EDITORIAL

Bhutan’s press freedom rankings have moved up quite a bit from 65 in 2021 to 33 in 2022. This is a cause for cheer as it shows how we are doing compared to other countries. This is not due to any special effort by the government, but it is more …

The stabbing of an ACC Director of Investigation and the assault on an ACC Commissioner in the Supreme Court in full view of the full bench of the Justices is a dark day for our democracy. It is not only a dark day for the incident that happened but what …

When the social media first made its presence felt in Bhutan around a decade ago it was primarily seen as a force for good. The power of the press was now in the hands of every citizen, and what could possibly go wrong? However, around a decade later social media …

There are three important lessons to learn from two news stories this week. The first two lessons are from the case of DB Chhetri. This case has attracted much discussion on social media and people have jumped to their own conclusions. The social media has effectively become a court of …

There is no doubt that when it comes to counting friends in South Asia, India will count Bhutan as its closest friend and vice versa. One of the bedrocks of this relationship is a sense of mutual trust, and that leads to the two countries making special exceptions for each …

The government has been under tremendous pressure to open relaxations, and so far it has been ahead of schedule doing away with more and more restrictions by the day. This is as cases start shooting up, testing is only for the symptomatic, red homes are lifted and the testing and …

A lot of the attention of the recent leadership assessment has gone on the senior executives being managed out, but the actual Civil Service reforms are much deeper and wider. As His Majesty said in the past, the success or failure of Bhutan as a nation rests primarily on the …

When Omicron was found in South Africa in late November 2021 there was first a lot of panic over its higher transmissibility and mutations. However, within a few weeks there was global relief as clinicians in South Africa said it as ‘milder’ than the previous Delta wave in terms of …

Right now, Bhutan is like a high diver perched at the highest dive board above the swimming pool nervously looking down. If we dive at the right time and with proper preparation, calculation, balance and technique then we will have dived successfully into phase two of our fight against COVID-19. …

The Health Minister Dasho Dechen Wangmo is worried these days. In an interview with the paper she said that the three things key to tackling COVID-19 is vaccines, restrictions or lockdowns and public cooperation. She explained this is how Bhutan managed to deal with three outbreaks of COVID-19, and each …