Memoir of a Parliamentary Researcher: My first year working in MP office

AROs with Labor Minister

I had never imagined that from 1^st August, 2016 I will be a part of the National Assembly of Bhutan as an Assistant Research Officer (ARO). The secretariat of National Assembly has recruited researchers for the Members of Parliament (MP) aiming to provide reliable and high quality information to the elected Members of Parliament. We are assigned to provide balanced assistance to the parliamentarians.

Though we are attached to MPs we are not affiliated to any political parties. We are civil servants and apolitical. A total of 34 of us have been recruited on “Consolidated Contract” and attached to Hon’ble Members of Parliament.

Training

During the Research  Training at Paro

To increase job satisfaction and to advance our skills the AROs were given a week long residential training on “Research Methodology, Secondary Data Analysis and Analytical Report Writing” conducted by Bhutan Institute for Training and Development at Paro. The training mainly focused on two most important lessons: research methods and writing policy briefs. The training at Paro has given us myriad lessons. It helped us to identify basic skills needed by researchers, identifying research problem, methodologies and analyzing findings from the collected data.

To summarize, the training has been very useful to all the AROs in་facilitating their respective MPs in ensuring the three core Parliamentary functions: legislative function,་representational function and oversight function.

Parliament Session

It has almost been a year as a part of the National Assembly staff.  We have attended two sessions of the 2^nd Parliament (the 8^th and 9^th Sessions). To sit in the gallery and witness the full sessions is a rare opportunity and we are fortunate to be able to do so. We have seen how sessions take place and how the Members debate while doing deliberations in the hall. In the session every first hour of Tuesdays and Fridays are allocated for question and answer sessions called question hour. During the time, I found the Opposition Members asking tough questions and demanding answers from the government of the day. Government ministers  responded to questions on the matters of public importance pertaining to their respective ministries. Witnessing the sessions enlighten us with many important information about the policies of the government.

Friday Forum

Assistant Research Officers (AROs) have initiated a common forum called “Friday Forum”.  The Forum holds seminars, lecture and discussions on diverse subjects every Friday and the speaker is a Member of Parliament either from the Ruling or the Opposition. The eminent speakers have been very persuasive and imparted wisdom which are very pertinent to our career and lives. According to the coordinator of Friday Forum, following three are the  main objectives behind conducting the forum:

1.       To acquaint AROs with Parliamentary functions and operations which will provide them impetus to their research works,

2.      To provide AROs a platform to clarify their doubts, seek help, share their own learning and acquainting with Hon’ble Members of Parliament, and

3.      To teach AROs essential life lessons and necessary expertise required in the world of work.

The few of topics that were covered are positive thinking, the three arms of government, leadership, Bhutan in the wings of the time, Bhutan’s foreign policies and Hydro power projects, leader in Me, Macroeconomics legal principles and issue and so on and so forth. The forum has given us a platform to be informed citizens and to build professionalism so that we can work better while carrying out our everyday duties. We have meaningfully engaged ourselves in the office and taken advantage of the resourceful and much learned individuals around us. 13 talks have been delivered so far in the  Friday Forum.

Committee works

“When the committee is at work, the parliament is in session,” has been said underpinning the importance of the committees. I have been attached to Nubi-Tangsibji MP so I attend meetings of committees of which Honorable is a member of and that is Good Governance and Social and Cultural Committees. Before the session, Honorable MPs gather many times to present their committee related reports to the session. For instance, for the 9^th session, Good Governance committee members met for a number of times to finalize the Annual ACC Report and Anti-Money Laundering bill to present to the session. Respective AROs have to help the committee secretary (if need be) and attend the meetings, take down notes and do necessary research for the committee.

Conclusion

Honorable Members of Parliament will have their own comments on their respective AROs but we have given our best services to them. Sometimes, we feel that AROs are a burden to Administration of Secretariat but I have learnt a lot and got ample of experiences about the institution of parliament.  Thank You, Hope to work in the same institution in future too. The challenge and opportunity are right in front of us, whether to carry on or leave it is at our own hand. I have enjoyed being attached with Honorable Member of Parliament of Nubi- Tangsibji constituency. I would be looking forward to work with him in future too. Youth always hopes to get helps from all our elder citizens to prepare themselves to be productive citizen.

----- Geden

 ARO to MP of Nubi- Tangsibji Constituency