Lyonchen (Prime Minister) Jigme Yoser Thinley is the first elected Prime Minister of Bhutan, a position he has held since April 2008.
Born in 1952 in Bumthang, Thinley was educated at Dr Graham’s Homes in Kalimpong and graduated from St Stephen’s College in India. He obtained an MA in public administration at Pennsylvania State University in the United States, and a certificate in manpower planning and management at Manchester University in England.
He joined the civil service of Bhutan in 1974 and served the Royal Government for 34 years. Before Bhutan's transition to democracy in 2008, he held senior positions in the Department of Home Affairs, and was Bhutan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations office and other international organizations in Geneva. He later became Minister of Home and Cultural Affairs and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and also served two one-year terms as Prime Minister. During this period he was awarded the Red Scarf and also the Orange Scarf, and received the title of Dasho, which is roughly equivalent to a knighthood.
When the Fourth King of the Wangchuck dynasty decreed that the country would transform itself from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one, Thinley stood as leader of the political party Druk Phensum Tshogpa, the Bhutan Harmony Party. In Bhutan's first democratic election, his party won 45 of the 47 seats in the National Assembly, making him Prime Minister.
“A lot of people have congratulated me on what they call a victory,” the new Prime Minister reflected. “I tell them I don’t need their felicitations; I need their sympathy. It is a burden to carry this huge responsibility.”
The Thinley government oversaw the adoption of a new democratic constitution under which all government programs — from agriculture to transportation to foreign trade — must be judged not by the economic benefits they may offer but by the happiness they produce, extending and entrenching the Fourth King's policy of maximizing Gross National Happiness rather than Gross National Product. The Thinley government also implemented Bhutan's tenth five-year plan.
“By the end of the tenth five-year plan I want to be able to tell the people of Bhutan how much happier we are,” Thinley said. He has also promised 93,000 new jobs in Bhutan by that time. By 2013, when his government completes its term, the Prime Minister wants to have built a “democratic culture” across Bhutan.
“I want to strengthen democratic foundations,” he said. “Establishing democracy is more crucial than the fate of any party, even ours.” With respect to development, he has said that “the purpose of development is not to become clones of industrialized countries. Indeed, such an unsustainable path would not only devastate our planet in the long run, it would first rob us of our soul and impoverish our spirit. In policy terms, Bhutan's development approach has meant putting people at the center: of consistently allocating over 22% of our national budget to health and education; of conserving our pristine environment; of promoting basic human values and preserving our cultural heritage; and of emphasizing small, clean and efficient government. The goal is to create an environment within which every citizen will have a reasonable chance of finding happiness.”
Soon after Thinley's election, the King of Bhutan awarded Prime Minister Thinley the Druk Wangyal medal, one of the country's highest medals of honor, for his service to the nation, for his excellence in carrying out his duties, and for his exemplary devotion to the Bhutan.
