Why Not to Sign ‘Let’s Bring Sonam Home’

The Bhutan Employment Overseas (BEO) which was renewed by the government in the year 2018 was unlawfully as per the Anti-Corruption Commission’s finding. The Bhutanese wrote that BEO’s so called ‘Learn and Earn’ resulted in 2 deaths, 2 paralysis, 2 mental breakdowns, 30 TB cases and 1 coma (Sonam Tamang) beside monetary fraudulence. 593 students and their parents hired a lawyer named Ngawang Tobgay whose investigation leads to arrest of 2 owners of BEO. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs even asked the Labour Ministry for a clarification on about the Director General’s letter to Honorary Consul in Japan regarding Sonam Tamang’s case. The BEO’s ‘Learn and Earn’ turn out to be one of the widely discussed topics on social media.

27 year old Sonam Tamang who graduated Business Studies from Gedu College in 2016, the same year when BEO was established, is in Coma as a result of ‘Learn and Earn’ program. As per her brother’s statement she was kept inside an intensive care unit of hospital at Fukuoka from the time when she suffered from TB and Meningitis. Since government decided to pay Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) for only 20 days to the mother and brother of Sonam Tamang, Namgay Zam, the Executive Director of Journalist Association of Bhutan (JAB), successfully collected Nu. 1.8 million and 2475 AUD after launching a fund drive in social media to support the spending of patient’s family while in Japan. On reaching to Japan, the story had an ugly twist when the victim’s mother and brother were under the surveillance of Support for New Departure (SND), the partner agent of BEO.

More to be worried is not how Sonam Tamang’s mother is in Japan, but the recent online petition ‘Let’s Bring Sonam Home’ targeting 5000 signatures. As of now (11:46 AM BST, 07/08/19) 2984 people signed and the count is climbing ever hour. Bhutan annually refers about 700-800 patients to Kolkata and about 300-400 to Vellore due to lack of specialized care center (Kidu Foundation, 2019). So, how can one think of flying her back home when 99.9% of her brain cell was declared to be dead? Do we have required medical technology and professionals to save her? If not, why sign a petition? Forget about the advance technology, JDWNRH, the country’s only National Referral Hospital is in short of bed and space. And do you still want to bring Sonam home? As per Kuensel, a man evacuated from Japan to India paid USD 170,000 (nearly equal to 11.85 million), and image how much Bhutan has to pay. The money for hiring air ambulance can be used to pay the spending of patient’s family in Japan. For the fund drive, Namgay Zam consulted Sonam’s mother and how come without even knowing the wills of her family signed a petition to bring Sonam home under such medical condition?  “I wish to bring her back home like how she came to Japan without any sickness. I would be happy to bring back Sonam fully recovered,” is what Sonam’s mother said to The Bhutanese over the phone.

Having read the petition, Ngawang Tobgay, the parent’s committee lawyer has written to the one who started the petition on why not bring Sonam back home but from thereon the former gets dragged on social media. But more disturbing is the Facebook post by the petition signer which reads “A newspaper has reported that Dhan Maya’s wish is to treat Sonam Tamang in Japan. Cheers. The petition will stand and be submitted to the government for other aspects of the petition.” Really? There is a word 'compassion' which if applied in wrong place at the wrong time will bring grave result. What is compassion? Who is compassionate, Namgay Zam for fund raising or she for ongoing a petition even after knowing the wishes of the patient’s mother. Let the compassion not be of sheep’s horn. Japan is best for Sonam than Bhutan, so please don’t support and sign such petition to bring her back home. I pray for the quick recovery of Sonam.

link of the petition for kind reference

https://www.change.org/p/government-of-bhutan-let-s-bring-sonam-home?recruiter=159647289&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_petition&recruited_by_id=f622bda9-11f1-4d93-b163-56fc515aae51&utm_content=starter_fb_share_content_en-us%3Av7&fbclid=IwAR2rgceBvv7upyas-z5_UtB6ftVyEafHlnLVV88G6Oox-OUtsZs1_qtAT9Q&use_react=false

Categories: BEO, Health, Japan, SND, Social, Sonam Tamang, Support for New Departure, The Bhutan Employment Overseas