Editor,
It seems that we are living at a time where ideologies don’t matter anymore. Shore term solution are no solution for a better life. I believe that elections are not a verdict only for candidates but for the society as a whole. It is a report card for the last immediate five years and the years before that. There is an aroma of social responsibility in the air but only during election time. I would like to see this frequently rather than once in five years. Maintenance is almost an everyday affair. I agree with Donaldson Shanpru and others that it is important for the institutions that do have the infrastructure(s) to pave a way to promote a thinking society rather than allowing a social stupor at a large scale. And when I say institutions, I mean all of them (durbars, schools, colleges, churches, etc). I believe that logical deductions are the only way forward. For instance, I don’t want to see another government fulfilling its promise to raise the standard of the health institutions in our state by buying a Meghalaya House in Vellore. I strongly feel the state itself must make an effort to provide the people with such a platform so that we can collectively shine. Why not Jantar Mantar in our State? A working proof of true democracy! As a common man, I’ve often asked myself why is it that when some organizations exercise their democratic right, my democratic right is completely crushed? I mean the bandhs, road blockades, etc. Having a state sponsored platform like this will not only help our organizations work better with the government for a common good with transparency, but also instill in all of us a sense of social responsibility.
Winston Churchill said to the House of Commons in 1946: “Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues and freebooters. Not a bottle of water or a loaf of bread will escape taxation, only air will be free…They will fight among themselves and India will be lost in political squabbles.” Maybe we are proving him right! Maybe because we see it every day, we fail to notice. It has become an acquainted way of life. We know that roads are built in such a manner that they would need repairs annually so that the economy will be rejuvenated for some section of the society, or, so that some political candidate can hold us to ransom for his election mileage since we do have a short memory. I believe we do have experts who still keep the faith and would love to get to the spider rather than spending their valuable lifetime in cleaning cobwebs, but then, maybe, they too have been silenced to oblivion by those who see a spider as a chicken that lays golden eggs.
Maybe our political candidates/ political aspirants might argue on Churchill’s statement that this was about then and not now, but having seen (and it looks like we will be seeing more) in debates on TV, etc. that politicians do love to make accusations at each other and then use that as an alibi; and even as a moral yardstick for themselves, based on the degree that they can comfortably comply. It is mostly like the story of Lum Kyllang and Lum Symper being played before our eyes. And, you know that attitude – ‘if I don’t do it, someone else will’. Why can’t this attitude be turned for a better collective good rather than for a personal gain? Is it possible? Or have we lost faith in ourselves? I know that one has to have a sense of shame in order to have redemption; otherwise that person will not repent and therefore he/ she is really not looking for redemption in the first place. In a society where everything is inter-connected, one man’s redemption is every man’s rescue. And therefore, it is important that we come together towards this responsibility. Logical deductions backed with honestly collected facts are the only way forward. I also believe that a person who does not understand the necessity of the ideology is most likely to abuse his power and destroy the system because a system is nothing more than an institutionalized ideology.
Let’s open ourselves up for a better collective future. Let’s champion the better for our good.
Yours etc,
Donald C Syiem
Via email