6 May 2006-
The person who first said that rules are made to be broken knew what he or she was talking about. In the first place rules are made because an uncontrolled public tends to be rowdy. They are made for common interest as opposed to individual interests that, if untethered, will result in anarchy.
For the same reasons rules are easier to write than to enforce. That is what we see, all the time, in Bhutan.
The tobacco ban, which made headlines around the world, has actually been far more effective than most people would have guessed. This is particularly visible in bars and nightclubs where the air was thick with smoke in the past. Although nobody expected the ban to be fully implemented it has reduced smoking to the real serious addicts who find it difficult to light up without a sense of guilt.
The plastic ban was another rule that faced deep skepticism. As Bhutanese society becomes more consumer-driven shops find it cumbersome to organise biodegradable packing material. But most traders and even buyers do not appreciate the reasons for the ban and do not think it is worth the effort to sacrifice the convenience of plastics.
With urbanisation, traffic and other city rules are proving to be major challenges. Still emerging from a rural lifestyle, we are yet to understand the self-restraints that we must exercise to be sensitive to other people's interests. Could we imagine banning the annual lochhoe ceremony to avoid noise pollution for close neighbours in an apartment block?
Billboards and posters were banned. Yet we see signboards being regularly raised because shopkeepers believe that they are effective even if put up for a short while before city officials bring them down. The lesson, again, is that it will keep happening unless rules are followed up with strong enough action.
These are, however, routine trends and lapses. The real problems come when lives are involved, for example the bus and truck accidents that seem to occur with alarming regularity.
We have witnessed half a dozen serious accidents in recent years and found that nearly all of them took place because the companies or drivers did not follow existing rules. These include carrying excess passengers, drink driving which is most common among tuck drivers, poorly maintained vehicles, and drivers even letting their assistants drive like the most recent accident in Thinleygang.
Many of the passengers are farmers who are helplessly in need of transportation and have no say on the conditions they are forced to travel in.
Human error, in these cases, have led to many deaths. And, while many Bhutanese people still accept death as fate, there is something drastically wrong when it is caused by human error including sheer negligence.
Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the rules than those who make the rules
