Sunanda K Datta-Ray: Malls, not monasteries

It was the other way round for Bhutan, not any more

Bhutan is forever making history. It’s latest achievement is to inspire Joseph Stiglitz’s enthusiasm for the gross national happiness (GNH) concept that the fourth monarch, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, coined to indicate that the nation’s highest goal is the people’s satisfaction and well-being rather than just an increased gross domestic product (GDP).

“We have to think of human well-being in broader terms,” says Jigmi Y Thinley, Bhutan’s prime minister. “Material well-being is only one component. That doesn’t ensure that you’re at peace with your environment and in harmony with each other.”

Affluence — and Kuensel, Bhutan’s oldest newspaper, claims that the per capita income of between $1,800 and $2,200 “is among the highest in the region” — must be consistent with traditional culture summed up in the phrase Driglam Namza. GNH also means reinforcing environmental protection.

Strung across the hall in Thimphu where I listened to Stiglitz championing an idea that is close to the mandate of the Sarkozy Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress that he chaired was a banner reading “Towards a Green and Happy South Asia”. It’s no empty slogan. The damage from last year’s massive earthquake — 6.1 on the Richter scale — was minimal only because more than 60 per cent of the land is forested and efforts are being made to preserve this cover.

That’s where GNH goes beyond Stiglitz. The Nobel laureate enfant terrible of world economics is an outspoken critic of the US, the WTO and of the market system. GDP can go up, he says, without contributing to individual welfare. The Doha round is not a development round any more since the poor are worse off. He blames Indian rural suicides on the price mechanism forced by the US.

But one can’t help but feel Stiglitz has a longer list of don’ts than do’s. His main contribution to global development lies in identifying the flaws in today’s growth pattern rather than outlining alternative means to encourage skills, increase productivity, generate wealth and ensure its equitable distribution.

That’s where Bhutan scores. One hears fewer complaints about, say, farm subsidies or what Stiglitz calls the IMF’s “invisible hand.” Bhutan lays greater emphasis on making full use of the market economy so far as its isolation and limited resources permit without losing the values that traditionally sustain Bhutanese society.

But repeating the GNH mantra doesn’t achieve it. Transparency International reports that from being the 32nd least corrupt country out of 180 in 2006, Bhutan now occupies the 49th place. “Corruption is anti-GNH,” says the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) but Bhutan Today, one of several papers to emerge in the last few years, calls the ACC itself “riddled by political corruption”. It mentions favouritism followed by bribery and embezzlement. The scale is paltry by international standards but is nevertheless seen as blemishes on the ideal society that King Jigme Singye’s son and successor, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, is trying to create.

The real challenge to GNH lies less in crime than in modernity and its concomitants. Stiglitz mentioned shopping malls as a symbol of the American materialism he deplores. “If everyone adopts the US parameters of consumerism, the world is doomed,” he repeated in Thimphu.

Had he inquired about the construction work that is everywhere evident, he would have learnt that Bhutan’s building boom is all about malls, not monasteries. No doubt it is possible to shop till you drop, as the slogan has it, without losing touch with the power of prayer, but brick and mortar often indicate priorities. Time was when the Bhutanese concentrated their creativity on raising massive monasteries and towering dzongs without using a single nail. But the latest architectural achievement is the cluster of decorative bungalows with all mod cons in Thimphu’s SAARC Village for visiting leaders during the recent summit.

“What is GNH to an ordinary Bhutanese?” asks another local publication, The Journalist, and says it means patience, prayers and providence. GNH encompasses “education, healthcare, transport, telecommunications and information, justice and equity, culture and tradition, environment and economic development.” Can these aims be achieved without also encouraging the consumerism Stiglitz condemns? The traditional sport of archery is as central to Driglam Namza as a man’s knee-length gho. But every player in a recent contest was given a 180-litre refrigerator while the winner took home a 21-inch Samsung colour TV.

It’s much easier to be traditional in poverty than in riches. But I am also sure the Druk genius which has triumphed over many odds will find a way round this challenge too.

sunandadr@yahoo.co.in