By Phrangsngi Pyrtuh
The dawn of the New Year is not complete without the good wishes and blessings. A new year is brimming with promises though those promises are never kept. Everyone sets resolutions/benchmarks and certain other objectives (personal and societal) which they hope to achieve in the new year or have failed to achieve in the previous year. But our imperfect human nature ensures that promises and resolution are only made to be broken and discarded halfway down the year. High expectation easily equates zero achievement particularly when turmoil and chaos becomes the norm rather than the exception. This article is more of an introspection – an attempt to drive a sledgehammer on the complex reality of the day to day life of the people of the state- a bitter truth which the authority of the day is not ready to accept.
The four corners of the state are embroiled in deep rooted degeneration of misgovernance and failed administration leading to parallel authorities especially in the rural hinterlands where people are losing faith in the order of the day. We can easily bet on these issues to be taken up for the upcoming election where sadly none of the parties will own responsibility for the mess we are all in. Each part (district) of the state suffers and there seems to be no remedy in sight. The GNLA in the Garo Hills seems to rule the roost implying absence of government machinery if any, the Jaintia Hills continues to slide into natural calamity with each passing day due to reckless illegal mining accompanied with increasing crime and anti-social activities (all traced to illegal mining), the people of Ri-Bhoi and Khasi Hills district have to bear with a problem that have impacted their personal lives – traffic snarls and congestion that have spilled beyond the city limits and threatened to engulf the serene rural life. Specifically the traffic mess is threatening to alter our way of living, thinking and behavior. In fact the traffic mess has spiraled beyond control and all measures taken to ease the traffic problems are temporary ones which will explode any moment. So agreeable are we to this abnormality which is why we are no longer surprised if our ministers report late for work or come only towards the end to inaugurate and grace an occasion- with not an iota of bother that their actions have transgress boundaries and become the official code of conduct. The people like lame lambs only emulate what our leaders are doing.
The repercussion of following the leader’s way shall come to haunt us big time. An isolated unreported fact took place in New Delhi this year around October during the 2nd Meghalaya Festival at Dilli Haat ( the 1st MF last year was a fiasco due to logistical problems and poor organizing skills). On the concluding day of the 3 day fest, the show which was to start at 6 got only took off at 7.30 when our auspicious Chief Minister ( who has a knack of making a late grand entry) with his entourage of Ministers finally decided to show up leaving the restless crowd and tourists in consternation. The highlight of the show -Snow White – the popular Shillong band was supposed to enthrall audience comprising mostly people from the state. ( it’s no secret that the huge crowd only assembled to watch this band perform). The public show was supposed to end at 10 pm due to regulations. Apart from the customary lengthy speech and some other local songs/dance which consumed three-fourths of the time, Snow white was given a raw deal of performing only a few songs with the Delhi police forbidding the band from performing any further much to the chagrin of the band members (and the crowd) of whom this writer chanced to talk to afterwards. Traffic flows smoothly in Delhi so I guess the reason why the CM was late could be traced back to the traffic snarls in Shillong- probably a force of habit. Is it possible that our new year’s resolution is in fact not to report to work/schools etc on time because this does not entail breaking any resolution? Time does not wait but the 24 hour circle is perhaps not enough for the people of the state after the torment one goes through just to complete the day. At the end of the year each one of us introspects on our shortcomings and strengths to re-set goals/objectives- however the same does not seem to apply to our self-proclaimed guardians and sentinels. Instead everyone is giving each other the skunk eye which makes any such move downright idiotic. Who shall take responsibility for the public fist-fight between the church and its adversaries? For a state which proclaims itself as the ultimate tourist getaway (no matter if there has been no way at all) its disgraceful to know that we are still stuck in medieval times. For a pseudo-secular society like ours we have a long way to go to sell brand Meghalaya so long as the state is not demarcated from religious bigotry and parochial beliefs. Religious institutions were awkwardly left to face public scrutiny ( high time that they do) be it the MLCU controversy or the Autumn Festival conundrum. The power structure of religion solidly based on servile culture and absolute compliance was temporary shaken. Needless to say the state is still a hostage to not only administrative callousness but also religious overbearing- and we have paid a heavy price when the two are in cahoots.
We all hope that the problems of the day are kept to the minimum without infringing on the rights of the individual and the well being of the society. The benefits of the privileged few has not only superseded the rights of the many – our representatives swear by the adage ‘unequals among equals’- thereby subverting all law and order which they themselves promulgated. A fallout of this is that we have developed a tolerance towards the annoyance that has defined much of 2011. This receptive behaviour bore ill towards remedying the situation. With the assembly election knocking it remains to be seen if the electorate had suffered enough and thereby teach our mighty leaders a lesson- if not then this article shall endorse the writers view that we are forever bound to serve rather than be served. And the new year shall not be different from the outgoing one. On a bright note -Happy New Year everyone.
(The writer is a research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)