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[2007.4.26]Bhutan's mock election：Voting for the thunder dragon
Bhutan's mock election
不丹模拟选举
Voting for the thunder dragon
投雷龙一票
Apr 26th 2007 | PUNAKA AND THIMPU
From The Economist print edition
Happy with their king's absolute rule, most Bhutanese wonder why he is giving them democracy. A minority wonders why it is being left out
在国王的绝对统治下，大多数不丹人都感到幸福，他们搞不清为什么国王要给他们民主，而少数族裔却为自己被拒之门外而感到困惑
IF ONE man could have been expected to support the democratic change sweeping Bhutan, a remote and eccentric Himalayan kingdom, it was Kunzang Wangdi. But as the chief election commissioner queued to vote in Thimpu on April 21st, in a practice run for an inaugural election due next year, he looked mildly reluctant.
位于喜马拉雅山、与世隔绝的偏远王国不丹举国上下正在经历一场民主改革，如果期望有人支持这场改革，那就是孔章•汪迪（Kunzang Wangdi）了。但是，这位首席选举专员4月21日在首都廷布排队等候投票、参加为明年首届大选举行的预演时，看上去有些勉为其难。
Could it be that even Mr Wangdi would prefer to remain under the heel of King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who ruled Bhutan for 34 years before, last December, passing his throne to one of his sons and handing power to the people? “Yes, personally, because you can't have leaders like that from the people,” said Mr Wangdi, absent-mindedly acknowledging the bows of queuing commoners. For an official of his rank, this is a stiff-legged stoop, with fingers outstretched to mid-shin.
国王吉格梅•辛格•旺楚克已经统治不丹34年，去年12月他传位于自己的儿子，并将权力移交给人民。有没有可能连汪迪本人也宁愿继续听命于国王吉格梅•辛格•旺楚克呢？ “就我而言，这是有可能的，因为民众中选不出这样的领袖。”汪迪一边说，一边心不在焉地向鞠躬的平民队伍致意。给他这种级别的官员鞠躬，腿要绷直，然后俯身将手指伸到小腿中部。
King Wangchuck—who warrants a special bow, with both hands raking the ground—had an impressive reign. At his accession, the average Bhutanese died at 40 after a life of uneased toil. Continuing a modernisation begun by his father, and underwritten by foreign aid, the king oversaw a transformation. Life expectancy for the 700,000 Bhutanese is now 64 years. The economy grew by 12% last year; GDP per person is reckoned to be $1,400—twice that of India. These are remarkable successes for a monarch committed to the pursuit, in his phrasing, of Gross National Happiness—a policy most constructively defined as favouring sustainable development over growth at any cost.
旺楚克国王——对他要行特殊的鞠躬礼，即双手触地——的统治给人们留下了深刻的印象。他刚登基时，不丹人的生活很艰苦，平均寿命只有40岁。在外国的援助下，他沿着父亲开辟的现代化道路，促使不丹逐步发生了转变：70万不丹人的平均寿命现已达到64岁；去年经济增长12%；人均GDP大约为1400美元，是印度的两倍。对于一个君主政权而言，这样的成就非同凡响。他们始终坚持将国民幸福总值（Gross National Happiness）【注1】作为追求目标——这是一项极具建设性的政策，强调为了可持续发展要不惜任何代价。
For most Bhutanese, King Wangchuck's imposition of democracy is therefore unwelcome. Only 125,000 people voted in the mock election, around 28% of the total eligible. Most turned out—in the elegant knee-length tunics and full-length dresses that Bhutanese must wear in public—because they were told the king wished it. Of the four fictitious parties they were asked to choose between, Druk (“Thunder Dragon”) Yellow, which stands for “culture and tradition” and bears the royal colour, won by a landslide. “It's too soon to bring democracy,” said Thinlay Dorjee, a businessman queuing to vote in Thimpu, a capital of finely-tiled roofs, monasteries and, by next year, the world's biggest statue, of the Buddha. “We should stay beneath our king who has given us so much.”
