Article by Bhuchung K. Tsering (issue July 1999)
Between July and September (I think) Dharamsala will be announcing the best civil servant of the year. This award was instituted some years back. Also, those who graduated from Central Schools for Tibetans since the late seventies would remember that the Tibetan Department of Education also presents the Bum-kyon-sum-del ("Vase Devoid of Three Defects") award to the best student in each school every year. I am sure the awards are still being presented today. These, as also other awards like the Tibetan Youth Congress' Rangzen Award (for social works, etc), I believe, are well intentioned to generate a healthy competition among the Tibetan people. Competition of the right kind, as we know, is an incentive to do better. The awards, thus, were established to recognise the achievement of certain individuals and thereby be an incentive for others to follow that path.
So how have these awards fared? Let us take the case of the Bum-kyon-sum-del laureates, if you will. Except for the 15 minutes of fame the students may have received on the day of the announcement of the awards, they seem to be non-entities thereafter. The medal that symbolises their award does not seem to have any value once the students leave the schools. In fact, my educated guess would be that very few among the officials in Gangchen Kyishong, leave alone the average Tibetan refugee, would be able to identify some of these Bum-kyon-sum-del laureates. There is thus no recognition of the individual within the community, which in turn is not any encouragement for others to aspire to reach that position.
As for the best civil servant award, it has been mired in unwanted controversy from the very beginning, thus negating the very purpose of its institution. Although it has been some years since its inception, this award has failed to find a place for itself in the psyche of the civil servants. One reason for this is that except for the monetary reward (5,000 Indian rupees to be exact), the award recipients do not have any other practical gain.
How about changing the system and making these awards fulfil the objectives for which they were established? In order to achieve this, we Tibetans need to learn the art of effective management: You should not only perform an action well, but should be seen doing so. In other words, presentation is important (I am not advocating here symbolism without substance). To give a culinary example, we Tibetans do prepare delicious dishes, but do we present them well? We know the answer.
Give these awards a little bit of high profile. Currently, the best civil servant award is announced in conjunction with some other ceremony. Oftentimes, it may be that the award recipient himself or herself is stationed outside of Dharamsala and so is not present when he or she is being honoured. Why not make the award ceremony an important annual event in itself and arrange it so that the recipient is present. Make the recipient share his/her experience to the rest of the civil servants. Project the awardees in the publications so that others get to know about them. Consider the award as a positive factor for promoting the recipient to the next grade. Similarly, currently, the best student medal is just that, just a medal. It does not seem to have any further significance. How about taking into consideration the medals when providing scholarships or jobs, or even promotions. In short, do whatever it takes to make people want these awards.
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