Loosing Distinction Between a ‘Traitor’ and Patriots: By Vijay Kranti
Peter Terpstra
Phayul[Wednesday, December 30, 2009 15:53]
One funny thing that has always intrigued me regarding Tibet is the laid back
attitude of the Lord Chamberlain in Lhasa in 1950 when the radio message from
Lhalu Tsewang Dorje, the Governor General of Eastern Tibet arrived him in the
form of a telegram. It was a desperate SOS from the Governor to the ruling
caretaker Regent’s Council. He was asking for advice and fresh Army back up
from Lhasa government as he feared that Tibet was going to be attacked by the
Chinese Army any moment. The Lord Chamberlain read it and put it aside with
the instructions to keep it on hold until the Regent and his large contingent
of courtiers had finished their traditional annual picnic. This was Tibet
where an annual picnic had a better place in the priority list of a nation’s
leadership as compared to the national security.
What followed was no less funny either. The Governor General Lhalu was
replaced by Ngabo Ngawang Jigme, an energetic minister from Lhasa who was
known for not being so ‘fussy’ and ‘desperate’ like Lhalu – more so in matters
related to China. Instead of taking commands from the Lhasa government the new
Governor decided on his own to ‘negotiate’ with the Chinese generals. Ngabo
not only deliberately deprived the radio facility to the frontier posts to
stop any ‘bad’ news from reaching Lhasa, he quietly let the PLA massacre the
entire force of Tibetan Army men at the frontier posts. At home in Chamdo he
disbanded the local armed volunteer groups, blasted the Tibetan Army’s
ammunition depot and ran back to Lhasa without giving any fight to the PLA who
just walked in to overwhelm Chamdo.
In early 1951 at Lhasa when 16-year old Dalai Lama was taken away to a safe
place near Indian border in South, Ngabo practically appointed himself as the
head of Tibetan delegation to Beijing for negotiations with the Chinese
government. Though his delegation was not given any authority to sign any
papers on behalf of the Lhasa government, Ngabo put his signatures on a
‘treaty’ between China and Tibet to ‘formally merge’ Tibet into China. Thus,
in one stroke of signature of this obliging ‘charming young man’, Tibet lost
its centuries old freedom and became a permanent colony of China on May 23,
1951.
It is not surprising that Ngapo was profusely rewarded by the ‘Central’
government of China for his ‘patriotic’ services to the great Chinese
‘motherland’. In March 1959 when Dalai Lama escaped to India to become a
refugee following a failed uprising of Tibetan masses against occupying
Chinese forces, Ngapo used choicest rebukes against his escaping former ruler
to demonstrate his loyalty to his Chinese masters. This process of winning
brownie points from his colonial communist masters continued till December
23rd this year when he died as the most beloved Tibetan stooge of China at the
age of 99 in a comfortable hospital in Beijing.
It is understandable that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
China (CPC) should have paid its tributes to the dead Ngabo Ngawang Jigme as
“a great patriot, renowned social activist, good son of Tibetan people,
outstanding leader of China’s ethnic work and a CLOSE FRIEND of CPC.” China’s
state controlled news agency Xinhua conveyed the Beijing rulers’ tributes to
this collaborator by praising him for “ushering in major milestones in Tibet,
such as the democratic reforms and the founding of the Autonomous Region of
Tibet (TAR).” This praise from his colonial masters on account of his role in
founding of TAR becomes more meaningful and revealing today when we find
Beijing, perpetually facing international pressure on Tibet, trying
desperately to present TAR as the ‘real Tibet’. TAR has been always handy in
Beijing’s attempts to deflect world community’s attention from rest of two
thirds of original Tibet which China has already gobbled up and digested in
adjoining Chinese provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai. This
profuse expression of love and admiration from a colonial master to an
obliging native collaborator is understandable.
However, what is not understandable is the official tribute from the exiled
Tibetan government in Dharamsala who eulogized dead Ngabo as “Honest and
Patriotic who always spoke truth even under the most trying and difficult
circumstances”. In its enthusiasm to express its suddenly found admiration for
a man like Ngabo the Kashag, (Tibetan Cabinet) the highest executive forum of
the ‘government in exile’, has gone on record to say that it “remembers his
life-long contributions and mourns his demise.” One wishes that the Kashag
should have specifically mentioned those ‘contributions’ of Ngabo which the
new generation of Tibetans should emulate in order to be finally decorated as
“Honest and Patriotic” by its leaders?
