As the youngest
democracy, having become one in April of this year,
my country is honoured, and I am honoured, to have
this opportunity to present ourselves before this great
world body. In a country that has enjoyed continuous
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justice, stability and progress, democracy came not by
the traditional way of struggle and violence, nor by the
will of the people. Bhutan became a democracy by the
persuasion and personal efforts of a King who worked
consistently over 30 years to establish the prerequisites
of a democratic culture and institutional arrangements.
Having accomplished that noble task, and having set
the polity on the final and irreversible path of
democracy, our King abdicated the throne as a final
mark of his confidence in democracy. He now lives in
quiet retirement at the grand old age of 53.
The King has shown that, if leaders themselves
are committed to democracy, the transition can be
smooth and peaceful. Likewise, if leaders elected to
govern believe in it, democracy provides the best
means to serve the people. That is the conviction with
which my Government will fulfil the powerful mandate
that the people have given to us.
As a representative of a country that is deeply
committed to multilateralism and that believes firmly
in the indispensability of the United Nations system, I
seek the indulgence of the Assembly as I offer
Bhutan’s perspective from the high Himalayas of our
troubled world today.
We are confronted with a host of serious
challenges that are testing the relevance of the United
Nations and the resolve of its Member States to work
together. Natural disasters, food, fuel and financial
crises, deepening poverty, failing States, dwindling
water resources, diseases, human trafficking and even
maritime lawlessness afflict our society. And then there
is terrorism and extremism of the most barbaric and
cowardly kind, using the weak and the deranged to kill
and maim the innocent.
All those challenges threaten to undermine what
we have achieved collectively and as individual States.
They directly thwart our slow progress in the pursuit of
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which I
believe are among the most laudable consensual
agreements achieved by this Assembly to bring about a
more just and equitable world, indeed, a more civilized
world.
Bhutan does not look at those developments as
separate, disconnected events. Rather, we see them as
directly interconnected symptoms of a larger and
deeper malaise that threatens our collective well-being
and survival. Responding to each of the challenges
separately will most probably be useful in the short
term, but piecemeal efforts will not lead to permanent
solutions. We need to treat the disease beyond the
symptoms. And the disease, we believe, has to do with
our way of life, which is simply not rational and
sustainable.
One does not need to be an economist to
understand that the oil crisis, soaring price of metals
and diminishing water reserves have to do with the fact
that for too long we have been exploiting and wasting
our scarce natural resources. At the very least, these
developments are market reactions and attempts to
reflect the true value of these resources.
As for the financial crisis, it is becoming quite
clear that its main cause lies in our culture of living
beyond our means, of private profiteering, of
socializing risks. Unfortunately, the possible solution
seems to lie in transferring our debt to future
generations, who are not here to argue against it.
It is not difficult to see how all these crises are
the result of a way of life that is dictated by the
powerful ethics of consumerism in a world of finite
resources. Our life is all about fear of not having
enough, about wanting more and doing better than our
dear neighbour and friend. We spend and consume far
beyond our means and those of generations unborn.
As we go on expanding our economies by
extracting natural resources, raising productivity,
increasing consumption and discharging immeasurable
volumes of polluting waste, the climate is changing.
Striking unpredictably, unseasonably and with greater
fury and frequency, natural disasters such as drought,
cyclones, hurricanes, floods and landslides are
destroying life, property and crops. Weather patterns
have changed and continue to change, with far more
profound implications for our civilization than we can
fathom. We even wonder whether earthquakes and
tsunamis may have something to do with climate
change.
Yesterday, we huddled together to find solutions
to the food crisis and the danger of growing hunger in a
world where already too many are starving. Diseases
abound and new epidemics threaten humanity, other
life forms and crops even as medicine and technology
combine to conspire against mortality. Are these not
signals from a planet grossly abused? Could these not
be pleas to mend our ways and to search for a more
sustainable way of life?
