ABA Convention

Distinguished Guests, Fellow Bhutanese, Ladies & Gentlemen,

I feel privileged to speak to you on the occasion of this Third Convention of the Association of Bhutanese in America Inc. (ABA) as the Chairman of its Board of Directors. At the very outset, allow me to take this opportunity to extend to you all, on behalf of the ABA and on my own personal behalf, a very warm welcome to this august gathering. You presence here this morning in such large number, I believe, is a reflection of your commitment to the cause of Bhutanese in America.

 Conventions generally are times for coming together for stock taking. And as much they are time for reflection. I am sure  we will engage in both during the course of our deliberations in all seriousness and sincerity. In taking stock, I hope we will spend quality time in constructive engagement about what we have done so far, what could we have done or done differently, where we want to go as an association, what is stopping us from getting where we want to go and so on. In reflecting, I am sure, we will draw on lessons we have learnt. To me, the most important lesson I learnt with my involvement in ABA is the power of self help. Indeed, how much can be achieved when human beings set out with a common purpose and sense of vision. This is a lesson which all of us can benefit from. Unfortunately, it seems that we need to be reminded of it all too often.

We meet annually for our convention. We discuss the business of our association - how to strengthen it, make it inclusive, effective and efficient for the larger good of all Bhutanese. The purpose this time is no different. It is after all an association of us, by us and for us.  Speaking of the specific business of this convention, it is, inter alia, to:

- elect new Board of Directors for a two-year term;
- discuss about the role & efforts to actively shape the future of our association for the benefit of the Bhutanese community in the United States; and,

- meet fellow Bhutanese residing in different parts of this country, connect and renew the bond of friendships and as well as celebrate the spirit of our common destiny.

Surely the first building block in this endeavour is the respect for others. And let us not forget that respect for others is indeed self-respect. No one individual or for that matter no one community, in my view, can interact genuinely with others if they feel worthless or humiliated. ABA is about self respect and the worth of the individual. It is committed to promote a sense of worth to its members, and to all those who benefit from it. It is also to provide hope and opportunities for young people.

Ladies & Gentlemen, it is not my intention here to invest your valuable time by dwelling on what ABA is about, how it has been formed and where it stands today. A separate time slot has been set aside to talk more about the association while additional questions can also be brought up during the open discussions. As far as ABA activities are concerned, I will leave it to the Executive Director to present it before you, which, I might add, can also be found on our website: www. aba-usa.org

Much has happened between 2008- 2010, i.e., from the time I took over as ABA Chairman and now. ABA was born out of a felt need for a common platform for Bhutanese refugees in the United States, and it has from the time of its formation tried to position itself as one thus providing them a common representative forum for their voice to be heard.  ABA is and will always be an organization in this country of our resettlement with a national characteristics that is open to every person of Bhutanese origin in the United States. ABA is wary of dividing our limited human and material resources in scattered endeavors. That ABA should collaborate with local community organizations, complement and supplement their resources in whatever way possible so that the local population can get the services they need and our people can live with self respect and dignity has been the primary focus of ABA’s vision in the long run. And to this end, ABA will always make extra efforts, enter into reasonable compromise, take advice and suggestions from the community members and evaluate and incorporate any meaningful and mutually beneficial suggestions into its activities.

ABA believes that infusion of new energy every two years will be healthy for the association. Hence, after serving for almost two years as members of the interim Board of Directors, Bishnu Pradhan and Biswa Chhetri stepped down in 2008, making room for two enterprising young people to get on-board. ABA added two more board members in 2009 as provided by the by-laws. And this year, we have some more members of the Board stepping down to make room for new talent, skill and expertise to contribute to the growth of our organisation. The idea is to make our association truly a representative community organization in the long run.

Let me state here clearly that the ABA does not belong to any one person. A quick but sincere look into our by-laws will emphatically confirm this position. It is, in fact, designed to foster participation from everyone interested, and enable everyone to be a part of it with provisions to change leadership at regular interval, of course, through processes set in place by our collective wisdom. So let there be no ambiguity that ABA belongs to you and everyone in the Bhutanese community. We are all stakeholders with equal rights and responsibilities. However, given that it is an entity governed by rules set in place at different levels, changes, adjustments etc. have to be done as allowed. This is to say that change has to happen and will happen but it will have to happen within the parameters of the rules governing the association. We must not act in haste; haste, as they say, makes waste. We certainly do not want our association, set up in our collective wisdom and painfully nurtured in these years, to desecrate. We have said in the past that our meeting,  networking, exchange of ideas and frequent communication will provide us an opportunity for reassessment, reorganization, and revitalization and add to the vitality of our association, set its agenda and act to accomplish it. And to my mind we will have to continue in this path strong in our resolve and steadfast in our commitment.

I am not suggesting all is well with ABA. Yes, there have been some legitimate concerns about its reach and delivery. Truly, we have not been able to reach out to every nook and corner of the country where our community members reside. One reason for this, I may say, is inherent in the ABA. When it was created, for instance, the refugees were small in number and their presence was limited to a few areas. Now I say, even at the risk of dramatization, the refugee presence is overwhelming covering a large part of this nation. So we need to get people in new locations involved in ABA to be able to reach out to them. But this problem can be attended to immediately. All we need is your involvement. If someone from Dallas is willing to be a point person to reach out to people there, ABA will be in Dallas, and so on. Just forming an organization does not bring in additional resources from nowhere. It is Us who have to fork it out. So any Bhutanese organization can only be as big or as small as we jointly make it  or as resource-rich or poor as we are, and as successful as we make it in unison. ABA can be no exception.

