstruction of Tibet when
freedom is restored in Tibet.1

*There are two different ways of writing; one is Dharamshala and the other one is Dharamsala. The former means the place of
religion and the later means the resting place. Both the name suits well with the exiled Tibetan and it doesn’t matter much on
which one to choose. It is believed that because of the presence of Holiness, the place has become sacred and holy, and the local
Indian administration even called it as Little Lhasa. Lhasa was supposed to be the center of pilgrimage for the Tibetans in Tibet
and even today, the Tibetans from faraway places visit Lhasa because of her religious significance. In Dharamshala also, people
from different countries flocked into Dharamshala to get a taste of Tibetan culture and Buddhism. As for the Dharamsala, every
year, around 3,000 new arrivals are coming into India from Tibet and their dream destination is Dharamshala to get a blessing of
His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Most of the people in Dharamshala are newly arrived Tibetans and it has became a transit for the
new arrivals to stay in Dharamsala before reallocating to different places. Whether it is Dharamshala or Dharamsala, most of the
Tibetans are living in Mcleod Ganj, upper Dharamshala and even the Central Tibetan Administration and the Private residence
of His Holiness the Dalai Lama are also located in upper Dharamshala.

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In this paper, I would like to focus on three main issues relating to the Democratic
setup of the CTA. The first subject is on the development of the democratic
governance which I would basically deal with the historical perspectives of
democratic reforms in Exile. Secondly, the Dalai Lama factor’s in molding and
shaping the democratic setup and the accountability and legitimacy of CTA. Thirdly,
I would examine whether the CTA’s experiment with democracy can ultimately serve
its purpose when the freedom will restore in Tibet.

Democratic reforms: Positive changes

a) Birth of Tibetan Democracy: In 1959, His Holiness the Dalai Lama followed by
thousands of Tibetan crossed over Himalaya and sought political asylum in India,
Nepal and Bhutan. Soon after coming into exile, His Holiness proclaimed the
establishment of democracy in exile during the Tibetan people’s representative
meeting held in September 02, 1960. Since then Tibetan in diaspora celebrate
September 02 as the Tibetan Democracy Day and considered it as a national holiday.

Unlike many of the democracies established in the 20th Century, the Tibetan
democracy in exile was not imposed by a foreign power or else gained through a
popular uprising. Rather, it was strongly promoted by Tibet's traditional supreme
leader, the Dalai Lama and voluntarily established by the Tibetan people at his
initiative. It has been guided by the principles set forth in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights by considering the Tibetan cultural values.

CTA is a continuation of the legitimate government of Tibet and Tibetan people in

and outside Tibet revered and legitimize the Tibetan government in Exile. In those
early years, the main concern of the CTA was to rehabilitate the massive influx of
Tibetan refuges into a community based society. The systematic approach of
facilitating the rehabilitation process was to arrange separate Tibetan settlements in
India, Nepal and Bhutan. Indian government was sympathetic in providing the
necessary assistances for the Tibetan people to resettle in India. Those days, most of

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the people were working on the road construction and were survived by a subsistent
amount of income. Many of them had a feeling that their stay in India is of only two
or three years and will return to Tibet when the matters get solved. However, nobody
ever expect those days of staying alien for more than 40 years. Professor Samdhong
Rinpoche, Prime Minister of CTA narrates one of the stories during his recent talk in
New York to the Tibetan audience. He said that those days when Kundeling, the then
minister went to a Gyurme Tantric Monastery in Dalhousie, Northern India and saw
the makeshift kitchen. He told the monks to build a new concrete kitchen but the
monks strongly protested him of an idea of staying long in India.

Indian leaders were personally sympathetic to the Tibetan cause but India couldn’t
help Tibetan political stand and were so cautious in dealing with the Chinese. Pandit
Nehru, the first Indian Prime Minister told His Holiness that India can not change the
destiny of the Tibetan; rather it can only be changed by the Tibetan people’s
determination. In accomplishing this, Nehru suggested His Holiness of sending the
Tibetan children to Indian school. His Holiness proposed the idea of setting up
Tibetan schools to sustain the Tibetan culture and traditions. Since then, the Indian
government established Central Tibetan School in almost all Tibetan settlements in
India. The nursery school opened by the elder sister of His Holiness in Dharamshala
was among the earliest school for Tibetan established in 1960. It was initially started
with the group of Tibetan children collected from the various construction sites where
their parents were working. Those days, most of the children were malnourished,
without any education. His Holiness believes that these children are the future seeds
of Tibet. It is indeed true that most of the officials in the Tibetan government services
were the product of those education provided by the Tibetan schools.

