Fake Panchen to Become Minister?
Reuters, Thursday, 14 February 2008.
This week it was rumoured that the Tibetan youth appointed by
China's atheist Communist Party as the 11th Panchen Lama is about to
become China's youngest official holding a rank equivalent to a cabinet
minister.
Tibetans regard the Communist Party appointed Panchen Lama as a sham and
will often refer to him in private as `Panchen Zuma' - literally `fake
Panchen'.
The Dalai Lama chose 6 year old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the true
reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, the second highest figure in
Tibetan Buddhism, in 1995. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family were then
detained by Chinese authorities and disappeared from public view, leading
human rights watchdogs to call him the world's youngest political
prisoner. Beijing continues to deny accusations it has placed the boy
appointed by the Dalai Lama under house arrest and instead claims he and
his family simply do not want to be disturbed.
Fake Panchen Turns Eighteen And Becomes A Minister
Beijing's choice, Gyaltsen Norbu, turned 18 on Wednesday. "He is now an
adult. He can vote and be voted for," a source told the news agency
Reuters.
A second source told Reuters that: "He is likely to become a member
of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress as early as
next month." Experts predict that any such appointment is bound to draw
Western condemnation.
"That won't go down well," Robbie Barnett, a Tibetologist at
Columbia University in New York, told Reuters.
"That will look like over-management unless they allow [Gyaltsen
Norbu] space to develop his own character and political style to
indicate that he has the real interests of Tibetans at heart … not
the ones that China decides are Tibetan interests."
Wait A Minute - Didn't Mao Say Religion Is Poison?
Gyaltsen Norbu met Wu Bangguo, chairman of the parliament, last
month. Wu reportedly requested that he endeavour to "uphold
patriotic Tibetan Buddhism … and safeguard the unity of the
motherland and national unity."
The cynical reference to "patriotic Tibetan Buddhism" clearly
highlights the continuing lack of true freedom of religion that
exists in China. The reference to "safeguarding … national unity" is also
an attempt to discredit the Dalai Lama, who the Chinese authorities like
to call a `splittist'.
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