Penpa Tsering’s rebuttal against Kashag’s 10 point clarification took place yesterday at Dharamshala following his handing over of the Office of Tibet, Washington as the representative to the North America. While the session of his explanation lasted for more than two hours at the Norbu House in McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala, he made a rebuttal against the 10 points issued by Kashag earlier in clarification to his removal.
While countering all the allegations made by the Dr. Lobsang Sangay led Kashag, the former speaker of Tibetan Parliament in Exile presented a 97 paged document in argument against each of the 10 points made by Kashag in his removal. The former speaker also informed that the charges were intended to tarnish his reputation and the Kashag holds the responsibility of the unrest in the community and the consequences with regard to the issue of the $1.5 Million dollars.
The explanation from Penpa Tsering was live streamed on the social media by most of the Tibetan medias and without dealing into the details, lets discuss the 10 points rebuttal from the former speaker:
In the first point, in contradiction to Kashag’s statement of having issued three warnings against the Representative for failing to carry the responsibilities satisfactorily, Penpa Tsering reiterated that he had be served one and only as final warning. While in the context of the second point, the former representative argued that the Department of Information and International Relations, CTA had directed to send reports only on April 20.
In the case of insubordination from the representative as Kashag accused in the third point, Penpa Tsering corrected the Kashag statement that he didn’t announce the appointment of Kunga Tashi as the Chinese Liason officer in New York rather he told that an approval has been sought from the Kashag for his appointment.
With regard to the fourth point, Penpa Tsering said that he had reported about the Dholgyal followers welcoming Xi Jingping in the US in contrast to the accusation. While in the fifth point, where the representative was accused of not being able to schedule meetings with US leaders during Sikyong’s visit, he added that they had been served short notice of Sikyong’s visit which rendered them unable to resolve the conflicts in the schedule with the US leaders as it was out of their control. He also produced proof letters of his effort in arranging meetings in that short notice.
Penpa Tsering argued over the sixth point which accused him of failing in raising funds saying that despite with a totally new Trump administration, he had been able to get continued funding assistance for Tibetans from the US government. In regard to the seventh point relating to the closure of five bank accounts, he said that it was due to political reasons to which they could do nothing. He also added that by promptly coordinating with DIIR, there were no any losses incurred in taxes as claimed by Sikyong.
Talking about the $1.5 Million dollar in the Eighth point, he said that the amount was being carried on as loan in Tibet Fund account every year while the Office of Tibet did not have any documentation about the same account as repayable loan. He also argued that as suggested in the ninth point, Penpa Tsering while accepting that he had a long chat with Dhardon Sharling one evening, he informed that he did to try to convince her, then the female kalon nominee against working with Sikyong.
While the tenth point was related to the termination of his role and the appointment of his replacement. The former speaker while he challenging all the allegations from Kashag with documents, he warned that if kashag does not prove all their points with documents or failing to respond, he would take further action. The complete videos of the complete rebuttal from the former speaker can be viewed as published here.
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