The Kashag statement refers to some meetings between Ngabo and visiting
Tibetan representatives of Dharamsala in which he is supposed to have claimed
that he had expressed his frank opinions to Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and
other leaders on issues like real size of Tibet, the 17-point agreement and
the recognition of the 14th (present) Dalai Lama. It sounds like
rehabilitating a ‘traitor’ as a new ‘hero’ of the Tibetan nation.
In its extra ordinary obituary statement, the Kashag has surprisingly gone to
the extent of equating Ngabo with late 10th Panchen Lama who, unlike Ngabo,
had the courage to confront Beijing leaders publicly head on. Despite having
been brought up under Beijing’s care since his childhood, Panchen Lama
demonstrated the courage of condemning Chinese ruthlessness in occupied Tibet
through a brave 70 thousand character long letter that he had addressed to
Chairman Mao. (As a consequence he was deprived of his post as a Vice Chairman
of CPCC and condemned to a 20 year long labour camp punishment. Following his
release, he is believed to have been murdered by Beijing agents when he spoke
publicly against Beijing rule on Tibet in early 1980s.)
It is surprising to note that the Kashag has found it praiseworthy that Ngabo
took 40 years to call upon the Central Government to implement 17-point
agreement….” which he himself had signed. Interestingly, he never repeated
this demand till he died 18 years later.
Tibetan government can surely draw some solace from the Tibetan ‘tradition’ of
not saying unpleasant things about a dead person – but its attempt to heap
praise on one of the worst known ‘traitors’ in Tibetan history has left most
exiled Tibetans confused and dumb stuck. They fail to understand why a man,
who collaborated all his life with occupying Chinese masters in strengthening
their colonial grip on his country Tibet, should be ‘remembered for his life-
long contributions…’? This praise of a ‘Mir Jafar’ (the legendry traitor
Indian Mughal king who collaborated with the East India Company to pave way
for its colonial rule in India) is an insult to those innumerable brave
Tibetans living inside occupied Tibet who laid their lives or who underwent
horrible experiences to fight and undo the sins of men like Ngabo.
And finally, this gesture of the Tibetan leadership has left thousands of
friends of Tibet like me bewildered. We are at loss to decide whether a
community, who lacks even the elementary wisdom of distinguishing between its
traitors and patriots, really deserve our support.
Observers like me have known Prof. Samdhong Rimpoche, the present leader of
the Kashag, as one of the most outstanding leaders of present day Tibet. With
my personal deep faith in his wisdom, patriotism and capability of taking
difficult decisions, I am sure he will probe the possibilities of a second
thought on this statement to withdraw it or reissue it after due amendments.
This wisdom of correcting a historic mistake in its bud will not only save the
Tibetan nation from the fall outs of an avoidable blunder, it will also
underline the magnanimity of this monk statesman. And, above all, such a brave
step will pave way for many more healthy practices in a democratic system
which is still in its nascent stage and has to go a long way towards a deep
rooted and matured democracy.
The writer is a veteran Indian journalist and a photographer who has had
association with the Tibetan community for more than three decades. He has
documented the exile Tibetan community's journey through his lens. He lives in
Delhi.
The views expressed in this piece are that of the author and the publication
of the piece on this website does not necessarily reflect their endorsement by
the website.
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=26314
--
Amnesty International Report 2009 on China:
http://report2009.amnesty.org/en/regions/asia-pacific/china
Karl Loon
> Loosing Distinction Between a ‘Traitor’ and Patriots: By Vijay Kranti
As the saying goes: _One_s meat is another_s poisson. So poor Ngabo
Ngawang Jigme is the CCP_s meat and DL_s fish. Or is it the other way
round?
K. L.
Peter Terpstra
dc6079...@j4g2000yqe.googlegroups.com> :
> As the saying goes: _One_s meat is another_s poisson. So poor Ngabo
> Ngawang Jigme is the CCP_s meat and DL_s fish. Or is it the other way
> round?
You are here to defend your communism, you don't care about truth, people,
humanity or compassion
You do not want to learn about the horrors of communism and see the lies where
it is based on, you just keep preaching the evil poison that communism IS!
Communist Body Count
Scott Manning
December 4, 2006
The following estimates represent citizens killed or starved to death by their
own Communist governments since 1918. These numbers do not include war dead.
The governments are sorted by body count (highest to lowest).
All numbers are mid-estimates.
While this list is as complete as I have been able to determine, it is
evolving. Some numbers are incomplete and there are still five Communist
countries that have the potential to kill more of their citizens. Over the
next year, each government will be profiled in detail on this website.
A detailed bibliography is listed at the end of this page. Feedback is more
than welcome.
Communist Body Count: 149,469,610
Details:
http://www.digitalsurvivors.com/archives/communistbodycount.php