\"Kelsang Gyaltsen\" confuses Chinese media

"Kelsang Gyaltsen" confuses Chinese media

Saturday, 03 April 2010 10:31 Dhundup Gyalpo, DHARAMSHALA, India, 29 March 2010 (Tibet.net)

Errors of epic proportions, monumental botch ups, criminally outrageous…one is simply at a loss for words when it comes to conveying in adequate terms the shoddy research that has been part and parcel of China’s recent diatribe against His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It goes without saying that the world is already quite immune to the lack of accuracy or fairness in China’s media reports. However, some spectacular inaccuracies in their recent reports, even in such elementary facts as to the who’s who in the exile Tibetan administration, has forced me to write this piece, just for the purpose of placing it on record.

Take for instance, the article titled “Misjudgments by the wise Dalai Lama” published earlier this month by the People’s Daily. The article claimed that out of over 800 articles that His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said to have been written by Chinese writers in support of Tibet, none were published within China. It also disputed the idea that an increasing number of Chinese scholars and intellectuals are supporting the Tibetan case for greater freedom.

The article then made a dramatic claim of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s statement that “300 [of 800] articles were published in China itself” was contradicted by “his private representative Kelsang Gyaltsen” or Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen. The article claimed that in an interview to the Voice of America (VOA) on 21 February, Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen has said that none of the aforesaid 800 articles were published within China.

Now, here’s the catch. Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen had not given any interview to the VOA. Then, who’s this Kelsang Gyaltsen that was quoted by the People’s Daily as His Holiness’s “private representative”. After making few inquiries, it became apparent that the Kelsang Gyaltsen who gave interview to the VOA was not the envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It was in fact the “chithue” [Member of Parliament] Kelsang Gyaltsen, a member of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, who is well-versed in Chinese and also known as an analyst/commentator on Tibet and China affairs.

So much for accusing His Holiness the Dalai Lama of misjudgments!

But that’s not the end of it. This is not the only time the Chinese media had botched up the two Kelsang Gyaltsens in such a disastrous manner. It began from as early as in May 2008, when the two envoys visited China for informal talks as the entire Tibetan plateau was being jolted by a historic wave of unprecedented mass uprising.

Some Chinese media at that time had mistakenly published the photo of MP Kelsang Gyaltsen in place of Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen, reported the Beijing-based famous Tibetan writer/blogger Woeser and various others.

When asked about this case of mistaken identity, MP Kelsang Gyaltsen laughs it off, saying some of China’s reporters are fond of mixing them up. He said that they have at times gone even further by identifying him as “a member of Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, who was earlier the envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.”

“This might at times appear as a deliberate ruse, but the reality is quite simple. These official media simply don’t care a fig about getting their facts straight. With them credibility has never been an issue.”

Thus, to round this whole messy mixed up in a colloquial Indian expression: it seems almost like commenting about Ramayana, without knowing who the Rama was. But then, when it comes to China, it almost always does make mistakes; it just never made the mistake of claiming that it had made one. But then, who’s listening?

PS According to official figures, there are at least 67 Kelsang Gyaltsens currently living in exile.