Dr Lotey Tshering, the new prime minister, will receive Dakyen from His Majesty The King today. The ministers will also take office. Finally, we now have a government.

Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) won the election with pretty big promises woven firmly around the party’s overall vision of narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor. At least that seemed to be the edge that the party had among the electorate.

Good days do come. Ours is now come to count.

DNT has said that the party would focus on achieving togetherness by involving all the parties, particularly when matters of serious and national importance are on the table. This augurs well for the people and the nation. What we must remember, though, is that what is theoretically good usually is not practical. For the government this is going to be the biggest challenge.

However, the mile that the government is willing to walk should be appreciated because there are so many things in stake. If a political party in power is given all the room to do what it wants to, we could be giving fecund grounds for corruption. Our democracy may be young but the time has not been parsimonious with lessons. We have seen much and learnt much more.

The risk in bringing all the parties on board is that the ruling party could be compelled to shoot in its own foot. Every party has promises to deliver and constituencies to win. It will result in, if all things happen as the government   wishes, an uncalled for battle among the political parties which has the potential to cause inconveniences in the governance system. Worse, the welfare of the people and development activities could be held ransom.

We can afford all but not this.

It is a moment to rejoice, however, because the new government is here. We have plans and programmes in the logjam. It has been this for quite sometime now. We expect our ministers to set the development plans in train as soon as possible.

Advertisement