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Tag Archives: Lobsang Sangay

Independence! A Dirty Word For Lobsang Sangay

04 Dec

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It’s official! The exiled Tibetan Administration does not equate ‘freedom’ with independence. So dear Tibetan brothers and sisters when in future you hear either Doctor Lobsang Sangay or any other exiled Tibetan official refer to Tibetan freedom be warned that what they mean is not Tibet’s independence but something far less, the subservient condition of autonomy!

We have been trying to inform people of the distinction between the meaning and application of the terms independence and freedom for some time Article HERE and so are most grateful to Doctor Lobsang Sangay for his authoratitive recent confirmation that the two terms are indeed distinct, with ‘freedom’ covering a range of interpretations that are less emphatic or singular than ‘independence’.

In a recent New York Times interview in which Doctor Sangay appeared, the journalist Gardiner Harris, originally made the following opening comments:

“The cause of INDEPENDENCE is not hopeless, Lobsang Sangay, leader of the Tibetan Government in Exile, said in an interview on Thursday” (Emphasis Added)

Now firstly you should be aware that these words were comments not attributed in quotation to Lobsang Sangay, so could be open to interpretation and uncertainty as to whether they are an interpretation of the reporter, or a remark made by Doctor Sangay but not formally quoted. However that literary confusion apart the main controversy here is reference to  ‘independence’ a word which is taboo to the exiled Tibetan Administration and one which anyone familiar with the Tibetan cause would never associate with Lobsang Sangay or his colleagues who consistently avoid any mention of it. They have no such reservations however with employing the term ‘freedom’, reason being that it is open to a varierty of interpretations, less emphatic and can of course describe a condition of ‘autonomy’, which by coincidence happens to be the objective sought for Tibetans by Lobsang Sangay and the CTA!

The degree of appeasement towards the Chinese regime by Doctor Sangay is such that the mere association of Tibet with independence sets in motion various levers of denial, censorship and evasion, while always carefully reassuring China that ‘we are not seeking independence’. So what does the Harvard trained lawyer do on realizing that he has been attributed as affirming Tibet’s cause for independence is not without hope? Why he calls upon the New York Times to immediately issue an amended, restrospectively edited version, expunging any reference to ‘independence’!

“The cause of Tibetan FREEDOM is not hopeless, Lobsang Sangay, leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile, said in an interview Thursday.” (Emphasis Added) SOURCE

Not only that but any former trace of the original version of the story vanishes from the internet! Just to make sure that his good friends in Beijing are not unduly upset Lobsang Sangay arranges the revised version of the NYT interview to feature on the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration.http://tibet.net/2012/11/30/the-tibetan-cause-is-not-hopeless-leader-says/

So desperate is Lobsang Sangay and his colleagues to convince China that the exiled Tibetan Administration in no way endorses independence that they attach to the revised interview the following addendum:

“Correction: December 1, 2012

The first sentence of this post originally read: “The cause of Tibetan independence is not hopeless…”Tibetans are fighting for an autonomous state, not independence.”

So there we have it! In a panic to ensure that China’s pathological sensitivities concerning Tibetan independence were appeased  Lobsang Sangay has the word ‘independence’ removed and replaced with ‘freedom’ from comments attributed to him by a reporter. Remember dear Tibetans that if he and his fellows in the Central Tibetan Administration regarded the two words as having the same meaning, in terms of politics and international law, then he would have felt no need to insist on the New York Times issuing an emergency revision! Truth is that he felt compelled to arrange the substitution, because he and the exiled Tibetan Administration know very well that ‘freedom’ is not equivalent to ‘independence’ and were desperate too that China be offered an immediate reassurance that Lobsang Sangay had not been supportive of Tibetan independence.

The next occasion Lobsang Sangay appears on Al Jazeera and talks of ‘freedom’ remember carefully this latest episode and know that while he sits and offers what on the surface seem words of support for Tibetans in Tibet  he is hiding behind a phrase that is a smokescreen, concealing the reality that he is not committed  to the cause that Tibetans are sacrificing so much for, but to securing a condition of autonomy under Chinese rule. That is what the Central Tibetan Administration means when it says ‘freedom for Tibetans’!