因此，大多数不丹人都不欢迎旺楚克国王强行推行民主，只有12.5万人在模拟选举中投了票，约占合格选民总数的28%。大多数人——身着长及膝盖的优雅短袍或长及脚踝的长裙，这也是不丹人在公共场合必需的衣着——之所以投票，是因为他们知道这是国王的心愿。在四个可供选民选择的虚拟政党中，代表“文化与传统”、体现王室色彩的“黄雷龙”（Druk Yellow）党获得了压倒性的胜利。“现在引入民主还为时过早。”在首都廷布排队投票的商人廷莱•多吉如是说。廷布的房顶上都铺着漂亮的瓦，僧院随处可见，并且明年这里还将竖起世界上最大的佛像。多吉说：“国王给我们带来如此多的恩惠，我们应当继续效忠国王。”
In fact, Mr Dorjee will more or less have his wish. Bhutan's modernisation programme is incremental and royally-guided. At some point, its people were likely to demand reform. But by controlling the pace of change, King Wangchuck has done better than the discredited King Gyanendra of Nepal, another Himalayan kingdom, whose absolute rule was swept away by protests last year.
实际上多吉或多或少也会有自己的愿望。不丹的现代化建设项目越来越多，而且都由王室进行指导。从某种意义上看，不丹人民可能是希望进行改革，不过旺楚克国王通过调控改革的步伐，其成就已然超过了另一个喜马拉雅山王国——尼泊尔国王贾南德拉，去年他的绝对统治权在抗议声中土崩瓦解。
Since 1998 Bhutan has been run by a council of royally approved ministers. Laws have been passed by a parliament whose members are either elected, or Buddhist clergy or picked by the king. Even after next year's election, the new king, Jigme Khesar Wangchuck, an Oxford-educated 27-year-old, will control the army and appoint key functionaries. The head of the new (genuine) main party, the People's Democratic Party, is his uncle. The king will be impeachable—with the support of two-thirds of an elected parliament—but this is currently unimaginable.
1998年以来，不丹一直都处于国王钦命部长的控制之下，立法由议会负责，而议会的组成人员中，有的是民选的，有的是僧侣，还有的是国王挑选的。即便到了明年大选之后，毕业于牛津大学、今年27岁的新任国王吉格梅•科萨尔•旺楚克仍将掌控军队并主掌重要官员的任命，而他的叔父则是新成立的主要政党（并非虚拟）——人民民主党的领袖。只要得到三分之二多数的支持，民选议会就可以弹劾国王，但从目前来看，这几乎不可能。
Young King Wangchuck and his clan will also keep a grip on the economy. Two more royal uncles head the country's two biggest conglomerates. Otherwise, the private sector is tiny. Growth is driven by state-owned hydroelectric power generation; the sale of surplus power to India accounts for 87.5% of Bhutan's exports. Last month saw the opening of an Indian-funded 1,020MW power station, more than tripling total generation. Yet this remains a small fraction of Bhutan's hydropower potential, estimated at 30,000MW. “We consider this our black gold,” says Karma Dorjee, the chief official in the trade and commerce ministry.
经济命脉也将掌握在小旺楚克国王及其皇室的手中，他的另外两位王叔领导着不丹最大的两个财团。此外，私有企业也成不了气候，经济增长的推动力主要来自于国有水力发电业，过剩电力被输送到印度，销售额占不丹出口总额的87.5%。上个月，印度援建的一座1020兆瓦的发电站并网发电，总发电量因此增大了3倍，不过就不丹电力储藏量（预计可达3万兆瓦）而言，这只能算是沧海一粟。贸易与商业部最高长官卡马•多吉说：“我们把这看作是我们的石油。”
It is premature to see the Bhutanese as Himalayan versions of the oil-rich Gulf Arabs. As India buys more power from Bhutan, it will reduce the massive aid it gives the country, masking the benefit. And with 90% of the population in peasant agriculture, most Bhutanese remain poor. Nonetheless, many are already too pampered by the government—which spends 25% of its budget on health and education—to accept the lowest-paying jobs. To build roads and harvest fields, Bhutan imports up to 100,000 migrant workers from India's poorest northern states. Breaking stones by the road in sullen drudgery for two dollars a day, they are an unhappy contrast with the gaily-clad Bhutanese.
