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Tashi dele from Tibet [April-May 1999]

Tibet trip

Agelasto
2004-05-20 20:00:06

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China is inching toward a society that offers religious
freedom, but it is still far from there. The CCP still wants religion out of politics. It will
not accept even mild public criticism of the government. I think that the Dalai Lama?s
more positive role is to oversee the monasteries, most of which are rural, which can
provide education, health care and welfare to towns, villages and nomads. The
monasteries can monitor local development and report cases where it negatively impacts
on traditional culture. Would the CCP accept such a rural role for the Dalai Lama? There
is less for the Party to fear in the short-term with the Dalai Lama?s setting up and running
schools and clinics out of agrarian monasteries than his holding mass meetings in the
Tibetan capital. For the Dalai Lama to be effective, all his opposition (used in the sense of
?loyal opposition?) would have to be in-house and low-key. There is plenty of opposition
within China policy circles; it is just not the type that makes the headlines. It is unclear
that a man who has spoken with such a loud voice at so many international fund-raisers
can tone down his act, adapt a Chinese style of negotiation, and be satisfied with small
accomplishments. Small accomplishments like getting the government to fund textbooks
for rural monasteries to teach rural Tibetans to read and write. Or providing funds for a
monk to provide health care to nomads.
Sadly, I suspect it is not in the interests of the CCP or those of the Dalai Lama
Establishment for the Dalai Lama to return to China. It is, however, in the interests of the
Tibetan people, who face alternative futures, some less positive than others. One of the
most negative scenarios predicts that upon the Dalai Lama?s death, there will be no
successor. Or that his successor will be under CCP control, as is the child Panchen Lama.
The Dalai Lama is now 65 years old. If he waits much longer, the issue of his return will
be moot.