It is not too often that a person has bad things to say about the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, China’s restless province and land of the world’s most famous Buddhist monks.
It is not too often that a person has bad things to say about the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, China’s restless province and land of the world’s most famous Buddhist monks.
But Prof. Barry Sautman was apparently didn’t get that memo, because on Tuesday, he launched into a full-frontal, sustained and credible attack against the Dalai Lama and Tibetan independence ideas.
"When I see how much Desmond Tutu supports the Dalai, I am a bit surprised," said Prof Sautman, "because the Dalai Lama never came up against apartheid."
His presentation, "The Tibet Question" was the latest in the Humanities Seminar Series at Rhodes University and was attended by a mix of Grahamstonians, Rhodes students and staff, as well some of the growing number of Chinese residents in town.
"The Dalai Lama is for non-violence but apparently only when it comes to Tibet. But he has supported America’s wars,and he has never condemned Israel and has never spoken anything good about the Palestinians," Sautman, an American Canadian professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said.
The Free Tibet Movement, which is a group of exiles, has over the last 50 years claimed that it has been colonised by China, and that the Communist regime has encouraged ethnic Chinese migration to Tibet in a form of cultural genocide that will destroy Tibetan identity. However, according to Prof. Sautman, this false.
"The number of Chinese migrants in Tibet has decreased from 2000," he said "and China is not benefiting from Tibet at the expense of Tibetans, but rather China subsidises mining, forestry, and industries in Tibet which are losing money."
Should China allow Tibet to become an autonomous country, the province is likely to suffer economically, Sautman added.
He also pointed out that Tibetans have the same rights as all Chinese citizens and they even give preferential treatment in regard "to family planning, school admissions and employment as officials and economic empowerment, which is similar to South Africa’s black economic empowerment," he said.
He said the Chinese policy is similar to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) here in South Africa. When asked by a participant whether Tibetans were not entitled to a right to self determination, Sautman said that according to international law ethnic groups did not have the right to self-determination unless they suffer persecution, something which the Tibetans don’t suffer from.
"The effects of states breaking up has negative consequences for people as we saw in the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. There was suffering, poverty and loss of life as a result."
