DHARAMSHALA: President Dr Lobsang Sangay today spoke to officials and staff of the Central Tibetan Administration as part of CTA’s monthly internal meetings and talks. The monthly internal meetings and talks are held on the first Saturday of every month to acquaint the staff of the diverse functions performed by the various departments and offices of CTA.
During the talk, President Sangay spoke on three broad topics namely the 15th Kashag’s flagship five-fifty strategy, CTA’s budget and its utilisation, and the importance of maintaining unity in the Tibetan community.
President Dr Sangay described the five-fifty strategy as a renewed effort by the Kashag to strengthen Tibetan struggle to seek genuine autonomy in the next five years while strategising to sustain the Tibetan movement over the next fifty years.
As part of the strategy, he emphasised the importance of land lease agreements to regularise Tibetan settlements in official Indian administrative documents, and the need for formulating a powerful narrative to remain pertinent in international political discourse.
He spoke about the upcoming events and projects of the various CTA departments that are in tune with the Kashag’s vision of making the Central Tibetan Administration completely self-reliant and robust.
Sikyong also gave a brief outline of the CTA’s total budget and how and where the funds are being utilised. He noted the increase in CTA’s successive annual budgets by almost twice what it used to be and said that this reflects the Kashag’s constant efforts in amplifying global Tibetan movement, overseeing the welfare of the Tibetan people and increasing educational and employment opportunities for the public.
Speaking about Tibetan unity, he discouraged regionalism and the false sense of belongingness arising out of loyalty to a certain ethnicity or province. He explained that such loyalties may sound delightful and feel reassuring, but pointed out that it’s extremely detrimental and poisonous to the larger Tibetan movement.
Commenting on the recent news of US President Trump’s proposed budget cut for Tibetan programs, President Dr Sangay said that the cut proposed by the Trump administration is a part of larger cut for State Department’s international aid funding. He further elucidated that though the Tibetan programs are likely to bear the brunt of the larger proposed cut of over 10-30% for international aid programs across the board but will not be reduced to zero as speculated and feared by few.
He added that the final approval for the budget is congressionally driven and reassured the staff that Tibet enjoys widespread support in the US Congress and expressed optimism that the welfare initiatives led by CTA and supported by our friends in the senate will not be affected adversely and that the funding flow will remain intact.
President Dr Sangay also called for efficacy and effectiveness in CTA’s day-to-day function. He underscored efficiency as a key feature of ensuring success in the long run and added that efficiency comes when we make the best use of resources through best practices to complete a project or perform a simple task.
Dr Sangay further urged the staff to develop a sense of ‘we’ as opposed to ‘I’. He particularly lauded the collective effort of the staff on the massive success of the 34th Kalachakra organised by the CTA. He said that success of the Kalachakra exemplified the dedication of the CTA staff and the notion of collective responsibility and collective success.
Mr Togyal Tsering, secretary of the Kashag secretariat of the Central Tibetan Administration, moderated the talk.