认为不丹人就是喜马拉雅山脉的海湾（富含石油）阿拉伯人，现在还为时过早。随着印度从不丹购买的能源增多，为了掩盖所得到的实惠，它给予该国的巨额援助也将减少。而且，不丹有90%的人口从事农业，大多数人仍很贫穷。不过，许多人在政府的百般关怀下——财政预算中医疗和教育投入占25%——已经过上了衣食无忧的生活，他们不愿意再从事低薪工作。为了修建公路、收割农作物，不丹从印度最穷的北部各邦引进了多达10万民工。他们在公路边开采石头，一天的辛苦劳作只能换来2美元，相比衣着华丽的不丹人，他们是不幸的。
Worse, many of the road-builders are in fact Bhutanese, though Nepali-speaking and Hindu. Some of this minority—about 20% of the population—launched an insurrection in the 1990s, and all have suffered for it. The violence was partly a response to a racist policy of Bhutanisation, which included forcing Nepali-speakers to wear the Buddhists' costume and prove their right to citizenship by obeying strict rules. As a result, many lost this right. Some 60,000 fled to refugee camps in Nepal, where they languish. Many who stayed—including the relatives of the fugitives, whom the government deems terrorists—are denied citizenship. They are thereby ineligible for government jobs, or suffrage.
更糟糕的是，许多修路工人实际上都是说尼泊尔语的印度裔不丹人。这些少数族裔约占总人口的20%，上个世纪90年代，他们当中有些人发动了一场叛乱，结果所有人都为此遭了殃。叛乱的起因是“不丹化”（Bhutanisation）种族主义政策，根据这一政策，说尼泊尔语的人必须身着僧衣，并且只有遵守严格的规定才可享有公民权利。结果，很多人失去了这一权利，约有6万人逃亡到尼泊尔的难民营，生活每况愈下。许多留下来的人（包括被政府认定为恐怖分子的逃亡者亲属在内）都被剥夺了公民权利，因此没有资格在政府任职，也不享有选举权。
“It makes me angry,” says Thagi Maya, a road-builder, beneath the soaring walls and golden roofs of a 17th-century fortress in Punaka, a precipitous three-hour drive from Thimpu. Ms Maya and her husband were stripped of their rights after her uncle fled to Nepal. Her main hope is that her two children, who are at least permitted schooling, will escape the curse.
“这让我很生气。”修路工人他吉•玛雅站在普纳卡一座17世纪的堡垒高耸的墙壁和金色的屋顶下面说。（从定布驱车沿着陡峭的山路行驶3个小时即可抵达普纳卡。）自从叔父逃亡到尼泊尔去以后，玛雅和她的丈夫就被剥夺了权利。她最大的希望就是自己的两个孩子将来不会受到牵连，他们现在至少还可以上学。
注：
Gross National Happiness(国民幸福总值) ——GNH最早是由不丹王国的国王提出的，他认为政策应该关注幸福，并应以实现幸福为目标。他提出，人生基本的问题是如何在物质生活和精神生活之间保持平衡。在这种执政理念的指导下，不丹创造性地提出了由政府善治、经济增长、文化发展和环境保护四级组成的“国民幸福总值”（GNH）指标。 1970年代不丹提出GNH时并不引人注目，然而20多年的实践已经引起全世界瞩目，世界上不少著名的经济学家把目光投向这个南亚小国，开始认真研究“不丹模式”。美国的世界价值研究机构开始了“幸福指数”研究，英国则创设了“国民发展指数”（MDP），考虑了社会、环境成本和自然资本。日本也开始采用另一种形式的国民幸福总值（GNC），更强调了文化方面的因素。获2002年诺贝尔经济学奖的美国心理学教授卡尔曼和经济学家联手正致力于“国民幸福总值”的研究。
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