王力雄：达赖喇嘛隐退对流亡政府的影响

5月25日，尊者达赖喇嘛在达兰萨拉接见来自世界各地四百多名参加「第二次西藏全国大会」的藏人代表，表示不接受担任国家领袖的请求。

达赖喇嘛隐退对流亡政府的影响

文/王力雄

达赖喇嘛卸掉西藏政府的政治职务，被视为流亡西藏彻底完成民主化的标志。虽然他实际上已长期不参与世俗政府的工作，但他的正式卸职还是会带来一些变化。

有的变化是形式，只需更换一下程序，无足轻重。实质性的变化，主要在达赖喇嘛以往掌管的藏中会谈可能带来的影响。

以往会谈，藏方代表的身份是达赖喇嘛特使。那身份具有微妙地位，可以视为私人性质，因此被中方所接受，也是中方始终称呼“达赖喇嘛私人代表”的原因；但同时，因为达赖喇嘛是西藏流亡政府的法定元首，因此也可以代表西藏流亡政府。达赖喇嘛正是利用这种交叉身份和中国政府会谈，才把西藏流亡政府带入国际社会的视野。而当达赖喇嘛卸掉政治职务时，便失去了这种关联。

以往中国方面并不想会谈真正取得进展，只是因为达赖喇嘛在国际社会的威望，以及对境内藏人的宗教地位，拒绝接触难以交代。而只要有会谈，因为达赖喇嘛的元首身份，就不能不涉及西藏政治问题和西藏流亡政府。虽然明知不会有实际结果，西藏方面仍然积极会谈，并始终作为中心议题，除了意图表达藏方解决问题的诚意，还有一个潜在目的，就是通过会谈在国际上突显西藏流亡政府的存在，将自己提升到代表全体藏人的地位。应该说，以往藏中会谈确实起到了这种作用，可视为西藏流亡政府取得的主要收获。

今后，不排除中国方面还会和达赖喇嘛代表接触。相信达赖喇嘛的代表那时仍会表示不谈达赖喇嘛个人问题，只谈西藏问题。但是中国方面现在可以拒绝，理由就是达赖喇嘛不在其位，不谋其政，达赖喇嘛除了个人问题，已经没有别的好谈。如果达赖喇嘛坚持不谈个人问题，中国方面就会说中断对话不是自己的责任了。

而对西藏流亡政府，中国方面一定拒绝接触。除了出于傲慢的心态，也是不给其进入藏中关系领域的机会，防止其在国际社会面前的曝光。在那种情况下，流亡政府单方面的声音，如同对着空气打拳，引不起世界关注，逐步落入被淡忘的状态。流亡政府这种被边缘化的前景，有可能是达赖喇嘛卸掉政治职责后，需要考虑和解决的主要问题之一。

2011-5-3

（本文为RFA藏语节目，转载请注明。）

The Effects of Dalai Lama’s Retirement on the Exile Government

Written by Wang Lixiong

Translated by Ogyen


The Dalai Lama retiring from politics is a sign of completing the exile Tibetan government's democratization process. Although he has not been much involved in politics for the recent years, his formal retirement entails some changes.

Some of the changes are merely structural that can be simply adjusted with procedural changes and so not of much importance. Substantial changes, however, will be on the Sino-Tibetan dialogues the Dalai Lama used to be in charge of.

In the past dialogues, Tibetan representatives were regarded merely as the special envoys of the Dalai Lama, which was an insignificant identity with personal nature and thus the Chinese side could accept and they also used to call them "special envoys of the Dalai Lama". However, meanwhile, being the legal head of the exile government, the Dalai Lama could also represent the government. Just because of the dialogues held through this cross-identity, the Dalai Lama could manage to bring the Tibetan exile government to popularity among the international community. This relevance is lost with the devolution of his political power.

Chinese government did not want actual progress in the past talks, but because of the Dalai Lama’s prestige among the international community and his spiritual position to the Tibetan people inside Tibet, rejecting contact with him could hardly be explained. As long as there were talks, due to the Dalai Lama's position as the head of the state and government, the Tibetan political issue and the Tibetan exile government could not be excluded. Though it was known that no progress would come, yet the Tibetan side actively participated in the talks and always made Tibetan issue the central issue. Apart from trying to express sincerity on resolving the Tibetan issue, another underlying purpose was to assert to the international community the existence of the Tibetan exile government representing the entire Tibetan people. It should be said that the past dialogues indeed played a great role in this regard and this has been the biggest gain for the Tibetan government-in-exile so far.

Chinese side may still keep in touch with the envoys of the Dalai Lama in future. I believe the envoys will still insist talking on the Tibetan issue and not on the Dalai Lama's personal matters. However, by that time, Chinese side can reject talking on Tibetan issue as the Dalai Lama will no longer be in that political position and so nothing can be talked on except the Dalai Lama’s personal accommodations. If the Dalai Lama persists talking on the Tibetan issue, the Chinese side would claim no responsibility for the dialogue breakdown.

However, Chinese government will never keep in touch with the Tibetan exile government. With its arrogant attitude, the Chinese government will not provide any opportunity to the exile government entering the field of Sino-Tibetan relationship to get exposure in front of the international community. In that case, the exile government's lonely voice, like boxing against the air, cannot attract the world's attention, and gradually will fall into a forgotten state. This marginalization of the exile government is, after the Dalai Lama retiring from politics, probably the most important issue to be considered and resolved.