20110315 Tibet to debate Dalai Lama’s request

Tibet to debate Dalai Lama’s request

TRYING AGAIN:An earlier request to be relieved of his ceremonial political responsibilities was rejected on the grounds that there was no replacement of equal stature

AFP, DHARAMSALA, INDIA

Tibet’s exiled parliament opened an historic session yesterday with the reading of a formal request by the Dalai Lama to be relieved of his title as political leader of the Tibetan movement.

The 75-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate announced last week that he intended to retire as the titular head of Tibet’s -government-in-exile and devolve those duties to a directly elected leader.

At the start of yesterday’s session, the speaker of parliament read out a letter from the Dalai Lama, asking that the Tibetan movement’s constitution be amended to allow him to step down.

The matter is scheduled to be debated today.

The Dalai Lama’s political title is largely symbolic and he will retain the more significant role of Tibet’s spiritual leader.

He has also made clear that he would not be withdrawing from public life and remained “committed to playing my part in the just cause of Tibet.”

It is not the first time the Dalai Lama has asked to be released from his ceremonial political responsibilities and the parliament has rejected similar requests in the past, arguing that there was no replacement of equal stature.

Observers say the Dalai Lama is more adamant this time and expect that his temporal duties will be assumed by the exiled government’s new prime minister, who will be elected in a final round of voting on Sunday.

There are three contenders for the post, with Lobsang Sangay — currently a visiting research fellow at Harvard Law School — seen as the front-runner.

The other candidates are Tenzin Tethong, a former representative of the Dalai Lama in New York and Washington, and Tashi Wangdi, who has run half a dozen departments of the government-in-exile over the years.

In a debate hosted on Sunday by US-based broadcaster Radio Free Asia, all three candidates voiced clear reservations about assuming the Dalai Lama’s political title and urged him to reconsider stepping down.

“The Dalai Lama’s decision to transfer authority to an elected Tibetan leadership naturally comes to me as a serious concern,” Lobsang Sangay said.

“I support 100 percent that a collective appeal must be made to ask His Holiness to continue to hold leadership of the Tibetan people,” he added.

Tethong said the Dalai Lama’s leadership in all spheres was critical.

“I’m of the view that Tibetans must strongly urge him to continue to lead the Tibetan people as a whole,” he said.

Announcing his intention to retire on Thursday, the Dalai Lama said he had already received many appeals to reconsider, but called for understanding and support for his decision.

“My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility,” he said. “It is to benefit Tibetans in the long run. It is not because I feel disheartened.”

China, which brands the Dalai Lama a “splittist” bent on Tibetan independence, responded by accusing him of playing “tricks” to deceive the international community.

Analysts say the move would be largely symbolic, with the Dalai Lama remaining the global figurehead of the Tibetan movement and key arbiter on important political policy.

The Dalai Lama fled his homeland in 1959 after an unsuccessful uprising against Chinese rule and established his exiled government in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala.