The other day, I was going through Kuensel forum and I was deeply disturbed by the kind of comments people had written with regards to the 500 Christian missionary teachers coming to Bhutan.
I learnt about those teachers in one of the google alerts and I was quite shocked myself. According to the article, the teachers were invited by the education minister. They had also called upon the prime minister.
These teachers, according to the article, would come to Bhutan to teach English, Science and Mathematics in various schools.
People have written such defamatory statement against the education minister. They have openly condemned the Bhutanese Christians.
The terms used to describe Christians are so derogatory in the forum that for a moment I thought that I had committed a huge crime for being born as a Christian in this country. I even realised about the way others feel about us and the way they despise us.
Spontaneously, I asked myself a question: “What wrong have Christians done to others in the country that there is an evident hatred against us?”
Are we not humans like others? I do accept the fact that the new converts often times, over do everything but just by looking at these few people, we should not be generalised. Will it be okay for me to openly declare that all Buddhists are ill mannered and uncivilised by just taking few such people into account?
No! Right? And I will not do it because I respect all religion. It’s just a different approach that we take but eventually, heaven is everyone’s destiny.
Fine, it is okay for people to voice out their opinion but one thing that really shocked me was the fact that Kuensel overlooked in its forum management.
The comments are usually moderated. But the comments that were published in the forum with regards to the 500 Christian teachers seemed not moderated at all.
In my six months experience as a reporter and three years course in Journalism, I have learnt about the Journalistic ethics. As a Journalist or a media person, we should not be supporting anything that would create communal discord. So as a journalist myself, I don’t see any reason why such comments were published in the forum of the National Newspaper- which everyone looks up to!
The comments were not only breaching journalistic ethics but also defaming one of the most learned persons in Bhutan- Lyonpo Thakur Singh Powdyel.
If the Christian community (though small) and the Lyonpo himself were to sue Kuensel for that matter, I am sure Kuensel would be in a thick soup! But, we believe in the saying: ‘God sees the truth but waits.’
And what happened finally? Lyonpo damned the subject as just a speculation! It was not true. These teachers had visited Bhutan but no concrete resolutions were finalised on them coming and teaching in the country. That is perhaps what we Bhutanese are quite known for- making a fuss about nothing!
