By Patricia Mukhim
A New Year has dawned. And going by convention we all make New Year resolutions which we solemnly believe we will fulfill. The commonest resolution is the desire to be better, more caring, more sensitive, more humane persons. Do we succeed? Perhaps some do, but many stumble and fall and begin afresh. And there lies the beauty of a resolve…to fail or fall and yet to pick up the pieces and stand up undaunted. Personal resolutions are therefore linked to our personal weaknesses. But what about our collective aspirations as citizens of Meghalaya? Where and how do we come together to make these important resolutions and under what banner? Organisations with abridged nomenclatures mainly led by a particular ethnic community are the order of the day. Others outside those haloed circles just don’t belong.
So how do citizens outside of an organisation express themselves? Is there a loose platform where they can voice their concerns? That’s a huge challenge in Meghalaya. 2013 should be the year of the citizen. People should be able to come together at the clarion call of one or two or ten citizens and state their case without the compulsion to be part of an NGO. That’s how the citizens of Delhi came together to protest the grotesque gang rape of December 16. The invisibility of NGO banners is what marked the protests.
Unity of purpose eludes all humans except when a national crisis such as the present one hits us. But unity of purpose is possible and if the present national calamity has taught us anything, it is to stand together as one and demand that the institutions of democracy deliver what they are meant to; that the laws be better implemented; that law enforcers go through a complete role transformation and that governments do not take the citizens for granted. Can this be done? Yes it can if there is unity of purpose and if citizens are not divided by community, class ethnicity and religion. Politics creates divisions and a divided society is one that’s socially bankrupt. Social capital is stronger than political capital. Let not the second trump the first.
2013 will see Meghalaya stepping into its 41st year. A new Government will assume office by March this year. The quality and substance of that government will depend so much on who citizens elect to power. This month and the next require deeper introspection. But can this be a collective act? After all, governments are elected to deliver certain goods? How can the elected know what citizens want unless they see a citizens’ charter of demands? Can we or can we not produce this citizen’s charter which will cut across party lines? This charter can also be the benchmark for assessing the government’s performance in the next five years!
Happy New Year dear readers