The Bhutanese Leading the way.
During the meet the press, Prime Minister Dasho Tshering Tobgay responded to a question on the ruling party approaching the civil servants.
He said that they have approached the civil servants but denied politicizing them. He mentioned that civil servants cannot join political parties as candidates, as registered member or as party supporters and coordinators until and unless they resign from the civil services. “If we have given a ticket already to the civil servant who has not resigned the it is wrong as we cannot give the tickets,” he said, “Political parties cannot give tickets for candidates to run for elections unless they are a registered member of the political party.”
He added that they have approached some civil servants but tickets are given only to the people who are registered members of the parties. “I would hope that all political parties have approached the most qualified people in the country to join their political party as candidates.”
He highlighted that whether the civil servant actually joins or not is a different matter and it reflects a lot on the status of the party or the strength of the party or the potential of the party. Most importantly, it reflects on how the civil servant see the party in terms of ideology, usefulness, services to the Tsa Wa Sum and whether the particular civil servant feels that this particular party is the right platform to continue their career in the public services, not as a civil servant, but as a politician.
“I can conform that not all of them have agreed to join but the majority that we have asked has agreed to join us. And so, they are at various stages of resignation. Once their resignation process is through and they have resigned from the civil services than they will join as a registered member of the political party and only then we will be able to give them tickets to run as a candidate,” Lyonchhen said.
“Show me the party that has not approached the best civil servants to join their party and I will show you parties that are not interested in giving the best possible services of our country,” said Lyonchhen.
Lyonchhen said that the job of the party is trying to get the best possible candidates, and if some people are implying that the PDP is only party that approaches civil servant then people might be compelled to conclude that the PDP is the only party that is really serious about full and complete delivery of public services as required by the constitution.
“If we ask the civil servant, are you interested in joining as a candidates or any post within the party, that is not necessarily politicizing the civil services. Allowing the civil servant to join political parties is different from the politicizing civil servants,” Lyonchhen said.
