The roar of a pregnant tigress

31 December 2008

What are symbols? Just as we cannot have thoughts without language, we cannot illustrate meaning without symbols. A symbol is a signpost erected on the grounds of collective aspirations. It is a seed of conviction that will harvest the many fruits of hope. Symbols are important in our lives.

2008 will be etched in history as a very symbolic year.

In 2008, Barack Obama emerged as a global symbol of change. His election to the US Presidency epitomised the American Dream of attaining your aspirations regardless of all constraints. It was the fruition of the hope of generations of Civil Rights Activists. The author of “The audacity of hope” is today a global icon.

Back in our kingdom, a single moment on a clear and sunny morning of December 17 was the snapshot of the year for me. On this day at the culmination of nationwide celebrations, His Majesty pinned a little golden medal on the small but sturdy frame of a woman named Aum Neten Zangmo.

The symbolism of this Druk Thuksey honour was lost on no one. In that singular moment, Aum Neten rose as the chairperson of the Anti Corruption Commission and soared much beyond. Her honour is a harbinger of hope in these times of momentous changes. The hope for the kind of change we can look forward to.

The essential question now is – how will the system honour Aum Neten? For starters, the ‘zero tolerance’ mantra against corruption should impute seriousness in intent. This is only achieved by addressing the root, not just the symptoms, of the rot wherever it may lead. The gun cannot fire on its own.

Seriousness may even demand instituting judicial tools like the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in India. There, any citizen or NGO can file a PIL petition directly in the High Court or the Supreme Court, even without suffering personal injury or grievance to espouse a public cause. PIL is the device by which public participation in judicial review of administrative action is assured. It has the effect of making judicial process more democratic. Perhaps then, the ACC can focus on frying the big fishes.

Aum Neten is the indomitable sharp shooter at the moving target of corruption that still swings wildly with the momentum of entrenched habitual barriers. In a stymieing and covertly hostile system, she is armed with only a banner that declares – “Right is might. Never the other way around”.

By just sheer force of conviction, Aum Neten has also emerged as a symbol of transcending many conventional stereotypes. As a most accomplished spinster, she now nurtures a much vast family. As a strict practitioner of a compassionate spirituality, she is as fierce and deadly as a pregnant tigress. As a woman in a rough professional field, her inner convictions have proved more dogged than the outer obstacles. Tough, humane and holistic, she is the Kiran Bedi of Bhutan. And maybe, much more.

The running joke of any rumoured reshuffle doing the bureaucratic rounds is – “Is she headed here?”.

I imagine she can become the first women Prime Minister of Bhutan. But I doubt that she wants to.

In conclusion, to see Aum Neten as just a crusader against corruption is to miss the forest for the trees. Her recent honour is also a prophesy of a better tomorrow. It is now up to the custodians of the constitution and the government to water this symbol of a new Bhutan to germinate into idiocy or a sane reality.

By Phuntsok Rabten

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