The promise of Bhutan’s economic rise will remain nothing more than a tantalizing mirage if our institutions particularly the Judiciary continue to operate with a mindset carved in stone. Business failures are not signs of national doom. They are inevitable milestones on the long road toward economic maturity. But when they happen, the question is not whether procedures were followed, stamped, and filed. The real question is-Did our institutions protect the larger interest of the nation? Too often, the Judiciary seems content with the perfunctory declaration case closed, judgment delivered, duty done. But when livelihoods, investments, and billions in national assets are on the line, such narrow thinking is dangerous. It is not enough to simply clear the docket. The courts must recognize that every order carries rippling consequences across Bhutan’s fragile private sector. They must weigh the stakes, not just the statutes. Take, for instance, the Viewpoint Resort in Trongsa a magnificent private venture erected with the sweat of 300 million ngultrums. For nearly a decade, it has stood idle, shackled not by lack of vision or capital, but by litigation. And now, the Bank of Bhutan has announced its auction, hoping against hope to salvage a fraction of the colossal loan tied to its rotting walls. Let us speak plainly-Who in their right mind will come forward to bid for scraps of a venture worth three hundred million? Who would risk soaring costs and wasted years, only to inherit the carcass of a dream smothered in legal red tape? If only perspective had prevailed in the halls of justice. If only the resort was permitted to operate while the court carried on its deliberations, the story today would be different. The owner could have run it, or it could have been leased the very next day after the handover. Income would have been generated, jobs created, and the asset preserved instead of eroded. Instead, what remains is economic carnage a property decayed, potential squandered, and losses ballooned into the millions. And here lies the paradox: every judge, every bureaucrat, every public servant who claps their hands at the end of a “completed case” must remember the very salaries they draw are from the lifeblood of businesses. If businesses sink, so does the heartbeat of the economy. This is not just about one resort in Trongsa. It is a far louder alarm bell. If institutions fail to exercise pragmatism, if they cling to mechanical duty over national interest, then Bhutan’s economy will remain stranded as a distant dream. The Viewpoint Resort debacle is not just a story of one failed enterprise; it is a bitter parable of how institutions can suffocate growth with blind rigidity. May we dare to learn from this ruin, or will the next billion be buried under the same mistakes?
The choice is clear, but the mindset must change.
