TALKS IN THE CONFINES OF OUR HOMES

This is a personal opinion, but this is a fact some can never deny, and they will walk with pride and celebrate the road taken, but there will be guilt that cannot be talked.  

I don’t intend to harm how people I know have lived and served and accomplished, I intend to plant a sense of accountability His Majesty called for in my small ways, as always.

When we have written DSA for service we in fact did not provide, had we demonstrated integrity and accountability the National Day Speech brought to light by His Majesty The King? 

When we got promoted to P-1 position and higher with research paper we actually didn’t write, were we accountable as a leader of example, even when we don’t have papers read or written in decades? 

 When we left office before time and took leave to play archery instead of serving people who came for services, was that a display of responsibility and accountability we so much talk about only?

His majesty is stark aware about what every Bhutanese talks about at our homes and bar, at a gathering and on a walk, telling us that His concerns are “ part of daily conversation among our people while expressing their concerns, hopes and aspirations.” 

In these conversations we talk about policies and leadership, service delivery, quality, fairness, integrity and accountability. We talk about our authorities, about parliamentarians, about people in authorities, about the powerful and rich, about the crooked and the caring, about those who deliver services, from the common to the corridors of the elite. 

 If it is for schools, teachers talks about principals, sharing displeasure that they cannot stand to voice before him. When he is around, all things are praises and compliance. Principals talk about education officers and others who matter to our work life, pouring aspiration how things must be delivered, leadership must be exemplified and matters must be understood. But these are conversations in the confines of our telegram, WhatsApp and walls. 

 Even if the common cries are heard, even if those who can make people’s lives better deny to change in how they deliver, if they talk and serve in the ways they have for decades proving their pride on years and experiences, the future everyone expects will remain as common conversations. 

It is time that we are accountable to what we do and who we are. While our small community may limit us to raise voices and be responsible without fear or favour, there should be a beginning from where our way of service is toughened with fairness and justice. 

 His Majesty the King touched the very essence of our aspirations, that “Accountability must henceforth become the cornerstone of governance.” This is a Royal call for leaders like you and me. The higher our roles, greater our accountability has become. 

 If we account to good things that happen because we worked, we must also be accountable to lesser things that need to change. Thus, I am accountable to every success and failure of every individual I work with, and to every services we work together. I am accountable to the foot prints on the carpet, I am accountable to footprints I make on my students moral conduct. I am accountable to a truant student who disappeared from class, I am accountable to a student who becomes brazen as a military officer. I am accountable to lateness of my teacher, I am accountable to outstanding performance of another. Perhaps, I am accountable to failure of those around me. 

 “We must not hesitate to expose those who engage in corrupt practices, so that we send a strong signal to deter others from doing so.” His Majesty The King was clear on how we must begin to correct our organisational machinery, our society and individuals. 

This year, thousand of students failed as a result of increase in pass marks and change is assessment criteria. This has been felt painful by teachers and parents, and we are unable to remain strong. Teachers worry about repercussions on their performance rating more than about celebrating this change we all talked about declining quality of education. 

 We have lived within minimal challenges in our life, cared for and served well through our schools and career life. Complacency has become synonymous with compassionate service. Our life, our happiness is a promise from the morning we rise. Any change in system and ways of work that tends to create challenge becomes painful, and to overcome pain, we are compelled to seek ways to create happier circumstances. 

 The call of the nation to adapt to the future must begin from the attitudes of our people. We have talked about how everyone need to change their work mindset, how everyone must be as professional as possible by the theories we learnt. People have traveled overseas to learn and experience, people have read and been trained and provided skills to be good leader and servant to the organisation. 

We have heard our beloved Kings for decades, amd quoted the golden words, yet we have barely changed in our own ways. The sovereignty and security of our country begins from our behaviour as a citizen, and more so as a leader. If we still think “I know, I have experience,” and that “ This is my way of doing things. I have always had good intentions,” we have not begun to change. 

Let us know that, behaviours can change, and it begins the moment we accept that ‘I must change’ for the welfare of those I serve. This shift from I am, mine and my need to Bhutan First will make a huge difference in how we communicate, deliver and live. There is in fact no greater fulfillment than in balancing well our personal lives to the life we live as servant to the nation we so much hold pride. This is a reflection for my own change than for anyone. I learn about what I must not be by drawing out what fracture I see and hear in our homes too!