The 114th National Day Address of Bhutan
I love the 114th National Day address of Bhutan! I am sure many Bhutanese are thinking on what the King of Bhutan covered on 17 Dec 2021. There is much to reflect and unpack for all Bhutanese. As a “chilip” (or foreigner), I took away three key themes from the speech:
- Incorruptible
- The Pursuit of Excellence and
- Putting One’s Nation Before Self
Truth is Truth regardless of who says it
As the King of Bhutan has remarked, these are not new themes. There is a certain universality around being incorruptible, being excellent, and being servant to nation before self. Any national leader would agree with the need for them. (See examples from Singapore here and a synthesis article here).
In Bhutan, conversations around these themes have been percolating for a while. The only difference is that in addressing these issues publicly, the King has now given them public recognition and tacit invitation to be aired by others as well. That is the new thing this season, and signals a new direction in national discourse. It ushers in a new honesty around truth-telling, modelled by someone no less than a king. I applaud this new emphasis, because when one openly shares and respectfully unpacks truth, the benefits always outweigh the inconveniences. Hence, it is in this spirit that I share my reflections here. And I hope that this post invites more self-reflection, more sharing of one’s own realities and respectful discourse around differing perspectives.
Love is the Secret Sauce
Instead of going microscopic into each of these themes (which I am sure many civil servants will be doing anyway), I would rather provide a synthesis of the underlying driver behind the themes. For even though the call is for incorruptibility, excellence and putting nation before self, there is a common underpin to all three is love, specifically, love for one’s nation.
What does it mean to Love One’s Nation?
So what does it mean to love one’s nation? It is to put the nation’s interests above oneself. It is about being able to see beyond one’s own comfort zones, conveniences and even constraints to want to step out of the boat for the greater good. “Not my job”; “Not how we do things around here”; “My boss will not like this“….whoever said that loving is convenient or easy? It takes love to change, correct, and ultimately contribute to a greater standard of excellence. It takes courage to resist corruption, to cross territorial lines and organisational silos. Love can sometimes step on toes. But love also looks at the faces the toes belong to and invites those faces to look in the same direction together.
Such a love is tough, demanding, exacting, and tolerates no nonsense. At the same time, it is also an encouraging, nurturing, “let’s do it together” kind of love that wants to see the best in the other and is willing to put in time and energy towards it. Love compels one to not sell one’s country for a few ngultrum. It spurs one towards greater endeavours of excellence. It is the reason why one would place the nation before oneself. Without love, no enduring change is possible.
Ultimately, national development is the aggregation of individual transformation. Hence, the onus lies squarely on each individual to want to change. This means that to work on the list of imperatives in the National Address, the starting point is how one feels for one’s nation. The anchoring question for each individual is, “How can I love my country better?”
The Primacy of Individual Responsibility
Without a doubt, each individual must have love for one’s nation and be provided a proper channel for their love. Much sorrow arises from a lack of such channels.
As an illustration, in the near decade I have been associated with Bhutan, the number of Bhutanese I know who genuinely love their nation far outweigh those whose hearts are lukewarm. Unfortunately, I also hear of how when they try to show their love for their nation, they often have had to work against the system. Rather than being honoured, their love endeavours either fall on deaf ears or are trampled upon or are usurped by others. Sadly, common in these stories are what Bhutanese do to their fellow Bhutanese. In this illustration, love amongst fellow countrymen was absent. Love for oneself, one’s own career and ambitions outweigh love for one’s nation, hindering those who seek to advance the nation. This cannot persist and should not be tolerated.
Consequently, there are those whose initial spark of love for their nation may have grown dim, enfeebled by rejection or even corrupted by cynicism. To these people, I say that the truth remains the same. Is your love defeated so easily? Does it depend on reciprocity? Is not love sacrificial? Should your love not persist, even in the face of adversity? It is precisely because there is much to do and the way is hard that love is all the more needed. If not you, who else then will rise up to the call to love one’s nation?
The Potency of Family and Friends
The road of love needs not be travelled alone. Like-minded lovers of one’s nation should come together to encourage each other. This is where fellow sojourners are mutually forged through the journey to eventually become family and friends. This type of family is not about blood ties, but about being united in a common love for one’s nation. This type of friendship is not about meeting each others’ interests, but about a common interest of flourishing one’s nation. It is not about scratching each others’ backs, but about having each others’ backs. With family and friends bonded in a common love for the nation, the insurmountable becomes catalyst to forge a greater love.