In order to achieve the objectives of the exile government, from the outset, was two-
fold: To restore freedom inside Tibet and to promote the welfare of the Tibetan
refugee population. The TGIE operates in accordance with a constitution, known as
the Charter of Tibetans in Exile, which was drafted by a constitutional assembly and
adopted by the exile parliament. The Charter of the Tibetans in Exile is the supreme

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law governing the functions of the CTA. The Charter was adopted by the Assembly
of the Tibetan People’s Deputies on June 14, 1991. Based on the spirit of the UN
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Charter guarantees everyone equality
before law and equal enjoyment of rights and freedom without discrimination on the
basis of sex, religion, race, language and social origin. It provides for a clear
separation of power between the three organs of the administration: judiciary,
legislature and executive. Before the Charter came into being, the CTA functioned
roughly along the lines of the draft democratic constitution for future Tibet,
promulgated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on March 10, 1963.

Central Tibetan Administration

b) Democratic reforms: Positive changes

Instituted in 1960, the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile is the highest legislative organ of
the Tibetan refugee community. In the early years of the creation of Legislative
assembly, there were around 12 members of Parliament who were nominated by His
Holiness. In 1990, the creation of this democratically elected body has been one of
the major changes that His Holiness the Dalai Lama has brought about in his efforts

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to introduce a democratic system of administration. The Parliament consists of 46
members. U-Tsang, Do-tod and Do-med, the three traditional provinces of Tibet,
elect ten members each, while the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and the
traditional Bon faith elect two members each. Three members are elected by Tibetans
in the west: two from Europe and one from North America. In addition, one to three
members with distinction in the fields of art, science, literatures and community
service are nominated directly by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

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 Dharamshala 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, His Holiness 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

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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 democratization of the Tibetan
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 democratization 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

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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".

Sessions of the Parliament are held twice every year, with an interval of six months
between the sessions. However, His Holiness can summon special sessions of the
Parliament in the case of national emergencies. When the Parliament is not in session,
there is a standing committee of twelve members: two members from each province,
one member from each religious denomination, and one member who is directly
nominated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

As representatives of the people, the members of the Parliament undertake periodic

tours of Tibetan communities to make an assessment of their overall conditions. On
their return from these trips, they bring to the notice of the administration any specific
grievances and matters needing attention.

The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile keeps in touch with people also through Local
Parliaments established in 38 major Tibetan communities. The Charter provides for
the establishment of a Local Parliament in a community having a population of not
less than 160. The Local Parliaments are scaled-down replicas of the Tibetan
Parliament-in-Exile. They keep an eye on the activities of their respective
settlement/welfare officers. They also make laws for their respective communities
according to the latter’s felt-needs. The laws passed by the Local Parliament must be
implemented by the respective settlement/welfare officer.

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c) Election: the parameters of Democratic governance
In the early stage of its development, the members of the parliament were nominated
by the Dalai Lama amongst the people who are respectable within the community.
Since it was a mere symbolic nature and does not significantly characterize the
democratic process, the Dalai Lama in 1990 rejected the candidacy of the 9th
parliamentarians and the Kashag (apex body) and the election was held for the first
time in electing the people’s representative in 1991.

The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile is headed by a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker, who

are elected by the members amongst themselves. Any Tibetan who has reached the
age of 25 has the right to contest elections to the Parliament. The elections are held
every five years and any Tibetan who has reached the age of 18 is entitled to vote. For
each election, there are two processes of voting; one for the preliminary and other for
the final voting. The detailed pattern of voting significantly shows that the election is
very important in our democratic system. There is an independent body of Election
Commission who oversees and conducts the entire elections processes.

With the recommendation from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, there was a further
improvement in the democratic establishment of the Tibetan government in exile. In
April 2001, the Tibetan parliament, on the advice of the His Holiness Dalai Lama,
amended the Charter to provide for the direct election of the Kalon Tripa* by the
exile Tibetan populace for a term of five years. The amendment provided for two
elections to this effect: the first one to throw up the six highest winners as the
candidates, and the second to confirm one among them as Kalon Tripa. The Kalon
Tripa, in turn, submits a list of candidates to the parliament. The candidates approved
by the parliament by a two-third majority are appointed as kalons to serve as the
Kalon Tripa’s colleagues.

*Kalon-Tripa means the Chief of the kalon (minister) which is synonymously means Prime Minister.

