The context of this post is the communal joke that was
widely circulated on the badly abused social media platform WeChat. Yes WeChat
has been already used as the Launchpad for three worst things to happen in
Bhutanese social media; leaking private movie clips, spreading hoax, and
sharing communal joke. All resulted in social disharmony that is very new to
Bhutan.
Well, the joke was a voice recording of two men allegedly from Haa
talking about a woman named Sanja Dem who married a guy from eastern Bhutan.
Their conversation roughly translates to,
“Sanja Dem is married!”
“Really, who is the man?”
“He is a Sharchop.”
“O’ then he will steal nyah.”
I am from Haa and I know the men whose voice were recorded
weren’t from Haa, as is evident from the fake accent they used. They were
making fun of our language. Worse still, they impersonated us to insult
Sharchops by calling them thieves. With all my sense of humor I am trying to
laugh at the joke but somehow the intention in this joke seems seriously wrong.
I heard the joke before and back then Sanja Dem’s husband
wasn’t a sharchop, he was a gatey (ex-monk) but the character in the joke was
suddenly changed to a shashop to supposedly do maximum damage. This seemingly
dry joke could lead to social disharmony and therefore such communal jokes of
disastrous potential should be stopped right away.
We must appreciate our unity as harmonious little society.
Many countries suffered because of communal division leading to mistrust among
people, igniting riots and starting civil wars. We need not learn the lesson in
a hard way; history is a good teacher. We should not take our harmony for granted just because we didn't earn it ourselves. It's the greatest gift of the Wangchuck dynasty that we must honour.
“Such clips are communal in nature and much more severe than the circulation of pornographic materials, We can book them under the National Security Act as its highly objectionable.” - Police Chief, Brigadier Kipchu Namgyal, in Kuensel
