(TibetanReview.net, Sep15’24) – The 17th Tibetan Parliament in Exile (TPiE), meeting for its 8th session since Sep 11, had to be postponed until further notice from the afternoon of Sep 14 due to lack of quorum. Only 23 members appeared while 22 remained absent, reported the Tibetan-language tibettme.net Sep 15. Three were already on leave at least till Sep 16.
The development followed the appearance before the parliament building of members of a group called “People’s Movement for Securing the Central Tibetan Administration”, shouting slogans calling for the long-aborted amendment of the Charter of Tibetans in Exile to provide for the appointment of the justice commissioners of the Tibetan Supreme Justice Commission to be carried out.
Although the item was on the session’s agenda, and due to be taken up later on, movement members, who had been protesting on the nearby basketball court since Apr 11, felt that their demand was being ignored and so took the protest in front of the parliament building, seeking a meeting with the Speaker.
However, following an assurance from the CTA’s Security Department Kalon (minister) Ms Dolma Gyari, the protesters peacefully left the scene. Even so, when the TPiE session resumed in the afternoon, there was lack of quorum and so could not continue, the report said. The Speaker undertook to inform the members whenever the session could be resumed.
On this issue, Bonpo TPiE member Geshe Monlam Tharchin has said, “It is our duty to amend the Charter and to provide for the appointment of the justice commissioners (of the TSJC). It is being stated that this matter is already included in the agenda; but it is yet to come up. However, despite claims being made in the name of appeal and peaceful movement of the general public, everyone has seen what they did today. What was supposed to happen was that the movement organizers had to sit down; and we needed to pay heed to the documents they gave us. However, just by looking at the TPiE session’s activities in the past three days, they claimed that the general public was being ignored and they rushed here.
“When the matter was discussed with the Department of Security Kalon, Secretary, and other staff, they expressed the department’s inability to guarantee security; that the protesters had their rights under the law of the land, and they were not acting on the basis of any right given by the department. And because the Department of Security could not guarantee our security, we could not attend the TPiE session.”
On the other hand, President Tenzin Yangkar of the Advocacy of the General Public for the Sustainability of CTA group, has said: “For four days, the participants from the general public had maintained ethical propriety in their conduct. Last year (too), the general public was ignored. Even so, IF we had been told that because the item to amend the Charter to provide for the appointment of the justice commissioners was already on the agenda this time, we should rest assured, the general public would certainly have felt at ease. However, no response or message of any kind came to us from the TPiE authorities over the past four days. This was what drove members of the general public to proceed to the ground before the TPiE building one after another. …
“And then, later on, we were assured, following a meeting with the Department of Security Kalon, the Deputy Speaker (because the Speaker was presiding over the TPiE meeting), officers from the local police authority, that the Speaker would meet with us. And the protesting members of the general public peacefully left the scene.”
Meanwhile, Geshe Monlam Tharchin and Dotoe TPiE member Mr Kunchok Yangphel indicated in their media interactions that the issue on which a section of the TPiE members were not allowing the Charter to be amended to provide for the appointment of the justice commissioners continued to remain.
The 23 TPiE members who arrived to attend the session in the afternoon were stated to include seven Amdo, all the 10 U-Tsang and all the five overseas members. Those who stayed away included nine religious and all the 10 Dotoe members. One Domey member had taken leave for the entire session while two were on leave until Sep 16.