By Toki Blah
The 2013 Meghalaya Legislative Assembly elections are round the corner. Political parties and wannabe MLAs are already gearing themselves for the event. Political parties of the state are in the process of finalising the candidates they will let loose upon a hapless and unsuspecting electorate. A statement that perhaps demands an explanation. In all the Assembly sessions of the last four years, out of a total of 60 MLAs, only 8 usually came prepared and ready to debate, discuss or raise meaningful issues on the floor of the House. (Readers who keep themselves abreast with Assembly proceedings will easily identify the 8) The rest 52 MLAs or 86.6 % of the house (Ministers included) preferred to remain quiet, mum or managed to put their foot in their mouth everytime they opened it.
The inference drawn is that this silent majority of 86.6 percent of MLAs are ignorant, bashful, unable, incapable, lazy or totally uncaring about the position they hold, its responsibility and the reason for their presence in the Assembly. Is this fair to the electorate that elected them? Let us try to predict something. If what we currently have is considered mediocre and third rate, then the quality of elected representatives we expect to get in 2013 will definitely be worse. All available indications point to this unfortunate conclusion. A sad thing to state, but Dear Readers, do any of you dispute this forecast? If you don’t then a pertinent question needs to be answered. Do we really deserve to be burdened with such useless human junk? A corollary also follows- Who then is responsible for this crime against the people of Meghalaya?
In the run up to the 2013 polls, we the electorate will be reminded, gently at first but with growing intensity, that on polling day all of us should come out and vote. That it is criminal to waste our vote. That it’s only through our votes and through elections that we get the leaders we deserve. Fair enough, but is the electorate ever been given the option of voting from the best available? Are the candidates usually on offer from the cream of society or from its dregs? Why is it that the more we vote, the more disappointed we become with the quality of elected representation we get? Why are we increasingly becoming disenchanted with our elected representatives? As voters we did our duty yet we keep on getting short changed. The truth is that the political system has cheated and we are the victims!
A doubt is automatically born within our minds. What have we as a people got by religiously turning out to vote on every election? How have my interests as an individual or yours for that matter; the interests of my family; the interests of the state as a whole been served by coming out to vote for a person who is clueless of his duty as a Legislator? Whatever counselling we have had on the subject; whatever we have been taught, practical politics as it is practiced in Meghalaya has proved to be contrary to our expectations. Can elections any longer be equated with service to the people? Do the persons we elect have the interest of the electorate and the state in their minds? All available evidence of the last 40 years provide a negative answer. So what is the end objective of elections in Meghalaya?
Instead of public service and good governance, we the people continue to vote simply to further the business interests of 60 persons. This is the truth and how democracy has been abused in this state. Today a political reality exists. A fat bank balance, irrespective of how it is earned, is the only qualification for a party ticket. We have established that the objective of getting elected is not public service. The objective is to attain power, and then use this power to gain access to the public exchequer. The tragedy is that all political parties in Meghalaya subscribe to the above belief. None are exempted. Getting elected means gaining entry into an exclusive club of business men whose five year mission in life is how to squeeze the public exchequer dry! Political power is used to recoup 10 fold whatever investments were made in the elections. Is it therefore surprising to hear of more and more businessmen seeking tickets for 2013? Exceptions occur but fast becoming a rarity.
Nothing wrong in business men joining politics or contesting elections. Its quite legitimate. What is depressing is the type of businessmen entering the rat race. No political party in the state has developed a screening process to ensure the entry of candidates capable of contributing to the overall governance of the state. Winning is the only bench mark and money guarantees victory. Coal mafia, Govt contractors and suppliers and greasy palmed retired Govt servants – in short a class of people who have more or less amassed whatever they got by cheating the system. Evading duties and taxes; delivering substandard structures; short supplying on Govt orders, abetting corruption, etc. The inference is not good. Political parties are forcing the common man to vote for candidates who have mastered the art of cheating the Govt. This single aspect of Meghalaya politics provides a clear answer as to why the state is said to suffer for a deficit in Governance. Political power is used to further individual business interests rather than to bring about an improvement in the welfare of the common man.
This essay is not an attempt at politician bashing however deserving that is. Instead it is a sincere effort to answer; to come to grips with a socio-political enigma that has bewildered and bedevilled the people of this state. Why has democracy failed us? Elected representatives are supposed to be service providers. Their job to promote and provide services essential to the wellbeing of society and its members. In a Parliamentary Democratic system they are expected to deliberate in the Legislative Assembly on the how and the when of Socio-economic delivery mechanisms. 40 years and we are still waiting for this to happen. Development has failed because we have patrons who prefer to dole out free goodies than meaningful services. That is why the whole state is flooded with plastic chairs, syntex drums and sub standard footpaths. The same reason why people are short on safe drinking water, proper sanitation, quality health care services, employable education, viable livelihood options, motorable roads and satisfactory employment. The root of Meghalaya’s ills- inability of the electoral process to deliver! It is a process that has failed!
The electoral process has failed because the system has not been able to produce men and women capable of leading; capable of providing trust and confidence; capable of fulfilling the expectations of the people. The process followed has simply encouraged a system of governance where money alone is the stabilising factor. Meghalaya does not hold elections. Instead we hold auctions where leaders emerge not because of merit or qualities of leadership but simply because of being the highest bidder for the electorate’s votes. The whole exercise of electing leaders has been reduced to a market mechanism of buying and selling. Sadly it’s done in the name of Freedom. A song goes “Freedoms just another word, for nothing left to lose”- a profile of freedom usually seen from the perspective of the poor. With 66% BPLs the singer must have had Meghalaya in mind. We’re really in the dumps!
40 years ago we were not so badly off. True we were called backward and underdeveloped, but so what? We had a social fabric firm and secure in its own self respect; we had culture and tradition based on social value systems second to none; we had pride and self confidence; we had health and educational institutions that were the envy of the entire NE. 40 years of misconceived politics; of misrule by our own kith and kin; of ruthless exploitation of both human and natural resources and we are left with nothing. Nothing! So what do we do now? Are we left with only one option- to tell our children that we betrayed them? What happens to this land we call our home? Do we have any hope left? But more important have we left our children with any hope? A question we have to answer in 2013. God help us if we once again fail to distinguish genuine leaders from the false, as all that glitters is not necessarily gold!
(The author is President of ICARE, an organisation that focuses on issues of Good Governance)