 
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Posted by on December 4, 2012 in Appeasing China, News Item, Tibet

 

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Can Doctor Lobsang Sangay Escape These Charges?

21 Nov

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Following extremely serious charges  SEE HERE placed before Doctor Lobsang Sangay’s office by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a Press Statement See HERE bearing the name of Mr. Lobsang Choedak has today been issued that partially responds to the allegations made by the Congressman. Significantly though this curiously unsigned statement evades entirely the charge that some ‘Tibetan leaders’ have been “cutting a deal with a corrupt and despotic regime”. Why?

Apart from refuting other criticisms made by Congressman Rohrabacher, it is also careful to include the following assertion on Radio Free Asia (RFA):

“RFA Tibetan Service was established to provide truthful and objective service to Tibetans particularly to listeners in Tibet deprived of unbiased and timely news and information”. (Emphasis Added)

This is an important statement in that it brings into question the Tibetan reportage of RFA which consistently features China’s propaganda terminology, in describing Tibet, its regions and people. A key question which is being somewhat overlooked in the heat and smoke surrounding this controversy is why for a number of years has RFA presented such a bias and willingly featured China’s disinformation? Just how truthful, objective and unbiased is it of Radio Free Asia to describe a Tibetan, who self-immolates in Labrang in Amdo region of occupied Tibet as ‘ethnic Tibetan self-immolated in a Tibetan area of Qinghai province’?

These, and other pressing questions remain unanswered, such as why has Doctor Lobsang Sangay not issued a signed, official statement which addresses  all the allegations made by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher? An unsigned press release is less than reassuring and hardly an appropriate or detailed response. Given the importance of this matter Tibetans have the right to expect a full and transparent public response from Doctor Sangay, anything else is simply political escapology.

 
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Posted by on November 21, 2012 in News Item, Tibet

 

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Life In The West Or ‘Autonomy’ Under China?

24 Oct

 

Lobsang Sangay, who precisely is the ‘we” you repeatedly refer to when reciting the mantra that ‘we seek autonomy, we don’t want independence”? Tell us something else, those handful of exiled Tibetans who peddle this line, should China’s regime allow the cosmetic improvement you seek, will you and autonomy supporters be giving up the comforts of life in the West, in exchange for the dubious pleasure of life under Chinese rule? If not then what you and your Tibetan supporters are really promoting is ‘Autonomy under Chinese rule for Tibetans in Tibet’.

Yet as shown by decades of resistance and ongoing protests, collective and individual, Tibetans seek their national freedom! If you and those following the orthodoxy of the ‘Middle Way’ policy would not be relocating themselves and families away from the liberal freedoms enjoyed in exile, to a Tibet ruled by China, why are you enforcing an outcome upon  Tibetans living in occupied Tibet who clearly do not share your vision?

 
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Posted by on October 24, 2012 in Appeasing China, Demonstrations, Tibet

 

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‘Special Meeting’ To Rubber Stamp Further Appeasement Of China

25 Sep

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Today has seen the start of yet another ‘Special Meeting’ convened by the exiled Tibetan Administration (formerly Exiled Tibetan Government) in which a staged exhibition of determined solidarity and unity of purpose, will predictably support its ongoing appeasement of China. It’s a strange form of democracy that would not be too unfamiliar to the late medieval courts of Italy or France, there will be no genuine accountability or democratic determination based on a collective will of the people. Instead agreement will be reached by a carefully selected group of participants and attendees, the over-whelming majority of whom are loyal and uncritical followers of the presiding cabal.