While it may be uncomfortable for governments to talk about love, it is definitely within the scope for conversation amongst family and friends. When people fail to be incorruptible, fail to be excellent, fail to put nation before self, it is also because families and friends fail in their duty to spur each other towards good.
Different countries have different workplace cultures. The Swedes, for example, tend to keep work and personal life strictly separate. Singaporeans, on the other hand, are increasingly more respectful of the interplay of work and family life. What about Bhutanese?
I find Bhutanese to be far more connected by familial and relational ties in the workplace. It is not uncommon to have one’s relatives or family be in the same organisation. In a weird way, this has resulted in almost too much compassion at the workplace. The call is to love one’s nation more than one’s family and friends, and to encourage one’s family and friends to be part of this call.
The Partnership of the Government
No government can hope to emulate what families and friends can and ought to be doing. It is good that governments do not overstep their responsibilities. Nor should they desire to. The changing of one’s heart is a lifelong endeavour. Not many political systems I know have the appetite or patience for that.
In many countries, political systems do not have assurance of longevity. Hence, it is much easier to install a program, proclaim yet another transformation exercise, all nicely packaged and delivered within a 3 to 5 year horizon, than to track and shepherd the renewal of hearts and minds amongst friends and family within and across generations.
The Signals given by Political Office Holders
Political office holders form the first branch of any government. Although they have limited tenure to attend to generational issues, they play an important role to signal for national unity and steer a common direction.
During the time I was in Bhutan, I had the honour of running the first ever leadership development program for Members of the Parliament. This program was unique in that it united both Upper and Lower House, as well as Ruling and Opposition MPs towards the common vision of serving the Tsa Wa Sum. I don’t know if there is any other country that could have done the same thing, with its MPs cutting across partisan lines to put nation before self and party interests. Can Bhutan repeat the feat? Can her political office holders do one better, so that in generational issues such as those outlined in the address, there is common intent and unity of effort even between the outgoing and incoming parties?
The Support from the Civil Service
The Civil Service, on the other hand, must continue to implement programs and embarking on transformation exercises. The difference this time round is that many of these endeavours must now be led by the people, specifically, by families and friends who love their nation more than their own families and friends. Tokenism in public consultation is a big problem and policy makers must learn to encourage public discourse. Civil servants must stop being civil servants first, and be in service of the public. They must first love their nation, then find like-minded civil servants who share a common love for their nation. Those who do not love their nation have no place in an institution that claims to serve the people. Let love for nation enliven the joy of being a public servant. And let love for the nation drive public service reforms.
The Self-Regulation and Leadership of the Judiciary
The final arm of any government is the Judiciary. In many courts around the world, one sees the statue of a blind lady holding a sword in one hand and a scale in the other. It is meant to show that the law is impartial and blind to all forms of enticements, attachments and distractions. This is a crucial tension for judiciary systems to maintain. This internal self-regulation is central to the thesis of the Leadership of the Self that the King himself coined and which all RIGSS alumni are familiar. More than ever, Bhutan needs to see this leadership philosophy in action in its people.
Yet all judiciary systems need some form of case management due to overwhelming workloads. This is where it too can demonstrate common love for the nation by ensuring corruption cases are handled with much greater priority. Anti-corruption education and prevention efforts are national and generational endeavours. Typically, a nation’s anti-corruption agency, ministries representing trade, economic affairs, education, to name a few, will be part of such efforts. Judges can gain from their overall development by participating in such endeavours. It is part of a more nuanced self-management of needing to be in but not of the national discourse, to be connected through compassion and yet unaffected by bias.
What’s Next?
I have learnt much from Bhutan. As one who has had the privilege of serving Bhutan, I have always tried to speak the truth in love. Love is not a narrative to be spun, or an inconvenience to be side-stepped. Good truth-telling comes from ernest truth-seeking. Yet all ‘truth’ appears subjective unless the hearer is also a truth-seeker. And even the most penetrating truth, if not told and received in love, is rendered powerless. And this is the danger here from the 114th National Day Address of Bhutan. I am excited by the address because truth has been spoken in love by a sacrificial king who is a truth-seeker. But I wonder now how this truth will be received. More crucially, in what ways can we help love for one’s nation to triumph over all other loves?
