The priorities

The 2018 electoral process has been a hard fought one but ultimately the people have spoken and DNT is in the ruling party with 30 seats and DPT in the Opposition party with 17 seats.

The new ruling party will be low on governance experience like PDP in 2013, but that should not hinder it from doing a good job as it will be high on energy and news ideas and approaches.

The first priority of both the DNT and DPT will be to bring the nation together after a highly divisive election process.

DNT will be held accountable for the next five years to fulfill its pledges but it should have the courage to modify pledges that are not doable or those that may break the bank. However, this should be done only after much thought and reasons and it should be clearly communicated to the public.

In the general election round the shots were called by the EVM voters who comprise the private sector and farmers while postal ballots impacted only three of the 47 seats.

The message here is that DNT should not start pampering government employees unnecessarily due to the exaggerated importance of the postal ballots as they already consume the bulk of the government budget and revenue.

Bhutan’s public sector is already bloated and should not become a bigger burden on the treasury, apart from giving what is due to them and is affordable.

Over the next five years DNT will have to keep its eye on three main areas. The first is the economy to ensure that the stability brought about under the former government is maintained and improved.

The second is ensuring that corruption does not come into the system at all and action should be taken at the highest levels against any such acts.

The third area is to ensure that it does not just deliver quantity of services and goods to the people but also quality.

In addition, DNT will also have to look at long and short term policies to prevent regionalism in Bhutan.

DNT will also have to look back at the two terms of the previous governments and learn from any mistakes made then.

The Bhutanese public, for now, have reposed their trust in DNT to serve the Tsa Wa Sum.

“Good governance is less about structure and rules than being focused, effective and accountable.” 
Pearl Zhu