The stated agenda of the meeting is too “To discuss ways and means to deal with the urgent and critical situation inside Tibet” however a fundamental and critical truth will receive barely a mention, one that lies at the very heart of the Tibetan issue. That, in occupied Tibet, the Tibetan people struggle against China’s tyranny to demand their rightful independence. In exile however the Tibetan Administration (CTA) the body which has arranged this meeting, is seeking a dangerous compromise with China, in which Tibetan nationhood and independence is surrendered in exchange for a so-called autonomy. A solution that would see Tibetans  remain under China’s vicious rule with cosmetic improvements in terms of cultural or other rights. This insane proposal is fiercely advocated by the CTA, while acutely aware  that their compatriots in Tibet are struggling for independence, it is also forced upon exiled Tibetans through manipulating and exploiting traditional Tibetan societal values. This process has resulted in an orthodoxy, a dogma  entirely intolerant of any dissenting voice, particularly those expressing support for Tibetan independence.We can therefore expect that the ongoing violations and suffering of Tibetans under Chinese rule will be used as a pretext to advocate the justification and urgency of current efforts to seek a negotiated solution with China’s regime, on the basis of the proposals featured in the so-called Memorandum On Meaningful Autonomy For Tibetans

This ‘Special Meeting’ is therefore effectively little more than a rubber-stamping exercise, to affirm what has proved a failed ‘policy’ of seeking compromise with China (a fact conceded by no less than Kundun during a US TV interview). It is no exaggeration to state that such a strategy, which is doomed to further surrender to Chinese demands, is a betrayal of the political aspirations of Tibetans inside occupied Tibet, who seek not autonomy or compromise with China’s regime, but the national independence of Tibet. Yet the political elite of Dharamsala ignore that reality and impose their desperate capitulations upon the Tibetan people, hiding behind a cynical facade of democratic process.

 
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Posted by on September 25, 2012 in News Item, Tibet

 

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Exiled Tibetan Prime Minister Acknowledging Tibetans Are Chinese?

24 Jul

Lobsang Sangay

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Lobsang Sangay was elected from within the exiled Tibetan community to the post of Prime Minister and travels the world articulating what he and his Administration consider to be the objectives of Tibet’s cause. What this urbane and media aware spokesperson chooses not to mention in his numerous interviews is the reality that the message he peddles is at complete variance with the political struggle being waged inside occupied Tibet. Not only that but the strategy which his declarations endorse, known as the Middle Way policy, has been conceded by the Dalai Lama as a failure. That sobering truth however has not prevented Lobsang Sangay and his colleagues from continuing to flog a very dead yak in their efforts to appease China’s leadership to return to what have proved utterly failed negotiations over Tibet.

His latest comments, featured in Foreign Policy again betray the common aspiration of Tibetans inside occupied Tibet, who face China’s tyranny to demand their rightful independence, while in the air-conditioned comfort of Washington Lobsang was  assuring a reporter of The Cable that:

“If Tibet is granted autonomy, that could be a catalyst for moderation of China because if the Chinese government grants autonomy to Tibetans, for the first time they are accepting diversity within and accepting a distinct if not different people,“ (Emphasis Added)

This comment might be misread by some as the exiled Tibetan Minister implying Tibetans are in fact Chinese and belonging to the one big happy nation of the Motherland? Such a concession would not be entirely surprising given the record of dangerous surrender and appeasement which has characterized the efforts of the exiled Tibetan Administration in seeking compromises from China. Later in the same interview he claimed:

“We are asking for genuine autonomy within China, within the framework of the Chinese constitution. We are not challenging Chinese sovereignty or territorial integrity so we are willing to accept the One China concept,” (Emphasis Added)

Precisely who is Lobsang Sangay referring to when he talks of “we”? Clearly not those Tibetans who have for decades resisted China’s illegal and violent occupation of Tibet to demand independence. Nor is he speaking for Tibetans who self-immolate and have distributed leaflets calling for Tibetan independence, shouted slogans calling for the same, or as occurred on June 20 having doused themselves in gasoline and set themselves ablaze held aloft the symbol of Tibetan independence, the national flag of Tibet.

The exiled Tibetan Administration knows very well that Tibetans seek national freedom, a fact recognized on a number of occasions by the Dalai Lama, it is fully aware too of the stream of detailed accounts emerging from Tibet that documents protests, collective and individual that have as a central demand Tibetan independence. However this heartfelt and common aspiration is callously ignored in the pursuit of securing a condition of so-called autonomy in which Tibet’s rightful cause for nationhood is abandoned and Tibetans would remain under China’s bloody maw.