ABA still is in its infancy. If we tend to this seedling with care, it will grow and bear fruit. If we don’t, it will wither. If we plant too many seedlings and are unable to provide adequate care, all will wither. What I am saying here is that proliferation of organizations may not necessarily serve our cause and help us realize our larger interest. We might do well to take some lessons from hindsight. So, we need to talk. We need to communicate. And we need to do so in sincerity, in trust, and in a transparent manner. 

And in this context, I might say, we went through some difficult times in recent months and we saw anxieties in people’s minds. We have been criticized, our weakness have been pointed out. We have been accused of being elitist, of not having lived in the refugee camps, thus being unable to understand what refugees need and feel. We have been called names. Not only ABA but those who have been opposing ABA have been called names too. ABA strongly condemns such approach. It is sad that even after going through so much for so many years, we are not able to work together to make a common cause of our endeavour.

We learnt about the formation of a new Bhutanese national organization only through the media. We are saddened by the fact that ABA was kept in the dark while a 17 member committee worked for a year to form the new organization. Even then, we proposed for and participated in an honest and open discussion through conference call, moderated by the Bhutan News Service. We sincerely believed that will lead us to a purposeful and constructive dialogue. We, those currently leading the ABA,  even offered to the proponents of the new organization that we will all step down and hand over the Association to them to run as they saw fit. We honestly tried to salvage this disturbing development through dialogue and engagement. There was only one thing we requested in return: do not establish a new parallel organization. Sadly, for reasons not known to us this idea was not acceptable and agreeable to them. As you all know, our fellow members in the community went ahead and launched a new organization right here in Atlanta last month. While respecting the right of every individual to do what they feel right within the allowance of the law, many of us are anxious that we will be seen as a community that is divided, that the minimal resources we have will be divided, we will be pitched against each other and the fractious nature of our movement for human rights in Bhutan as well as our efforts to establish here in the US will be weakened. The uncertainty is further compounded by the fact that now they have formalized their organization and decided to move forward at their own.

ABA’s approach, as in the past, will continue to provide what services we can, increasing our presence gradually. We will not engage in leg pulling, we will collaborate with local organizations where and when possible, of course, within the limitation of our resources. But we will not engage in popularity contest. We will continue to respond to distress calls from members in the community but we will not be flaunting the support in the media.

We believe that if ABA continues to gradually expand services, providing room for people to participate while not claiming to be able to meet every need, we will be able to turn into a sustainable national organization. Look at this room. If this many people are ardently involved in an organization, they can meet a lot of needs in the community. We have a structure, a mechanism, and some track record. Some infusion of new ideas and inspiration and we can move forward in a better and more effective way than we have been doing now.

However,  this moving forward would get the required momentum only if we can put a stop to meaningless personal attacks, defamation, mudslinging, and tarnishing of images of one another based on pure hearsay or personal animosity. It is time for us to rise above petty politics, and change our attitude and display an exemplary moral fiber to our community and rest of the people in the US and elsewhere. Now, is the time to come together, to get to know each other in more depth and humanely fashion.  We can and we must take this challenge if we are to have a dynamic, creative, and vibrant future or else increasing number of people will get disillusioned with our efforts.

The goal, however, is not to pretend that there are no differences of culture and faith, race and religion, and level of understanding, but rather to seek areas of cooperation and put our combined energies to accomplish our common goal. I, therefore, encourage you all to discover common grounds, and things we can do better together than separately. We must create a pattern of communicating, collaborating, connecting, and aiding and comforting the people.

Unfortunately, of late, we see and read in various blogs about bruised feelings and finger-pointing in every direction. Such a negative approach only arrests collaboration, and when the number of contentious factions in a society becomes large, it becomes unmanageable and implodes. Then no one can be a victor. It is time that we all put our different perceptions and emotional involvement at check; cement our position, exhibit commitment and efforts at promoting social cohesion and harmony. Most of all, I urge every fellow Bhutanese to exercise the freedom we enjoy in this great country with great respect and self-restraint.

In conclusion, I have been encouraged by the enthusiastic participation of ABA members and members of the community in ABA’s efforts to actively shape our future in what were, often, very difficult situations. I have found working with ABA to be inspiring and a great educating experience. When we started ABA, we were very few and it was small and since then it has grown in scope and dynamism, if not in size. So, it’s been great being a part of that dynamism, and forward momentum. I want to pay tribute to my colleagues, both within and outside of ABA for their support, friendship, goodwill, respect and demonstrated examples of what it is to serve an organization faithfully, with purpose and sense of humility.

Thank you too, for the notes of appreciation, words of encouragement, sharing of resources and time but most notably of your sincerity and trust. In my time with the ABA I have never received anything but kindness and support from my team and others. I greatly appreciate the generosity of Board Members’ leadership and their contribution. And, to Hari Bhai, I cannot thank you enough for your invaluable contribution and dedication from day one. Let me say here that in the event the Board of Directors and the members of ABA are unhappy about my performance during my term, I take full responsibility for any shortcomings and failure. All I would like you to know is that within the inherent limitation of our association I gave my hundred percent to be worthy of the trust and confidence you had reposed in me while electing me the Chairman. Be that as it may, to the ABA, and the kindness of the people, and the satisfaction I derived, I owe everything.

And now I look back with gratitude. I always tried to remain apolitical and above controversies and I intend to stay that way. Today, I’m heartened by the same spirit and I’m taking many of you with me in my memories. I’ll always remember the things we have achieved together, however small and modest they may have been. Also, I’m forever grateful for your stimulating company and the enormous collection of shared experiences along an important part of my period with the ABA.

With these few remarks, I wish you all a very fruitful, open and sincere deliberation as we engage to chart an action plan to move forward to mitigate the challenges confronting all of us, more sensibly and responsibly, and help maintain the founding spirit of the ABA with passion and righteousness.

Thank you!