Efforts are being made to form yet another new political party.

A former civil servant, Jigme Drukpa, from the Menbi-Tshenkar constituency of Lhuentse is coordinating the efforts. Jigme Drukpa said the party will be called the Druk Kuenphen Tshogpa (DKT).

Jigme Dukpa said he will be the party’s interim president. He resigned in January from the civil service. He said he had been a chief administrative officer with the Ministry of Labour and Human Resources.

“DKT would be shaped by a collective wisdom of many people who are genuinely interested in public service,” he said. While there are many political parties, he says DKT would be different from the rest.

“It would be a party of the people, for the people and by the people in accordance with our constitutional framework,” Jigme Drukpa said.

“DKT believes that a political party is as good as who its candidates are,” he said. He added that DKT will have a broad-based membership with qualified and experienced candidates representing diverse fields.

The party, he said, will field candidates with clean records above 40 years of age and who are willing to make sacrifices to make Bhutan “a truly great nation” that every Bhutanese will be proud of saying “I am a Bhutanese”.

“We will come up with a suitable economic model that is sustainable, inclusive and vibrant, create an enabling environment for trading, commercial and employment opportunities, build our infrastructures and foster private sector growth,” he said.

“As our public servants are in the frontline of public service delivery, we will try to reform and incentivise our public service system appropriately. We will also improve our health care system, a sector that touches everyone’s lives,” he said.

DKT is in the process of preparing its charter and a checklist of documents for meeting registration requirements of the Election Commission of Bhutan. “We will be fully prepared and ready to participate in the forthcoming parliamentary elections in 2018,” he said.

Regarding the PDP government’s performance, Jigme Drukpa said it was too early for him to fairly assess the PDP government’s performance since it has more than a year to complete its term. “There is a possibility that the government could do exceptionally well and fulfill all of its promises.”

However, as of today, Jigme Drukpa said he feels there are certain key areas in which the government is lacking.

For example, he said the government could do much more than what it is doing in terms of tackling the unemployment issue. “I applaud the government’s effort in overseas job placements but it has more disadvantages than advantages. I feel that we should create more employment opportunities within our own country. It is possible to do so with right incentives and right working conditions.”

MB Subba