 
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Posted by on July 24, 2012 in Appeasing China, News Item, Tibet

 

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Denying Tibetans Freedom To Determine The Nature of Their Struggle

26 Jun

Graphic courtesy of @AnonymousTibet

 
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Posted by on June 26, 2012 in Demonstrations, News Item, Tibet

 

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Exiled Tibetan Minister Smears His Own People?

26 Jun

Lobsang Sangay

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It is a well known and recorded truth that inside occupied Tibet the Tibetan people have been resisting for decades China’s illegal and violent occupation. It is also a fact that Tibetans in their protests, individually and collectively have as a major political objective, Tibet’s independence, as revealed by a wealth of documented material and ongoing reports emerging from that blighted land. It is therefore accurate and fair to describe the Tibetan resistance as being pro-independence, a reality long acknowledged by the Dalai Lama in various statements.

What then are we to make of comments from the exiled Tibetan Prime Minister, Lobsang Sangay, reported in today’s Sydney Morning Herald in which the Harvard educated lawyer offered a troubling response to what was presented to be the challenge of maintaining a line against non-violence; which the reporter implied was becoming difficult for younger Tibetans to support, in light of the moderate  policies (political suicide more accurately describes those) of the exiled Tibetan administration.

When asked if that was becoming more difficult he replied:

“Yes in some senses because as more time passes, and there’s no progress, it validates the pro-independence argument – ‘see we told you so’. But for us, the values of democracy and non-violence are not negotiable.” Source: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/dreams-of-a-leader-of-a-land-he-has-never-seen-20120625-20yh1.html

Interesting how those values are of such supreme importance that they are to be blindly followed despite a singular absence of any progress in terms of securing a meaningful agreement from China’s regime, however we digress, So the lawyer, with a trained exactitude for words, is content to suggest that those Tibetans who are actively support Tibetan independence have less regard for non-violence and democratic values than the privileged cabal known as the exiled Tibetan Administration? Moreover do these remarks slander the young Tibetans inside occupied Tibet who take to the streets to demand Tibetan independence and freedoms, that are indeed steeped in democratic principle, such as free speech, right to dissent and national self determination? His words are deeply divisive and fail to respect the common political aspiration of Tibetans for their nation’s independence, in portraying advocates of Tibet’s national independence as violent objectors to democratic they display an uneasy similarity to the rhetoric usually associated with China’s regime, it too denigrates Tibetan protesters seeking independence as violent.

By wrongly tainting the demand for Tibetan independence with violence Lobsang Sangay is walking a very dangerous road indeed, alienating himself and his exiled Administration from a deeply held hope of all Tibetans for an independent Tibet, and misrepresenting a Tibetan youth, which is courageously opposing China’s tyranny to demand their country’s rightful independence.It may well be that his comments were designed to appease China, a move to reassure the Chinese Regime by disassociating the exiled Tibetan Administration from the issue of Tibet’s independence by criticizing and denigrating those seeking that goal. If so, what next? How far is this position from endorsing China’s claims that such Tibetans are criminals seeking to split the Motherland? Is there no depth to which the  appeasement of China’s Regime will not sink?

 
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Posted by on June 26, 2012 in Appeasing China, News Item, Tibet

 

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Exiled Tibetan PM Turns His Back On The Truth

26 May

Graphic courtesy of @tibettruth

 
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Posted by on May 26, 2012 in News Item, Tibet

 

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A Response To The Distortions Of Tibetan PM’s March 10 Statement

10 Mar

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So not surprised to note the statement of exile Tibetan Prime Minister, Lobsang Sangay, his words demonstrate the huge disconnect between the exiled Tibetan Administration and the struggle and objectives of its people inside occupied Tibet. Firstly shall we make clear Lobsang la that, the motivations and political objectives of those Tibetan martyrs who -self-immolated, are clear for all to see.

