Jigmi Yoezer Thinley

Lyonpo Jigmi Yoezer Thinley (also rendered Jigme Y. Thinley; born 9 September 1952) is a Bhutanese politician and former civil servant who served as Prime Minister of Bhutan three times: under the rotating Council of Ministers system from 20 July 1998 to 9 July 1999 and from 30 August 2003 to 18 August 2004, and as the country's first democratically elected Prime Minister from 9 April 2008 to 28 April 2013.^[1] In the 2008 election he led the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) to a landslide victory, winning 45 of the 47 seats in the National Assembly.^[2]

Thinley is internationally associated with Bhutan's promotion of Gross National Happiness as an alternative development framework. As Prime Minister he convened a 2012 United Nations high-level meeting in New York titled "Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm", which led to the inclusion of happiness and well-being concepts in subsequent UN resolutions.^[3]

The DPT lost the 2013 general election to the People's Democratic Party led by Tshering Tobgay. Thinley remained leader of the DPT in opposition until the party's withdrawal from competitive politics, and has since been active mainly through international civil society organisations.

Early life and education

Thinley was born in Bumthang in central Bhutan in 1952. He completed secondary schooling in India and read for an undergraduate degree at St Stephen's College, University of Delhi. He subsequently obtained a graduate degree in public administration from Pennsylvania State University in the United States, returning to Bhutan in 1976 to enter the Royal Civil Service.^[1]

Civil service career

Thinley rose through the home-affairs and foreign-affairs branches of the Royal Civil Service during the 1980s. He was conferred the title of Dasho with the red scarf in February 1987. Under the zonal administrative system he served as administrator of the Eastern Zone from 1990, and was appointed Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1992 and Deputy Minister of Home Affairs in January 1994.^[1] Later in the 1990s he served as Bhutan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva.

Under the rotating Council of Ministers introduced by the Fourth King in 1998 — under which the senior minister served as chairman of the council and de facto Prime Minister for one year — Thinley held the chairmanship in 1998–1999 and again in 2003–2004. During his second term he oversaw the planning and execution of Operation All Clear, the Royal Bhutan Army's December 2003 military operation against United Liberation Front of Asom and Bodo militant camps in southern Bhutan.

2008 election and first elected term

Following the abdication of Jigme Singye Wangchuck and Bhutan's transition to constitutional monarchy, Thinley resigned from the civil service to lead the newly formed DPT in the country's first parliamentary election. The party platform combined a continuity message — close ties to the monarchy, GNH as the guiding policy framework — with promises of expanded rural development.

The DPT won 45 of the 47 National Assembly seats in the 24 March 2008 general election on a turnout of about 79 percent, and Thinley was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 April 2008.^[2] His government oversaw the operationalisation of the 2008 Constitution, the establishment of the National Assembly secretariat, the rollout of the Tenth Five Year Plan, and the international promotion of GNH through the 2012 New York meeting.^[3]

2013 election and political controversies

The 2013 general election was held in two rounds in May and July. The People's Democratic Party defeated the DPT, taking 32 seats to the DPT's 15.^[4] Contemporary analyses identified two main factors. The first was a popular perception that the DPT government's overtures to China — including a 2012 meeting between Thinley and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on the margins of the Rio+20 summit — had contributed to a deterioration in relations with India. India's withdrawal of cooking-gas and kerosene subsidies in the run-up to the election was widely interpreted in Bhutan as linked to the Rio meeting and weighed heavily on voter sentiment. The second was domestic dissatisfaction with the cost of living and with what opposition campaigners characterised as concentration of state contracts among DPT-affiliated figures.^[5]

After leaving office Thinley remained leader of the DPT until the party's defeat in the primary round of the 2018 election, after which he largely withdrew from active domestic politics. He has continued to speak internationally on Gross National Happiness and Buddhist economics. Bhutanese commentators differ in their assessment of his record: supporters credit him with founding-era democratic statecraft and the global profile of GNH, while critics argue that his foreign-policy missteps in 2012 demonstrated the costs of personal initiative outside Bhutan's traditional alignment with India.

Memberships and post-political activity

Thinley is a member of the Club de Madrid, an international association of former democratic heads of state and government, and has been associated with the World Future Council and various Buddhist policy networks.^[6] He maintains residences in Bumthang and Thimphu.

References

1. Jigme Thinley — Wikipedia
2. Election Commission of Bhutan — General election results
3. UN General Assembly Resolution 65/309 "Happiness: towards a holistic approach to development"
4. Democratic Milestones: The Evolution of Elections in Bhutan — PolSci Institute
5. Bhutan's PDP Wins Elections — The Diplomat
6. Jigmi Yoser Thinley — Club de Madrid
7. Jigmi Y. Thinley — Columbia World Leaders Forum