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Deepening poverty, not unlike the food crisis, is
also a sign of the disintegration of communities. As
communities die, so does the spirit of sharing,
borrowing and giving amid good neighbourliness in
times of need, as opposed to competing and making
gains at the cost of community, neighbour and even
one’s own family. It is about the failure of human
relationships, including between and among States.
This, I believe, lies at the root of the poverty, hunger,
instability and insecurity that plague much of the world
today.
These multiple crises bring into sharp focus the
shameful inequities of our society, which fails to share
and to distribute the enormous wealth it has created to
satisfy man’s insatiable greed. People suffer from
hunger, thirst and exposure to the elements and die
without treatment not because we do not have enough
food, water, clothes or medicine, but because we do not
have the will to share and the care to distribute.
Only yesterday, I was wondering how many tons
of food and medicine must be taken off the shelves of
Manhattan stores and put into the incinerator at the end
of each day as they become stale or reach their date of
expiry. On the other hand, even to this day, few
developed countries have fulfilled their pledge to share
less than 1 per cent of their gross national product
(GNP) with developing countries. Likewise, the
pharmaceutical companies have convincing arguments
to offer against lowering the cost of medicines.
We need to wake up from our narcissistic slumber
and self-indulgence and realize that economic well-
being is not human well-being. We must break away
from the shackles of the powerful forces of the market.
For that matter, could the unravelling of the market-
based economy, as evident in the financial crisis, be a
glimpse of the truth that mindless and irresponsible
economic growth and expansion cannot go on? It is
neither sustainable nor fair to future generations.
Above all, we could be condemning our own selves to
an old age of burdensome debt and regret.
That brings us to the question of whether our
fundamentals are sound. Is the GDP-led growth that
has served as our measure of progress good enough for
the future? What are the foundations of our
civilizations and the values that guide us? As we get
richer and live by the terms that we have set for
ourselves, are we truly becoming more civilized, or are
we trapped in a downward spiral of de-civilization?
I ask again: does economic growth translate as
human development? Are we mutating to become
senseless robots programmed to be materially
productive, to earn more, to want more, to consume
more and more of what we do not need and will
ultimately destroy us?
As human beings, should we not search for and
be driven by higher values? Do we not have needs
beyond material ones, beyond that of the body alone?
Can we conceptualize a holistic alternative paradigm
for meaningful and sustainable development that places
the well-being of the individual and community at the
centre and gives cause for true happiness, as opposed
to fleeting pleasures?
I am pleased to submit that many academic
institutions and researchers across the world are
engaged in such a search and are making progress. The
latest to join is the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, which has hosted a
series of regional and world conferences to develop
indicators to measure true human progress.
My country, Bhutan, is one such entity. While
being actively involved as a partner in the global
efforts in this regard, we have pursued a unique
development path, guided by our former King’s
philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH), since
the early 1970s. GNH is based on the belief that
happiness is the single most important goal and
purpose in life for every individual and that the end of
development must be the promotion and enhancement
of happiness. It must, therefore, we believe, be the
responsibility of the State to create an enabling
environment within which its citizens can pursue
happiness.
The concept emphasizes a balanced life,
matching the material needs of the body with the
spiritual, psychological and emotional needs of the
mind. To that end, the Royal Government structured its
development programmes around four broad themes, or
pillars, that constitute a paradigm for holistic and
sustainable development. These are: sustainable and
equitable socio-economic development, not growth;
environmental conservation; the promotion of culture;
and good governance. Since the 1970s we have never
wavered from that path, thanks greatly to the
generosity and support of our development partners.
The former King never faltered, sacrificing his own
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reign to leave the legacy of a unique democracy and a
country that is peaceful, progressive and happy.
I urge the members of the Assembly to reflect on
those and other considerations so that such crises as have
now stricken us may never reappear, so that we can return
each year to this Assembly and find reasons to smile and
to be happy. To that end, Mr. President, please be assured
of Bhutan’s fullest support for and cooperation with you
and the Secretary-General.