The Bhutanese Leading the way.
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 followed after. There were people openly celebrating the stabbing incident on social media and saying that ‘justice had been done.’
This view in the social media comes from a mistaken belief in the social media community that the former Trongsa Dzongda and his wife are innocent and were somehow framed.
This is not the result of facts, but the result of a well orchestrated and one sided social media campaign.
The Trongsa Land Case or the Land Scam is a very complex case, but what is very clear from the enormous volumes of evidence is that the former Dzongda thoroughly misused his position to enrich himself and his wife.
To put it simply, the Dzongda and his wife created fake agreements, fictional plots and misled private plot owners to illegally acquire more 4.7 acres of land where they built a resort.
It is a shame that our people can be misled on social media by some tears and selective information. They should instead read the detailed ACC report or even its summary to really understand the case and the evidences that back it.
The stabbing and the celebration that followed among some is a stab at the institutions of the ACC and the Judiciary.
It also shows the growth of a mob culture that will not go with reason and evidence, but will go with emotions, opinions and fake information.
At this rate, everybody in prison should ask their family members to plead their cases on social media and the ones who cry the loudest or are the most convincing will be declared innocent.
We all rely on the ACC to check and fight corruption and abuse of power, and they have been one institution who has been doing its job really well, despite limited resources and manpower.
It is now a crying shame for us as a country and people that people are celebrating the stabbing and assault of its officers based on a misleading social media campaign in the case instigated by interested parties.
The combination of social media and mob justice will lead us down a slippery slope.
“The temper of the multitude is fickle”
Niccolò Machiavelli
The level of complicity and even, empathy towards corruption and nepotism; especially if it involves a family member or a loved one, is rooted and deeply disturbing in Bhutanese society. In this case, the ex-Dzongda’s family were not just involved in his fracas outside the courtroom, but were active both online through various social media platforms and offline, in supporting his case. Now I don’t know what they believe to be right or wrong, or whether that has been seriously impeded by the fact that he is the patriarch of the family, but the fact remains that – in his position as the Dzongda of Trongsa, he – along with his wife – exporpriated a large swathe of public land into his own possession. He then proceeded to build a resort on it. The Dzongda and his family are not the first, nor the last, nor the only people in Bhutan who resort to such blind actions. I have seen parents bail out children – notorious for fighting and even hurting others with weapons and knives – from the local jail, and even get them our of court suits, believing their children to be right, or that leaving them to languish in prison for their crimes, is shameful by society’s standards. How one can be so blinded by the actions of a loved one, I don’t know. But this sort of thing happens every day now. And it is almost acceptable by our society’s standards. One can only ask oneself – will I be able to condemn my father or mother, if he is incarcerated for corruption? Will I let justice and the law take its course, if my brother or sister hurts someone willfully if he or she is caught in some criminal act? Personally, I know my own answer. Do you know yours? What is scary is that, our society is more accepting of such things, and therefore, more accepting of corruption and nepotism.