Re-posting what I penned down during the 10th convocation, 2015

Translation of His Majesty’s address at the 10^th convocation of Royal University of Bhutan, Royal Thimphu College, Feb 25^th, 2015

 

His Majesty the King unfolded his speech by telling a wisecrack joke on how to make a good kewa datshi (the popular Bhutanese dish). It has inner meaning metaphorically touched on how to build oneself the best to build one’s nation. Making a good kewa datshi, HM said, is not of such an easy thing if its taste is to be very delicious. To be it of tasty, one has to know what ingredients have to add and of how much quantity one must add. HM said that only with the right proportion of salt, water and other ingredients, and  knowing of how long to keep it in heat make a good kewa datshi, while too little of salt or too much of water or shortage of any one of the ingredients would make your taste of kewa datshi unpleasant. The ultimate message that His Majesty wants to convey us was not of how to make a good kewa datshi but to make oneself the best for the best of the nation. So, any shortcoming or being stay missed out in doing of one’s work would have serious repercussion in quality of the output.

His Majesty said that there are three points to be kept in mind: we are the custodians of our rich cultural heritage, we are the guardians of peace and stability, and our capability is must which can invariably mould the future of the nation. His Majesty said that the nation’s rich cultural heritage is indispensable in identifying who we are. Our forefathers in the past had safeguarded our cultural ethos and proudly handed over us with no any homogenization in it. “So, something which is build over the decades is easy to let it wear off in no time if there is no constant care for it. Therefore, it is our duty to constantly cherish, preserve and pass it down successfully to the future generations,” His Majesty said.

His Majesty said that unity is the strength of our country. “There must not be any social polarization or fragmentation of this little country which is wrapped from the north by the giant China and India in south. So, stabilization of unity is critical for our survival which must come through common goal and purposes catalyzed by non-separation and non-differentiation of thoughts between the people by region, race, political parties etc”.

 His Majesty said that we are always talking about the future. What we expect it to be like, it depends on our capability. “Your capability would invariably mould the future of the country,” His Majesty said. “Our capability at the present tells us how our future would be like. There is no future as such; the quality of what we are doing now is the quality of the future. If the quality of what we are doing now is the best, so is the future. If the quality of what we are doing now is just satisfactory, the future is going to be no different than this”.

His Majesty had also addressed on how to take advantage of smallness of our country and smallness of the population. His Majesty said that the big countries in the world are relatively wealthier than us in terms of economic strength but their problems are also equivalent to that amount which is challenged by the oversized population. So, they took longer time in making decision delayed by what is so-called deadlock because of divergent views voiced with different ideology and ideas. That’s how they couldn’t reach to common decision and agreement early at the cusp of one thought. “But unlike them, not Bhutan though. What others can do in a year is a work of a month for us and when others can achieve in a month we can achieve in a week”, His Majesty said. “Our smallness of the nation has given us an edge with greater momentum in gearing up for finding solutions in overcoming the various problems, steering the changes of the surrounding and be more expeditious in what is to be executed. That’s the advantage of our smallness of the nation”.

“Some of the large nations in the world are difficult to govern which are challenged by demographic explosion and unmanageable geographic patterns and boundary”, His Majesty said. “So, bad planning, inefficiency and failure of timely implementations of the plans are the problems associated with the bigger countries that we cannot afford to have in our little country because we do not have prompt answers and urgent solutions due to limited resources. We cannot simply disregard those problems blatantly because this would cost our country far dearer in the future if we don’t prepare to counteract the likelihood of the unforeseen problems”. 

His Majesty said that the present moment of our time changes overnight; what is remained for lifetime in the past is changing instantly in no moment today. “However, what is to be kept in mind is that this brings us various opportunities and associated problems too. So, we cannot afford to stay complacent but have to extraordinarily work hard to shoulder the greater responsibilities”. “I think the route we are heading would likely be an uphill climb,” His Majesty said. “However, no problem seems insurmountable if we find for solution and work with our collective effort. There is nothing we cannot achieve”.

His Majesty said that the greatest resource for us is our people. “We do not have gold or oil but what we have is our people. Our people are our wealth. If we invest well in building human resource however much it costs we would never find ourselves mislead into something”. “Even if we are in shortage of numbers, we must make up in ability and talents,” His Majesty said.

“When I became King, I made a strong promise to work determinedly in the service of the country and my people. And I take that vow seriously,” His Majesty said.

“So, seeing you all here I am proud of you all and it is the result of your great achievement of the years of education that brought you here today. We will begin our work together and end it together successfully to write a successful story of the nation,” His Majesty said.

Apology for my loose translation.  

Thanks for reading