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The role of His Holiness the Dalai Lama:
Throughout the establishment of Tibetan Government in Exile, His Holiness the Dalai
Lama has been the guiding force in strengthening the democratic values within the
Tibetan diaspora community. Since from its inception, His Holiness tried hard to
legitimize the role of general populace. Though the Tibetan democratic system is
peculiar in its kind which combines both politics and religion into one entity, His
Holiness tried to pursue the goodwill of conglomerating the sentiments of the all the
different religious sects of Tibetan Buddhism with equal footing.

Prior to 1959, The Tibetan government was ruled by the Gelugpa* sect of Tibetan
Buddhism which His Holiness belongs to and all the three biggest monasteries played
a tremendous role in the policy making decisions of the Tibetan government.
However, after the Chinese occupation of Tibet, though His Holiness is the head of
the state but Galugpa losses her power sharing due to the change in the political
circumstances. But the most fascinating principles of the Dalai Lama institution is
that His Holiness has to learn the Buddhist indoctrination from the great masters of all
four sects of Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lama institution is a non-sectoral in its
kind that gives a high leverage for His Holiness to act as the supreme leader of the
Tibetan Buddhism.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama was instrumental in all the reforms which had been
taken place in the Tibetan democratic setup. It is because of the unwavering faith of
the Tibetan people towards His Holiness that makes him to move cautiously into such
reforms. Through historically Tibetan people considered His Holiness the Dalai Lama
as the savior and the guardian of Tibetan people for centuries and such attempts to
undermine the position of His Holiness the Dalai Lama were not tolerated by the
Tibetan people. When His Holiness opted rectifying the Charter to cease his power

*Gelugpa is one of the sects of Tibetan Buddhism and it is also known as yellow hat. After the great 5th Dalai Lama rule over
Tibet in 1642, Gelugpa predominantly ruled Tibet

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in nominating three members of Parliament as provided in the Charter, people raised
their concerns in disagreement. Such cases happened when the referendum was
passed in 1994 on deciding the future approach of Tibetan freedom struggle, around
90 percent voted to go in accordance with the wishes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama
in Middle way approach to negotiate with the Chinese leaders on genuine autonomy
for the Tibetan people within the Chinese supremacy.

After the election of the Prime Minister of the Exile Tibetan government in 2001, His
Holiness proclaimed to change his political role of Supreme Head to a mere semi
retired position. But the Tibetan democratic system is somewhat different from the
western democracy. The assimilation of cultural integrity plays a superficial degree of
importance in determining the Tibetan political system. Though His Holiness
vehemently addressed to sideline his active political role, the Tibetan people still
believe that His Holiness must lead the general populace to a higher degree of
governance. In a nutshell, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is still the Supreme Head of
the Tibetan government in Exile as envisioned in the Charter of the Tibetan in Exile.

His Holiness is not only a moral booster of the political activism but also bares a huge
sum of general budget of the Tibetan government in Exile fiscally. In a total, His
Holiness contributes nearly 25% of the annual fiscal budget of the Tibetan
government in Exile.2

Cause of concerns: People’s perspective

Though the democratization of the Tibetan government in Exile (TGiE) has been
moving progressively over the years, they are still many issues which need to be
taken into consideration to proceed further into good governance. There are two kinds
of concerns and one of them is an external factor which is mostly to do with the
attitude of the Indian government and the foreign funds and the other one is an
internal factor which is strengthening of the civil society, leadership vacuum and
elections. There is also a fear of loosing the objectivity of experimenting democratic
system in exile to implement in the free Tibet.

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Tibetan democratic system is unique by its origination which is an integration of
political, cultural and religion to sustain of the Tibetan identity. Functionality of CTA
is also unique because of her transnational accountability without any physical
borders. The Tibetan people, both in and outside Tibet recognize the CTA as their
sole and legitimate government. Much of her facilities are provided by Indian
Government though they don’t recognize the Tibetan government in Exile.

External Factors in determining the fate of CTA:

a) Indian Government Attitude: Since 1959, Indian government and public were
supportive of Tibetan cause and had facilitated humanitarian and moral support for
the sustenance of the CTA. However, the refugee status was initially granted to the
Tibetan when His Holiness sought asylum in India. Indian government provided basic
amenities to the Tibetan refugees escaping Chinese brutality in Tibet though India
was not a signatory to the refugee convention.