Anyone reading the political testaments from these Tibetans, or eyewitness testimony of such events cannot fail to note that what these heroes sacrificed themselves for was, Tibet’s national freedom and independence, along with declaring support for the Dalai Lama. Yet in your March 10 statement you choose not only to ignore that fact, but through implication of motive, to misrepresent their actions by claiming that:
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“The self-immolations are an emphatic rejection of the empty promises of the so-called ‘socialist paradise.” http://tibet.net/2012/03/10/statement-of-kashag-on-53rd-tibetan-national-uprising-day/

This fact-free statement betrays what your compatriots offered their lives for, as they did not engulf themselves in fire, simply to protest undelivered policies or improvements made by China’s regime. It is extremely disappointing that as head of the exiled Tibetan Administration you have issued such distortions, which are aggravated by your comments on the nature of Tibet’s cause

“The Tibetan struggle is not against the Chinese people or China as a nation. It is against the PRC government’s policies” http://tibet.net/2012/03/10/statement-of-kashag-on-53rd-tibetan-national-uprising-day/

Such words avoid a reality of colossal dimensions, in that Tibetans are struggling, as evidenced by countless reports, for their national independence, in doing so it is natural and inevitable that your people see China and its occupiers for what they are, foreign oppressors. Moreover, Tibetans regularly expose themselves to arrest, torture and Chinese bullets not to seek, as you suggest, a moderation of policies or improvements in areas of employment, health, or education, but to demand Tibetan independence.

It is fine to close your statement with a hope for freedom and reunification, no one supportive of Tibet would oppose such a prospect, but perhaps you would care to explain why you take such detailed care to avoid and misrepresent whenever the subject of Tibet’s rightful independence arises?

 
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Posted by on March 10, 2012 in News Item, Tibet

 

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New Tibetan Prime Minister-Same Betrayal Of Tibet’s True Cause?

07 Aug
Lobsang Sangay

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On the morning of August 8, 20011  Lobsang Sangay declared an oath as the new Prime Minister of the Exiled Tibetan Administration, he replaced Samdhong Rinpoche. these are two very different people separated by generation, education and experience. The youthful Sangay, versed in Harvard academia, comfortable in western culture and engagingly at ease with the media, contrasts with the mature Buddhist scholar and religious figure of Samdhong, more a ‘son of India’ than Massachusetts. Yet, differences notwithstanding, the two share the same conviction of seeking, what’s been described as ‘meaningful autonomy’ for Tibet, an objective at variance with the courageous struggle waged by Tibetans in their oppressed nation, who face Chinese bullets, torture and prison to demand national independence. That reality was consistently ignored during the tenure-ship of Samdhong Rinpoche and looks set to be further marginalized by the incoming Prime Minister too, who has affirmed his devotion to the so-called Middle Way proposal:

“I stand for the ‘middle-way policy’, which is seeking a resolution for the Tibetan problem within the framework of the constitution of the People’s Republic of China,” (Lobsang Sangay, Hindustan Times August 7, 2011)

This failed and inane strategy (repeatedly rejected by China) seeks to secure improved conditions under China’s national and regional laws on autonomy and ‘minority’ rights. In the case of China’s regime, this is rather like a woman seeking to co-habit with a serial sex-offender and expecting respect and equality! Such concerns however, and the fact of his compatriots seeking national freedom, does not appear to phase Lobsang Sangay,  who, like his predecessor, seems fully committed to appeasing China in order to gain ‘progress’ on negotiations. Yet such talks, if successful, would result in the demise of Tibet as an international issue and Tibetans consigned to an uncertain and dangerous future as another Chinese ‘minority’, under the tender mercy of Chinese rule! 

Some are concerned when words such as ‘betrayal’ and ‘treachery’ are used to describe the position advocated by Lobsang Sangay yet what other terms can more suitably address a policy which callously tramples over the heartfelt wishes of Tibetans in occupied Tibet, who despite the vicious suppression take to the streets to demand national liberation. While in Washington DC and elsewhere, their exiled Prime Minister is promoting a stealthy surrender of Tibet’s nationhood, at complete variance with their right to national freedom and political aspirations.

As Lobsang Sangay continues his efforts to promote the surrender of Tibet’s true cause we would ask him, and other Tibetans, to ponder upon this question:

Lobsang, do you consider Tibetans to be an ethnic minority of China with rights under China’s constitution, or a distinct people with rights to nationhood?

 
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Posted by on August 7, 2011 in Appeasing China, News Item

 

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