By Sunny Mavelil
Extortion, kidnapping and murder of the people have become the order of the day in Garo Hills, region of Meghalaya. Fear, insecurity, a feeling of helplessness, anxiety caused by a state without direction by both state actors and non-state actors, particularly civil society has begun to eliminate faith in the social processes that bind society. Non functioning Government offices, lack of attendance at work particularly in the more rural areas and even in district headquarters, early closure of markets, teachers not attending schools particularly in the hard-to-reach villages, increase in price of essential commodities, early departure of night transport and late arrival of morning transport, abandoned health centres, mushrooming of the number of self styled militant groups and extortionists, attempts at stifling voices of resistance, and above all incompetent policing indicate that Garo Hills has moved back to the dark ages and will be there for a long period of time. What can we make of this state of affairs? How have we come this far? A few reflections on the first question first.
1. Absence of Governance. During the recent infamous murder of the ordinary woman in Chokpot area of South Garo Hills it was reported that the Police did not visit the spot of incident due to fear of landmines being laid on the way. So fearing the security of their own lives the Police who have the responsibility to protect life and property of the inhabitants were slow to act. According to reports it took nearly one whole night for the Police to reach a spot which is perhaps not more than seven kilometres from the Police Station. After the second failed attack on the Deputy Commissioner of South Garo Hills it was reported that he should not have travelled as late as around 7.P.M. If a district head with all the powers both executive and judicial under him cannot travel as early as 7.P.M. who can ever commute on the Dalu -Sibari- Baghmara road without fear? What is the moral power of the officer to demand work from full time staff employed to work for the well being of people through programme implementation? So we, the common people living in Garo Hills, are caught between the devil and the deep sea; between the laws of the land and laws of the militants? Should the Government in which we have deposited faith through casting of our votes have any more right to be in power? The common village person who has to go to market, till his/her land for his livelihood and send his/her children to school lives in fear and in state of mental agony If we had a credible opposition political party and a vibrant civil society or one of the two, Garo Hills would not have danced to the tune of the anti socials and criminals.
2. Crisis of political leadership: Garo Hills more than ever is facing a leadership crisis. That is the single most reason why no issue however serious and requiring focus and sustained action has not been taken forward. Renowned leaders like late Capt William Sangma led the movement leading to statehood for Meghalaya. Such movements had an ideology – protection of the tribal identity and culture as well as integral development. Leadership by its very nature requires selfless commitment based on an ideology for greater common good and general well being. Political leaders across party lines have perpetuated family hegemony over the state in order to control the resources of the state for well being of thir kith and kin.
3. Ideological bankruptcy of militants: The ideological base of militant organizations in Garo Hills is to be traced to the protection of the interests of the Garo community in general. But it is a known fact that leaders of such organizations have grown filthy rich and the ideology for which they took to militancy has taken a back-seat. This is one of the crucial reasons why we find new groups breaking away from the parent group. If they were disciplined and ideologically motivated they would have stood with their parent militant organizations. It is perceived that electoral victories are also assisted with the support of such groups and at least some of the leaders have become state actors. Therefore Political leadership in Garo Hills is not ideologically committed to the elimination of destructive activities and forces in the name of Garo Land. In my opinion neither the ruling nor the opposition coalitions have expressed vision plan, a methodology and an action plan towards the “Promised Land of Garo Hills State”.
4. Crisis in Civil Society Leadership: As mentioned earlier in a democratic framework there have to be state actors and non state actors. Non state actors will include, pressure groups, organizations working with rights based approach, intelligentsia of the society, media and non-government organizations. Although we find that many pressure groups have emerged yet the antecedents and practices of a number of these pressure groups are high handed and lack honesty and transparency. This again is due to the fact that these groups have allegiance to certain political personalities and parties. Further, pressure groups should not compromise on universally accepted norms like respect for life of every person irrespective of their racial or ethnic identity. The world will laugh at them if they condone the murder of some and plead for justice for others who are murdered.
5. Role of Christian Churches: In the context of Garo Hills perhaps the only credible group that could engage in honest and selfless deliberations (the few thinking people are not vociferous and the media is not effective as it does not perhaps reach even one fifth of the population of Garo Hills) are the Church leaders who can reach the community. But there are so many churches with each church having its own agenda, perspectives and its inherent constraints which overpower their credibility. Hence coming together as often and as urgently as needed does not happen. The common person’s needs and problems appear to be secondary. A series of articles and letters to the editor appearing in different papers asking for wake up calls on the Churches is an indication that the church leaders including the writer himself are not as proactive as they should be. Jesus the Lord was revolutionary. At night and at the dawn of the day he was in the company of his Father. But during the day he was in the midst of his people, healing, teaching, feeding, chastising, rebuking, questioning challenging and forgiving. If we the Church leaders are to be like our Master, time has come to call a spade a spade and lead the people of Garo Hills from the clutches and tyranny of militants and anti socials and the passive inaction of the Government and also the public leaders we have elected because militancy has taken away the freedom of the common people and they are living in absolute fear.
Finally since accountability and responsiveness in governance is the result of ideologically committed political formations which are attentive to the voices of non-state actors, hence every Government has to responsibly act to ensure freedom, security and safety and well being of its citizens. It is very sadly perceived that there is no go for the ordinary civilian populations. In Garo Hills today the civil society actors should be able to synergise in a sustained manner and engage in constructive and result- focussed deliberations as otherwise the plight of the villagers in Garo Hills will continue for a long time and tall talks like “Poverty will be over by 2015 or 2020 will remain Utopian”.
(Sunny Joseph Mavelil is the Director of Bakdil, The NGO of the Catholic Church in Garo Hills and can be contacted [email protected])