In India, with the blessing of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tibetan people can enjoy
almost every right that the normal Indian citizen cherished. But there is a gross fear
within the Tibetan society that Tibetan fate will change after the present Dalai Lama
passes away. Indian government recognizes the CTA as the government of the Dalai
Lama, and at the time of his absence, Indian government can change her course of
action towards the Tibetan refugees in India. Though the highest numbers of Tibetan
refugees are based in India which is estimated around 100 thousands is quite minimal
while comparing with other refugees in India such like, Pakistani, Sri Lankan Tamils
and Chakmas. But those refugees didn’t really get much of the facilities that the
Tibetan people have received over the years. With the absence of His Holiness,
Indian government can pursue a paradigm shift in her policy by curbing the
activities of the exile Tibetan due to the persistent pressure from China. China for the
last forty years criticized India for helping Tibetan Government in Exile. So, the
sustainability of CTA will depend mostly on the attitude of the Indian government.

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b) Financial burden: The annual budget of CTA is so far minimal compared to any
governmental organization which has to be presented during the parliament session in
March. The allocation of the funds are divided among various activities, such as
about 32 percent of which is allocated on increasing awareness of the issue of Tibet,
22% on welfare services, 15% on education, 10% on running cost of the
administration, 9% on health, 7% on religion & culture and 5% on others. The total
estimated budget for the 2006-2007 was Indian Rs. 882 million which is equivalent to
around US$2000000.

The major sources of income for the exile budget are contribution from His Holiness
the Dalai Lama (25%), funds raised by the Kashag (25%), voluntary contributions
collected through Green Book (34%) and administrative charges levied on aid
(10%).3 Recently, CTA closed all her profit making enterprises which were objected
to be against the three major principles of the CTA; i.e. Truth, Non-violence and
Genuine democracy. It is so far the most unique case of any government agencies
putting forward such measures to cut short the sustainable income which the Tibetan
believes that morality weighted higher than the income.

Apart from His Holiness, most of the funds were either collected either from foreign
aids or through the annual contribution of Tibetan in diaspora. The closure of the
business units can have a negative impact in the future as CTA doesn’t have any
income generating unit to sustain the functionality of CTA without relying on His
Holiness and external funding. In the worst case scenario, when His Holiness passes
away, there will be a huge lapse in the overall income of the CTA and I can also
predict that the foreign aids to Tibetan will fall down subsequently. It is a general
belief that His Holiness is the motivational forces for the foreign aids to reach Tibetan
society.

The financial instability in the future isn’t an issue among the Tibetan
Parliamentarians or the administration as they took granted of the presence of His

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Holiness the Dalai Lama. In other words, His Holiness is like a milking cow which
the Tibetan people cherished morally, culturally, economically, and politically.

In order to have a sustainable source of income, I believe that the Tibetan government
should restart the profit making enterprises which can generate income for the
survival of the CTA. Totally depending on the foreign aids and His Holiness is not a
viable idea to run the CTA for a long run.

Internal Factors: Election as an instrument of Good governance

a) Equality in Voting pattern: Unlike other secular states, TGiE has a particular
interest on religion particularly Buddhism and it has been a playing a significant role
in its political realm. There is a positive shift in the role of the religion in term of the
political objectivity. Prior to the Chinese occupation, the Tibetan government
decision making was highly concentrated on Gelugpa sect which is the sect belonging
to the Dalai Lama. However, in exile, all the sects along with Bon* are given equal
status.

Still many among Diasporas criticized for empowering the religious sect by
facilitating the right of two votes per monk/nun despite the fact that the common
people get the right to vote only once. The fact that the equality has loosened it grip
while the charter has facilitated the monks/nuns to vote for their provincial belongs as
well as religious sect. The problem lays on the nature of the parliament which is
composed of both the traditional provincial candidates as well as the religious sectoral
candidates. CTA has given too much concentration on the preservation of Tibetan
culture and tradition. In the present democratic system, we should have emphasized
more on equality and justice to the general populace though survival of the Tibetan
identity is based upon Tibetan culture and Buddhism. We should distinguish the role
of Buddhism and culture into a separate unit, such like in the administration, The
Department of Religion and Culture undertakes all necessary steps to promote
Tibetan culture and religious traditions. The religious sectoral candidacy in the
*Bon is an indigenous Tibetan religion which has been practiced in Tibet before the Buddhism arrived in Tibet in 7th century.

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parliament brings more harm than its benefit in the ladder of good democratic
governance. In the long run, the religious candidacy in the Parliament might also
groom the Democratic institution in a difficult position as it negate the role of other
religious belief such like Muslims and Christian community which are of
insignificant number in the Tibetan community at the present stage but has a
possibility of increasing in the future due to high rate of mobility towards west. It is a
difficult move to eradicate the religious candidacy at the present stage but it is vital
for a sound administration of the CTA. Throughout Tibetan history, religious
communities had played a significant role on the Tibetan administration but that
possibly doesn’t mean that the participation of the religious communities played a
positive role.

