The Madness and the Method
The suspense is over with the long-awaited statement issued by the Dharamsala delegation which returned from Peking recently. And it proved to be the non-event of the year. All they said was that the contact with Peking will continue and the fourth delegation of fact-finding mission to Tibet may be allowed in next year. It seems the only worth while thing they did during their month-long stay in Peking was attend a few dinner parties and secure some sort of assurance from the Chinese leaders that they behave themselves. And they are behaving wonderfully well : by going to inordinate lengths to avoid saying anything that might offend Peking. Those dinner parties and the semi-VIP treatment must have been something we all need to experience. IT is a wonder Teng Hsiao-ping has not yet realized that he could solve the Tibetan problem at a relatively cheaper cost simply by inviting many Tibetans as possible for such visits.
The agreement to maintain silence, as on previous such occasions, does not seem to be mutually binding. Even before Dharamsala issued its apology for a statement, Peking informed foreign correspondents that the delegation had asked for Tibet a status similar to the one promised to Taiwan, and that they flatly rejected the request. There is no reason to suspect that this is not a true and accurate account of what took place. Dharamsala has not only not refuted this report, but refused to do so even when prompted.
So the question arises what did Dharamsala hope to achieve by making this extraordinary proposal. The idea of treating Tibet and Taiwan as identical cases is highly ludicrous; and when such an idea emanates from Ministers of the Tibetan government-in-exile, no one can be blamed for doubting their sanity. Taiwan has never benied that it is a part of China. The Kuomintang leaders’ only complaint is that their throne in Peking has been usurped by Communists. We, on the other hand, have been struggling for more than twenty years trying to convince the world that the Chinese
The suspense is over with the long-awaited statement issued by the Dharamsala delegation which returned from Peking recently. And it proved to be the non-event of the year. All they said was that the contact with Peking will continue and the fourth delegation of fact-finding mission to Tibet may be allowed in next year. It seems the only worth while thing they did during their month-long stay in Peking was attend a few dinner parties and secure some sort of assurance from the Chinese leaders that they behave themselves. And they are behaving wonderfully well : by going to inordinate lengths to avoid saying anything that might offend Peking. Those dinner parties and the semi-VIP treatment must have been something we all need to experience. IT is a wonder Teng Hsiao-ping has not yet realized that he could solve the Tibetan problem at a relatively cheaper cost simply by inviting many Tibetans as possible for such visits.
The agreement to maintain silence, as on previous such occasions, does not seem to be mutually binding. Even before Dharamsala issued its apology for a statement, Peking informed foreign correspondents that the delegation had asked for Tibet a status similar to the one promised to Taiwan, and that they flatly rejected the request. There is no reason to suspect that this is not a true and accurate account of what took place. Dharamsala has not only not refuted this report, but refused to do so even when prompted.
So the question arises what did Dharamsala hope to achieve by making this extraordinary proposal. The idea of treating Tibet and Taiwan as identical cases is highly ludicrous; and when such an idea emanates from Ministers of the Tibetan government-in-exile, no one can be blamed for doubting their sanity. Taiwan has never benied that it is a part of China. The Kuomintang leaders’ only complaint is that their throne in Peking has been usurped by Communists. We, on the other hand, have been struggling for more than twenty years trying to convince the world that the Chinese
posted by editorla at
9:07 PM
<< Home