So far, election for the local administrative bodies and the regional parliamentarian
are working well with the initiatives of the local Tibetan communities without any
religious representations. Even the election of Prime Minister which was started in
2000 also marks a leap forward in the participation of the general populace.

b) Constituency based Election: pragmatic solution: Other issue which is currently

in debate is that Tibetan Parliamentary system runs neither of party system nor of a
constituency system election. It is traditionally based upon the provincial election
irrespective of the huge differences in the composition of a demographic populace.
Some believes that the constituency election is much pragmatic to solve the regional
differences, which is visibly occurring within the society and it helps in maintaining
the liable representation of the people in different settlements.

Taking the high mobility of Tibetan into concerns, the representation of the people in
the west or in the cities needs to be taken care of which had a minimal representation
in the current system. The high mobility within the Tibetan society is primarily due to
the higher standard of education opting for better living standard.

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Another issue on election is that most of the younger generations are not able to cast
their votes since they are studying in the different corners of Indian states. It might be
due to the lack of funding that CTA couldn’t afford to exercise such election in the
city base.

c) Role of Political party: Democratic institutions were established over the passage
of time. National Democratic Party was formed as a political party but the role of the
party is silent and passive and could not comply with the nature of the democracy
which the Tibetans are practicing which is a Provincial based election.

d) Civil Society: An effective means: In the Tibetan society, the effectiveness of the
freedom of media and expression, and the role of the democratic institutions in
creating awareness about democracy and the election are high. Over the years, there
is the great shift in the participation of the people in the election, networking and
community building measure. There are some agencies and non governmental
organizations working primarily on creating awareness on the democratic movement
within the Tibetan community by conducting seminars, workshops and even lodging
constructive opposition to some of the governmental policies. There is a healthy
environment exist for the civil society to exercise their role in the present Tibetan
community. The freedom of media and expression is visible and due to the political
nature of the Tibetan society, has focused mainly on political and societal issues by
fair means of expression without much biases. Mr. Samphel, spokesperson of the
CTA said, the cumulative impact of the exile Tibetan media has been enormous--
most notably on the development of a democratic community and polity in exile.4 The
number of literary journals and news magazine on both print and visual has increased
manifold within the last couple of years.

Conclusion:
Unlike any other democratic system, Tibetan democracy is free from corruption with
the presence of a strong mechanism on curbing the corruption as well as a strong
commitment of the Tibetan administration due to her political nature. The Office of

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the Auditor General is responsible for scrutinizing the financial transactions of all the
CTA departments and its subsidiaries. The Office evaluates the efficiency, propriety
and management performance of all CTA units. In short, it acts as a watchdog on the
CTA which has an enormous power over the financial transaction of the CTA.

Though the democratic system of the CTA is systematic and accountable to the
Tibetan people in and outside Tibet, it is difficult to say whether it will survive for in
the future or not. The survival of the Democratic system lies on not only on the
responsibility of the Tibetan in diaspora but also rely significantly on the action of the
Indian government and the funding of the foreign aids.

So far, the practice of democracy in exile is an experimental model to make its way to
the Free Tibet. Since the CTA under the leadership of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is
pursuing to negotiate with the Communist China on the genuine autonomy within
Communist China, it is difficult to implement the democratic system inside Tibet
when the autonomy is granted. It is believe that the democratic values exercising in
exile will eventually bring goodwill and positive impact in the future governance of
Tibet which is regarded as a sacred gift of the exile Tibetan to the Tibetan people
inside Tibet. Since 1969, His Holiness explicated vehemently on people involvement
in the future governance of Tibet and decided to stay away from the political
leadership.5 So, the ultimate responsibility lies in the hand of the majority of the
Tibetan people whether to implement Democratic system in Tibet or not while taking
the Chinese Communist regime into due consideration.

Notes:
1. Central Tibetan Administration, www.tibet.net
2. Central Tibetan Administration, www.tibet.net/en/flash/2007/0307/280307.html
3. Central Tibetan Administration, www.tibet.net/en/flash/2006/0306/18B0306.html
4. First independent Tibetan weekly hits the stands,
www.tibet.net/en/flash/2007/0407/180407.html
5. His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Vision for a Future Free Tibet, www.tibet.net

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